Sources of Mongolian Buddhism

Abstract

Abstract This volume consists of twenty-four chapters containing a collection of selected original sources of Mongolian Buddhism, composed either in Tibetan or Mongolian language. This collection brings new material that has not yet been available in any of the European languages. Translated sources serve as a lens through which to examine Mongolian Buddhism in its variety of literary genres and styles and religious and cultural ideas and practices. Each chapter includes a translation of a shorter text or a selected section of a longer text, and each contributor also provides the introduction to a translated text or texts, which contextualizes text, references, and endnotes. The volume’s twenty-four chapters are classified into eight sections: The Early Seventeenth-Century Texts; Autobiography and Biography; Buddhist Teachings; Buddhist Didactic Poetry; Buddhist Ritual Texts; Buddhist Oral Literature of the Eighteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries; Tradition in Transition: The Twentieth-Century Writings; and Contemporary Buddhist Writings.