Tibetan Sources Research Articles

Aspects of the Contact between the Sixth Panchen Lama and the British East India Company

This paper summarizes previous research on the contacts between the sixth Panchen Lama of Tibet and the British East India Company (EIC). Extensive research has been done on the archives and travelogues written in English, yet further attention needs to be paid to the significance of these contacts to the Panchen Lama’s historic visit to the Qing court around the same time. Although little is available in Chinese and Tibetan sources on this event, important questions have yet to be raised and discussed. Drawing upon what has been done on this topic, the author makes further use of Tibetan materials and the catalog of Manchu archives in the First Historical Archive of China, and concludes that the plan and efforts for the EIC to open its trade route to China through Tibet were essentially based on wishful thinking or false hope without thorough understanding of Tibet or Qing court, or the delicate relations between the two. Even though the EIC’s late 18th century efforts through the Hindu merchant monk Gosain Purangir were in vain, examining the many contacts between the sixth Panchen Lama and the EIC and Purangir’s trip to Beijing provide a novel perspective on the relations between Tibet and the Qing court in the second half of the 18th century. This inquiry also demonstrates that during the same period, Tibet was not a land of isolation; on the contrary, it was an integral part of “the pre-modern globalization” process.

Chinese Sources on the 1903–04 British Military Expedition to Tibet

AbstractChinese sources, especially first-hand materials such as archive collections, field-work reports and Amban Youtai?s diary, have been little considered or consulted in the international debate on issues of modern Tibetan history. Although these Chinese sources would make their studies more balanced, Western scholars who do not understand Chinese characters tend to rely English sources only, with very few of them using Tibetan sources as well. However, just as it has become more and more common in academic circles in China for Chinese scholars to use English or other foreign-language sources in their studies of Tibetan history, so also should Western scholars realise how important the Chinese sources are for studies of Tibetan history, for Tibet has been related to China so closely and for such a long time.

Notes on Tibetan Sources Concerning the 1903–04 Younghusband Military Expedition to Tibet

AbstractThis article presents an overview of Tibetan sources relevant to the Younghusband military expedition to Tibet. By focusing on three recent publications of Tibetan historical materials, it highlights the importance of looking at different perspectives on this momentous and controversial episode that marked the early twentieth century and had far-reaching consequences.

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”

Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's Philosophy (review)

Reviewed by: Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's Philosophy William Edelglass Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nāgārjuna's Philosophy. By David F. Burton. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1999. Pp. xv + 233. An oft-quoted Buddhist adage urges the practitioner to test Buddhist teachings with analytic reasoning. The teachings should not be accepted dogmatically, many Buddhist traditions emphasize, but tested as gold is analyzed to determine its true value. In his carefully argued book Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nāgārjuna's Philosophy, David Burton, who informs the reader that he is undertaking his study as a Buddhist seeking to understand the tradition to which he is committed, has sought to put Nāgārjuna's philosophy of emptiness (śūnyatā) to the test of critical reason. The result, according to Burton, is a resounding failure: Nāgārjuna's arguments, he claims, are generally fallacious, and their most significant conclusions philosophically untenable. Burton describes his project as twofold: the "ascertainment" and "appraisal" of Nāgārjuna's philosophy of śūnyatā. By giving a thorough exposition of Nāgārjuna's understanding of śūnyatā Burton ambitiously hopes to resolve debates between the many competing interpretations of Nāgārjuna's thought. Although his arguments are based on close readings of the texts and occasionally draw on Indian and Tibetan sources, Burton is not primarily interested in philological questions or tracing the various commentarial traditions. The central concern of this text is philosophical, an inquiry into the epistemological and ontological consequences of Nāgārjuna's philosophical use of śūnyatā. In the first part of the book Burton addresses three questions: What is the status of Nāgārjuna's knowledge claims, and more specifically, is Nāgārjuna a skeptic? How is Nāgārjuna's claim that ultimate knowledge is nonconceptual to be understood? And, does Nāgārjuna's account of śūnyatā entail nihilism? The second part of the book is concerned with the motivation and philosophical success of Nāgārjuna's critiques of Nyāya epistemology. Nāgārjuna famously claims to hold no view, and, further, that those who hold śūnyatā as a view are incurable. For this reason Matilal, Hayes, and numerous other scholars have characterized Nāgārjuna as a skeptic. What, then, Burton asks, is the status of Nāgārjuna's knowledge claims that all entities lack an essence, or own-nature (svabhāva)? To answer this question Burton gives an account of both Academic and Pyrrhonian Skepticism, and shows that Nāgārjuna is not a skeptic in either of these two classical senses. That is, Nāgārjuna does not argue that knowledge of things as they are is impossible, nor does he argue that there is no legitimate rational adjudication between views. Instead, Nāgārjuna claims that he does have knowledge of how things are, most prominently the knowledge that all entities lack svabhāva, and thus he cannot be considered a skeptic. The knowledge claim that all entities lack svabhāva leads, according to Burton, to a paradox in Nāgārjuna's thought. For Nāgārjuna also claims that reality is ultimately nonconceptual and inexpressible. If reality is ultimately beyond concept and expression, how can Nāgārjuna conceive of and express the ultimate nature of [End Page 602] things as śūnyatā? Burton suggests two possible responses: either Nāgārjuna is equivocating in his use of the word "reality," or he is using language imprecisely and really does not intend to characterize the knowledge of ultimate reality as beyond concept or expression, but is instead describing the meditative experience of knowing that reality. Burton considers the latter interpretation to have been Nāgārjuna's position, but argues that both interpretations are philosophically and spiritually barren. According to Burton, once Nāgārjuna has made the distinction between un-conceptualizable ultimate truth and conventional truth that can be conceptualized, it will be impossible to understand how the two levels of truth and reality can relate to each other. Moreover, according to Burton, there can be no śūnyatā of entities as objects for meditative knowledge because Nāgārjuna is...

Tibet: Exiles' Journey

Why was democracy introduced to Tibetan diaspora? I argue and document from Tibetan sources that the Dalai Lama, reflecting aspirations of exile Tibetans to end the traditional theocratic/feudal system, initiated relative democratization of the exile government of Tibet in 1960 and continued to the present. The endeavor was intriguingly aided by Chinese Marxist propaganda, host India, Western influence and internal Buddhist sectarian and regional skirmishes. Finally, I argue that the historical flaws in the Dalai Lama's reincarnation system and regency practice may be rectified, and Tibetan national freedom movement strengthened, if the Tibetan democratic process continues.

The Hoshuud Polity in Khökhnuur (Kokonor)

AbstractHoshuud Mongols ruled the Khökhnuur (Kokonor) region from 1637 to 1723. This paper, based on the author's History of the Hoshuud published in Mongolian in 1990, uses Chinese, Mongolian, Manchu and Tibetan sources to describe the main features of the history and polity of this time. This Hoshuud polity, known as the rule of the Eight Taijinar of Khökhnuur, encompassed a hereditary feudal system that gradually took its shape with the consolidation of the Hoshuud rule in the Khökhnuur. Furthermore a system of alliances linked feudal lords and connected the Hoshuud court in Lhasa with the Eight Taijinar in the Khökhnuur. The worship of the Khökhnuur Lake represented the ritual expression and concrete enactment of the Khökhnuur assembly where all concerned parties would come together, often including Qing and Tibetan representatives. During this period Mongolian-Tibetan-Manchu relations were shaped by a complex system of alliances and “;priest-patron” relations.

The Secret Secret: Cinema, Ethnicity and Seventeenth Century Tibetan-Mongolian Relations

AbstractThe Secret History of the Potala Palace, a 1989 film about Mongol-Tibetan relations in the seventeenth century, was a milestone in the still tentative development of Tibetan film, with significant Tibetan participation and close attention to Tibetan sources of history. This paper suggests possible reasons for the withdrawal of the film from circulation, and proposes ways of reading film in the context of contested versions of ethnicity.

Atmospheric dust aerosol over the Tibetan Plateau

Cascade impactor and bulk samples of atmospheric aerosol particles were collected at three sites on the Tibetan Plateau: Udaoliang (September 1993 to May 1994) and Lhasa and Gongga (May 1998). The average dust concentration at these groundbased sites was 82 μg m−3; this is lower than the lowest average concentration observed over the nine major Chinese deserts (arithmetic mean value of 270 μg m−3), and it also is lower than that over the Loess Plateau (170 μg m−3). The elemental mass‐particle size distributions for several major dust‐derived elements (Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mn, Si, and Ti) were approximately lognormal, but those for Al, Fe, and Ti differed from Ca, K, and Si. Dry deposition velocities calculated from the observed size distributions and a two‐layer deposition model averaged 2.7 cm−1 for Al, Fe, and Ti. For Ca, K, and Si, which appear to be more strongly affected by local Tibetan sources, the average calculated dry deposition velocity was 4.3 cm s−1. Wet deposition fluxes estimated from scavenging ratios indicate that less than 10% of the total deposition on the Tibetan Plateau is attributable to wet removal during the 9 months for which data are available. The yearly mean dust deposition rate (local plus remote and dry plus wet) is estimated to be of the order of ∼100 g m−2 yr−1, which is lower than that onto the Chinese desert regions (320 g m−2 yr−1) or the Loess Plateau (250 g m−2 yr−1), suggesting that the sources upwind of China, and the Tibetan Plateau itself, are not major sources for Asian dust.

Remarks on the "Person of Authority" in the Dga' ldan pa / Dge lugs pa School of Tibetian Buddhism

The study under review focuses on a series of issues that have occupied a number of scholars in recent years, namely, how the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist epistemologists and logicians assess and come to terms with the (presumed) authenticity (veridicality and verifiability) of one who has achieved buddhahood and his teachings, what kinds of criteria and hermeneutic tools they make use of in their assessment, how they argue for these in the course of making their determinations, and how, ultimately, «reason» and «faith» may be reconciled. Tillemans' work is clearly one of the more important contributions to these important questions. At the same time, it also contains a few conclusions that upon closer inspection do not jibe with what is known about the historical contours of these problem areas in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies. The over-emphatic and exclusive use of fairly late Tibetan sources has resulted in several anachronisms and to some degree obscures the genetic origins of these allegedly later ideas, and renders somewhat divergently a number of significant developmental issues.

Meditation Differently: Phenomenological-Psychological Aspects of Tibetan Buddhist (Mahamudra and sNying-thig) Practices from Original Tibetan Sources

'Meditation Differently' presents a translation of an important Tibetan work which contrasts and compares two central traditions of Buddhist meditative practice - the Mahamudra and the rDzoga-chen, particularly the sNying-thig version. This translation is supplemented by a detailed commentary based on original Tibetan sources by Dr. Guenther. This critical commentary is a hermeneutical and phenomenological study of the key ideas in the understanding of being and experience.

Le monastère de bSam-yas : sources architecturales

bSam-yas monastery : architectural sources. bSam-yas is considered as the oldest Buddhist monastery in Tibet, built by King Khri-srong Ide-btsan at the end of the Vlllth century. The Records of the Tang dynasty do not mention the monastery and there are but a very few references to it in the ancient Tibetan sources before Xllth century. The basic figure of the plan is the square : the central temple being included in a square divided into nine, and both the plan and the elevation are organized on the base of number three and multiples. The central temple is three stories high, square shaped and surrounded by two cross-shaped buildings. The monastery, including twelve minor temples and various buildings, is enclosed within a circular wall. bSam-yas is traditionaly considered as a manrfala, and as a representation of the Sumeru. The architectural model is often proposed as Indian, but square and cross-shaped patterns existed in Tibet before the coming of Buddhism and Indian influence. Plans found as far as Iran or China can be compared with those of the mawdala and of bSam-yas.

The Life of the Siddha-Philosopher Maitrīgupta

In Nepalese Sanskrit and Tibetan sources, the life of this Buddhist author of eleventh-century India is a tale of vision, renunciation and quest. Maitrigupta (a.k.a. Maitripa, Advayavajra) leaves academic life to seek a tantric guru among tribal people in the hills. A series of bizarre and nearly salacious lessons serves to cleanse his intellectual vision. He returns to the Middle Country to expound the lessons as a philosophic system called nonattentiveness (amanisikara), a version of the Great Symbol (mahamudra). Whether triumph or scandal, and whether Maitrigupta subsequently prevails or is defeated in controversy with the logicians, seems to depend upon the historical tradition. Sectarian influence is striking in this regard, and the study informs our evaluation of Tibetan accounts of the period. The sources are presented in translation, with detailed examination.

Sur un manuscrit chinois découvert à Cira près de Khotan

The Chinese manuscripts discovered near Khotan and acquired by the Indologist A.F. Hoernle or by Aurel Stein at the beginning of the twentieth century were first edited by E. Chavannes. One of these manuscripts, a petition concerning taxes, is here the object of a new study, in conjunction with other Chinese or Khotanese manuscripts discovered in this region, as well as Chinese and Tibetan sources.

The Introduction of Greek Medicine into Tibet in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries

The introduction of foreign medical science into Tibet has hitherto not been the subject of any detailed study, although Tibetan histories of medicine contain much information on the early development of medical science in the Tibetan Empire. In the present paper, an attempt is made to interpret all of the relevant passages from available Tibetan sources concerning the Greek school, the most important of the foreign systems of medicine introduced into early Tibet.

Wrinkles in Time: On the Vagaries of Mi la ras pa’s Dates

The dates of Tibet’s great eleventh-century yogin Mi la ras pa have long caused confusion. Early literary sources for the yogin’s life largely disagree about the year of his birth—frequently listing the animal but not the element of the sexagenary cycle—as well as his lifespan, which ranges from 73 to 88 years. This study identifies the principal traditions for calculating Mi la ras pa’s birth, death, and lifespan. In doing so, it illustrates the processes of chronological codification that took place within the yogin’s biographical tradition between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. It begins with a survey of the European and North American scholarship on the yogin’s dates and then turns to the primary Tibetan sources to identify three main traditions: 1028-111, 1040-1123, 1052-1035. It concludes with an examination and English translation of a rare chronological analysis carried out by Kaḥ thog Tshe dbang nor bu (1698-1755), who favors the earliest proposed dates. Keywords: Mi la ras pa, Milarepa, chronology, Tibetan calendar, birth year, death year

Tibetan Buddhism without Mystification (The Buddhist Way from Original Tibetan Sources)

Tibetan Buddhism without Mystification (The Buddhist Way from Original Tibetan Sources)

Tibetan Buddhism without Mystification. The Buddhist Way from the Original Tibetan Sources. By Herbert V. Guenther. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966. 156 pp. Plates, Tibetan texts. 40 guilders.

Tibetan Buddhism without Mystification. The Buddhist Way from the Original Tibetan Sources. By Herbert V. Guenther. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966. 156 pp. Plates, Tibetan texts. 40 guilders. - Volume 27 Issue 1

A Japanese Translation of Dainichi-Kyo(大日經) from Tibetan Sources

A Japanese Translation of Dainichi-Kyo(大日經) from Tibetan Sources