Among Tibetan Texts
Among Tibetan Texts

Author: E. Gene Smith

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2001-06-15

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0861711793

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For three decades, E. Gene Smith ran the Library of Congress's Tibetan Text Publication Project of the United States Public Law 480 (PL480) - an effort to salvage and reprint the Tibetan literature that had been collected by the exile community or by members of the Bhotia communities of Sikkim, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. Smith wrote prefaces to these reprinted books to help clarify and contextualize the particular Tibetan texts: the prefaces served as rough orientations to a poorly understood body of foreign literature. Originally produced in print quantities of twenty, these prefaces quickly became legendary, and soon photocopied collections were handed from scholar to scholar, achieving an almost cult status. These essays are collected here for the first time. The impact of Smith's research on the academic study of Tibetan literature has been tremendous, both for his remarkable ability to synthesize diverse materials into coherent accounts of Tibetan literature, history, and religious thought, and for the exemplary critical scholarship he brought to this field.

The Monastery Rules
The Monastery Rules

Author: Berthe Jansen

Publisher: University of California Press

Published: 2018-09-25

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0520297008

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At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. The Monastery Rules discusses the position of the monasteries in pre-1950s Tibetan Buddhist societies and how that position was informed by the far-reaching relationship of monastic Buddhism with Tibetan society, economy, law, and culture. Jansen focuses her study on monastic guidelines, or bca’ yig. The first study of its kind to examine the genre in detail, the book contains an exploration of its parallels in other Buddhist cultures, its connection to the Vinaya, and its value as socio-historical source-material. The guidelines are witness to certain socio-economic changes, while also containing rules that aim to change the monastery in order to preserve it. Jansen argues that the monastic institutions’ influence on society was maintained not merely due to prevailing power-relations, but also because of certain deep-rooted Buddhist beliefs.

The Great Perfection (rDzogs Chen)
The Great Perfection (rDzogs Chen)

Author: Samten Gyaltsen Karmay

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 9004151427

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The Great Perfection (rDzogs chen in Tibetan) is a philosophical and meditative teaching. Its inception is attributed to Vairocana, one of the first seven Tibetan Buddhist monks ordained at Samye in the eight century A.D. The doctrine is regarded among Buddhists as the core of the teachings adhered to by the Nyingmapa school whilst similarly it is held to be the fundamental teaching among the Bonpos, the non-Buddhist school in Tibet. After a historical introduction to Tibetan Buddhism and the Bon, the author deals with the legends of Vairocana (Part I), analysing early documents containing essential elements of the doctrine and comparing them with the Ch'an tradition. He goes on to explore in detail the development of the doctrine in the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. (Part II). The Tantric doctrines that play an important role are dealt with, as are the rDzogs chen theories in relation to the other major Buddhist doctrines. Different trends in the rDzogs chen tradition are described in Part III. The author has drawn his sources mainly from early unpublished documents which throw light on the origins and development, at the same time also using a variety of sources which enabled him to explicate the crucial position which the doctrine occupies in Tibetan religions.

Consecration of Images and Stūpas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism
Consecration of Images and Stūpas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism

Author: Yael Bentor

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 9789004105416

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This study of the Indo-Tibetan ritual of rendering religious objects sacred concerns one of the fundamental Buddhist tantric processes of transformation into a chosen tantric Buddha. It provides a general discussion of the ritual as well as detailed analyses of each ritual step in the composite present-day consecration.

The Madman's Middle Way
The Madman's Middle Way

Author: Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2007-05-15

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0226493172

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Gendun Chopel is considered the most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth century. His life spanned the two defining moments in modern Tibetan history: the entry into Lhasa by British troops in 1904 and by Chinese troops in 1951. Recognized as an incarnate lama while he was a child, Gendun Chopel excelled in the traditional monastic curriculum and went on to become expert in fields as diverse as philosophy, history, linguistics, geography, and tantric Buddhism. Near the end of his life, before he was persecuted and imprisoned by the government of the young Dalai Lama, he would dictate the Adornment for Nagarjuna’s Thought, a work on Madhyamaka, or “Middle Way,” philosophy. It sparked controversy immediately upon its publication and continues to do so today. The Madman’s Middle Way presents the first English translation of this major Tibetan Buddhist work, accompanied by an essay on Gendun Chopel’s life liberally interspersed with passages from his writings. Donald S. Lopez Jr. also provides a commentary that sheds light on the doctrinal context of the Adornment and summarizes its key arguments. Ultimately, Lopez examines the long-standing debate over whether Gendun Chopel in fact is the author of the Adornment; the heated critical response to the work by Tibetan monks of the Dalai Lama’s sect; and what the Adornment tells us about Tibetan Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. The result is an insightful glimpse into a provocative and enigmatic workthatwill be of great interest to anyone seriously interested in Buddhism or Asian religions.

Hevajra and Lam 'bras Literature of India and Tibet as Seen Through the Eyes of A-mes-zhabs
Hevajra and Lam 'bras Literature of India and Tibet as Seen Through the Eyes of A-mes-zhabs

Author: Jan-Ulrich Sobisch

Publisher: Dr Ludwig Reichert

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783895006524

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English description: The Hevajra Tantras and teachings of the 'Path with Its Fruit' (lam 'bras) that originated in India have been central practices of Tibetan tantric Buddhism for a millenium. The Tibetans translated eight Hevajra transmissions with their tantras, commentaries, rituals, and instructions and authored countless scriptures in the context of the tantra and the 'Path with Its Fruit' that originated with the Indian Mahasiddha Virupa. Drawing on title lists (dkar chag), colophones, and commentaries authored between the 11th and 17th centuries, the author attempts a reconstruction of the Indian and Tibetan corpora of these transmissions, its literary history and relations to one another. German description: Die aus Indien stammenden Hevajra-Tantras und Lehren des "Pfades mitsamt Frucht"' (lam 'bras) sind seit eintausend Jahren zentrale Praktiken des tibetischen tantrischen Buddhismus. Die Tibeter ubersetzten acht Hevajra-Uberlieferungslinien mit ihren Tantras, Kommentaren, Ritualen und Instruktionen und verfassten zahllose Schriften im Umfeld des Tantras und des auf den indischen Mahasiddha Virupa zuruckgehenden "Pfades mitsamt Frucht". Das vorliegende Buch versucht auf der Basis von zwischen dem 11. und 17. Jahrhundert verfassten Titellisten (dkar chag), Kolophonen und Kommentaren die indischen und tibetischen Korpora dieser Uberlieferungen, ihre Literargeschichte und ihre Bezuge zueinander zu rekonstruieren.

Frontier Tibet
Frontier Tibet

Author: Stephane Gros

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Published: 2019-12-06

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9048544904

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Frontier Tibet addresses a historical sequence that sealed the future of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. It considers how starting in the late nineteenth century imperial formations and emerging nation-states developed competing schemes of integration and debated about where the border between China and Tibet should be. It also ponders the ways in which this border is internalised today, creating within the People's Republic of China a space that retains some characteristics of a historical frontier. The region of eastern Tibet called Kham, the focus of this volume, is a productive lens through which processes of place-making and frontier dynamics can be analysed. Using historical records and ethnography, the authors challenge purely externalist approaches to convey a sense of Kham's own centrality and the agency of the actors involved. They contribute to a history from below that is relevant to the history of China and Tibet, and of comparative value for borderland studies.