We are delighted to announce that the final volume of the ten-volume Treasury of Knowledge Series has now been published. This brings to completion a project begun by the previous Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche and his students over 25 years ago, and is – to quote Roger Jackson in his article to appear in Buddhadharma – “a signal event in the transmission of Buddhism to the West”.
We would like to take a moment to acknowledge not only the translators who completed this work, but also the great number of individuals who participated in the early translation efforts in Bodhgaya and Sonada, India, in the early years, the many Rinpoches and Khenpos who offered their encouragement and assistance throughout the translation process, and those who offered sponsorship in first difficult years.
Tsadra Foundation was established in 2000 and very quickly decided this was a project worthy of its support. Collaborating with Bokar Tulku Rinpoche (who had taken over responsibility for the project from the previous Kalu Rinpoche) and with Snow Lion Publications we were able to provide stable financial and logistical support to move the project ahead.
Today we see the fruit of all these years of effort, dedication and commitment. We invite you all to take a moment and join us in celebrating this extraordinary accomplishment. Attached below you will find Roger Jackson’s full article that will appear in the Winter 2012 Edition of Buddhadharma: The Buddhist Practitioner’s Quarterly.
“Perceiving Reality is a masterful study of Buddhist epistemology. It is first and foremost a substantial contribution to the philosophical literature, developing a compelling account of epistemic authority in the context of the phenomenology of perception. It is also an excellent study of Indian Buddhist epistemological inquiry. The philology is impeccable. But it is always in the service of philosophy.
Philosophers and Buddhologists must pay attention to Coseru’s book.” –Jay Garfield
What turns the continuous flow of experience into perceptually distinct objects? Can our verbal descriptions unambiguously capture what it is like to see, hear, or feel? How might we reason about the testimony that perception alone discloses?
Christian Coseru proposes a rigorous and highly original way to answer these questions by developing a framework for understanding perception as a mode of apprehension that is intentionally constituted, pragmatically oriented, and causally effective. By engaging with recent discussions in phenomenology and analytic philosophy of mind, but also by drawing on the work of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, Coseru offers a sustained argument that Buddhist philosophers, in particular those who follow the tradition of inquiry initiated by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, have much to offer when it comes to explaining why epistemological disputes about the evidential role of perceptual experience cannot satisfactorily be resolved without taking into account the structure of our cognitive awareness. Perceiving Reality examines the function of perception and its relation to attention, language, and discursive thought, and provides new ways of conceptualizing the Buddhist defense of the reflexivity thesis of consciousness–namely, that each cognitive event is to be understood as involving a pre-reflective implicit awareness of its own occurrence.
Coseru advances an innovative approach to Buddhist philosophy of mind in the form of phenomenological naturalism, and moves beyond comparative approaches to philosophy by emphasizing the continuity of concerns between Buddhist and Western philosophical accounts of the nature of perceptual content and the character of perceptual consciousness.
The Making of a Mad Yogin in Fifteenth-Century Tibet
The book looks at the life of a young monk from the 15th-century named Sangyé Gyaltsen who became the famous “Madman of Tsang” and the eventual author of the Life of Milarepa. Read more about this book on Brill’s homepage.
The XVIIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies will be held at the University of Vienna, Austria in August of 2014. More information can be found on the conference website: http://iabs2014.univie.ac.at
Karl Brunnhölzl. Gone Beyond: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, the Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition. 2 Volumes. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, ISBN 978-1-55939-356-0, ISBN 978-1-55939-357-7.
Review: Peter Gilks. Review of Brunnhölzl, Karl, Gone Beyond: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, the Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition and Brunnhölzl, Karl, Gone Beyond: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, the Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition. H-Buddhism, H-Net Reviews. July, 2012. Review URL:http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=36093
It may be of some interest to know that a new website will be sharing reviews of academic dissertations online: http://dissertationreviews.org/
Although the dissertations will be from many areas of study, of interest to us is the section on Tibetan and Himalayan Studies. See the review of Dr. Nicole Willock’s dissertation on the sixth Tséten Zhapdrung Jikmé Rikpé Lodrö: A Tibetan Buddhist Polymath in Modern China.
Although a complete list of the books we have in our new Research Center in Boulder might be useful, I think readers will find it much more interesting if I regularly make note of a useful, strange, beautiful, or rare book found in our library. This week I would like to bring to your attention Roberto Vitali’s book, Records of Tho.Ling. By no means a rare book (you can find it on Amazon), it is expensive and perhaps for good reason.
Records of Tho.Ling was published in 1999 and is A Literary and Visual Reconstruction of the “Mother” Monastery in Gu.ge with monumental reconstruction and mapping of Tho.ling and branch monasteries by Bianca Visconti and Christophe Besuchet. It includes stunning visual work, line drawings, designs and paintings by Laura Boutwell, Robert Powell, Mukti Singh Thapa, and Bianca Visconti. Robert Powell’s excellent painting of the view of Tho.ling from the entrance is most notable, along with the Viscontis’ line drawings, designs and sketches. The book was published by High Asia, an imprint of Amnye Machen, an institute devoted to the systematic and scientific study of Tibetan history, culture, society and politics.
There are several things to love about this book, but what I must mention above all is the design. I love footnotes, in all shapes and sizes, but having a wide margin with smaller type footnotes on the left and right sides? Brilliant! It lets the text flow as normal through full pages, but allows for relevant scholarly information and references to be found on the page while reading instead of having to stop and check the back of the book. Of course, it is rarely practical to print a book 21.27cm X 29.85cm in size. The fonts used and the weight of the paper together with the beautiful drawings and diagrams reminds me of the wonder and fascination I experienced in libraries when I was young and first discovering the beauty of books.
Although I mention the art and design first, the book is not another “art of Tibet” volume. It includes a detailed literary reconstruction of Toling monastery with translations of relevant historical texts, notes, bibliography, an index, and appendixes. In the first part of the book, the monastery of Toling and the process of it’s creation is discussed along with a presentation of phases of Toling’s history from the 10th century on up to the 19th century. In the second part there is a kind of reconstruction of the temple complex at Toling along with studies of its organization and the historical implications of it’s monuments. The appendixes contain a number of interesting things, including a printing of the relevant documents used in the book in Tibetan script.
Toling, (ཐོ་ལིང་), which is apparently also pronounced Toding (མཐོ་ལྡིང་), was an important religious institution in western Tibet for a thousand years. It is sometimes claimed to have been founded by the great Tibetan translator Rinchen Zangpo (རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་), but the sources Vitali quotes indicate that it was King Yeshe Ö or the both of them together. Rinchen Zangpo “frequented” one of the temples in Toling and according to the stories had a residence there. Atīśa ( ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་) also graced the spot with his presence, which sources say is the site where the two, Pandita and Lotsawa, had their first meeting (The Blue Annals, etc.). According to Vitali, the only known early text to clearly date the founding of Toling is the Ngari Gyalrab (མངའ་རིས་རྒྱལ་རབས་), in which it says that Toling was founded by the king Yeshe Ö ( ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་) in 996 (“མེ་ཕོ་སྤྲེའུའི་ལོ་ལ་གུ་གེར་ཐོ་ལིང་གི་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་གི་རྨངས་བྲིས་”; p.53, lines 7-8, Vitali page 20 and 193). This, together with evidence of the inscription at Tapo (ཏ་པོ་) that says it was founded at the same time as two other monasteries known to be founded in 996 allows for the dating to be more certain. The original temple complex seems to have consisted of four major temples around one central building with eight smaller structures near them, creating the mandalic structure of the complex. King Yeshe Ö was famous for his governance strategies and was a major patron of Buddhism in western Tibet. He ordered the local farmers to provide for the 80 monks that made up the first sangha at Toling, which was one of the key acts of patronage that allowed it to grow into the most important religious seat in the kingdom of Gugé (page 21).
Because of the choice of transliteration scheme used throughout the main body of Vitali’s text, it really can’t be read meaningfully by a nonspecialist, but it is quite obviously not written for muggles. The text is filled with details about the theocratic organization of the kingdom and citations of government documents from old Tibet, which is wonderful. However, many of the sentences that are “translations” are in fact so full of transliterated terms with periods between the syllables that one might as well just read the Tibetan. In fact, some sentences are utterly illegible for someone who does not know Wylie and Tibetan. But I’d rather not dwell on the negatives: Sometimes it is not within the author’s power to make sure the Tibetan is included in a translation or academic work, so I applaud the use of Tibetan script in the appendices and I’m glad the publisher and printer were able to handle it. The book was printed in Italy by MARIOGROS of Torino, now part of AGIT, worth noting merely because the paper and style are excellent. The table of contents is recreated below so you can see some of the detail of the work presented there.
Our library also holds two other of Vitali’s excellent books: The Kingdoms of Gu.ge Pu.hrang: According to mNga’.ris rgyal.rabs by Gu.ge mkhan.chen Ngag.dbang grags pa, 1996; and The Earth Ox Papers: Proceedings of the International Seminar on Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, Held at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, September 2009.
The List of Contents from Records of Tho.ling:
Preface 1
Part One The temples of Tho.ling. An annotated reminder of historical events concerning them 7 A description of Gu.ge, the land of Tho.ling 9 Valleys of Gu.ge 11 Synopsis 13 The Genealogy of the kings of Gu.ge 13 Building phases at Tho.ling 14 Building phases at each of the main Tho.ling temples 14 Documented images and structures put up at Tho.ling from its foundation to the end of bstan.pa phyi.dar 15 Building phases of the Gu.ge temples 16
Section One Historical phases at Tho.ling. A summary of the literary material (10th-11th centuries) 19 The foundation 19 Antecedents: Tho.ling before the foundation of its temple 21 An episode occuring at Tho.ling during bstan.pa phyi.dar 21 The completion of Tho.ling gtsug.lag.khang in 1028 22 The protrectress of Tho.ling 24 The 1037 sack of Tho.ling 24 Byang.chub.’od’s contributions to Tho.ling 25 Tho.ling and Jo.bo.rje 27 Tho.ling gSer.khang 28 The Shing.sgra hill and its monuments 31 Zhi.ba.’ods endowments to Tho.ling gtsug.lag.khang 31 The Tho.ling chos.’khor 32 The period of obscurantism in Gu.ge and particularly at Tho.ling 32 Tho.ling from the late 12th to the late 13th century, the period in sTod dominated by the bKa’.brgyud.pa-s 34 The restoration ofTho.ling by the Gu.ge king Grags.pa.lde 35 The second great phase ofTho.ling (15th century) 37
Section Two Further annotated reminders of events in the history of Tho.ling (16th-19th centuries) 43 Tho.ling during the time of Shanti.pa Blo.gros rgyal.mtshan (16th century) 43 Tho.ling in the 17th century: the La.dwags-Gu.ge war and the advent of dGa’.ldan pho.brang 46 The La.dwags.pa period ofTho.ling 47 Tho.ling as the secular seat of Gu.ge.pa power: a summary 49 The dGa’.ldan pho.brang period 50 The lineage of the early dGe.lugs.pa abbots of Tho.ling 50 Tho.ling during the regency of sde.srid Sangs.rgyas rgya.mtsho 51 Tho.ling under the dGa .ldan pho.brang after sde.srid Sangs.rgyas rgya.mtsho 54 The end of the royal lineage of Gu.ge 54 Tho.ling in the period after the end of the Gu.ge dynasty 55 Tho.ling during the 19th century 56
Part Two A study of the buildings composing the Tho.ling complex
Introduction: the inventories of the Tho.ling receptacles of body, speech and mind 59
Section One English translation of the significant parts of the rten.deb 65 List of contents 65 ‘du.khang ‘Dzam.gling.brgyan 66 brGya.rtsa lho.brgyud 68 Statues in medicinal clay in brGya.rtsa lho.brgyud 70 brGya.rtsa byang.ma 71 Statues in medicinal clay in brGya.rtsa byang.ma 73 Mani lha.khang 74 rGyal.khang 74 Bla.brang mgon.khang 75 mKhan.po rin.po.che’i gzims.chung 75 lha.khang ‘Jig-rten.brgyan 76 ‘Bri.zur dge.slong bZang.po’i mchod.khang 76 Byams.khang 76 gSer.khang 76
Section Two Critical considerations concerning textual evidence 77
Section Three A classification of the Tho.ling temples based on both textual and oral evidence 83 dPal.dpe.med lhun.gyis grub.pa’i gtsug.lag.khang 84 brGya.rtsa lho.brgyud 84 brGya.rtsa byang.ma 87 Temples outside the gtsug.lag.khang 88
Section Four Final reconstruction of the temple complex (being a plan in words) 95 Religious and lay edifices of Tho.ling 95 The religious buildings 95 mChod.rten-s 98 The lay edifices 102 In the surroundings of Tho.ling 103
Section Five A study of the organization of Tho.ling 109 The branch monasteries ofTho.ling 109 The hierarchy ofTho.ling 114 The annual ceremonies held at Tho.ling 115
Section Six Historical implications arising from the monuments of Tho.ling 119 Tho.ling gtsug.lag.khang (i.e. the structure founded in 996) 119 dPal.dpe.med lhun.gyis grub.pa’i gtsug.lag.khang (i.e. the same structure completed in 1028) 122 gSung.chos ra.ba 128 gNas.bcu lha.khang 128 ‘Du.khang ‘Dzam.gling.brgyan 129 gSer.khang 129 The plain of Tho.ling 132
Appendixes
Appendix One Records of Mang.nang: a brief attempt at a literary and visual recontruction of its temples 135 Mang.nang sprod.deb 138
Appendix Two Records of mDa’.ba.rdzong: a brief attempt at a reconstruction of its temples based on literary and oral evidence 141 Religious buildings 145 Lay buildings 146
Appendix Three A document being a synopsis of the Tho.ling rten.deb 147
Appendix Four Tho.ling gNas.bcu lha.khang sprod.deb 149
Appendix Five Temples in Gu.ge, Pu.hrang, sGar.rdzong, Ru.thog, dGe.rgyas, sGer.rtse and mTsho.chen 151
Appendix Six Tibetan text of the documents relevant to the reconstruction of Tho.ling 155 Tho.ling rten.deb 155 Tho.ling gNas.bcu lha.khang sprod.deb 176 Mang.nang sprod.deb 178
Appendix Seven A few edicts concerning Tho.ling issued during the late period of the Gu.ge dynasty and afterwards 181 The 1653 edict of the La.dwags king Indra.bo.dhi to the people of Gu.ge 181 The edict of fire dragon (1736) issued by the 7th Dalai Lama bsKal.bzang rgya.mtsho 182 The edict of earth horse (1738) 186 The bka’.shog issued by gNod.sbyin phun.tshogs in fire sheep 1847 186
Appendix Eight Tibetan text of the passages translated in the present work (documents other than those published in Appendix Six and Seven) 191
