Consecration Rite of the Great Translator

‘ Supreme of All the Translators of the New
Translations Rinchen Zang ’ His iconography
shows him as both a monk and a meditator,
and oddly, without a single book.

Here you will find a brief note about another extreme rarity that has popped up without much warning. These things happen. For those secular thinkers who disdain or dismiss the very ideas of the sacred and the holy, it may seem fruitless. But for the rest of us, and still today that means most of us, it ought to be an inspiration. Isn’t it the case that most holy places, objects and persons in the world are made so by us in one way or another? This being so, why wouldn’t we look into the ways sanctification has been understood and effected in the past? And for Tibetan Buddhists at least, wouldn’t it be good to be able to read the first composition on that subject ever written by a Tibetan? 

I might have just used the words "without much warning,” but in fact there were warnings for those few who were looking out for them. Just have a look at Yael Bentor’s 1996 book on consecration, p. 61:

“The first consecration work said to have been composed by a Tibetan was that of Lo-chen Rin-chen-bzang-po (958-1055). This work, cited by Sa-skya Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan and later consecration authors under the title Sdom-tshig or ‘Outline,’ is no longer extant...”

And by the way, the text we bring to your attention is one of a very few texts known to be compositions of the Great Translator Rinchen Zangpo. Although this has been done before (see below), I will try to put together a dossier containing what little is known about his small body of compositions at the end of this blog. About his life itself, so much has been written that today I refuse to be distracted.* 

(*If you feel inclined, go read the fine sketch of his life by Alexander Gardner.)

Here you can see the title page that just appeared at TBRC. I wish I could tell you more about the manuscript’s provenance. It looks quite old as you can see. And it has none of the library markings you would expect to see if it had come from the Drepung Monastery libraries:

It seems to read “Rab gsan kyi dbu’i phyogs lags swo,” but we can list it as simply Rab-gnas, or ‘Consecration,’ leaving all other complications aside. It has eight folios altogether, but is still on the longish side due to the contracted cursive and the relatively long folios. I thought I should type some of it out for you, knowing that some fine Tibetanists are not experienced in cursive manuscripts, but my arthritis immediately disagreed with me.*

(*To see the entire text, go here. Then download volume 8, and scroll down until you find it. Observe that the final colophon belongs to a very brief text that begins at folio 7 verso line 2, making it about a single folio side in length. [Preceding it is yet another consecration text by A-ba-dhË-ti-pa’i Btsun-pa Bsod-nams.] It appears that the brief text is indeed the Outline by Rinchen Zangpo even if it doesn’t exactly say so.)

I wanted to sort out the confusion and supply a single straightforward listing of Rinchen Zangpo’s consecration works as part of a larger but still small listing of his compositions as known to us so far. But no, today I make no promises. I’ll just point out that now not just one but a couple of consecration texts by Rinchen Zangpo have shown up. Even figuring out which if any of them is the oft-quoted Outline (Sdom-tshig) is a problem (surely A5 ought to be the one, just that we don’t actually have it), let alone why we now find that there seem to be longer ones than we ever expected to find. So I suggest you go to [1] the texts in the Kadampa collection, [2] the manuscript that just came to light in a collection of scans from TBRC, and [3] the listings of consecration titles in the available reference works. After studying and comparing them come to your own conclusions. Oh, and while you are at it, compare the many citations of the Outline in consecration ritual texts composed by Tibetan authors of the past until today.

Lists of Works of the Great Translator

You might think it would make sense to locate Lo-chen Rin-chen-bzang-po’s Person ID page in TBRC (by going here: https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:P753) and then tap on the tab called ‘Associated Works.’ Go ahead and see what happens if you want. But this unleashes a tsunami of titles, most of them works he worked on as a translator, not an author/compositor. Leonard van der Kuijp has made provisional lists of his works more than once. I’ll just give you the references so you can check them yourself.

A. List of works of the Great Translator adopted from Tibskrit

1. Bcom-ldan-’das Dpal Phyag-na-rdo-rje-la Bstod-pa Phyag-’tshal Lo Bcu pa. ——— Drepung Catalog, p. 1222. Prostrations and Praise to the Blessed One Glorious Vajrapāṇi. From the title it is possible this was composed when he was ten years old. At least that’s how I read it at the moment.

2. Bde-ba-can-gyi Smon-lam. ——— Drepung Catalog, p. 1648.

3. Dam-tshig Mdor-bsdus Bstan-pa. ——— Drepung Catalog, p. 1243.

4. Dpal ’Khor-lo-bde-mchog Lu-yi-pa'i Bstod-pa Yid-bzhin-nor-bu. ——— Drepung Catalog, p. 682. 

5. Rab-gnas-kyi Sdom. ——— Drepung Catalog, p. 1106: Rab-gnas Cho-ga’i Gzhung Sdom-tshig-tu Bsdus-pa. This ought to be the oft cited Sdom-tshig.

6. Rab-tu Gnas-pa'i Zin-bris Legs-bshad Kun-'dus. ——— Drepung Catalog, p. 1225. Given its different title, it isn't sure if this is the same as the Sdom-tshig (no. 5) or not, and anyway neither one of them is available for inspection.

7. Rgyud-sde Spyi'i Rnam-par Bzhag-pa. ——— I once found it difficult to believe that this general treatment on the tantra classes could possibly exist. The just-given title, in 78 folios, was found listed in Ska-ba Shes-rab-bzang-po, editor-in-chief, Bod-khul-gyi Chos-sde Grags-can Khag-gi Dpe-rnying Dkar-chag, Mi-rigs Dpe-skrun-khang (Beijing 2010), p. 196, and it is supposed to exist at Phan-po Na-lendra Monastery. It was apparently first published here: Lo-tsā-ba Rin-chen-bzang-spo, Rgyud sde spyi'i rnam par bzhag pa 'thad ldan lung gi rgyan gyis spras pa, contained in: Sngon byon sa skya pa'i mkhas pa rnams kyi rgyud 'grel skor, Sa skya rgyal yongs gsung rab slob gnyer khang (Kathmandu 2007), vol. 1, p. 1-78.  It was published again, in Kadam Sungbum (Bka'-gdams Gsung-'bum), series no. 4, vol. 1, pp. 215-291. This is subject of Kuijp, “Bird-faced Monk Part 1,” especially pp. 416 and 418 ff. where he says if genuine this would be the very first work of its kind.

8. Sdom-pa dang Dam-tshig Mdor-bsdus. ——— Text in Kadam Sungbum, series 4, vol. 1, pp. 293-306. An extraordinarily interesting text on vows and commitments, the colophon says that it was “spoken” by Rinchen Zangpo, and this means someone else transcribed it. Then it says that someone named Rngos (with unclear inserted letters that look like Mar-ston) made persistent requests to Lba-ston (~Wa-ston?) Jo-dga’ to learn about it. There was a Jo-dga’ in the western Tibetan royal lineage whose lifespan could have coincided with Rinchen Zangpo’s (Roerich’s Blue Annals, p. 38).

9. Sngags-log Sun-'byin-pa Rgyas-pa. ——— Leonard van der Kuijp, “*Nāgabodhi” (published in 2007) discussed this then-unavailable work, noting some citations in other works.  In late 2018, as an addendum to his paper “The Bird-faced Monk, Part 1” (at p. 450) he announced that he had procured this rare work.  In the same author’s, “Bird-faced Monk, Part 2,” p. 90, he says that Sha-bo Mkha’-byams had “a few months ago” made the work available to him in the form of a 52-folio manuscript. It has now been republished (not as a facsimile, but as a computer-composited text) somewhere in a 50-volume serial called Brtse-chen ’Od-snang (in the first issue bearing the date 2012) brought out by Sakya College, Dehra Dun (you can’t actually see it here; I must thank P.D. for sending me a scan). Here it bears the title Sngags-log Sun-'byin Lo-chen Rin-bzang-gis mdzad-pa. This work on mistaken ideas about tantra is a kind of polemic that may have had a significant impact on sectarian developments. And as a polemic, it is entirely possible it was written by some later figure who preferred to attach to it the name of the Great Translator rather than his own. This can only become clear, or not, after a very close study of its content in relation to everything else we can know about Tibetan religious history.

10. Yo-ga'i Rab-gnas. ——— Drepung Catalog, p. 1217.  A 16-folio manuscript on consecration ritual according to Yoga Tantras.

B. List of the Works of the Great Translator contained in the first volume of the collection entitled Kadam Sungbum

These works are in the form of both cursive and non-cursive manuscripts. The titles I give are based on the title-page titles of these manuscripts, and not on the table-of-contents.

1. Dpal 'Khor-lo-bde-mchog Lū-yi-pa'i Bstod-pa Yid-bzhin-nor-bu. Pages 33-35.  Verses of praise connected with the Cakrasamvara Sādhana according to Lūīpā.

2. Rab-tu Gnas-par Byed-pa Don-gsal.  Pages 37-40.  Clarifying the Significance of the Deeds of Consecration. Colophon (40.3): rab tu gnas pa'i rgyud dang slob dpon kun dga' snying po la swogs pas mdzad pa'i bstan bcos rnams cig na'ang rdzogs shing bzhud mar du mthor ba'i phyir / de dag cig tu lag tu blangs ma 'ongs pa'i skye bo blo chung pa rnams la phan pa'i phyir / shag kya'i dge bslong rin chen bzang pos nye bar sbyar ba'o...*

(*I’m thinking this is yet another version of the Outline, just that it also contains many brief mchan-style footnotes that may explain the word Don-gsal, or ‘Clarification[s]’ in its title. Now I see that, except for incidental spelling differences, this colophon is identical to the one at the end of the text illustrated above, so we really seem to be getting somewhere toward identifying both texts with the Outline by Rinchen Zangpo we’ve been looking for.)

3. Dpal Mngon-par Rtogs-pa'i Dka'-ba'i Gnad Bshad-pa Lo-tsā-ba Rin-chen-bzang-pos mdzad-pa. Catalog of Difficult Points in the Clear Visualization [of Heruka]. There is an added table of contents at pp. 41-43, with the actual manuscript reproduction on pp. 45-70. Colophon (70.2): bdag ni blo dman brjed par 'gyur ba yi // dogs pa'i 'jigs pas bla ma'i gdams ngag bris // 'on kyang bris pa'i bsod nams 'ga' yod na // 'gro ba yang dag lam la gnas par shog // dpal mngon par rtogs pa'i bshad pa bla ma dpal mar me mdzad ye shes kyi zhal mnga' nas gsungs pa / lo tsā ba chen po dge slong rin chen bzang pos ma bsnan ma chad par bris pa rdzogs s.ho. This indicates that these explanations of difficult points in the Heruka Sādhana were taken down verbatim from the words of Atiśa, which would make it a work of Atiśa, not Rinchen Zangpo.

4. “Cho-ga Bya-tshul.” Ritual Method (the text itself has no front title).  Pages 71-72. The colophon is a little difficult to read, and it oddly repeats the colophon to the consecration text (B2), but in any case here it is (72.4): rab tu gnas pa'i rgyud dang slob dpon kun dga' snying po la rtsogs pas mdzad pa'i bstan bcos rnams gcig na'ang ma rdzogs shing gzhung mang du 'thor ba'i phyir / de dag cig (?) tu lag tu blang pa ma 'ongs skye bo rnams la phan par bya ba'i phyir / gtso'i (?) dge slong  [lo tsā ba] rin chen bzang pos nye bar sbyar ba...

5. Bde-ba-can-gyi Smon-lam. Wishing Prayer for the Buddhafield of Sukhāvati. The cursive script is done with a rather fast handwriting. Pages 73-77. Colophon (76): ces lo tstsha ba rin chen bzang pos thon mthing gi gtsug lag khang du sbyar ba dge'o...  I suggest that Thon-mthing is an odd way to spell Mtho-lding, which means Tholing, a place where Rinchen Zangpo spent a great deal of time in the last half of his life.

C. Miscellaneous

I’ve noticed a title attributed to the Great Translator with the title Gdon-chen Bcwo-lnga'i Lto-bcos, a ritual text for dealing with the 15 Great Dön demons that trouble children in particular. Nowadays we would inevitably understand them to be childhood psychiatric disorders, while rejecting any spiritological understanding even though 21st century moderns may be not much closer, or even no closer, to understanding why some of them occur, or why they occur with one child instead of another.* 

(*For a study of a different type of ritual text for dealing with the same category of spirits, see Lin Shen-Yu, “The Fifteen Great Demons of Children,” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, vol. 26 [April 2013], pp. 5-33, available online. For a valuable general introduction to the Great Dön and other demons, see Terry Clifford, Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry: The Diamond Healing, Samuel Weiser [York Beach 1984], Chapter 9: “Demons in Medical Psychiatry.” Look here to see this: “What Causes Mental Disorders in Children? The exact cause of most mental disorders is not known, but research suggests that a combination of factors, including heredity, biology, psychological trauma, and environmental stress, might be involved.”)

The title in the colophon of this text reads like this (following the catalog listing):  Stong Chen-mo Rab-tu 'Joms-pa'i Mdo-las* bshad-pa'i Sri-ru (?) Gso-thabs / [G]don-chen bco-lnga'i bcos 'di ni / Lo-tstsha-ba Rin-chen-bzang-pos mdzad-pa. It’s my present understanding that this kind of gto-bcos (=lto-bcos) ritual is supposed to avert troubles that are coming directly at you by setting up substitute targets or blocking devices.

(*Mahāsahasrapramardana Sūtra [Stong Chen-mo Rab-tu ’Joms-pa zhes bya-ba’i Mdo].  Tôh. no. 558 [also, compare no. 1059].  Dergé Kanjur, vol. PHA, folios 63v.1-87v.1.  Translated by Śīlendrabodhi, Jñānasiddhi, Śākyaprabha and Ye-shes-sde.  Revised by Gzhon-nu-dpal.)

Another thing that has been said to be true, as unbelievable as it may seem, is that a previously unheard-of biography of Atiśa by Rinchen Zangpo has been preserved in the Tibet Library in Lhasa. This information is from Sun Lin, “Textual,” p. 181.  This is of extraordinary interest and deserves a followup investigation, assuming it hasn’t received one by now.

References

Yael Bentor, Consecration of Images and Stūpas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, E.J. Brill (Leiden 1996).

Alexander Gardner, “Rinchen Zangpo.”  Posted at Treasury of Lives website.

Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, “The Bird-Faced Monk and the Beginnings of the New Tantric Tradition, Part One,” contained in: G. Hazod & W. Shen, eds., Tibetan Genealogies: Studies in Memoriam of Guge Tsering Gyalpo (1961-2015), China Tibetology Publishing (Beijing 2018), pp. 403-450.  

On p. 416-7: 

“In stark contrast to his fame as a Sanskrit scholar and translator, Rin chen bzang po had been up to the present almost unknown as an author in his own right. Indeed, it was only quite recently that manuscripts of several short studies on tantric subjects that are attributed to him were discovered in one of ’Bras spungs monastery’s libraries; these included the following:

1. Dpal mngon par rtogs pa’i dka’ ba’i gnas bshad pa with glosses (mchan bu) that may have been written by him; fols. 13.

2. [B]sgrub pa’i thabs mdor byas pa with glosses; the editors queried: “Were the glosses written by Lo chen Rin chen bzang po?”; fols. 8.

3. Yo ga’i rab gnas; fols. 16.

4. Dam tshig mdor bsdus bstan pa; fols. 8.

5. Dpal ’khor lo bde mchog lū yi pa’i bstod pa yid bzhin nor bu; fols. 2.

“Several of these plus two others that are not listed here have now been published in black-and-white facsimile reproductions; these are the following according to their title pages, opening statements, or colophons:

1. Dpal ’khor lo bde mchog lū yi pa’i bstod pa yid bzhin nor bu; fols. 2.

2. Rab tu gnas par byed pa don gsal; fols. 2. 37

3. Dpal mngon par rtogs pa’i dka’ ba’i gnas bshad pa lo tsā ba rin chen bzang pos mdzad pa; fols. 13.

4. Cho ga bya tshul; fol. 1.

5. Bde ba can gyi smon lam; fols. 3.”

———, “The Bird-Faced Monk and the Beginnings of the New Tantric Tradition, Part Two,” Journal of Tibetology, vol. 19 (December 2018), pp. 86-127.

———, “*Nāgabodhi / Nāgabuddhi: Notes on the Guhyasamāja Literature,” contained in: H. Krasser, et al., eds., Pramāṇakīrti: Papers Dedicated to Ernst Steinkellner, Arbeitskreis fūr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität (Vienna 2007), pp. 1002-1022, especially p. 1011.

Sun Lin, “Textual Discourses and Behavior Criterion: The Historiographic Significance of Tibetan Biographies of the Religious Figures,” Frontiers of History in China, vol. 3, no. 2 (2008), pp. 173-194.

Dan Martin, “Atiśa’s Ritual Methods for Making Buddhist Art Holy,” contained in: Shashibala, ed., Atiśa Śrī Dīpaṅkara-jñāna and Cultural Renaissance: Proceedings of the International Conference, 16th-23rd January 2013, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (New Delhi 2018), pp. 123-138. The pre-published version is the preferable one, and it can be seen here.

One of the doodles on the final folio
of the manuscript of the Great
Translator’s consecration

Need help locating volumes of the Kadam Sungbum (བཀའ་གདམས་གསུང་འབུམ་) in TBRC?  Just feed these alpha-numeric codes into the search box.

Series One — vols. 1-30:  W1PD89051

Series Two — vols. 31-60: W1PD89084

Series Three — vols. 61-90: W1PD153536

Series Four — vols. 91-120: W4PD3076

A very relevant and informative blog that was once posted at TBRC can no longer be found there. Still, a Google search turned up a surviving version of it on the Douban webserver. It’s a blog by Kano Kazuo, entitled “Rare Tibetan Texts 03: Collected Works of the Kadam Masters,” originally posted on April 24, 2013.

The Realm of Dharmas, a Treasury of Jewels, Chapter 4: The Nature of Bodhicitta

 

—CHAPTER FOUR—

THE NATURE OF BODHICITTA

[So now that it has been approximated by metaphors, in order to drive home the significance, the nature of Awareness-Bodhicitta is uncompromisingly presented as follows.]

The nature of the all-inclusive Bodhicitta is like this.

It is not an appearance.It is beyond the dharmas of appearance.

It is not a void.It is beyond the dharmas of void.

It is not an entity.It has no thingness no labels.

It is not a nonentity.It embraces all sangsara/nirvana.

It is not an entity or nonentity.It is the primordial Realm,

naturally-arrived-at and level.

It has no orientation or preferences.It has no ground, no root, no thingness.

[The substance of Awareness is beyond diffusive extremes of thought and communication; so it is not arrived-at in the sphere of entities and nonentities.  it totally embraces all sangsara/nirvana.]

˚

[By nature, its substantiality is completed in Dharma Proper, spread-out and pure.]

Its flow uninterrupted, it is the receptive centre of

clearly comprehended awareness.

Untransformed and untransported, it spreads throughout the sky-Realm.

The totally incomparable significance of self-engendered Full Knowledge

is subsumed in a single unborn, unending drop

that is unstable and all-pervading, completely devoid of extreme

orientations.

˚

[This Realm, while all have it, is shown to be the objective sphere of only a few lucky ones.]

An inheritance of unwavering,  level,  naturally-arrived-at Vajra Heart,

this exceedingly spread-out supreme Realm beyond inclusion & exclusion

is no objective sphere to be described by words.

It is a sphere where each one awares itself,

a spreading receptive centre of Insight.

The yoga practitioner divorced from mental and verbal diffusiveness

knows it to be beyond description and nondescription.

Meditations and things to meditate on are not to be found;

So there is no need to slay the enemies     sinking & scattering,

& distracting thoughts.

[The Diamond Cutter Sutra says,

Dharma Proper is no knowable.

It is not possible to know.]

˚

[Now it is shown that there is no acceptance-rejection of good/bad because appearances/becoming abides in the Buddhafield.]

As there is no sense of belonging to self or others

in the Dharma Proper residing in the total reservoir,

these very three realms are a field of level nature,

Awareness pure and level, a field permeated by the Great Naturally-arrived-at.

[The Occult Matrix says,

The dharmas of the entirety of the three existences

are all without exception Buddhaized.

Dharmas aside from Buddhahood itself

even the Buddhas themselves do not find.]

˚

[So while sangsara even is Buddhaized, dawning as an appropriate manifestation of Awareness, it is also shown that nirvana, too, is nothing more than the appropriate manifestation of Buddhahood.]

The Buddhas of all time are pure, appropriate manifestations

without accepting/rejecting— all in a single beam.

So there is not the least thing to be obtained from others.

All dharmas shine in that great receptive centre of Mind Proper;

there has not been the slightest compromise

on what levelness means.

[In Pure Awareness there is nothing besides what we call ‘Buddha’ since there is no looking for a substantiality of ‘Buddha’ other than through the mind that pushes and strives with causes and for results itself.  Other than Awareness simply pure of adventitious defilements, there is no ‘Buddha’.

The Occult Matrix says

You do not get complete Buddhahood

from anything in space and time.

Mind Proper is completely buddhaized.

Though they search, the Buddhas themselves do not ‘find’.]

˚

[If such an awareness discovers its own substantiality, turnoffs and obscurations are forcefully closed off.]

No inside.    No outside.    Untroubled by dawnings and settings.

The basis for lighting up the darkness of the horizons is Bodhicitta.

Nothing given up, the turnoffs are forcefully closed off.

[The All Making King says,

This Bodhicitta nature

is the essence of all dharmas.

Unproduced, it is completely pure;

so there are no obscurations.

It has no path to go down,

so there are no turnoffs.

Totally naturally-arrived-at,

there is nothing to look for.

In the single Bodhicitta,

the essence of all dharmas,

in the one, various things are numbered,

so turnoffs and obscurations come in.

Going down what isn’t to be gone down,

turnoffs come in.

Looking for what isn’t to be looked upon,

the obscurations of non-seeing come in.]

˚

[Whatever may appear in the continuum of Awareness has not moved from the Realm.]

The various modes of appearance of beings,

of the worlds, and even of the Body and Full Knowledge of pure Buddhahood

fill the sky-Realm with their uninhibited play that

dawns from the special powers of understanding and misunderstanding.

There is only understanding and misunderstanding in the Realm of Dharmas

continuity.

From the pure appearance of Bliss Travellers through understanding;

and from misunderstanding, unawareness and our tendencies toward 

subject/object dichotomies,

various things appear.  Yet they have not moved from the Realm.

[Buddhas come from the self-engendered Full Knowledge-Realm recognizing its own substantiality.  The lack of that recognition makes sentient beings seem to appear.  Since both are of one taste in the Awareness continuity, there is no belittling [of sentient beings] or partiality [for Buddhas].]

˚

[That Awareness is shown to be a great unimpeded void-clarity.]

Bodhicitta is the real basis of everything.

Its character unimpeded, whatever variations dawn

are clarified in the Realm of Pure Dharma Proper, self-clarifying.

So it is undifferentiated and unbreached.

Free-ranging is Awareness’ style.

[Like a pure crystal ball, its substance is void and clear.  From the continuity of the unarrived-at Unproduced, dawns the ceaseless play of whatever.]

˚

[Broadly explaining the nature of the foregoing.]

The self-engendered, passing-right-through Full Knowledge

expands its receptive centre.

Its Sheer Luminosity unobscured, without inner/outer, is:

a Great Light,          a Bodhicitta mirror,          self-engendered Awareness,

a wish-producing precious jewel,          the Realm of Dharmas.

Since everything produces itself without pushing,

the self-engendered Full Knowledge is the best of wish-fulfillers.

˚

[Awareness is shown to be an x-pansive receptive centre of clear comprehension.]

However much the qualities of its greatness may be enumerated,

the supreme Method of Realm coming from Realm

dawns unimpededly.

As everything is naturally completed in the unproduced realm,

it is a receptive centre of clearly comprehended Voidness

that outshines material objects;

it is a receptive centre of clearly comprehended, inherent self-Awareness

that outshines the Void.

˚

[The significance of the preceding is summed up in the Great X-pansive Receptive Centre of Sky.]

Bodhicitta totally lacks appearances/Voidness.

Not two,  unattached,  unthinkable miracles happen.

The timeless,  unproduced Realm of Dharmas

is a receptive centre untransformed, indivisible and uncompounded.

The Realm of eternity’s Buddhas’ Aware Full Knowledge

is a receptive centre of clearly comprehended Awareness

that outshines subject/object dichotomies.

It has no in or out side, Dharma Proper wide-open by nature.

[In Awareness’ substance, appearances, Voidness, etc., are not arrived-at.  The uncompoundedness of the Realm that levels past, present and future is like this—Awareness totally dawns as the Buddhas of past, present and future; so it is the Dharmabody without subject/object dichotomies.]

 — Return to Chapter One

or continue to Chapter Five

Kālacakra Tantra Woodblock Prints: A Guestblog in Response

 

Woodcut miniature of Pad-ma-dkar-po,
or in Sanskrit Puṇḍarīka

Today’s guestblog was written by Marta Sernesi. 

It is in response to two recent Tibeto-logic blogs about early woodblock carvings of the Kālacakra Tantra in Tibetan language. 

Look here for the first one, and here for the second.

I don’t have much to add to your blogpost, except to point to Jörg Heimbel’s study of the Jo gdan tshogs sde bzhi,* where he also provides a short biographical sketch of gNyag phu ba bSod nams bzang po as the 8th seat holder of dGe ’dun sgang. In the abbatial succession of this monastery one can spot a La stod Byang pa mKhan chen Seng ge dpal ba (11th seat holder, tenure: 8 years, ca. 1416–1424), who is most probably the project leader for the Kālacakra edition. However, the seat holder in 1433 would have been the following master in the list, namely sNye mo Bong ra ba mKhan chen Chos ’grub pa (tenure: 20 years, in office during the compilation of the rGya bod yig tshang chen mo in 1434), so the edition may or may not have been prepared at the monastery itself.

(* “The Jo gdan tshogs sde bzhi: An Investigation into the History of the Four Monastic Communities in Śākyaśrībhadra’s Vinaya Tradition,” contained in: Franz-Karl Ehrhard and Petra Maurer, eds., Nepalica-Tibetica: Festgabe for Christoph Cüppers, International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies [Andiast 2013], vol. 1, pp. 187–242.)

Regarding the printing colophon, I read rather spar du sgrubs pa’i dpon yig dge ba kos (= rkos) mkhan mkhas pa nam seng dang //. 

Even though my eyes are not that good, I think that this is the most plausible reading, so I am afraid that there’s no explicit mention of women involved in the making of the blocks. dGe ba was the scribe and mKhas pa Nam mkha’ seng ge and mGon po dpal and bSod nams rgyal mtshan and Yon tan dpal the carvers. 

There are two other early editions of Kālacakra related works that I am aware of, that may be of some interest. One printing project is a late Hor-par-ma (1351) described by Sherab Sangpo as "text 8" in his “Analysis of Tibetan Language Prints Produced During the Yuan Period (hor spar ma),” Inner Asia, vol. 15 (2013), pp. 201–224.

Another printing project would have been more or less coeval with the “Nyagpuwa memorial edition”:  Ritual texts on the Kālacakra written by the ruler of La stod Byang rNam rgyal grags bzang (1395–1475) that were printed by himself, most probably at his palace or main monastic institution of Ngam ring[s].

1. dPal ldan dus kyi ’khor lo’i dkyil ’khor du bdag nyid ’jug pa’i cho ga dri med, 27 fols. (6 lines per folios). See Sakya Resource Center S4835, a copy in a private collection identified and documented by Mathias Fermer. The colophon (fol. 27a) reads: /dpal ldan dus kyi ’khor lo’i dkyil ’khor du/ /bdag nyid ’jug pa’i cho ga dri med ’di/ /pad ma dkar po ji ltar bzhed pa bzhin/ /rnam rgyal grags pa bzang po bdag gis sbyar/ /spar ’di [sby]in bdag brtsom pa po nyid de/ /zhus dag pa ni chos dbang bka’ bcu pa/ /yi ge mkhan po dpal ldan rgyal mtshan te/ /rkos mkhan mkhas pa bla ma nam seng yin/ /dge des srid gsum sems can ma lus pa’i/ bag chags (...) spangs nas/ blo bur dri ma’i sbubs las nges grol te/ /sku bzhi’i bdag nyid mngon du byed gyur cig/.

2. Title page: dPal ldan dus kyi ’khor lo’i bdag ’jug [bzhugs legs so], 34 fols. (6 lines per folio). See TBRC W2KG210288, at the beginning of vol. 2 for the scan of the whole copy. The colophon reads: /dpal ldan dus kyi ’khor lo’i dkyil ’khor du/ /bdag nyid ’jug pa’i cho ga dri med ’di/ /pad ma dkar po ji ltar bzhed pa bzhin/ /rnam rgyal grags pa bzang po bdag gis sbyar/ /spar ’di sbyin bdag brtsom pa po nyid de/ /zhus dag pa ni chos dbang bka’ bcu pa/ /yi ge pa ni byams pa sang mchog dang/ /rkos mkhan mkhas pa bla ma nam seng yin/ /dge des srid gsum sems can ma lus pa’i/ bag chags rigs bzhi’i dri ma kun spangs nas/ /blo bur dri ma’i sbubs las nges grol te/ /sku bzhi’i bdag nyid mngon du byed gyur cig//.

Notwithstanding the same title, the very similar colophon, and appearance, these are two distinct projects, unfortunately undated. They also have very similar illuminations. On the last folio, on the left hand side is ’Jam dpal grags pa (correct Sanskrit is Mañjuśrī Yaśas, see the comment below), and on the right side Pad ma dkar po (Puṇḍarīka), of whom the ruler was considered an emanation (see Cyrus Stearn’s biographical sketch in The Treasury of Lives website and references therein). So I imagine that these are indirect portrayals of the ruler in bodhisattva garb. On the first folio (1v) of the second edition are illuminations figuring Sākyamuni and Kālacakra (I don’t have images of the first folios of no. 1).

You’ll note that in both cases the carver is one mKhas pa bla ma Nam seng. However, this is unlikely to be the same lead carver of the edition in memory of Nyagpuwa, as the two projects would have been realized in distinct places. However, mKhan chen Seng ge dpal is called La stod Byang pa, so, there’s that. 

Also interesting, perhaps, is that in both the Nyagpuwa memorial edition and the La stod Byang edition no.2 , Sākyamuni is portrayed wearing robes that leave the right shoulder uncovered. While this is not uncommon in 15th century depictions of “Indian” monastic robes, Jörg points out that this was the special kind of monk’s robes worn by members of the Jo gdan tshogs sde bzhi: 

“That monks of the Jo gdan tshogs sde bzhi initially wore robes different from monks of other traditions can also be established from depictions in paintings. Two thangkas and one mural that portray masters of the four communities depict each of the main figures without the typical Tibetan style vest worn by most Tibetan monks, but instead with some sort of upper garment that, though covering the entire left upper body, leaves the breast area of the right side uncovered.  Two other related paintings depict the monks not with this type of dress, but with Indian-style robes without any vest at all. ” (p. 224)

Oh well, I don’t know if any of this is of any interest to you, but I thought to share it. Do with it whatever you wish.

(BTW, I am not very keen on repeating the common view that the Yongle canonical edition prompted the adoption of printing in Tibet. Indeed, there is evidence of at least one Western Tibetan edition that predates the completion of the canonical project (La stod lHo 1407), and masters such as O rgyan pa could have spread some copies of the Yuan editions and encouraged the/experimented with the adoption of the technology.* But well, this is another topic.)    

(*“Towards the History of Early Tibetan Printing: New Evidence and Uncharted Territories,” contained in: Volker Caumanns and Marta Sernesi, eds., Fifteenth Century Tibet: Cultural Blossoming and Political Unrest, Lumbini International Research Institute [Lumbini 2015], pp. 195–225.)

Woodcut miniatures from the initial folio of no. 2, listed above

 §   §   §

• Postscript (December 1, 2021)

Marta also recommended this very important writing on the subject that had escaped my attention by Kawa Sherab Sangpo: “Analysis of Tibetan Language Prints Produced During the Yuan Period (hor spar ma),” Inner Asia, vol. 15 (2013), pp. 201-224. It was originally published in Tibetan in 2009, and here translated into English by the late Tsering Gongkhatsang.

•

Postscript (December 8-9, 2021)

I should take the opportunity to add further items to the bibliography:

Orna Almogi & Dorji Wangchuk, “Prologue: Tibetan Textual Culture between Tradition and Modernity,” contained in Orna Almogi & Dorji Wangchuk, eds., Tibetan Manuscript and Xylograph Traditions: The Written Word and Its Media within the Tibetan Cultural Sphere, Indian and Tibetan Studies series no. 4, Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg (Hamburg 2016), pp. 5-30, at p. 7:

“Note that according to Grönbold, the oldest Tibetan xylograph was found in Turfan and goes back to the 9th century (Grönbold 1982: 368).”

This refers to Günter Grönbold, “Die Schrift und Buchkultur Tibets,” contained in Claudius C. Müller & Walter Raunig, eds., Der Weg zum Dach der Welt, Pinguin Verlag (Innsbruck 1982), pp. 363–380.

And on p. 70 of the same volume, in an essay by Michela Clemente:

“It seems that the earliest extant Tibetan-language xylograph printed in Tibet was completed at Shel dkar (La stod lHo) in 1407.*”

* On this xylograph, see Diemberger 2012: 22, 23–26, 28–31; the contribution of Diemberger in this volume; Porong Dawa 2016. This xylograph was discovered by the dPal brtsegs Research Institute in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the British Library. The work is available in the CD-ROM of the dPal brtsegs book (see dPal brtsegs, text no. 1). 

Again, in the same volume, in the essay by Hildegard Diemberger, “Early Tibetan Printing in Southern La stod: Remarks on a 1407 Print Produced at Shel dkar,” pp. 105-125, at p. 106, this 1407 print is identified as the ’Grel chung don gsal: “so far the earliest extant print from Tibet.”* And do notice the photographed pages from Orgyanpa’s Kālacakra Tantra print on p. 107, and photos of the colophon pages of the 1407 print on p. 125.

(*As she says, this 90-folio print of the famous work by Haribhadra [སེང་གེ་བཟང་པོ་] in its Tibetan translation had been identified in 2009 by Porong Dawa and announced in a publication of 2013. It is most commonly known by its Sanskrit title Sphuṭārthā.)

Hildegard Diemberger, “Quand le livre devient relique - Les textes tibétains entre culture bouddhique et transformations technologiques,” Terrain, revue d’ethnologie europeénne, vol. 59, special issue entitled “L’objet livre” (2021), pp. 18-39. This includes a nice survey of Tibetan printing history.

Sam van Schaik, “The Uses of Early Tibetan Printing: Evidence from the Turfan Oasis,” contained in: H. Diemberger, et al., eds., Tibetan Printing: Comparisons, Continuities & Change, Brill (Leiden 2016) 171-194.  This volume is an open access publication. Sam’s essay is especially recommended, and not only because it illustrates some of those remarkable early woodblock prints found in Turfan that Grönbold merely mentioned in his 1982 essay.

•

Postscript (November 2, 2024)

The author of this guest blog, Marta Sernesi, has just a week ago given a paper entitled, “Yuan Printed Edition (hor par ma) of the Kālacakratantra (ca. 1294),” at the workshop entitled “Dedications on Tibetan Canonical Artefacts” (Vienna; October 24-26, 2024). We can look forward to the published version 

This Is That Long Lost Buddhist History

Buddha Miniature from the Gondhla Kanjur

I hope to better demonstrate the truth of it to you if you have a little time for it, but I can tell you one thing right away. I am ready to swear that the lion’s share of the over-600-year-old history composed by Üpa Losel (Dbus-pa Blo-gsal / དབུས་པ་བློ་གསལ་), has at long last emerged into the public record and is available to readers of Tibetan language. It should prove to be of use to all who ever felt the need to make histories out of the histories of the past. I guess that means historians, or them primarily. So if that label in some way fits you let’s get straight to it. Well, as straight as possible and with a straight face.

Just this year a very interesting set of 10 volumes was published. It may be a set, or it may be a series — books published in the PRC often seem to defy those distinctions. I’ll give the details later on. Its second volume bears the cover title Rgyal-rabs Chos-'byung Khag Drug, རྒྱལ་རབས་ཆོས་འབྱུང་ཁག་དྲུག, or “Six Distinct Dynastic and/or Buddhist Histories,” and it is here among those six things we must look to find it. One drawback: it has no title page as the first parts of the work are missing. Another drawback: in place of the final colophon identifying the author that we hoped to find, the editor copied only the first and last few words of it, and then comments that of the words that come in between the only thing legible is the name Üpa Losel.*

(*You have to bear in mind that this is an edited version of the text, in computerized script, and not a facsimile, as this may prove worth knowing for other reasons.)

All this is discussed by the editor in his introduction to the volume, and I can’t really add to it. Or if I can, I guess it would be by looking at the end of the chronological section near its end, where the author seems to identify himself as well as the date of his work.

The recent Tibeto-logic blog on chronology has had (according to Blogger's own inbuilt statistics) the lowest number of readers ever, so it looks as if I may be digging my own blog grave by doing it, but here goes :

Although he mentions other ideas, Üpa appears to go along with the idea found as well in the anonymously compiled Khepa Deyu (མཁས་པ་ལྡེའུ་) history of 1261* that Buddha Dharma will endure for 5,000 years (meaning 10 periods of half a millennium each) starting from the Parinirvana date. 

(*I’m happy to report that an English version will appear in print in May July of next year. I see it’s already listed at this commercial site as forthcoming.)

He starts the discussion with Chömden Rigral (Bcom-ldan Rig-pa'i-ral-gri / བཅོམ་ལྡན་རིག་པའི་རལ་གྲི) who 

in a Hen year said that 2,093 years had passed since the passing of the Teacher according to the Kālacakra system.*

(*This must mean Rigral's 1261 history with the title Flowers Ornamenting the Sage’s Teachings [ཐུབ་པའི་བསྟན་པ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག], a work dated to 1261, an Iron Hen year. It is known to exist in manuscript form, but has not been published to the best of my knowledge, not even in his published collected works. Check BDRC to be sure, since there are by now at least three published sets of his compositions.)

(It is important to note that I follow Schaeffer & Kuijp’s dates for Rigral, meaning 1227-1305, and these agree with those supplied by BDRC, person ID no. P1217. It is clear that copies of his history work have been made available to some people somewhere. For a solid clue, try this link for example.) 

Then, in the Fire Female Pig year, Sönam Tsemo (Bsod-nams-rtse-mo / བསོད་ནམས་རྩེ་མོ་) did his calculations at Na-la-rtse Gnas-po-che saying that 3,300 years had passed.*

(*This must refer to the chronological section that ends Sönam Tsemo's most famous work, Entrance Gate to the Dharma, dated 1167, a Fire Pig year.)

Then, in a Fire Mouse year, at the death of the Great Jetsun (Rje-btsun Chen-po / རྗེ་བཙུན་ཆེན་པོ), Sakya Pandita (Sa-skya Paṇḍi-ta / ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་) claimed that 3,347 years had passed.*

(*This means Sapan's calculation done upon the death of Dragpa Gyeltsen [Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan / གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་] in 1216.) 

Then, in the time of the rainy season retreat at Sakya Monastery, Śākyaśrī made his calculations in an Iron Male Horse year in which he said that according to the Sen-dha-pa system, 1,753 years had passed.

And in the Fire Female Ox year the Lama Chökyi Gyelpo (Bla-ma Chos-kyi-rgyal-po / བླ་མ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་) did calculations at Long Spring (Chu-mig Ring-mo / ཆུ་མིག་རིང་མོ་) in Tsang Province concluding that 3,110 years had passed. 

Hmm... That's a very interesting reference to the meeting known to history as the Dharma Convocation at the Spring (Chu-mig Chos-'khor / ཆུ་མིག་ཆོས་འཁོར་) that Pagpa ('Phags-pa / འཕགས་པ་) presided over in 1277 during his 2nd return visit to Tibet. Now I’ll understand if you need to check to make sure, but 1277 was in fact a Fire Ox year, so there is no reason for doubt, and the Lama Chökyi Gyelpo isn’t really a name but a respectful epithet used for Pagpa during his lifetime, usually in the slightly longer form Lama Dampa Chökyi Gyelpo, ‘Holy Lama Dharma King.’

Okay, I’m having fun with this, but it’s becoming evident from the look on your face that you are not. So despite myself I’ll stop here although I have to say, the list does keep getting so much more interesting with complications galore. That way we can jump forward two pages to the bit that is most relevant to us at the moment (starting at p. 225, the final paragraph):

Then, in the Iron Male Dragon year, in the Great Dharma College of Chomden Raldri (Bcom-ldan Ral-gri, i.e. Rigral), Üpa Losel did calculations finding that 3,316 years had passed. That means 1,680 years remain, and we are in the 500-year period of mere tokens.*

(*Earlier on in Üpa’s text as well as in the long Deyu history “mere tokens” (རྟགས་ཙམ་) means the 10th and final of the 500-year-long phases in Dharma's decline, at the end of which human lifetimes will be 50 years, and thereafter continue to decrease. Üpa had detailed this prophetic setup immediately before (at pp. 222-223), so it's a mystery why he thinks mere tokens is the phase he finds himself in, when it seems obvious that he is writing in what he himself ought to regard as the phase of Abhidharma (མངོན་པ་), the 7th of the 10 phases.)

Right now the Dharma phase is the one in which the life expectancy of the inhabitants of Jambu Island is 60 years, and in the phase of 50-year life expectancy the holy Dharma will decline, it is taught.

This means Üpa in his dating of Buddha’s death way back in 1977 BCE, was agreeing to disagree with Śākyaśrī, subject of that widely unread Tibeto-logic blog we mentioned before. Leaving the mildly complicated discussion aside for now, we take Üpa's dates to be ca. 1265-1355, so we have little choice but to date the history he wrote to the Iron Dragon year of 1340, even if the modern author of the introduction to the published volume, in his preface (p. 6), gives it a date of 1280. Your older hands in the realm of Tibet Studies will right away recognize how it is that this 60-year difference tends to happen with some regularity.

Now the updated Tibetan Histories book posted for download just before the holiday season last year needs updating now that this date is known. Finally, I have to say, if any readers have followed along this far, I commend your patience and admire your assiduity. As for me, it’s way past time for lunch.

- - -

Literature

It’s important to remember that the title given it in the book is not an actual title of the history, it’s simply descriptive. With neither title page nor colophon we cannot know what the title was intended to be:

Dbus-pa Blo-gsal, “Chos-’byung Skabs-bdun-ma” [‘Dharma Origins History in Seven Chapters’], contained in: Hor-dkar No-mo (Hor-shul Mkhan-sprul Dge-dpal), chief editor, Bod Rang-skyong-ljongs Rtsa-che’i Gna’-dpe’i Dpar-mdzod [‘A Print Treasury of Highly Esteemed Ancient Texts in the Tibet Autonomous Region’], Bod-ljongs Gna’-dpe Srung-skyob Mu-’brel Dpe-tshogs (Lhasa 2017), in 10 volumes, at vol. 2 (Rgyal-rabs Chos-'byung Khag Drug), pp. 175-227. 

Üpa Losel’s very valuable list of archaic words, with the title Brda Gsar-rnying-gi Rnam-par Dbye-ba, has been studied in two important articles by Professor Emeritus Mimaki Katsumi, a member of The Japan Academy:

Mimaki Katsumi, “Index to Two brDa gsar rñiṅ Treatises: The Works of dBus pa blo gsal and lCaṅ skya Rol pa'i rdo rje,” contained in a special issue of the Bulletin of the Narita Institute for Buddhist Studies (Naritasan Bukkyôkenkyûjo kiyô), vol. 15, no. 2 (1992), pp. 479-503. 

Mimaki Katsumi. “dBus pa blo gsal no "Shin Kyu Goi Shu" — Kôtei bon Shokô [The brDa gsar rñiṅ gi rnam par dbye ba of dBus pa blo gsal — a First Attempt at a Critical Edition],” contained in: Asian Languages and General Linguistics, Festschrift for Prof. Tatsuo Nishida on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday (Tokyo 1990), pp. 17-54.  Contains a critical text edition in Roman transcription (with numbers inserted so that one may first locate words in Mimaki's alphabetic index, and then locate them in the critical text edition).

°

Two volumes worth of Üpa Losel's works have been made available, with public access, by BDRC. Have a look and if you can find the history book anywhere among them do let us know.

°

David Wellington CHAPPELL, “Early Forebodings of the Death of Buddhism,” Numen, vol. 27, no. 1 (June 1980), pp. 122-154. 

This discussion can help people who have trouble imagining how much Buddhism’s sense of history turns around its inevitable decline and disappearance. Of course differing dates and rates of decline do  provoke discussions and continuing differences. If today there are some who would call themselves Buddhist progressivists, that would just serve as another sign of decline, am I right? I’m asking.

 °

Dan MARTIN in collaboration with Yael Bentor, Tibetan Histories: A Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Historical Works, Serindia Publications (London 1997).  

This by now out-of-print bibliography listed the then-lost history like this:  

 

-80-

mid 1300’s ?

Dbus-pa Blo-gsal, Chos-’byung. Evidently a history of Buddhism. Ref.:  MHTL, no. 10845.  K. Mimaki, “Two Minor Works Ascribed to Dbus-pa Blo-gsal,” contained in: S. Ihara and Z. Yamaguchi, eds., Tibetan Studies, Naritasan Shinshoji (Narita 1992), vol. 2, pp. 591-598, at p. 592. On the author, see Blue Annals, pp. 337-338.

The revised and expanded version of the book, dated December 21, 2020, may be freely downloaded here. Its entry no. 127 looks like this:

 - 127 - 

mid 1300’s ?

Dbus-pa Blo-gsal (ca. 1265-1355), Chos-’byung. Evidently a history of Buddhism. Bio.: On the author, see Blue Annals, pp. 337-338. TBRC no. P3090. Lit.: Another work by this author is subject of Katsumi Mimaki, Blo gsal grub mtha’: Chapitres IX (Vaibhāṣika) et XI (Yogācāra) édités et Chapitre XII (Mādhyamika) édité et traduit, Zinbun Kagaku Kenkyusyo, Université de Kyoto (Kyoto 1982). Ref.: MHTL, no. 10845. K. Mimaki, ‘Two Minor Works Ascribed to Dbus-pa Blo-gsal,’ contained in: S. Ihara and Z. Yamaguchi, eds., Tibetan Studies, Naritasan Shinshoji (Narita 1992), vol. 2, pp. 591-598, at p. 592. See BLP no. 102. BLP no. 0421 lists what is apparently a description of the contents rather than a particular title for this work: Glang-dar-mas bstan-pa bsnubs rjes slar-yang bstan-pa dar-tshul, ‘The Way the Teachings Spread Once Again after Glang-dar-ma Put Them into Decline.’ BLP no. 1991 gives an even longer description: sangs-rgyas bstan-pa bod-du byung-tshul le-tshan gnyis dang glang-dar-mas bstan-pa bsnubs rjes slar-yang bstan-pa dar-tshul. Dung-dkar, pp. 164-165, identifies this as a rare Bka’-gdams Chos-’byung. This history is mentioned in Khri-chen Bstan-pa-rab-rgyas, Sog-yul Sogs-nas Mdo-sngags-kyi Gnad-rnams-la Dri-ba Thung-ngu Byung Rigs-rnams-kyi Dri-ba dang Dri-lan Phyogs-gcig-tu Bsdoms-pa, contained in: Blo-bzang Dgongs-rgyan Mu-tig Phreng-mdzes, Drepung Loseling Educational Society (Mundgod 1999), vol. 35, pp. 24-41, at p. 32: “Dbus-la Blo-gsal-gyi Chos-’byung-na / sngon-gyi rgyal-po-rnams-kyi mtshan / Deng-khri-btsan-po sogs rgyal-po mang-po-zhig-gi mtshan yang / deng-sang-gi Bod-skad-du ci zer?”

°

Kurtis R. SCHAEFFER and Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, An Early Tibetan Survey of Buddhist Literature, the Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od of Bcom ldan ral gri, Harvard Oriental Series, Harvard University Press (Cambridge 2009). 

This book is all about a canon catalog with a historical preface by Rigral. Although said to be known by the alternative title Bstan-pa Rgyas-pa Rgyan-gyi Me-tog, I do not believe it can be identified with the similar title given above, Thub-pa'i Bstan-pa Rgyan-gyi Me-tog (observe that almost all of Rigral's titles end with the same ‘poetic’ ending Flowers Adorning...). The most important information for us at this moment is found on p. 93 of Schaeffer and Kuijp’s book, where we see that the Thub-pa'i Bstan-pa Rgyan-gyi Me-tog (or a very similar title) exists in three (?) manuscript copies kept in various libraries and archives.

Ω

Kālacakra Tantra, the Second of Two Rare and Early Woodblocks

Folio 1 verso. The label below the miniature
seems to say “dang po'i sangs rgyas” ༼ ? ༽

2. Woodblocks Carved in Memory of Nyagpuwa

In his essay mentioned in the previous blog, Leonard van der Kuijp* uncovered written evidence that there was one Kālacakra Tantra woodblock printing done not too long after Orgyanpa’s ca. 1295 printing of the same. Done with Mongol imperial support in around 1310-1325, it was associated with the name of Rongpo Dorje Gyaltsen (1283-1325). I haven’t learned of the present existence of this early print, so I can’t show you any photographs and will say no more about it. 

(*The Kālacakra and Patronage of Tibetan Buddhism, pp. 26-29.)

In today’s blog I’d like to introduce an interesting early, but post-Mongol-era, printing that appears to have gone unnoticed even now that a scan of it has been made available. I won’t need to discuss it in much detail, since most of the information is already out there, and practically all I have to do is supply the links for you to explore for yourself. I’m trying to say, ‘Don’t read what I write, go to my links.’

I only visited Lhasa a few times. The first and second were very different experiences, even if both had their very high and very low points despite the fact the altitude remained a consistent 2.27 miles high throughout. You may know what I mean, don’t get me started on it. One high point of my second trip was to get the unusual permission to enter the stacks of the newly opened library in front of the Norbu Lingka, the Dalai Lamas’ summer residence. I noticed a lot of fantastic xylographs and manuscripts there on those cold metal shelves but today I’ll only speak of one of them. Unfortunately, although it was doable, I didn’t make any xeroxes of it. Still, I did take down the following notes:

Tibet Library, Lhasa, no. 13013:  Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i rgyud 'di thams cad mkhyen pa mnyag phu pa bsod nams bzang <?> thugs dgongs rdzogs pa'i phyir gdan gcig gi ring lugs pa jo gdan sengge dpal gyis …,  This is a copy of 5-chapter Kālacakra Tantra in 75 folios.  Gnyag-phu-ba appears in the printing colophon.

Well, just a few days ago, looking through some new postings of scanned collections on TBRC, I had a huge déjà vu. My eyes fell on what is surely the same woodcarving as the one I had seen long ago in Lhasa. Still, I was thinking it might possibly be a different printed example of it. If you compare my transcription of the title page above with the scan photo you see below, it seems that the right hand side is practically impossible to read in both, so I suppose they are identical, just that now I would read the faint letters a little differently:  

Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i rgyud thams cad mkhyen pa gnyag phu pa bsod nams bzang po'i (?) thugs dgongs rdzogs pa'i phyir gdan gcig gi ring lugs pa jo gdan seng ge dpal gyis bzhengs (?).

The colophon at the end of it starts out with the translation statements ending with Shongtön that we mentioned in the earlier blog. But then it continues, likely indicating that it is a somewhat later revision, as we may have expected anyway: 

gang zhig thugs dgongs rnam par dag pa yis // 

'di la bskul zhing 'thun rkyen bsgrubs pa dang // 

bdag gis 'bad las bsod nams gang thob des // 

kun gyis 'di rtogs sangs rgyas sar gnas shog //

slar yang dpal ldan bla ma dam pa chos kyi rje thams cad mkhyen pa* dang //  dpal dus kyi 'khor lo ba chen po dharma kî rti shrî bha dras** // 'di'i don rnams legs par dgongs shing bka' yis bskul nas de dag gi gsung bzhin du // pan ti ta chen po sthi ra ma ti'i*** bka' drin las legs par sbyar ba'i tshul rig pa // lo tstsha ba shâkya'i dge slong blo gros rgyal mtshan dang // blo gros dpal bzang pos // rgyud dang 'grel pa'i rgya dpe mang po la btugs nas // dag pa rnams dang mthun par bsgyur cing zhus te gtan la phab pa'o //****

(*This is a person too venerated to even name other than by giving this very long epithet. **This is none other than the Sanskritic form of the name of the Sanskritist Chos-grags-dpal-bzang-po (1283-1363) who ordered Bu-ston (1290-1364)  to translate Tôh. no 452.  TBRC Person ID no. P2251 tells us he was stabbed to death at the age of 81. ***This means one of the several Tibetans named Blo-brtan or Blo-gros-brtan-pa, all of them Sanskritists of the Bodong E school. ****This is included in the Tanjur, Tôh. no. 4288, a work by the Indian called Māṃ-hi-ka-wi (could it be Maṃmaṭa?!?) entitled Kalāpasūtravṛtti Syādivibhaktiprakriyā. It has a colophon that says, according to the catalogue, that it was translated by Blo-gros-brtan-pa and Chos-grags-dpal-bzang-po. But, as I read the colophon, it’s translated by the grammarian Bhikṣu translators Blo-gros-rgyal-mtshan and Blo-gros-dpal-bzang-po, at the orders of Chos-grags-dpal-bzang-po. Here it’s possible to recognize almost all of the persons mentioned in this paragraph of our colophon, so we may be sure the revised version of the tantra done in Bu-ston's times, around mid-14th century, is the one contained in this particular woodblock print).  

de ltar gsung rab rgya mtsho'i nges don stong nyid snying rje'i snying po ni // 

rnam kun mchog ldan stong pa nyid dang 'gyur med mchog gi bde chen du //  

legs ston dus kyi 'khor lor 'bad pa'i dge ba gang des 'gro ba kun // 

gzhung 'di rtogs shing lam der zhugs nas 'bras bu de nyid myur thob shog // 

[end translation/revision colophon, and begin printing colophon]

xxx xxx legs lam zab mo'i don bston rgyud kyi rgyal po mchog gyur 'di // rnam kun mchog ldan zab don mngon gyur chos kyi rgyal po gnyag phu ba // rnam mang gdul bya gang la gang gdul rang rang skal pa dang mtsham pa // rnam pa mang po yi smin grol mdzad de'i dgongs pa yongs su rdzogs phyir dang // rnam dkar nges don bstan pa dar rgyas mtha' yas sems can don [.8] phyir du // rnam par gus pas seng ger 'bod pa'i kha che paṇ chen rings lugs pas // spar du sgrubs pa'i dpon yig dge ba kos (~yi ge rkos?) mkhan ma las pa nam seng dang // mgon dpal bsod rgyal yon tan dpal te kun kyang kun mkhyen myur thobs shog // gang de'i mthu las bstan pa dar rgyas bstan 'dzin sku tshe ring ba dang // bstan pa kun dang rgyal khas bde skyid dg[e] legs 'ph[e]l ba'i bkra shis shog.

°

At the very end of this you can see a set of names, I think four names in all, the chief of them being the foreman of the wood carvers, with a name that isn't clear to me, perhaps Ma-las-pa Nam-seng? Or is the chief of the woodcarving shop a woman? That may make more sense of what we see there, which could be read as “yig-ge brkos-mkhan-ma,” ‘female letter carver,’ in which case her name would be Las-pa Nam-seng, or Craftsperson Nam-mkha’-seng-ge? I’m not sure of it. Let me know if you see or understand something else.*

(*Note, Dec. 4, 2021: Now, for what looks like a better reading, see this.)

The person who actually went about the business of getting the carving done here gives his name in a short form as "the one called Sengge,” but we know from the title page that he was Jo-gdan Seng-ge-dpal. The colophon adds the information that he was a follower of the tradition of Khache Panchen, and that means the Kashmiri pundit Śākyaśrībhadra as founder of a monastic lineage.* And it says again that it was made in part in fulfillment of the intentions of Nyagpuwa, describing him as a master of these teachings able to adjust them to the abilities and potentials of a wide variety of students.

(*See Hou Haoran, “Some Remarks on the Transmission of the Ascetic Discipline of the ‘Single Mat’ within the ’Bri gung Bka’ brgyud pa Tradition,” a PDF located on the internet. Try here.)

To see the entire woodblock print, see TBRC no. W3CN26624 by clicking on this sentence. Or if the link doesn’t work, search for that number on TBRC/BDRC or BUDA websites and when you find it go to volume 1.

For information on Nyagpuwa, his names and dates (1341-1433), see TBRC person ID no. P2460. Cyrus Stearns has written a remarkable summary of his biography in Treasury of Lives.

Himalayan Art Resources (HAR) has a brilliant portrait of Nyagpuwa belonging to the Rubin Collection that you can see at HAR no. 273. Once you get there, find Nyagpuwa depicted in the lower left-hand corner of the tanka painting. It’s really him as you can know if you “Take a closer look” and magnify the area next to him, where you ought to find his name revealed in golden letters.

Did I say what I think the date of the woodcarving would have been? No date is supplied in the colophon. Still, given that Nyagpuwa died in 1433, and seeing that it was accomplished as part of his death memorial observances, it must have been made soon after 1433. This was just the time when woodblock carving seems to have started becoming a Tibet-based printing art, outsourcing in China or Tangut Land no longer a necessity.

Well, there is a lot more to find out about the history of Tibetan-language woodblocks, but at the moment, if forced to generalize and guesstimate, I think it got its start in a small way with short texts in the middle of the 12th century in Tangut Land,* subsequently received the support of Mongolian royalty, and only started to take off as a serious profession for Tibetan craftspeople in the 15th.** In the next centuries, Tibetan workers showed themselves more than capable of taking on larger and larger projects, with their heyday in the 18th century. That general picture will need a lot of adjusting and fleshing out in the future, of that there is no doubt.

(*I could list references for this if you need them, just that I can’t seem to find the energy to do it right now. If you want to know when Tibetan-inscribed woodblocks first appeared in Tangut Land you had better ask a Tangutologist. Or have a look at the essays by Shen Weirong and by Heather Stoddard as contained in: Jean Luc Achard, Anne Chayet, Christina Scherrer-Schaub, Françoise Robin, eds., Édition, éditions: l'écrit au Tibet, évolution et devenir, Indus Verlag [Munich 2010], especially the sample xylographic print illustrated on p. 364. **The Yunglo xylograph of the Kanjur appeared in 1410, so I suppose it could have been a source of inspiration.) 

°

Works of Snyag-phu-ba Bsod-nams-bzang-po / སྙག་ཕུ་བ་བསོད་ནམས་བཟང་པོ་ (1341-1433)

I’ve tagged on here at the end a listing of Nyagpuwa’s works currently known to me, taken from Tibskrit. Not included in it is a history of the Lamas who transmitted the Fasting Rites of Avalokiteśvara entitled Smyung gnas bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar. I purchased a woodblock print of it in the Barkhor in Lhasa during the trip mentioned before.

Note that PPTK, pp. 145-146, has a listing of 17 titles from a manuscript volume of the works of “Jo gdan Snyag phu ba Bsod nams bzang po.”

PPTK means this catalog of collected works of Kagyü masters in the Potala Palace in Lhasa: Pho brang po ta la do dam khru’u rig dngos zhib ’jug khang, Pho brang po ta lar tshags pa'i bka' brgyud pa'i gsung 'bum dkar chag, Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang (Lhasa 2007).  

Most of the list compiled here is based on the Drepung Catalog, where his works are scattered here and there (I doubt I could find everything). 

Chos 'byung rin po che'i gter.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 1452.  A 31-folio manuscript. This history book has in recent years been published at least three times. It's largely based on the history bu Bu-ston.

Chos kyi dris lan legs bshad rgya mtsho.

— PPTK, p. 145.

Dbu ma chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa'i rnam par bshad pa snying po gsal ba.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 1452.

'Dul ba bdud rtsi'i nying khu.

— Drepung Catalog, pp. 1435, 1447.  Here the author is named as Jo gdan Gnyag phu ba Bsod nams bzang po.

— PPTK, p. 145.

'Dul ba'i lag len rin po che'i gter.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 1452.

Gsang 'dus gnyis med rnam rgyal gyi dkyil 'khor gyi cho ga bdud rtsi'i rgya mtsho.

— Drepung catalog, p. 414.

Gtan tshigs rigs pa'i don bsdus pa rin po che'i phreng ba.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 1452.

Jo bo bka' gdams pa'i nyin zhag phrug gcig gi mchod brjod kyi rim pa.

— PPTK, p. 145.

Padma dbang chen gyi dkyil 'khor du 'jug cing dbang bskur ba'i cho ga padma'i rigs kyi snying po.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 631.  Author named as Gnyags phu Bsod nams bzang po.

Padma dbang chen gyi sgrub thabs 'phrin las gsal byed nyi ma'i 'od zer.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 631.

Padma dbang chen yang gsang khros pa'i dbang chog padma'i rigs kyi snying po.

— PPTK, p. 145.

'Phags pa bcu gcig zhal gyi bla brgyud rnam thar.

— PPTK, p. 145.

'Phags pa don yod zhags pa'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 561.

'Phags pa gnas brtan bcu drug la gsol ba gdab pa'i cho ga bklag pa tsam gyi don 'grub pa.

— PPTK, p. 145.

Rgyas pa'i bstan bcos tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi 'grel bshad rin chen phren ba.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 1452.  A 247 folio manuscript.

Rgyud 'bum rin po che'i dkar chag paṇ chen ma ti nas brgyud pa.  Written by one of his students.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 918.

Sangs rgyas kyi dus chen bzhi dang brgyad kyi ngos 'dzin.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 618.

Sbyor ba yan lag drug gi ngo sprod rab gsal zla ba [khrid ma thob pa la gsang].

— Drepung Catalog, p. 155.

Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i lus rnam gzhag gi bsdus don.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 1452.

Spyan ras gzigs kyi gzungs sgrub.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 709.

Spyan ras gzigs phyag stong spyan stong gi sgrub thabs thugs rtse'i 'byung gnas.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 945.

Thugs rje chen po bcu gcig pa'i sgrub pa nyams su len thabs.

— Drepung Catalog, p. 561.

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