Sam van Schaik
The British Library, Endangered Archives Programme, Department Member
- The British Library, IDP: The Silk Road Online, Faculty Memberadd
- Tibetan Studies, Buddhist Studies, Manuscript Studies, Silk Road Studies, Tibetan History, Tibetan Buddhism, and 15 moreArchaeology of the Silk Road, Manuscripts & Material Culture, Paleography, Zen Buddhism, Pilgrimage, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Buddhist Sanskrit, Asian History, Dunhuang manuscripts, Archaeology, Buddhism, Sanskrit language and literature, Codicology, Dunhuang, and Dzogchenedit
- I work at the British Library, as Head of the Endangered Archives Programme. I previously worked at the Internationa... moreI work at the British Library, as Head of the Endangered Archives Programme. I previously worked at the International Dunhuang Project, as Research Project Manager and lead researcher of various projects including Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State (ERC), Tibetan Zen (British Academy), Tibetan and Chinese Paleography (Leverhulme), and the Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang (AHRC). I received my PhD in Tibetan Studies from the University of Manchester in 2000.edit
[Preview only] As far back as we can see in the historical record, Buddhist monks, nuns, and other ritual specialists have offered services including healing, divination, rain making, aggressive magic, and love magic to local clients.... more
[Preview only] As far back as we can see in the historical record, Buddhist monks, nuns, and other ritual specialists have offered services including healing, divination, rain making, aggressive magic, and love magic to local clients. Studying this history, scholar Sam van Schaik concludes that magic and healing have played a key role in Buddhism’s flourishing, yet they have rarely been studied in academic circles or by Western practitioners. The exclusion of magical practices and powers from most discussions of Buddhism in the modern era can be seen as part of the appropriation of Buddhism by Westerners, as well as an effect of modernization movements within Asian Buddhism. However, if we are to understand the way Buddhism has worked in the past, the way it still works now in many societies, and the way it can work in the future, we need to examine these overlooked aspects of Buddhist practice.
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[Preview only] An exploration of the history and essence of Zen, based on a new translation of one of the earliest surviving collections of teachings by Zen masters. These teachings, titled The Masters and Students of the Lanka, were... more
[Preview only] An exploration of the history and essence of Zen, based on a new translation of one of the earliest surviving collections of teachings by Zen masters. These teachings, titled The Masters and Students of the Lanka, were discovered in a sealed cave on the old Silk Road, in modern Gansu, China, in the early twentieth century. All more than a thousand years old, the manuscripts have sometimes been called the Buddhist Dead Sea Scrolls, and their translation has opened a new window onto the history of Buddhism.
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[Preview only] In The Spirit of Tibetan Buddhism Sam van Schaik offers an attractive and clear selection of the fundamental precepts of the major Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Those wishing to understand the essentials of Tibetan spiritual... more
[Preview only] In The Spirit of Tibetan Buddhism Sam van Schaik offers an attractive and clear selection of the fundamental precepts of the major Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Those wishing to understand the essentials of Tibetan spiritual culture will find in these pages an outstanding point of entry. (Matthew Kapstein, Directeur d’études, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes)
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Until the early twentieth century, hardly any traces of the Tibetan tradition of Chinese Chan Buddhism, or Zen, remained. Then the discovery of a sealed cave in Dunhuang, full of manuscripts in various languages dating from the first... more
Until the early twentieth century, hardly any traces of the Tibetan tradition of Chinese Chan Buddhism, or Zen, remained. Then the discovery of a sealed cave in Dunhuang, full of manuscripts in various languages dating from the first millennium CE, transformed our understanding of early Zen. This book translates some of the earliest surviving Tibetan Zen manuscripts preserved in Dunhuang. The translations illuminate different aspects of the Zen tradition, with brief introductions that not only discuss the roles of ritual, debate, lineage, and meditation in the early Zen tradition but also explain how these texts were embedded in actual practices.
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[Edited proofs] A catalogue of the Tibetan manuscripts associated with Chan (Zen) Buddhism found in the Dunhuang cave and now kept in London and Paris.
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[Preview only] Since its 1976 publication in Tibetan, Dhongthog Rinpoche’s history of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism has been a key reference for specialists in Tibetan studies. Now English readers can consult it as well through Sam... more
[Preview only] Since its 1976 publication in Tibetan, Dhongthog Rinpoche’s history of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism has been a key reference for specialists in Tibetan studies. Now English readers can consult it as well through Sam van Schaik’s fully annotated and accessible translation. The book begins by examining the development of Buddhism in India and Tibet, setting the scene for the Khon family’s establishment of the Sakya school in the eleventh century. Rinpoche subsequently provides accounts of the transmission of the Lamdre (the heart of Sakya contemplative practice and other major streams of esoteric instruction) and the Ngor and Tshar branches of the Sakya tradition. Highlights also include surveys of great Sakya and nonsectarian masters such as Rongtongpa, Gorampa, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and Khyentse Chokyi Lodro. This traditional history, compiled both from earlier histories and from the author's direct connection to masters of the tradition, is an enormously valuable resource for the study of Tibetan Buddhism.
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[Preview only] Situated north of the Himalayas, Tibet is famous for its unique culture and its controversial assimilation into modern China. Yet Tibet in the twenty-first century can only be properly understood in the context of its... more
[Preview only] Situated north of the Himalayas, Tibet is famous for its unique culture and its controversial assimilation into modern China. Yet Tibet in the twenty-first century can only be properly understood in the context of its extraordinary history. Sam van Schaik brings the history of Tibet to life by telling the stories of the people involved, from the glory days of the Tibetan empire in the seventh century through to the present day. He explores the emergence of Tibetan Buddhism and the rise of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet's entanglement in the "Great Game" in the early twentieth century, its submission to Chinese Communist rule in the 1950s, and the troubled times of recent decades.
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Pilgrimage is a point at which several different spheres of activity, often considered in separation, intersect. While the religious aspect of pilgrimage might be considered primary, pilgrimage usually involves the realms of commerce and... more
Pilgrimage is a point at which several different spheres of activity, often considered in separation, intersect. While the religious aspect of pilgrimage might be considered primary, pilgrimage usually involves the realms of commerce and politics as well. The manuscript that forms the basis for this book is a record of the pilgrimage of a Chinese monk in the late tenth century. The manuscript was one of thousands that were sealed in a cave in Dunhuang, in Chinese Central Asia, in the early eleventh century AD. The cave contained multitudes of Buddhist texts, and a smaller but significant amount of ephemeral material as well, including old contracts and letters. The Chinese monk who owned the manuscript was on a pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy land of India. The main part of the manuscript is a scroll containing the monk's letters of passage for his journey through Tibetan regions of what are now the Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Gansu.
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Since their discovery a century ago, the Dunhuang manuscripts have revolutionized the study of Asian religions. Until recently, however, the rich materials relating to esoteric tantric Buddhism have been largely ignored. This volume... more
Since their discovery a century ago, the Dunhuang manuscripts have revolutionized the study of Asian religions. Until recently, however, the rich materials relating to esoteric tantric Buddhism have been largely ignored. This volume provides an indispensable doorway into these materials. An introduction summarizes the discovery, worldwide dissemination and general character of these Tibetan treasures. The catalogue entries provide introductory discussions of the manuscripts’ contents, in addition to reordering the often scrambled folios, linking them to their long-lost counterparts in other collections, and matching them with corresponding texts in the Tibetan canon. The catalogue includes indices to Tibetan and Sanskrit titles, names and terms, as well as all Pelliot manuscripts referenced. The result is an invaluable resource for scholars of Buddhism.
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[Preview only] Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is the highest meditative practice of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Approaching the Great Perfection looks at a seminal figure of this lineage, Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century... more
[Preview only] Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is the highest meditative practice of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Approaching the Great Perfection looks at a seminal figure of this lineage, Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century scholar and meditation master whose cycle of teachings, the Longchen Nyingtig, has been handed down through generations as a complete path to enlightenment. Ten of Jigme Lingpa’s texts are presented here, along with extensive analysis by van Schaik of a core tension within Buddhism: Does enlightenment develop gradually, or does it come all at once? Though these two positions are often portrayed by modern scholars as entrenched polemical views, van Schaik explains that both tendencies are present within each of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. He demonstrates how Jigme Lingpa is a great illustration of this balancing act, using the rhetoric of both sides to propel his students along the path of the Great Perfection.
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The sealed Cave 17 in the Mogao cave complex has given us many of the most important primary sources for understanding Buddhist, and to some extent non-Buddhist, doctrines and practices in Eastern Central Asia, China and Tibet. The... more
The sealed Cave 17 in the Mogao cave complex has given us many of the most important primary sources for understanding Buddhist, and to some extent non-Buddhist, doctrines and practices in Eastern Central Asia, China and Tibet. The best-known theories about the original function of the cave have paid little attention to the details of Buddhist ritual practice. In this paper we reorient the approach to Cave 17 at Dunhuang towards the funerary function of the cave and its contents. We argue that we need to look at the role of the Cave 17 as a Buddhist funerary shrine for a better understanding of its contents, and put this in the context of Buddhist funerary practices involving the interment of books and other religious objects as relics in stūpas and shrines.
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Research into early Chan has relied heavily on the manuscripts found in Cave 17 in Dunhuang, which generally date from before the eleventh century. However this research has often abstracted texts from their context as part of the varied... more
Research into early Chan has relied heavily on the manuscripts found in Cave 17 in Dunhuang, which generally date from before the eleventh century. However this research has often abstracted texts from their context as part of the varied and multilingual collection that was found in the cave. Furthermore, the date, form and original use of the manuscripts containing early Chan texts is often forgotten in the discussion.
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Magical practices, such as bringing rain, repelling hail, and summoning and dispelling demons, are an important part of both Bonpo and Buddhist practice in Tibet and the Himalayan region. This chapter explores the connections between a... more
Magical practices, such as bringing rain, repelling hail, and summoning and dispelling demons, are an important part of both Bonpo and Buddhist practice in Tibet and the Himalayan region. This chapter explores the connections between a tenth-century book of magic preserved among the Dunhuang cave manuscripts and anthropological observations of magical practices recorded in the late twentieth century. Taking some key examples from the Dunhuang manuscript, I explore how certain key points of similarity show a continuity with the repertoire of a Buddhist ritual practitioner, or a Bonpo, or in practices that cannot be easily assimilated to either tradition. I argue that it is important to point out such correspondences, even when they occur over nearly a millennium, and when the mechanism of their transmission is, as yet, unclear.
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Key elements of the Vajrayāna, or tantric Buddhism, can be traced back to some of the earliest Buddhist scriptures, typically texts that give instructions for practices that culminate in worldly results, such as protection from... more
Key elements of the Vajrayāna, or tantric Buddhism, can be traced back to some of the earliest Buddhist scriptures, typically texts that give instructions for practices that culminate in worldly results, such as protection from supernatural beings, healing illness and curing poison, bringing rain, or ensuring the safe birth of children. These magical aspects of Buddhist practice include the recitation of spells (mantra and dhāraṇī), along with other techniques such as the delimitation of sacred space with magical items and the use of ritual gestures (mudrā). In Vajrayāna texts, these techniques are adapted to the purpose of the ultimate Buddhist goal, awakening, though their power to achieve worldly ends is also taught in many tantras.
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In 2008, working for the International Dunhuang Project at the British Library, I came across a set of diagrams with Tibetan writing on the back of a Chinese scroll. The scroll had been catalogued and placed in the sequence of Chinese... more
In 2008, working for the International Dunhuang Project at the British
Library, I came across a set of diagrams with Tibetan writing on the
back of a Chinese scroll. The scroll had been catalogued and placed in
the sequence of Chinese manuscripts from Dunhuang (Or.8210/S.)
and thus the Tibetan side had been completely overlooked for nearly
a hundred years. Though the collections from Dunhuang are always
full of surprises, this was a big one.
Library, I came across a set of diagrams with Tibetan writing on the
back of a Chinese scroll. The scroll had been catalogued and placed in
the sequence of Chinese manuscripts from Dunhuang (Or.8210/S.)
and thus the Tibetan side had been completely overlooked for nearly
a hundred years. Though the collections from Dunhuang are always
full of surprises, this was a big one.
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The story of the advent of the dharma, and Tibetan Buddhist historians’ response to it reveal some of the tensions in the self-identity of Buddhists in Tibet, specifically in how Tibetans attempted to distinguish themselves as Buddhists... more
The story of the advent of the dharma, and Tibetan Buddhist historians’ response to it reveal some of the tensions in the self-identity of Buddhists in Tibet, specifically in how Tibetans attempted to distinguish themselves as Buddhists from the tradition that came before them. In this case, the debates involved the role of intellectual thought and rationality in Buddhism.
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The scroll Pelliot chinois 5538 is an exemplar of the multicultural and multilingual social setting of the trade routes linking India, Persia and China, popularly known as the Silk Road. The scroll, which contains a series of words and... more
The scroll Pelliot chinois 5538 is an exemplar of the multicultural and multilingual social setting of the trade routes linking India, Persia and China, popularly known as the Silk Road. The scroll, which contains a series of words and phrases in Sanskrit and Khotanese, shows how Sanskrit might have been used as a language of trans-regional and cross-community communication among the Taklamakan oasis states in the late first millennium. Phrases of practical usefulness are translated between Khotanese and Sanskrit, in the style of a phrasebook. On the other hand, the scroll is comparable to medieval European colloquies, and like them, may have been used in an educational setting.
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As the site of Śākyamuni’s awakening, the vajrāsana at Bodhgayā was one of the main objects of worship. This paper investigates the fertile environment for the transmission and translation of Buddhist rituals provided by Bodhgayā in the... more
As the site of Śākyamuni’s awakening, the vajrāsana at Bodhgayā was one of the main objects of worship. This paper investigates the fertile environment for the transmission and translation of Buddhist rituals provided by Bodhgayā in the 11th and 12th centuries. It looks at the collections of tantric ritual practice (sādhana) compiled and translated at
Bodhgayā by Tibetan pilgrims in collaboration with local Indian Buddhist tantrikas. Heading these collections is a sādhana for the Vajrāsana Buddha, an imaginative recreation of the Śākyamuni on the vajra throne at Bodhgayā. Showing how the sādhana visualisation corresponds to descriptions of the vajra throne by earlier pilgrims such as Xuanzang, I argue that the sādhana served as a portable recreation of the act of pilgrimage and worship.
Bodhgayā by Tibetan pilgrims in collaboration with local Indian Buddhist tantrikas. Heading these collections is a sādhana for the Vajrāsana Buddha, an imaginative recreation of the Śākyamuni on the vajra throne at Bodhgayā. Showing how the sādhana visualisation corresponds to descriptions of the vajra throne by earlier pilgrims such as Xuanzang, I argue that the sādhana served as a portable recreation of the act of pilgrimage and worship.
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The manuscript from the Dunhuang ‘library cave’ containing a portion of the narrative found in the Testimony of Ba was discovered by Kazushi Iwao and myself, and the textual features of the manuscript have been discussed in a... more
The manuscript from the Dunhuang ‘library cave’ containing a portion of the narrative found in the Testimony of Ba was discovered by Kazushi Iwao and myself, and the textual features of the manuscript have been discussed in a jointly-authored article. This remains the earliest exemplar of any portion of the text. This paper complements that earlier work by looking more closely at the manuscript itself, using palaeography and codicology to enquire into its original form, the date of its creation, and the social context in which it functioned.
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In Tibetan Buddhist literature, Chán Buddhism came to be identified with Chinese Buddhism, represented by a single Chinese teacher, known as Héshàng Móhéyán, and a single event, an eighth-century debate. The narrative of the debate became... more
In Tibetan Buddhist literature, Chán Buddhism came to be identified with Chinese Buddhism, represented by a single Chinese teacher, known as Héshàng Móhéyán, and a single event, an eighth-century debate. The narrative of the debate became so influential in Tibet that all discussion of Chán took place within its parameters. What is more surprising, perhaps, is that modern scholarly analysis of the Tibetan traditions of Chán, though drawing on a much wider range of material, has largely also remained within the framework of the debate.
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[Pre-publication version] According to traditional Tibetan histories, one of the key features in the conversion of Tibet to Buddhism is a text called The Sutra of the Ten Virtues (or simply The Ten Virtues). This text plays a key role in... more
[Pre-publication version] According to traditional Tibetan histories, one of the key features in the conversion of Tibet to Buddhism is a text called The Sutra of the Ten Virtues (or simply The Ten Virtues). This text plays a key role in the narrative of how the seventh-century emperor Songtsen Gampo formulated Tibet's law code, as well as in the stories of the conversion of the eighth-century emperor Tri Song Detsen to Buddhism.
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Automatic remote reflectance spectral imaging of large painted areas in high resolution, from distances of tens of meters, has made the imaging of entire architectural interior feasible. However, it has significantly increased the volume... more
Automatic remote reflectance spectral imaging of large painted areas in high resolution, from distances of tens of meters, has made the imaging of entire architectural interior feasible. However, it has significantly increased the volume of data. Here we present a machine learning based method to automatically detect 'hidden' writings and map material variations. Clustering of reflectance spectra allowed materials at inaccessible heights to be properly identified by performing non-invasive analysis on regions in the same cluster at accessible heights using a range of complementary spectroscopic techniques. The world heritage site of the Mogao caves, along the ancient Silk Road, consists of 492 richly painted Buddhist cave temples dating from the fourth to fourteenth century. Cave 465 at the northern end of the site is unique in its Indo-Tibetan tantric Buddhist style, and like many other caves, the date of its construction is still under debate. This study demonstrates the powers of an interdisciplinary approach that combines material identification, palaeographic analysis of the revealed Sanskrit writings and archaeological evidence for the dating of the cave temple paintings, narrowing it down to the late twelfth century to thirteenth century.
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The explorer Albert Grünwedel’s Tibetan maps of Shambhala are a controversial and contested part of the history of the exploration of the Silk Routes. In the early 1900s Albert Grünwedel collected material related to archaeological sites... more
The explorer Albert Grünwedel’s Tibetan maps of Shambhala are a controversial and contested part of the history of the exploration of the Silk Routes. In the early 1900s Albert Grünwedel collected material related to archaeological sites at Kucha and Turfan including several Tibetan maps of the region, which he published in 1920 in the book Alt-Kutscha. Soon after publication, doubts were raised about the authenticity of the maps, which presented Kucha and Qocho in terms of
the mythical realm of Shambhala, and they are still widely considered to be either fabrications or delusions. Judging from internal references to historical figures of the late twelfth century, the maps may derive from sources as early as the thirteenth century, and can be linked to an increasing interest in the Kālacakra tantra and the realm of Shambhala described therein. I conclude that the Alt-Kutscha maps should not be regarded as fakes, nor as historically descriptive maps, but as guides for pilgrims that reimagined these sites in terms of the sacred geography
of tantric Buddhism, with particular reference to the mythology of Shambhala.
the mythical realm of Shambhala, and they are still widely considered to be either fabrications or delusions. Judging from internal references to historical figures of the late twelfth century, the maps may derive from sources as early as the thirteenth century, and can be linked to an increasing interest in the Kālacakra tantra and the realm of Shambhala described therein. I conclude that the Alt-Kutscha maps should not be regarded as fakes, nor as historically descriptive maps, but as guides for pilgrims that reimagined these sites in terms of the sacred geography
of tantric Buddhism, with particular reference to the mythology of Shambhala.
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In his groundbreaking article “Tibetica Antiqua IV: La tradition relative au début du bouddhisme au Tibet”, Rolf Stein listed the accounts of the advent of the Dharma in Tibet, and linked these to certain Dunhuang manuscripts. In this... more
In his groundbreaking article “Tibetica Antiqua IV: La tradition relative au début du bouddhisme au Tibet”, Rolf Stein listed the accounts of the advent of the Dharma in Tibet, and linked these to certain Dunhuang manuscripts. In this article, the Dunhuang manuscripts of the Pangkong prayer will be examined in view of the prayer’s prominence in the narrated advent of the Dharma. The article will demonstrate that the name of the prayer hinges upon the transliteration of two Chinese characters, which allows us to unlock the prayer’s origins and significance.
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The doctrines of the Yogācāra or Vijñānavāda movement, especially as developed in the works of Vasubandhu and Asaṅga, had a deep and lasting influence on all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In the classical Tibetan hierarchies of... more
The doctrines of the Yogācāra or Vijñānavāda movement, especially as developed in the works of Vasubandhu and Asaṅga, had a deep and lasting influence on all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In the classical Tibetan hierarchies of philosophical views, Yogācāra is generally placed below Madhyamaka; however, in the Tibetan 'practice traditions' of rDzogs chen and Mahamudrā, this hierarchy is ignored or inverted, and the most important models are drawn from Yogācāra. The influence of Yogācāra on rDzogs chen, especially in its treatment of the psychological makeup of samsaric consciousness, has often been noted. This paper looks at the question, taking as a starting point an intriguing statement made by Samten Karmay in his in his seminal work on rDzogs chen, The Great Perfection.
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Little is known about the origin and early development of printing in the Tibetan script, but archaeological evidence points to the region to the north of Tibet, around the Tarim basin and the Gobi desert. This area, nowadays often called... more
Little is known about the origin and early development of printing in the Tibetan script, but archaeological evidence points to the region to the north of Tibet, around the Tarim basin and the Gobi desert. This area, nowadays often called Chinese Central Asia or Eastern Central Asia was the site of the early trade routes popularly known as the Silk Road, a multicultural and mul- tilingual region in which Tibetan culture participated from the 7th century onwards. Here I will look at one of the major Silk Road archaeological sites, the Turfan oasis, and what we can learn about the early development of Tibetan printing from the artefacts found there. I will argue that the variety of printed and stamped material discovered in Turfan show alert us to the fact that from the beginning Tibetan printing served a variety of social and ritual functions, wider than the production and circulation of books.
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This paper is a somewhat experimental attempt to approach a group of Tibetan manuscripts, the collections derived from the ‘library cave’ in Dunhuang, in terms of their functions, that is, the roles they played in the society in which... more
This paper is a somewhat experimental attempt to approach a group of Tibetan manuscripts, the collections derived from the ‘library cave’ in Dunhuang, in terms of their functions, that is, the roles they played in the society in which they were used.
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Tibetan Buddhism has played an important role in Asian politics from the 8th century to the present day. It has provided an ideological underpinning and power status to a variety of Central Asian and Chinese empires, including the Mongol... more
Tibetan Buddhism has played an important role in Asian politics from the 8th century to the present day. It has provided an ideological underpinning and power status to a variety of Central Asian and Chinese empires, including the Mongol empires of Genghis Khan’s heirs and the Manchu rulers of China’s Qing dynasty. While the geopolitical influence of Tibetan Buddhism during this time has waxed and waned over the centuries, it never disappeared. The locus for this influence is in Eastern Central Asia, the crossroads of cultures situated on the overland trading routes known as the Silk Road.
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The manuscript that I discuss in this paper is one of the most important in Tibetan religious history. Yet it has primarily been studied as a series of individual texts, rather than as a multiple-text manuscript. This has limited our... more
The manuscript that I discuss in this paper is one of the most important in Tibetan religious history. Yet it has primarily been studied as a series of individual texts, rather than as a multiple-text manuscript. This has limited our under- standing of why it was written, and what role it might have had in religious prac- tice. In this paper I will argue that a combination of close codicological investiga- tion of the manuscript on the one hand, and an awareness of the socio-historical background of its creation on the other are both necessary. It is my hope that the process of intertwining codicological and socio-historical methods here will be of interest to those working will manuscripts from other traditions as well.
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For some time now there has been disagreement about what we should call the religious practices that existed in Tibet alongside Buddhism during the Tibetan imperial period – the seventh to mid-ninth centuries. Within the Bon tradition we... more
For some time now there has been disagreement about what we should call the religious practices that existed in Tibet alongside Buddhism during the Tibetan imperial period – the seventh to mid-ninth centuries. Within the Bon tradition we find various periodizations, the best known of which is the three historical stages of ‘old Bon’ (bon rnying), ‘eternal Bon’ (g.yung drung bon) and ‘new Bon’ (gsar bon). In the Buddhist polemical works, the earliest stage of Bon is brdol bon, which we can gloss as ‘indigenous Bon’, and this is followed by ‘deviant Bon’ (’khyar bon) and then translated Bon (bsgyur bon). The definitions of each stage, and the time-periods assigned to them differ, but what the Buddhist and Bon classifications have in common is an assumption that a tradition known as Bon existed from the earliest times.
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The valley of Dantig in Amdo plays a central role in Tibetan Buddhist historical literature as the place where the monastic code was maintained during the tenth century after the dissolution of the monasteries in central Tibet. This... more
The valley of Dantig in Amdo plays a central role in Tibetan Buddhist historical literature as the place where the monastic code was maintained during the tenth century after the dissolution of the monasteries in central Tibet. This article shows that a manuscript (now kept at the British Library) carried by a Chinese pilgrim monk through this region in the 960s, which mentions Dantig, is the only direct documentary evidence of Tibetan monastic culture in this region at this time. The authors also show how the name Dantig, which has been previously unexplained, derives from the Sudāna Sūtra, a Buddhist narrative of exile and return that is directly relevant to the aspirations of the refugee monks from central Tibet who settled in the region.
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An article from the Brill Encyclopedia of Buddhism.
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The manuscript Or.8212/60 is a palm leaf folio, found with fragments of another folio at the base of a statue in the temple site in Miran given the number M.II by Stein. It is of interest as the only Sanskrit manuscript found at the Miran... more
The manuscript Or.8212/60 is a palm leaf folio, found with fragments of another folio at the base of a statue in the temple site in Miran given the number M.II by Stein. It is of interest as the only Sanskrit manuscript found at the Miran site, a significant Buddhist complex during the flourishing of the kingdom of Kroraina.
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What the study of Tibetan writing still lacks is that basic point of departure for palaeographic studies in other fields: a typology of writing styles. In the palaeography of European manuscripts, early typologies have been refined,... more
What the study of Tibetan writing still lacks is that basic point of departure for palaeographic studies in other fields: a typology of writing styles. In the palaeography of European manuscripts, early typologies have been refined, criticised, or rejected in favour of new models. The very idea of a typological description has even been questioned. Nevertheless, this whole intellectual endeavour has been conducted on the basis of the script typologies developed by early palaeog- raphers.5 Typology is surely still the first step in establishing a serious palaeography.
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The paintings and manuscripts discovered in the sealed ‘library cave’ in Dunhuang, Western China, contain the earliest surviving examples of Tibetan artistic and scribal practice (9 to 10th centuries AD). Despite their importance, their... more
The paintings and manuscripts discovered in the sealed ‘library cave’ in Dunhuang, Western China, contain the earliest surviving examples of Tibetan artistic and scribal practice (9 to 10th centuries AD). Despite their importance, their material characteristics have not previously been studied. The present paper discusses the results of the analysis of paper and pigments in a selection of items across a variety of forms and functions: (i) Buddhist manuscripts, (ii) official letters, (iii) hung paintings, (iv) ritual items, (v) banners, and (vi) stencils and preliminary sketches. The material analysis of these items is presented in historical context, to address three research questions. First, whether there is a correspondence between the materials used in the creation of these objects and their geographical origin. Second, in terms of the choices made in the available materials and techniques, whether there is a detectable correlation be- tween materials chosen and the intended function of the objects. Third, whether the characteristics of the objects analysed here be considered to be part of a broader Central Asian artistic and scribal culture. The authors conclude that a local culture of paper and pigment production can be detected in these results, though further research is needed especially on the geographical origin of raw materials for pigments. The results show that artists and scribes made technological choices in paper and pigments depending on the function of the objects they were creating. Finally, understanding of the broader Central Asian context of these results will depend on future analysis of material from other archaeological sites, and comparison with the results of this study.
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This article examines the documents recovered from the Central Asian kingdom of Kroraina (Chinese Shanshan 鄯鄯), from the third to fourth centuries, as rare records of the way Buddhism was adapted outside of India during the Gupta period.... more
This article examines the documents recovered from the Central Asian kingdom of Kroraina (Chinese Shanshan 鄯鄯), from the third to fourth centuries, as rare records of the way Buddhism was adapted outside of India during the Gupta period. In particular, the evidence for the existence of married Buddhist monks (śramana) is examined, and the reasons why this situation might have developed are explored. The introduction examines in brief the evidence for monastic marriage in other Buddhist cultures, concluding that only in Meiji-era Japan was this situation both widespread and supported by the ruling powers. This is followed by an overview of the sources, documents in Gāndhārī from the archaeological site of Niya, which reveal the existence of śramana with wives and children, and manuscripts in Sanksrit which show that the normative ideals of Buddhism, including the pratimokṣa vows of monks and nuns, were not unknown in this region. Finally, a possible explanation for the state-sanctioned existence of married monks is presented in the context of the Buddhist state rituals described by the pilgrim Faxian in the neighbouring kingdoms of Khotan and Kashgar.
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The first printed edition of the collected works (gsung ’bum) of ’Jigs-med gling-pa was published in Derge, shortly after his death in 1798. The compilation and printing of the collected works was done under the aegis of ’Jigs-med... more
The first printed edition of the collected works (gsung ’bum) of ’Jigs-med gling-pa was published in Derge, shortly after his death in 1798. The compilation and printing of the collected works was done under the aegis of ’Jigs-med gling-pa’s patron the queen of Derge and his disciple Mdo-grub-chen, edited by the Dge-rtse sprul-sku, Gyur-med tshe-dbang mchog-grub (1761– 1829), and printed at Derge’s Dgon-chen monastery. Just over a century later, another edition was printed in central Tibet in 1881, generally known as the Lhasa edition.
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This study investigates the earliest surviving Tibetan paper, from the Dunhuang cave library, using paper fibre analysis combined with codicological, palaeographical and textual information. The hypotheses tested by this method concern... more
This study investigates the earliest surviving Tibetan paper, from the Dunhuang cave library, using paper fibre analysis combined with codicological, palaeographical and textual information. The hypotheses tested by this method concern the regional origins and production centres of early Tibetan paper and methods for dating this material. Using overlapping typologies, we classify a sample of manuscripts into coherent groups, relating them to particular ‘book cultures’. By linking three main manuscript groups to different geographical regions, we offer new insights into an important manuscript collection, and show that the method of overlapping typologies has the potential to yield further insights.
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When questions prove unanswerable, there are two possibilities. One is that we need more data, and better ways of processing that data; the other is that the question is a bad one, that it is not answerable in the terms in which it has... more
When questions prove unanswerable, there are two possibilities. One is that we need more data, and better ways of processing that data; the other is that the question is a bad one, that it is not answerable in the terms in which it has been stated. Now, it is true that we have frustratingly few sources from the time in which Chan is supposed to have been exerting its influence on Dzogchen (the eighth and early ninth centuries), but I think this is not the only problem. I do think the question ‘was Dzogchen influenced by Chan?’ is a bad one, for this reason: it entails an ahistorical reification of the entities ‘Dzogchen’ and ‘Chan’.
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At the beginning of the twentieth century a huge cache of ancient manuscripts was discovered in a Buddhist cave complex near the desert town of Dunhuang in China. Famously, the monk who guarded the caves, Wang Yuanlu, was persuaded by the... more
At the beginning of the twentieth century a huge cache of ancient manuscripts
was discovered in a Buddhist cave complex near the desert town of Dunhuang
in China. Famously, the monk who guarded the caves, Wang Yuanlu, was
persuaded by the archaeological explorers Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot to sell
them a large portion of the manuscripts so that they could be acquired by the
British and French governments. The manuscripts, which were in a variety of
languages, most commonly Chinese and Tibetan, are now held at the
Bibliothe`que nationale and the British Library, and it is the Tibetan group
that form the focus of this article.
was discovered in a Buddhist cave complex near the desert town of Dunhuang
in China. Famously, the monk who guarded the caves, Wang Yuanlu, was
persuaded by the archaeological explorers Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot to sell
them a large portion of the manuscripts so that they could be acquired by the
British and French governments. The manuscripts, which were in a variety of
languages, most commonly Chinese and Tibetan, are now held at the
Bibliothe`que nationale and the British Library, and it is the Tibetan group
that form the focus of this article.
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I wish to discuss here the conflict between simultaneous and gradual approaches to enlightenment in the system of philosophy and meditation called rdzogs chen: the Great Perfection. By “simultaneous enlightenment” I mean the belief that... more
I wish to discuss here the conflict between simultaneous and gradual approaches to enlightenment in the system of philosophy and meditation called rdzogs chen: the Great Perfection. By “simultaneous enlightenment” I mean the belief that a practitioner may achieve enlightenment through a single means, and in a single step. The Tibetan term is cig car 'jug pa. By “gradual enlightenment”, I mean the belief that a plurality of methods is required before enlightenment can be attained, and that this attainment comes about in stages of progressive realisation, not all at once. The Tibetan term for this is rim gyis 'jug pa
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Finds from the Site of the Buddha's Enlightenment
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An annotated bibliography for the study of Dunhuang texts
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An annotated bibliography for the study of Dzogchen
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A review of Jason Neelis's "Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange within and beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia."
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Reviewed Work: Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture by Ronald M. Davidson
Review by: Sam van Schaik
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Vol. 127, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 2007), pp. 93-95 (3 pages)
Review by: Sam van Schaik
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Vol. 127, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 2007), pp. 93-95 (3 pages)
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A review of the 11th volume of the catalogue of the Central Asian Sanskrit manuscripts in the German collections
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A review of Brandon Dotson's 'The Old Tibetan Annals: An Annotated Translation of Tibet’s First History, With an Annotated Cartographical Documentation by Guntram Hazod'
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Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (eds): Islam and Tibet – Interactions along the Musk Routes. xiv, 391 pp. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2011. £70. ISBN 978 0 7546 6956 2
Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (eds): Islam and Tibet – Interactions along the Musk Routes. xiv, 391 pp. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2011. £70. ISBN 978 0 7546 6956 2
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We live in a world of incredible cultural diversity, which over the last century has been increasingly threatened by global capitalism. In many countries a response to this has emerged in a growing nationalism, an assertion of local,... more
We live in a world of incredible cultural diversity, which over the last century has been increasingly threatened by global capitalism. In many countries a response to this has emerged in a growing nationalism, an assertion of local, specific culture. But this is an equal threat to the diversity of voices, stories and ways of being that make up every culture. And if we cannot preserve these stories, these alternative ways of being, we will be poorer, subject to the flattening out that is the end result of both globalisation and nationalism.
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A large number of manuscripts, many in Tibetan, remained in Dunhuang after Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot had made their selections from the original cache. The Tibetan manuscripts were still there after the Chinese authorities had removed... more
A large number of manuscripts, many in Tibetan, remained in Dunhuang after Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot had made their selections from the original cache. The Tibetan manuscripts were still there after the Chinese authorities had removed most of the Chinese manuscripts to Beijing in 1910. Subsequently a relatively small number of Tibetan manuscripts were acquired by the Otani and Oldenburg expeditions but, in 1919, a government official sent to Dunhuang reported finding 94 scroll bundles and 11 pothi volumes. The great majority of these were Tibetan. They were then removed from the cave, but their fate afterwards is little known outside China.
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In the beginning of the twentieth century, great numbers of ancient manuscripts were brought to Europe from the old Silk Road of Central Asia by archaeological explorers and adventurers from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Sweden.... more
In the beginning of the twentieth century, great numbers of ancient manuscripts were brought to Europe from the old Silk Road of Central Asia by archaeological explorers and adventurers from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Sweden. More Chinese archaeologists have uncovered yet more manuscripts from the region. The scattered written and artistic records of the many civilizations which flourished at different times in Central Asia were dispersed among the museums and libraries of these countries.