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On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po by ’Gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal (1392-1481)1 Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp Harvard University Abstract: The present article seeks to place the famous Deb gter sngon po in the context of fifteenth-century Tibetan intellectual history and the life of ’Gos lo tsā ba, to whom it is attributed. The text as we have it was certainly not completed by the time the latter passed away (1481). The article discusses some of its noteworthy curiosities, including its chronologies and the place of the colophons, and also gently suggests that it was likely compiled by ’Gos lo tsā ba’s disciples, albeit with some oversight by their master. When G. N. Roerich (1902-60) published his English translation of the Deb gter sngon po in Calcutta in 1949, ’Gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal’s (1392-1481) large chronicle became an instant classic and an indispensable source for every student of pre-sixteenth-century Tibetan Buddhism. A recent paper by Benjamin Bogin and Hubert Decleer argued for the interesting hypothesis that this translation was in fact co-authored by the ill-fated Dge ’dun chos ’phel (1903-52), who figures only sporadically in the body of the translation and in the footnotes as Roerich’s informant.2 Bogin and Decleer thus alleged that Dge ’dun chos ’phel’s “Sad Song” 1 This paper incorporates some of the bibliographical results obtained during my stay in Beijing from October to December of 1992 and from July to September of 1993, made possible by a generous grant from what was then the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China, Washington, D.C. There I mainly worked in the China Nationalities Library of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities. The manuscripts of texts used for this paper housed in this library are marked “C.P.N.” I should hereby like to thank the anonymous referee for his or her remarks and corrections, especially for the passage referred to in note 42, which I had overlooked. 2 “Who Was This ‘Evil Friend’ (‘the Dog,’ ‘the Fool,’ ‘the Tyrant’) in Gedün Chöphel’s Sad Song?,” The Tibet Journal 22 (1997): 67-78. Also titled “Remembering Impermanence,” this “Sad Song” can be found in Dge ’dun chos ’phel, Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung rtsom, ed. Hor khang bsod nams dpal ’bar, et al. (Lha sa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 1990), 2:395-99. A French translation Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 2 (August 2006): 1-46. www.thdl.org?id=T2714. 1550-6363/2006//T2714. © 2006 by Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp, Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, and International Association of Tibetan Studies. Distributed under the THDL Digital Text License. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 2 was prompted by his feeling that, lead by ambition and arrogance, Roerich had wronged him and had made him false promises. Whatever may have been the case, Roerich does thank both Dge ’dun chos ’phel and Blo bzang mi ’gyur rdo rje in his introduction, the former for his “very helpful guidance” while discussing “the entire translation,” the latter for having traced “several quotations” in the canonical literature.3 The introduction itself is dated 1946. Though the “Sad Song” analyzed by Bogin and Decleer bears no date, it was written in Bengal, where Dge ’dun chos ’phel was active in the mid-1940s. Of the more recent spate of full-fledged Dge ’dun chos ’phel biographies by Rdo rje rgyal and the one jointly written by Tshe ring dbang rgyal and Lcang zhabs pa ’gyur med tshe dbang, as well as Hor gtsang ’jigs med’s study of aspects of his life,4 only the one authored by Du Yongbin sheds some light on the context in which it might be placed, let alone understood, although he does not stray far from Heather Stoddard’s earlier remarks.5 Aside from this English version, there is now also a Chinese translation of the Deb gter sngon po. Its author, Guo Heqing, apparently completed his work without relying on Roerich’s earlier rendition and under very trying circumstances. Published only in 1985, when Guo was already well advanced in age, it understandably suffers from a variety of problems and is not always reliable.6 Lastly, E. Gene Smith informed me that, though now sadly lost, he once owned a microfilm of an extensively annotated copy of the Deb gter sngon po that had belonged to the well-known savant Rig ’dzin tshe dbang nor bu (1698-1755). The original manuscript is also no longer extant, as it perished in a fire after the microfilm was made. A notice on some passages of the text with Rig ’dzin’s notes of the poem is contained in H. Stoddard, Le mendiant de l’Amdo (Paris: Société d’Ethnologie, 1981), 198-200. An English version of a much revised text of Stoddard’s book will be published by Columbia University Press. 3 G. Roerich, trans., The Blue Annals (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979), xxi. 4 “’Dzam gling rig pa’i dpa’ bo rdo brag dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi byung ba brjod pa bden gtam rna ba’i bcud len,” in Dge ’dun chos ’phel (Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1997), 1-152; Dge ’dun chos ’phel (Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1999); and Drang bden gyis bslus pa’i slong mo ba/ mdo smad pa dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi mi tshe dpyad brjod (Dharamsala: Youtse Publication, 1999). For other recent work on him, see T. Huber, “Colonial Archeology, International Missionary Buddhism and the First Example of Modern Tibetan Literature,” Bauddhavidyāsudhākaraḥ: Studies in Honur of Heinz Bechert on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, ed. P. Kieffer-Pültz and J.-U. Hartmann, Indica et Tibetica 30 (Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1997), 297-318, and I. Mengele, Dge ’dun chos ’phel: A Biography of the 20th-Century Tibetan Scholar (Dharmasala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1999). See further D. S. Lopez Jr., The Madman’s Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Chopel (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006). Lastly, a collection of Chinese translations of some of his work is found in Gengdun qunpei wenji jingyao, trans. Gesang qupi, ed. Zhou Jiwen (Beijing: Zhongguo zangxue chubanshe, 1996). 5 6 See his large Ershi shiji xizang qiseng (Beijing: Zhongguo zangxue chubanshe, 1999), 117-18. See the poignant afterword in Guo Heqing, trans., Qingshi (Lha sa: Xizang renmin chubanshe, 1985), 717-18. Of interest is that Guo Heqing followed the Tibetan custom of adding a translator’s colophon (’gyur byang) to his rendition, see Guo, Qingshi, 713. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 3 that are doubtlessly related to what we might have encountered in this manuscript are found in an edition of his collected writings.7 Because the printing blocks for ’Gos lo tsā ba’s chronicle were first carved as early as the 1480s, which enabled it to circulate more widely than if it had been available only in handwritten copies alone, the Deb gter sngon po has done much to shape how later generations of Tibetan and, ultimately, non-Tibetan scholars have come to understand the development of Tibetan intellectual and religious history from roughly the eleventh to the fifteenth century. And it continues to exert this influence in the present day. A closer reading of this influential work, which the aged ’Gos lo tsā ba may have begun in 1476, and its concluding portions reveals the existence of a number of hitherto unnoticed peculiarities that warrant our attention. This is not all. Other sources used for this paper, most importantly Zhwa dmar IV Chos grags ye shes’s (1453-1524) retrospective of his master’s life that was written in 1517, illuminate a number of other features surrounding its composition that were previously thought to be unproblematic. Based in [?large] part on Smon lam grags pa’s earlier biography of ’Gos lo tsā ba – he was one of the master’s senior disciples and scribes – Zhwa dmar IV’s biographical study falls into two distinct sections. The first is a very succinct survey of ’Gos lo tsā ba’s life. The second revisits and highlights some of the events in his life noted earlier by adding some interesting anecdotes and other information.8 Text-internal evidence in the form of a number of relative chronologies ’Gos lo tsā ba calculated by taking the fire-male-monkey (me pho spre’u) year as his point of departure makes it clear that he was at least working on several of the Deb gter sngon po’s many sections (skabs) in what more or less corresponds to the year 1476 or, more precisely, to the period extending from January 27, 1476 to January 15/16, 1477.9 Given that he was plagued by ill-health and suffered from ocular ailments – due to failing eyesight, he was during this time unable to finish his translation of what is allegedly Sthiramati’s pañjikā-style Tattvārtha commentary on Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhāṣya10 – it is extremely unlikely that he 7 Kaḥ thog Tshe-dbaṅ-nor-bu, Bu ston kha ches mdzad pa’i chos ’byung rin po che’i mdzod las/ rig pa ’dzin pa tshe dbang nor bus nye bar btus pa’o, in The Collected Works (gsuṅ ’bum) of Kaḥ-thog Rig-’dzin Chen-po Tshe-dbaṅ-nor-bu (Dalhousie, H.P.: Damchoe Sangpo 1973), 4:539-52. 8 The first ends and the second begins on 47b of Zhwa dmar IV, Dpal ldan bla ma dam pa mkhan chen thams cad mkhyen pa don gyi slad du mtshan nas smos te gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam par thar pa yon tan rin po che mchog tu rgyas pa’i ljon pa (ms., n.d.) [112 of Zhwa dmar IV, Dpal ldan bla ma dam pa mkhan chen thams cad mkhyen pa don gyi slad du mtshan nas smos te gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam par thar pa yon tan rin po che mchog tu rgyas pa’i ljon pa, edited by Ngag dbang nor bu (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2004)]. For Zhwa dmar IV himself, see now F.-K. Ehrhard, Life and Travels of Lo-chen Bsod-nams rgya-mtsho (Lumbini: Lumbini International Resarch Institute, 2002), 11-31. 9 Roerich, Blue Annals, 59, 67, 92, etc. The precise dates in this essay are calculated using the “Tabellen,” in D. Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der tibetischen Kalenderrechnung, Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Supplement Band 16 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1973). 10 For further details, see my “The Names of ’Gos Lo tsā ba Gzhon nu dpal (1392-1481),” published in the E. Gene Smith Festschriftt, ed. R. Prats, on a CD. This will turn into a volume that is to be published by the Amnye Machen Institute, India. A [?complete] Sanskrit palmleaf manuscript of the Tattvārtha in one hundred and thirty-seven leaves seems to be extant and is registered in the Zhongguo van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 4 worked alone. This notwithstanding, the chronicle only once attests to the presence of an assistant. The section dealing with the six treatises on Vajravārāhī ends in a note identifying the scribe (yi ge pa), a certain Nyi shar bkra shis who was a native of Dol.11 This remark appears to have led Roerich to affirm with perhaps undue confidence, “We know that the text...was dictated by him..., hence the frequent brevity of the sentences, and in some places a somewhat unfinished character of the text, reminiscent of notes taken down during reading....”12 Let us first stipulate that there is not one iota of evidence for the supposition that he had dictated this work. Further, it is of course not necessary that it does, but if dictation suggests paraphrase and thus implies the use of vernacular Tibetan, then evidence for the first clause is wanting, for the text is by and large written in the classical idiom. True enough, it does not infrequently contain colloquialisms, but their presence doubtlessly has its origin, first, in the biographical and autobiographical literature he and most probably some of his disciples were excerpting and, second, in his own personal asides. To gain more informed insight into what we might call ’Gos lo tsā ba’s “workshop” we must resort to the source-criticism of his treatise. But this kind of work is still in its infancy. To date, Kurtis Schaeffer is the only scholar I am aware of who has addressed this question through a careful comparison of Zhang g.yu brag pa brtson ’grus grags pa’s (1123-93) biography of his teacher Vairocanavajra with what ’Gos lo tsā ba had to say about the latter and how he said it.13 Roerich renders the title Deb gter sngon po [or Deb ther sngon po, Deb ter sngon po] – the short form is Deb sngon, and gter, ther, and ter are homophones – as The Blue Annals, whereas Guo opted for Qingshi, The Blue History. Of course, a more accurate rendition would be The Blue Book. The word deb gter / ther / ter, meaning “book,” is ultimately of Persian or Greek origin, and entered the Tibetan zangxue yanjiu zhongxin shouzangde fanwen beiye jing (Suowei jiaojuan) mulu / Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig zhib ’jug lte gnas su nyar ba’i ta la’i lo ma’i bstan bcos (sbyin shog ’dril ma’i par) gyi dkar chag mdor gsal (n.p.), 73, no. 99; my thanks go out to V. Wallace for so generously giving me a copy of this valuable catalogue. For negative appreciations of his skills as a translator of Sanskrit, see G. Tucci, Minor Buddhist Texts, Part One, Serie Orientale Roma 9 (Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1956), 17-18, and M. Hahn, “Das Vanaratnastotra des Āditya,” in Suhṛllekhāḥ: Festgabe für Helmut Eimer, ed. M. Hahn, et al., Indica et Tibetica 28 (Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1996), 40-42. For a more positive assessment, see the brief remarks in K.-D. Mathes, ed., ’Gos Lo tsā ba Gzhon nu dpal’s Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, Nepal Research Centre Publications no. 24 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003), xiv-xv. His first encounter with a large number of Sanskrit manuscripts of a wide variety of texts took place when Vanaratna (1384-1468), in the company of Chos ’khor sgang lo tsā ba manydzushrī and ’Bri khung lo tsā ba, had come to Rtses thang in 1433, for which see Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 26a-b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 61-62]. 11 ’Gos lo tsā ba, Deb gter sngon po (ed. 1976), 349 [’Gos lo tsā ba, Deb ther sngon po (ed. 1984), 1:479]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 397; and Guo, Qingshi, 263. He recurs in the first printer’s colophon (par byang) in ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 968 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1270]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 1090; and Guo, Qingshi, 713, as a knower of graphs (yi ge’i rig byed pa). The fertile tributary Dol Valley is located to the east of the vast Grwa Valley. 12 13 Roerich, Blue Annals, ii. “The Religious Career of Vairocanavajra – A Twelfth-Century Indian Buddhist Master from Dakṣiṇa Kośala,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 28 (2000), 369-72, 380-83. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 5 lexicon via Mongolian,14 when most of the Tibetan cultural area was under Mongol rule (1240 to the 1350s). The orthographic instability indicated by the use of gter, ther, and ter is by no means uncommon for loanwords we encounter in Tibetan writing. Why some Tibetans should have chosen to use this word for book rather than a bona fide word for the same from their own lexicon is a question whose answer is still outstanding. Probably, the reasons are not altogether different from the “oeuvre” / “writings” alternation the reader finds in this essay. It is a question of style and perhaps also an attempt to capture a different kind of elegance. The patina of the foreign is sometimes more attractive than the local. To be sure, the perhaps more common Tibetan words for “book” are glegs bam, pod and po ti – pod is a derivative of po ti, just as deb is derived from deb gter / ther / ter – or, somewhat metaphorically, gsung, “statement.” As for the first and third, Chos dpal dar dpyang states the following in the biography of his teacher, the well-known Sanskritist Chag lo tsā ba II Chos rje dpal (1197-1264): [He] said [that the term for “book”] is in the religious [classical] language [Sanskrit], pustaka; in the vernacular language [?Prakrit, ?Apabhraṃśa, ?...], po ti [< ?poṭhi]; in Tibetan, glegs bam. Though written in [regular] ink, [the books] not being [written with] gold [ink], they [still] were glegs bam.15 Also meaning “book,” the expressions glegs bam gyi po ti and po ti glegs bam are both attested in the apocryphal autobiography of King Srong btsan sgam po (d. 649/50), which first surfaced in the middle of the eleventh century, and glegs bam gyi po ti is found in the large ecclesiastic chronicle of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism that Nyang ral nyi ma’i ’od zer (1124-92) wrote towards the end of his life.16 The form glegs bam gyi po ti is somewhat counterintuitive. It may very well go back to a wrong interpretation of the compound po ti glegs bam or glegs bam po ti, one that is based on not having understood that glegs bam and po ti in the first stand 14 B. Laufer, “Loanwords in Tibetan,” Toung Pao 17 (1916), 481-82, no. 140. 15 chos skad du pusta ka ’phral skad du po ti/ bod skad du glegs bam/ gser gyi ma yin pa snag tshad bris kyang glegs bam yin gsungs so// G. Roerich, trans., Biography of Dharmasvāmin (Chag lo tsa ba Chos rje dpal): A Tibetan Monk Pilgrim (Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute , 1959), 38, 102, and The Biography of Chag Lo tsā ba Chos rje dpal (Dharmasvāmin), ed. Champa Thupten Zongtse (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture ,1981), 183. This makes the meaning of the statement “po ti and glegs bam” in Mkhas pa lde’u’s circa late 1260s Rgya bod kyi chos ’byung rgyas pa, ed. Chab spel tshe brtan phun tshogs, Gangs can rig mdzod 3 (Lha sa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1987), 167, a little obscure, unless perhaps a glegs bam, as opposed to a po ti, was thought always to have two wooden boards (glegs shing) that hold together the pages with straps (glegs thag). For some further considerations on books, see, for example, Dge ’dun chos ’phel, Shing dang me tog sogs kyi ngos ’dzin dang ngos ji ltar ’phrod tshul, in Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung rtsom, ed. Hor khang bsod nams dpal ’bar, et al. (Lha sa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 1990), 1:243-6. 16 See respectively, the Bka’ chems ka khol ma, ed. Smon lam rgya mtsho (Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1988), 94, 98, and the Chos ’byung me tog snying po sbrang rtsi’i bcud, ed. Nyan shul mkhyen rab ’od gsal, Gangs can rig mdzod 5 (Lha sa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1988), 432. The anonymous referee drew attention to the entry in Btsan lha ngag dbang tshul khrims, Brda bkrol gser gyi me long (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1997), 439. There glegs bam po ti is equated with por tang according to an entry in ’Jigs med nam mkha’ rdo rje’s (1897-1956) Gangs can bod kyi brda skad ming gzhi gsal bar ston pa’i bstan bcos, which is not accessible to me. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 6 in an appositional relationship to one another. That is to say, glegs bam is an explanatory gloss of the loanword po ti. The term be’u bum, a metaphor for a booklet, is used relatively infrequently.17 It is for this reason that I quite consciously refrain from retaining the title The Blue Annals in this brief paper. Perhaps willfully, I will from now on refer to ’Gos lo tsā ba’s work as The Blue Book, even though I very much doubt that this title will ever gain currency outside the present paper! Analogous to the collections of Lam ’bras texts by Rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan (1148-1216) called the Yellow Book (Pod ser ma) and Bla ma dam pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan’s (1312-75) Black Book (Pod nag ma),18 as well as to Tshal pa kun dga’ rdo rje’s (1309-64) Red Book (Deb ther dmar po), White Book (Deb ther dkar po), and Multicolored Book (Deb ther khra bo), and the catalogue of his edition of the Bka’ ’gyur, which is referred to as The Black Catalogue of the Tselpa [Kangyur] (Tshal pa dkar nag),19 it is more than likely that the designation “blue” (sngon po) was due to the color of the cloth in which the original manuscript was wrapped. This custom should strike a familiar chord: Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Blue Book and Brown Book are so-called because they were bound in blue and brown wrappers. It is not the first time in the history of Tibetan literature that a nickname usurped the place of a work’s actual title. A good example of this is of course Tsong kha pa’s Lam rim chen mo. In the passage I provisionally designate “the author’s colophon” (mdzad byang) – a problem associated with the place this colophon occupies in the blockprinted text is discussed below – ’Gos lo tsā ba’s tract is in 17 P. Sørensen, “The Prolific Ascetic Lce sgom Shes rab rdo rje alias Lce sgom Zhig po: Allusive, but Elusive,” Journal of the Nepal Research Centre 11 (1999), 188n25. Some of the elusiveness that continues to surround Shes rab rdo rje (1124/5-1204/5) can be cleared up by a perusal of the relevant folios of a manuscript of Rta tshag tshe dbang rgyal’s 1446-47 history of the Mar pa bka’ brgyud pa traditions, for which see my “On the Fifteenth Century Lho rong chos ’byung by Rta tshag Tshe dbang rgyal and Its Importance for Tibetan Political and Religious History,” in “Aspects of Tibetan History,” ed. R. Vitali and T. Tsering, special issue, Lungta 14, (2000): 69, and the notices on four Lce sgom pa namesakes in Grags pa rdo rje, Jo bo yab sras las ’phros pa’i skyes bu dam ’ga’ zhig[ g]i ’byon pa’i tshul bstan rtsis (ms., n.d.), 8a-11b. Details about Jo bo yab sras las ’phros pa’i skyes bu dam ’ga’ zhig[ g]i ’byon pa’i tshul bstan rtsis and its author are found below. 18 This is explicitly stated in Ngor chen kun dga’ bzang po’s (1382-1456) and Gung ru shes rab bzang po’s (1411-75) Lam ’bras bu dang bcas pa’i man ngag gi byung tshul gsung ngag rin po che bstan pa rgyas pa’i nyi ’od, in the Sa skya pa’i bka’ bum [Sde dge print], comp. Bsod nams rgya mtsho, vol. 9 (Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 1968), no. 37, 120/3 [ka, 242a], 121/2 [ka, 243b]. Gung ru completed Ngor chen’s unfinished work. 19 For these, see Dung dkar blo bzang ’phrin las’s remarks on Tshal pa’s life and works in his annotated edition of the Deb ther dmar po (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1983), 2, and Dalai Lama V Ṅag-dbaṅ-blo-bzaṅ-rgya-mtsho, Zab pa dang rgya che ba’i dam pa’i chos kyi thob yig ganggā’i chu rgyun, in Record of teachings received: The gsan-yig of the Fifth Dalai Lama Ṅag-dbaṅ-blo-bzaṅ-rgya-mtsho (New Delhi: Nechung and Lhakhar, 1971), 4:295-389, 609-734. These designations are absent from Tshal pa’s biography in K.-H. Everding, Der Gung thang dkar chag: Die Geschichte der tibetischen Herrschergeschlechtes von Tshal Gung thang und der Tshal Bka’ brgyud pa Schule, Monumenta Tibetica Historica, Abt. I, Bd. 5 (Bonn: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH, 2000), 126-31. Lastly, some of the earliest translations of the Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra also have color-coded designations – for which see my forthcoming “Apropos of Daṃṣṭrāsena in the Catalogue of Translated Scripture of Bu ston Rin chen grub’s Ecclesiastic History and Elsewhere” – which would also point to the color of, and in other cases the designs on, the cloth in which its volumes were wrapped. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 7 fact called The Stages of How Buddhism and Buddhists Emerged in Tibet (Bod kyi yul du chos dang chos smra ba ji ltar byung ba’i rim pa). His own disciple the Las chen kun dga’ rgyal mtshan’s 1496 history of the Bka’ gdams pa school refers to it as The Great Annals Showing the Stages of How the Buddhist Religion Emerged in the Snowy [Land] (Gangs can du chos lugs ji ltar byung ba’i rim pa ston pa’i lo rgyus chen mo).20 Twenty-one years later, Zhwa dmar IV already calls it the Deb gter sngon po in the two entries he has for it in his biography. Dated to the mid-1470s, the first occurs in connection with ’Gos lo tsā ba’s earlier treatise on chronology, on which see below; the second is dated 1478.21 Elsewhere, in an entry for the year 1453, Zhwa dmar IV refers to a kind of prophecy the master had received from perhaps either Vanaratna or Byang bdag rnam rgyal grags bzang (1399-1475) to the effect that he would write a “large ecclesiastic chronicle” (chos ’byung chen po).22 One can therefore not rule out the possibility that ’Gos lo tsā ba had harbored the intention of compiling and writing what was to become The Blue Book for well over two decades before finally embarking on this project in 1476. Parenthetically, another point worthy of note is that, though The Blue Book’s actual title indicates that it was conceived as a comprehensive study of Tibet’s various schools and traditions of Buddhism, ’Gos lo tsā ba pays rather scant attention to the Sa skya pa school as a separate entity. This stands in some contrast to the textual traditions and lines of transmission of the many doctrinal entities that form part of the Rnying ma pa, Bka’ gdams pa, and Bka’ brgyud pa, all of which receive detailed treatment. Of course, he mentions numerous Sa skya pa scholars, but he does not once systematically delineate their multiple contributions. Interestingly, The Blue Book shares this feature with the equally large chronicle of Dpa’ bo II Gtsug lag phreng ba (1504-66). A disciple of inter alia Zhwa dmar IV, Dpa’ bo II is of course unambiguously located within the Kaṃ tshang or Karma sect of the Bka’ brgyud pa school, whereas ’Gos lo tsā ba’s doctrinal affiliation is much more complex. It is probably best to characterize him as a non-partial scholar in the sense that his training and scholarly interests led him to pursue textual studies 20 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 969 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1272], and Las chen kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, Bka’ gdams kyi rnam par thar pa bka’ gdams chos ’byung gsal ba’i sgron ma, 2:8. 21 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 46b (de gter sngon po[sic]), 71b (deb gter sngon po) [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 110, 168]. It is already cited as the Deb ther sngon po in Paṇ chen bsod nams grags pa’s (1478-1554) 1539 Deb ther dmar po gsar ma, ed. G. Tucci, Serie Orientale Roma 24 (Rome: Istitituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1971), 150, and ’Dul ’dzin mkhyen rab rgya mtsho’s 1557 Sangs rgyas bstan pa’i chos ’byung dris lan nor bu’i phreng ba (Mkhyen-rab-rgya-mtsho, ’Dul-’dzin, Saṅs rgyas bstan pa’i chos ’byuṅ dris lan nor bu’i phreṅ ba: A Study of the Historical and Doctrinal Development of Bu[d]dhism in India and Tibet Written in 1557 in Response to Queries Put by H.H. the Eighth Rgyal-dbaṅ Karma-pa [Gangtok: Dzongsar Chhentse Labrang, 1981], 266). 22 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 36a [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 84]. My photocopy of the manuscript Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar is unfortunately incomplete at this point, owing to an inadvertant omission of the second half of fols. 36a and 37a and the first half of fols. 36b and 37b of the original manuscript’s long folios. The pseudo-title Large Ecclesiastic Chronicle (Chos ’byung chen po) recurs in ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 739 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:977]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 837; and Guo, Qingshi, 544. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 8 that pertained especially to the Bka’ brgyud pa, Rnying ma pa, and Bka’ gdams pa traditions. Indeed, he shares these features with a good number of other fifteenth-century clerical associates of the Phag mo gru court at Sne’u gdong such as, to name but two, Byams gling paṇ chen bsod nams rnam rgyal (1400-1475) and Zhwa lu lo tsā ba chos skyong bzang po (1441-1528). ’Gos lo tsā ba’s interests in and earlier intensive studies of some of the writings of Dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan (1294-1361) may have led the castellan-brothers (rdzong dpon pa sku mched) ruling over Brag dmar me ba to invite him to Jo nang Monastery in circa 1447.23 Jo nang bka’ bzhi pa – I do not know his name in religion – having recently died, it is quite probable that their intention was to install him as this institution’s abbot. But this was an honor he felt he had to refuse on grounds that he wished to take advantage of the opportunities Vanaratna’s presence provided for further study. Judging from his biography, his main teachers belonged to the Bka’ gdams pa, Rnying ma pa, and Bka’ brgyud pa schools. And in spite of his interests, we cannot really say that he had definite leanings towards ideas associated with the Jo nang pa philosophical traditions. In vain do we look for clear-cut evidence of this in his undated but fairly substantial study of the three cycles of the teachings of the Buddha in which, beginning with the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra, his Pronouncements (bka’) were distinguished; or in his 1467 Dpal dus kyi ’khor lo’i rgyud kyi dka’ ’grel snying po’i don rab tu gsal ba’i rgyan, a study of some difficult passages in Yaśas’ versified Laghukālacakratantra and Puṇḍarīka’s Vimalaprabhā commentary; or in his large 1473 exegesis of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā.24 Indeed, none of these tracts betrays an extensive 23 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 33b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 79]. 24 See, firstly, his ’Khor lo gsum gyi rnam par bzhag pa chos kyi dbyings rgya mtsho’i rgyan rnam par bkod pa, of which a ninety-two-folio handwritten dbu med manuscript is extant; its scribe was Smon lam grags pa. The second is extant in a one hundred and ninety-nine-folio blockprint, with the marginal notation ca. The scribe of the original manuscript was the author’s student Smon lam grags. The printer’s colophon states that the printing blocks were carved in 1472 and that the operation was financially supported by Ngag gi dbang po (1439-91), then Spyan mnga’ [read: Spyan snga] of Gdan sa mthil. Bsod nams bzang po (1380-1416) was the scribe, the one who made the labeling of the print[-ing blocks] (par gyi glegs bu yongs sgrub pa) was ’Brog mi rin chen rgyal mtshan, Bkra shis rgyal mtshan was the carver of the blocks (brkos kyi ’du byed pa), and Bsam grub grags the proofreader, or the pure-water jewel cleansing the mud of mistakes (nor ba’i rnyog pa dang byed chu ’dang gi nor bu). The third is the undated, handwritten dbu med manuscript and the 1479 blockprint of his Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā commentary, which were edited and published in Mathes, Commentary (2003). Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 69b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 164], states that he finished it on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (September 6, 1473). However, in ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 1:*4, Dung dkar rin po che maintained that he wrote it in 1468. Not mentioned by Mathes is that the slightly incomplete but enormous dbu med manuscript in six hundred and ninety-nine folios was filmed by him for the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project under Reel no. DD 3/3-4/1. True enough, Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 7a[gong ma], 11a, 18a [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 17, 27, 43], testify that he had studied Dol po pa’s Uttaratantra commentary, the Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho, and his Kālacakra writings, and Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 9b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 23], relates that he had examined his [Kun mkhyen chen po’s!] chronological calculation[s] (rtsis) as well. Touring the Tibetan midwest in 1418, he briefly visited Jo nang, Brag ram, Bo dong, Bya rgod gshongs, and Spyi bo lhas pa; see Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 16a [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 39]. Mathes, Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 9 debt to either the distinctive terminology or the theories that are associated with Dol po pa and his immediate followers. That ’Gos lo tsā ba is on the whole laconic when it comes to the Sa skya pa traditions may very well have been due to the fact that the library resources to which he had easy access were singularly lean on writings by its members. By comparison, the largest single unit of The Blue Book by far – more than thirty percent of the text as a whole – is devoted to a meticulous presentation of the Bka’ brgyud pa, and the second largest – more than ten percent – to the Bka’ gdams pa. Nonetheless, something curious is going on here. His personal connections notwithstanding, it is strange that he either did not have available or chose to use only covertly the histories of the Bka’ brgyud pa by Spyan snga nyer gnyis pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan (1386-1434)25 alias Kun bzang rtse pa and Rta tshag tshe dbang rgyal, for he makes no explicit mention of either. And this is all the more surprising when we bear in mind that the Las chen and Zhwa dmar IV count the former, the erstwhile hierarch of Phag mo gru gdan sa mthil, among ’Gos lo tsā ba’s teachers.26 The Blue Book’s biographical sketch of the Spyan snga is completely quiet about his chronicle.27 We do know of course that Dpa’ bo II made considerable use of Rta tshag’s treatise. The title, The Blue Book, occurs on the title pages of both (interdependent) blockprints, once in the “Apology” located between the section (skabs) on Rtses thang Monastery – this section was also written in 1476 – and the one on the patron of its first printing, Bkra shis dar rgyas legs pa’i rgyal po (d. 1499)28 and the history of his (Bya) family; it recurs in the second printer’s colophon, written by Rta tshag VI Ye shes blo bzang bstan pa’i mgon po (1716-1810).29 What I refer to as an Commentary (2003), x, writes that a Lha khang[s] stengs taught him the Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. This cannot be, for “Lha khang steng” refers to a building! We ought to read of course “Lha khang steng pa,” whose name in religion was apparently Sangs rgyas rin chen. The three treatises by ’Gos lo tsā ba that are mentioned above contain virtually nothing that is explicitly derived from Dol po pa’s signature ideas. However, in all fairness, the same thing can be paradoxically said of Dol po pa’s own study of the Uttaratantra as well! But it is remarkable that the lengthy afterword of the commentary in Mathes, Commentary (2003), 573-5, contains not one expression of debt to Dol po pa, but a disagreement with Dol po pa is registered in Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 54a [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 128]. For an overview of this work, see also K.-D. Mathes, “’Gos Lo tsā ba Gzhon nu dpal’s Extensive Commentary on and Study of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā,” in Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet: Tibetan Studies II, ed. H. Blezer (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 79-95. 25 For this work, see my “On the Fifteenth Century Lho rong chos ’byung,” 59. 26 Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 2:4, and Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 23b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 55]. 27 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 512-7 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:692-9]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 589-94; and Guo, Qingshi, 383-86. 28 He was also the patron for the printing of his Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā commentary. Obliquely identified in the translation of the colophon of the blockprint in Mathes, Commentary (2003), xiii n29, Khrims khang lo tsā ba bsod nams rgya mtsho’i sde (1424-82), himself a disciple and friend of ’Gos lo tsā ba, authored a large number of letters to him, for which see A Buddhist Correspondence: The Letters of Lo chen Bsod nams rgya mtsho, ed. F.-K. Ehrhard, Lumbini International Research Institute, Facsimile Edition Series 3 (Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2002), xiv, xvii; see also its companion volume in Ehrhard, Life and Travels, 79 ff. 29 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 962, 970 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1263, 1273]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 1084, 1093; and Guo, Qingshi, 708, 714. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 10 “Apology”30 is actually a kind of afterword that begins with the line “Statement in Reply to the Coming Talk(?)31 based on The Blue Book.”32 And it ends with the statement (by no means uncontroversial, in one case the multiple dates given are those found elsewhere in The Blue Book): In sum, since these years [= datings] of the religious king Srong btsan sgam po (569/629-50), Jo bo rje [Atiśa] (ca. 982-1054), ’Brom ston [rgyal ba’i ’byung gnas] (1005-64), etc., and the master of the Teaching Rngog lo [tsā ba blo ldan shes rab] (1059-1109) involve positions that are without error, please do place [them] accordingly in your mind! 33 Neither Tibetan text of The Blue Book identifies this section as a “skabs” per se, but it is surely marked as one when we consider the punctuations that separate it from the preceding and succeeding texts in terms of the spacing used and the deployment of the rin spungs shad marker. The heading’s use of zhal brda, honorific for kha brda, and the use of thugs, honorific for sems, in the last line of this pseudo-section, suggests that this piece was written for one who socially outranked the author, or at least did so in his eyes. In his translation, Roerich used the first person, “I,” in the sense that ’Gos lo tsā ba was responsible for it (Guo is generally more careful in his insertion of personal pronouns when the Tibetan text has none). Yet, Roerich had a fairly good reason for this, for the use of such non-honorific verb forms as byas and bris does more than merely suggest that this passage should not be considered as a metastatement on The Blue Book by a writer other than ’Gos lo tsā ba. And therefore the fact that the title Deb sngon occurs in it supports the contention that ’Gos lo tsā ba himself had used this name for his chronicle. It is furthermore not altogether impossible that this “Apology” is related to the highly critical reception of his earlier study of calendrical astronomy and Buddhist chronology, the Rtsis la ’khrul pa sel ba. Written in 1443 and blockprinted in 1466 at the Phag mo gru palace of Pho brang rgyal bzang, this work in forty-nine folios was as quickly as it was severely taken to task by, among others, Grwa phug pa lhun grub rgya mtsho in his 1447 Pad dkar zhal lung analysis of Kālacakra calendrical astronomy. ’Gos lo tsā ba argued there, for example, for the dates of Rngog lo tsā ba that are given above,34 but these now turn out to be far from unambiguous or uncontroversial when we compare them to the ones found in several earlier (and a few later) literary sources. Zhwa dmar IV informs us that he revised his Rtsis la ’khrul pa sel ba from 1472 to 1475 by adding astronomical diagrams and chronological tables, and explicitly links this revision to The Blue 30 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 962-64 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1263-65]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 1084-86; and Guo, Qingshi, 708-10. 31 zhal brda phebs pa 32 deb sngon la brten pa’i zhal brda phebs pa de la lan du smras pa... 33 mdor na chos rgyal srong bstan sgam po’i lo/ jo bo rje ’brom sogs kyi lo/ brtan [read: bstan] pa’i bdag po rngog gi lo ’di rams ’chug med kyi lugs yin pas de ltar thugs la bzhag par zhu/ / 34 See the Rtsis la ’khrul pa sel ba, 19a-b. Details on this work and its criticism can be found in a facsimile edition of this work, accompanied by a detailed index and a lengthy introduction, that will be published by the Lumbini International Research Institute. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 11 Book.35 During these years, ’Gos lo tsā ba also completed several other minor works on chronological computation.36 Of course, the “Apology” did not deter later Tibetan historians from taking issue with especially some of ’Gos lo tsā ba’s datings in The Blue Book. Their disagreements with him took two forms, implicit and explicit. We have already seen that the Las chen, a disciple of ’Gos lo tsā ba, was sufficiently familiar with The Blue Book to list it as one of his master’s main writings. Though he does refer, in his study of the Bka’ gdams pa school, to the information on several fifteenth-century events he had received from his teacher orally,37 we observe that at least once he takes direct issue with The Blue Book. The case in point has to do with an unsettling controversy about the date of Po to ba rin chen gsal’s passing. The Las chen writes: So, the statement that after this spiritual friend was born in the fire-female-hare [year, 1027, and] after he heeded the benefit of others for twenty-five years from the age of fifty-five [= four], he passed away in Po to Monastery in the morning of new moon’s day of the intermediate summer-month of the wood-female-hen [year, 1105] at the age of seventy-nine [= eight] occurs in his biography,38 and the Great Mchims [nam mkha’ grags, 1299-1375] claimed [that],39 as well as Se spyil bu ba [?chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1121-89]; The Blue Book claimed that after he was born in the iron-sheep [year, 1031], he passed away in the wood-hen [year, 1105] at the age of seventy-five [= four];40 since it appears to have been stated that, at the age of nineteen [= eighteen] in the earth-male-dragon [year, 1088], Zhang shar ba pa [yon tan grags, 1070-1141] met [Po to ba] during the sixty-second 35 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 69b, 70b-1a [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 164, 166]. 36 These include the Rtsis kyi ljon pa’i rtsa ba tshol ba, three-folio Pho brang brag kha blockprint wth the marginal notation “Ā,” and the Rtsis kyi nges pa’i don, three-folio blockprint of unspecified provenance with the marginal notation “?pa.” Both were written in 1475 with the second explicitly in connection with the earlier criticism of the Rtsis la ’khrul pa sel ba. See also below for other treatises that he wrote around this time. 37 See, for example, Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 2:502 ff. 38 I do not know which biography the Las chen had in mind. In his sketch of Po to ba’s life, he makes reference to an otherwise unknown (to me) biography in Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 2:26 as well as to a “biography” (rnam thar gtsang ba) in Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 2:34. 39 This would seem to be a reference to the Pu to ba’i rnam thar [= Po to ba’i rnam thar], of which a thirteen-folio, handwritten dbu can manuscript is found under C.P.N. Catalogue no. 002806(6). The dates of 1027 to 1105 are confirmed in this brief study, as is the precise day of his passing, namely, the new moon day of the intermediate summer-month. 40 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 235, 239-40 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:322, 328-9]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 263, 268-9; and Guo, Qingshi, 175, 178. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 12 [= first] year of the spiritual friend [= Po to ba], and attended on him for eighteen years,41 [Po to ba’s dates] must be according to [those of] the former [scenario].42 A blockprint of an early seventeenth-century biography of Po to ba entitled Dge ba’i bshes gnyen pu to ba rin chen gsal gi rnam thar sems dpa’ chen po’i spyod pa nges bstan in nine folios has recently been recovered. Its author, Ngag dbang rnam rgyal (1571-1626), the seventeenth abbot of Stag lung Monastery, follows ’Gos lo tsā ba in his dates, but does add that he passed away on full moon’s day (gnam gang) of the intermediate winter-month (dgun zla ’bring po) of 1105 – the difference in the month is most likely due to a recalibration of the date with the use of a different calendar. It now turns out that this biography forms part of the hitherto unknown autobiography of Ngag dbang rnam rgyal consisting of an ensemble of eight sarga-sections – the blockprints of the other seven studies have been equally recovered. Its general title is Rtogs pa brjod pa ngo mtshar tshangs pa’i gaṇḍi and it was completed in 1608.43 Lastly, the substantial biography of Po 41 Something to this effect is not found in The Blue Book or in Mchims’s Shar ra ba’i rnam thar of which a twelve-folio, handwritten dbu can manuscript is found under C.P.N. catalogue no. 002806 (7). We do find this in Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 2:87, 89, as well as in Yongs ’dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan’s (1713-93) much later 1787 study of the Lam rim tradition, the Lam rim bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar, ed. Blo bzang tshe ring (Lha sa: Bod ljongs mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990), 248. 42 de ltar dge ba’i bshes gnyen’di me mo yos la ’khrungs nas/ lnga bcu nga lnga nas lo nyi shu rtsa lnga’i bar du gzhan don bskyangs nas/ bdun cu rtsa dgu pa shing mo bya’i dbyar zla ’bring po’i gnam stong gi snga dro po to dgon par sku gshegs so zhes pa ni nyid kyi rnam thar las ’byung zhing / mchims chen mo yang bzhed la/ se spyil bu ba’ang de bzhin du bzhed de/ deb sngon nas lcags lug la ’khrungs nas don lnga pa shing bya la gshegs par bzhed de zhang shar ba pas rang lo bcu dgu pa sa pho ’brug/ dge bshes kyi re gnyis pa la mjal te lo bco brgyad bsten par bshad snang bas snga ma ltar dgos so// Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 2:37; the passage is found on fol. 221 of the blockprint that was scanned by the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (www.tbrc.org). This print derives from the printing blocks that were prepared by Sde srid ’phrin las rgya mtsho in the 1660s for Dalai Lama V. 43 The eight sections are: 1. Khyim bdag chen po mgon med zas sbyin gyi rnam par thar pa rgyal ba la lhag par bya ba byas pa’i gtam, fols. 9, marginal notation “ka”; biography of Anāthapiṇḍada. 2. Drang srong chen po dpa’ bo’i sde’i rnam par thar pa ye shes rdo rje grub pa’i gtam, fols. 8, marginal notation “kha”; biography of Vīrasena. 3. Biography of Po to ba, marginal notation “ga.” 4. Chos sku sangs rgyas yar byon gyi rnam thar brtul zhugs bzang po’i ngo mtshar brjod pa, fols. 10, marginal notation “nga”; biography of Sangs rgyas yar byon (1203-72). 5. Kun mkhyen dmar ston pa chen po rin chen shākya’i rnam thar skyes bu dam pa’i ngang tshul brjod pa, fols. 8, marginal notation “ca”; biography of Dmar ston rin chen shākya (1291-?1365). 6. Rgyal dbang spyang lung pa chen po’i rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar rgya mtsho, fols. 9, marginal notation “cha”; biography of Spyang lung pa gzhon nu blo gros (1372-1475). 7. Chos kyi rje mtsho skyes rdo rje’i rnam par thar pa rim gnyis zab mo dngos grub nges bstan, fols. 7, marginal notation “ja”; biography of Mtsho skyes rdo rje (1479-1519). 8. Rgyal ba mchog gi sprul pa’i sku ngag dbang rnam rgyal bkra shis kyi rnam thar snyan grags lha’i rnga chen, fols. 11, marginal notation “nya”; autobiography of Ngag dbang rnam rgyal, which he completed in 1608 at the Pho brang chos rdzong chen po bi dzā ya prasthir(!). The convolute has no printing data. It seems to have been followed by an appendix of sorts. With the telling marginal notation “ta,” this appendix could have been the Lo rgyus tshigs su bcad pa dad pa’i ’dza’ bshes, a blockprint in fols. 8, which seems to be an autobiography of Ngag dbang chos kyi nyi ma ’jigs med bzang po of the Stag lung pa sect. It was written in the wood-female-hare year when Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 13 to ba by Ye shes rgyal mtshan (1713-93) dates him from 1027 to 1105, but Mang thos klu sgrub rgya mtsho (1523-96), on the other hand, offers 1043 as the year of Po to ba’s birth in his 1587 study of Buddhist chronology.44 However, more often than not, the Las chen simply departs from many of The Blue Book’s datings of early Bka’ gdams pa masters without explicitly saying that he does so. Let us briefly look at two instructive examples of this. Firstly, the Las chen writes at one point that Nag tsho lo tsā ba tshul khrims rgyal ba was thirty-one [= thirty] years old in the water-male-horse year (1042) – this would place his year of birth in 1012 – and that he left west Tibet for north India to invite Atiśa in 1038.45 ’Gos lo tsā ba, on the other hand, has it that he was born in the iron-female-pig year (1011), and that he was thirty-one in the water-male-horse year!46 The Sa skya pa scholar Mang thos repeatedly has it that Atiśa arrived in Tibet in the wood-male-horse year (1054), which thus pushes the generally accepted date forward by one duodenary cycle.47 To be sure, we need to remind ourselves that the earliest biographies and chronicles usually employed the duodenary rather than the sexagenary cycle in their calendrical determinations. More than merely probable, both years, water-male-horse and wood-male-horse, are therefore based on having calculated and transferred the duodenary notation of “horse year” into a sexagenary notation. That the wrong year of 1054 was Mang thos’s view and not merely a later scribal error is borne out by the fact that, in the first passage, he expressly says that this year occurred 3188 years after the Buddha’s nirvāṇa. According to the so-called Sa skya pa position that he followed, the nirvāṇa had taken place in 2133 BCE! Secondly, the Las chen dates Zul phu ba brtson ’grus ’bar from 1101 to 1174 rather than from 1091 to 1165, the dates for him that we find in The Blue Book.48 But these dates are problematic, for he says immediately thereafter that Phya pa chos kyi seng ge was privy to a vision while witnessing Zul phu ba’s cremation. We know with reasonable certainty that Phya pa passed away in 1169,49 the author was forty-four and printed in the same year at Yang dgon rdul bral byang chub kyi snying po. Mtsho skyes rdo rje of number seven must of course be distinguished from his Stag lung pa namesake who flourished from 1530 to 1590; for the latter, see Ngag dbang rnam rgyal’s 1609 study of the Stag lung sect in the Stag lung chos ’byung, ed. Thar gling byams pa tshe ring, Gangs can rig mdzod 22 (Lha sa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 1992), 665-9; see also P. Schwieger, “The Lineage of the Noble House of Ga zi in East Tibet,” Kailash 28 (1996): 127. 44 See the Lam rim bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar, 224, 235, and Mang thos, Bstan rtsis gsal ba’i nyin byed lhag bsam rab dkar, ed. Nor brang o rgyan, Gangs can rig mdzod 4 (Lha sa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1987), 95. 45 Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 1:141. 46 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 79, 220 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 1:118, 303]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 88, 247; and Guo, Qingshi, 59, 164. 47 Mang thos, Lhag bsam rab dkar, 98, 100. 48 Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 2:395-6; and ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 72-3 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 1:109]; and Roerich, Blue Annals, 80; and Guo, Qingshi, 54. 49 The exact date of his passing is first found in his disciple Slob dpon bsod nams rtse mo’s (1142-82) Slob dpon phya pa la bstod pa, in Sa skya pa’i bka’ ’bum [1736 Sde dge print], vol. 2, comp. Bsod nams rgya mtsho (Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 1968), no. 5, 40/3 [ka, 80b]. Las chen, Bka’ gdams chos ’byung, 1:228, briefly discusses Phya pa in the context of the abbatial succession of Gsang phu sne’u thog Monastery, but does not date him. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 14 so that, if anything, ’Gos lo tsā ba’s dates for Zul phu ba are more plausible than the Las chen’s. Later historians such as Mang thos, who apparently had no access to Dpa’ bo II’s work, and Sum pa mkhan po ye shes dpal ’byor (1704-88), to name but two, all criticized The Blue Book on various occasions.50 Dpa’ bo II was far less inclined to outright criticism51 and this was doubtless due to the fact that his connection with ’Gos lo tsā ba was a close one. All we really need to do is to recall that he had been one of Zhwa dmar IV’s main students. Unidentified til now, the scholar who signs himself as Paṇḍita Kīrtivajra, that is, Paṇḍita grags pa rdo rje, in a brief study on chronological aspects of the Bka’ gdams pa school,52 was yet another of ’Gos lo tsā ba’s many disciples. Grags pa rdo rje relates there that another one of his teachers was a certain ’Jam dbyangs pradznya badzra, that is, Shes rab rdo rje (1394-1467).53 I believe it is virtually certain that Grags pa rdo rje ought to be identified as Grags pa rdo rje dpal bzang po (b. 1444), the author of an undated study of the history of the transmission of Śākyaśrībhadra’s (1127-1225) vinaya tradition in Tibet that I had occasion to use elewhere. For we learn in this work that one of the author’s teachers and ordaining “abbot” was none other than this Shes rab rdo rje of Ri bo dge ’phel Monastery.54 The manuscript of Grags pa rdo rje’s little tract on religious chronology, a copy of which I owe to the kind generosity of Tashi Tsering and Roberto Vitali, claims our attention and interest. In the first place, it provides tangible evidence that either ’Gos lo tsā ba had changed his mind on (at least) one date when he was compiling The Blue Book, or, less purposefully and without awareness, that he simply adopted there a (different) date from the source he was using. For we read in The Blue Book that the Bka’ gdams pa monastery of Snar thang was founded by Gtum ston blo gros grags pa (1086-1166) in 1153.55 Grags pa rdo rje, who in this first of two 50 For Mang thos, see Mang thos, Lhag bsam rab dkar, 59, etc., and for Sum pa mkhan po, see the remarks appended to the chronological tables of his 1748 Chos ’byung dpag bsam ljon bzang, ed. Dkon mchog tshe brtan (Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1992), 908-10 [= Collected works of Sum-pa-Mkhan-po (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1975), 1:571-2]. 51 As far as I can tell, but I may very well have missed one or two other references, Dpa’ bo II mentions The Blue Book in Dpa’ bo II, Mkhas pa’i dga’ ston, 1:174, 505, 710-11, 730, and only at times in a muted critical tone. 52 Grags pa rdo rje, Bstan rtsis. The manuscript containing Bstan rtsis falls into three parts: 1b-5a, 5a-12a, 12a-3a; these are all signed by “Paṇḍita Kīrtivajra” [= Grags pa rdo rje]. Part two begins with a verse of homage to the eleventh-century Smṛtijñānakīrti, and details the textual transmissions that issued from him. Parts one and two have a separate author’s colophon: ’di yang paṇḍi ta kīrtti badzra sbyer// (sic). Devoted to the transmission lineage of Vaiśrāvaṇa, the colophon of part three reads: ...paṇ chen kīrtti badzras bkod pa lags[ s]o//. R. Vitali used this manuscript in his Record of Tho.ling: A Literary and Visual Reconstruction of the “Mother” Monastery in Gu.ge (Dharamsala: High Asia, 1999), 289. 53 Grags pa rdo rje, Bstan rtsis, 6b – see also Bstan rtsis, 7b: bdag gi bla ma mkhas grub chen po shes rab rdo rje. 54 See the Mkhan [b]rgyud rnam gsum byon tshul gyi rnam thar, twenty-five-folio, handwritten dbu med manuscript, C.P.N. catalogue no. 002775(6), 15b-6b. 55 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 252 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 1:344]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 282; and Guo, Qingshi, 187. The water-female-bird (chu mo bya) year is already found in Yar lung jo bo shākya rin chen sde’s 1376 chronicle, for which see the Yar lung jo bo’i chos ’byung, ed. Dbyangs can (Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1988), 115. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 15 certain references to the master respectfully calls him “Gzhon nu’i zhabs,” says that (to his knowledge) he had instead dated its foundation to 1141(!), and contrasts this with the year 1153 that had been given earlier by Mchims blo bzang grags pa, himself the twelfth abbot of this institution.56 To be noted here is once again the forward (or backward) shift of one duodenary cycle. This could mean that, possibly in the tables that were appended to his earlier Rtsis la ’khrul pa sel ba, ’Gos lo tsā ba had reconsidered this date. Calling him “Rje btsun gzhon nu’i zhabs” in the second mention of his name, Grags pa rdo rje quotes him as having said, “When the holy precious one [Pha dam pa sangs rgyas] went to the Sha ’ug pass of Gnyal, the precepts he gave Rma sgom shes rab bla ma in Yar lung are known as the Rma system.”57 The section on Zhi byed in The Blue Book devotes several pages on the relationship of these two men. While it does not contain this quote, it does mention that Pha dam pa spent some time in Sha ’ug.58 A little farther down in his work, Grags pa rdo rje speaks of a “Dbang phyug lo gzhon nu dpal,” and says that he was a disciple of both Byams gsar and A ra chos rje nyi ma rgyal mtshan [read: A ro chos rje nyi ma rgyal mtshan], that he had a large following of some seven hundred students in Chos ’khor gling, and that he “is at present an adherent of the Jo nang pa philosophical position.”59 It is not possible that this Gzhon nu dpal refers to ’Gos lo tsā ba. Though the latter had indeed studied at an institution called Chos ’khor gling60 as a young man, neither Byams gsar nor Nyi ma rgyal mtshan are mentioned by Zhwa dmar IV as having been his teachers. Could this Gzhon nu dpal then have been a scholar associated with Lo Monastery in Bya yul? The Blue Book begins anomalously. Following Indian Buddhist tradition, Tibetan works customarily begin with a line, a verse, or a series of verses in which the author pays homage to the Buddha, a Bodhisattva, one or more tutelary deities, and/or his teacher[s]. Called the mchod par brjod pa, this preamble is then followed by a statement in which the author states her or his intention for the pages that follow. This is called the rtsom par dam bca’ ba. Derivative of Indian scholarly practice and thus replicated in the earliest writings by Tibetans, these preliminary conventions placed at the head of the actual body of a treatise as such were first enshrined in the Tibetan literary canon by Sa skya paṇḍita kun dga’ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251) in his uneven survey on the principles of scholarship, the Mkhas pa rnams la ’jug pa’i sgo of the 1220s.61 Curiously, it is this second feature that is absent for the text as a whole, for the brief statement of intent that immediately follows the mchod par brjod pa only has to do with its first chapter. Come to think 56 Grags pa rdo rje, Bstan rtsis, 2a. 57 Grags pa rdo rje, Bstan rtsis, 6b: dam pa rin po che dmyal gyi sha ’ug la la byon pa’i tshe\u0F10 yar lung du sma sgom shes rab bla ma la gnang ba’i gdams pa rnam la rma lugs su grags pa yin.... 58 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 773 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1019]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 871; and Guo, Qingshi, 568. 59 Grags pa rdo rje, Bstan rtsis, 7a-b: da lta jo nang pa’i grub mtha’ ’dzin pa yin\u0F10 . 60 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 6a [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 13]. 61 See the text in the Sa skya pa’i bka’ ’bum [1736 Sde dge print], comp. Bsod nams rgya mtsho, vol. 5 (Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 1968), no. 6, 82/1 ff. [tha, 165a ff.]. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 16 of it, the mchod par brjod pa of The Blue Book is also quite out of the ordinary, for it is simply a reproduction of the canonical Trikāyastava that is attributed to Nāgārjuna. I know of no other Tibetan treatise in which an author has used a canonical tract in lieu or in favor of a more personal mchod par brjod pa of his or her own. In combination, these two features of the very beginning of The Blue Book may very well indicate that the original manuscript forming the basis of the first blockprint was fragmentary and incomplete. That is to say, the text that we have belonged to what we may call his Nachlass. No handwritten manuscripts of The Blue Book have come down to us so far. I believe we can safely discount the notion that an autograph may have existed when we take into account ’Gos lo tsā ba’s ill health and the overwhelming evidence for its corporate authorship. What we notice immediately about its blockprinted witnesses is that the text is not divided into numbered chapters, but rather into unnumbered sections. The later editors and publishers organized these under various “chapter” headings, and it is by no means obvious that they reflect the intentions of their author or authors. In spite of this lack of any really firm indicators of the time frame in which it was compiled, there is no doubt that it was composed over a period of several years. Though he was in ’Gos lo tsā ba’s company in 1476 and 1477, Zhwa dmar IV does not relate anything about having been personally involved in The Blue Book’s production or how it was conceived. However, he does tell us that it was completed in the earth-male-dog (sa pho khyi) year, and this is an echo of the year given in what is putatively the author’s colophon,62 a year that Roerich rightly identifies as corresponding to 1478. The colophon states that this was 850 years since the birth of King Srong btsan sgam po. And this would mean that the king was born in 629, a year that does not square with an earlier statement in the text where it says that he was born in 569 – this chronological discrepancy is of course well-known and Roerich discussed it at some length in his introduction. Inasmuch as he wrongly held that ’Gos lo tsā ba flourished in the fourteenth century, Guo calculated the earth-male-dog year to be the equivalent of 1358, no less than two full sexagenary cycles prior to the one that is indicated. Further, the colophon relates that The Blue Book was compiled in the “religious citadel” (chos rdzong) of Mngon par dga’ ba, located in the vicinity of the Kun tu bzang po grove (nags khrod).63 Mngon par dga’ ba or Mngon dga’ is sometimes referred to as being “of the East” (shar gyi). This might imply two things: there was a Mngon dga’ located to the west of Sne’u gdong, the political center of the Phag mo gru dynasty; or this Mngon dga’ was located to the east of Sne’u gdong. I am inclined to side with the second alternative. Although it is called a “grove,” Kun tu bzang po was a religious 62 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 71b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 169]; ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 969 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1272]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 1092; and Guo, Qingshi, 714. 63 See Rta tshag tshe dbang rgyal, Lho rong chos ’byung, ed. Gling dpon pad ma skal bzang and ma grong mi ’gyur rdo rje, Gangs can rig mdzod 26 (Lha sa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 1994), 392, 397. Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 18b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 45], mentions a Kun bzang rdzong, which may refer to the same structure. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 17 structure of which one could be an abbot. Indeed, it was the very place where Bsod nams bzang po alias Sgo sel ba – he was associated with the Sgo sel [?chapel] of his family’s Sne’u gdong palace – succeeded his recently deceased younger brother Spyan snga dpal ldan bzang po (1383-1407) to the “lion’s throne” of its abbacy. And upon his early death, he was in turn succeeded by his other younger brother Spyan snga nyer gnyis pa. In this context, Kun tu bzang po grove is called an “additional monastery” (yang dgon), which I take in the sense that it was another religious institution that belonged to the Phag mo gru family in addition to Gdan sa mthil and Rtses thang. Be this as it may, the year 1478 cannot be regarded as evidence for The Blue Book’s “closure,” the reason being that the blockprint contains a disproportionately long biographical sketch of Khrims khang lo tsā ba that was included in its chapter on the history of the Kālacakra.64 This was apparently done at the explicit request of one of his erstwhile patrons, namely the ruler Bya bkra shis dar rgyas legs pa’i rgyal po, who is often styled, perhaps somewhat anachronistically, a myriarch (khri dpon). And Zhwa dmar IV himself was its likely source of inspiration, for his own large study of Khrims khang lo tsā ba’s life, of which this sketch appears to be an extract, is dated to 1482.65 What all of this means is that we must distinguish between the text as it may have issued from the pens of ’Gos lo tsā ba and, more than likely, his scribes, and the one that was ultimately blockprinted over which he could not have exercised any final editorial control. Though there is no doubt that ’Gos lo tsā ba’s health was slowly faltering – he was often carried around in a carrier (’do li, ḍolī) of sorts – the last two decades of his long life were extraordinarily productive ones. With but a few serious interruptions, he worked at an astonishingly fast pace on a wide variety of different projects. Not only was he unrelenting in carrying out his duties as a teacher but, especially during the years 1471 to 1481, he managed to write a large number of commentarial treatises, tracts that included studies of the following canonical writings:66 1. Pradīpoddyotana subtitled Snying po gsal sgron (1471) 2. Uttaratantra / Ratnagotravibhāga (1473) 3. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i sgom rim (1474) 64 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 708-39 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:942-78]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 805-37; and Guo, Qingshi, 528-44. 65 For his life, see Ehrhard, Life and Travels, 35-97, which is based on Zhwa dmar IV, Rje thams cad mkhyen pa don gyi slad lo tsa ba chen po’i rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar rgya mtsho, handwritten dbu can manuscript, C.P.N. catalogue no. 003259(5). Ehrhard writes, on page 96n55, that Karma ’phrin las pa I (1456-1539) was the one who summarized his life for the final edition of The Blue Book, though he does not say what kind of sources he might have used for his précis. This may very well be true. Obviously a play on a part of Khrims khang lo tsā ba’s name in religion, Rje thams cad mkhyen pa don gyi slad lo tsa ba chen po’i rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar rgya mtsho’s subtitle is Ocean of Wonder[s]. And it is echoed in the last line of the seventh part of his biography in The Blue Book, for which see ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 736 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:974-75]. 66 Most of what follows is based on Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 46a-7a, and 69b-73b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 109-11, 164-72]. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 18 4. Thal ba’i rgyud (1474) 5. People’s Dohā (1475) 6. Guṇāparyantastotra (1475) 7. Lokātītastava (1475) 8. Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (1475-?6) 9. Abhisamayālaṃkāra subtitled Dpag bsam gyi snye ma (1478) 10.Madhyamakāvatāra (1478-79) 11.Bodhicāryāvatāra (1478-9) 12.Atiśa’s Dvayasatyāvatāra (1479-80) 13.Atiśa’s Bodhipathapradīpa (1479-80) 14.Atiśa’s Madhyamakopadeśa (1479-80) 15.King’s Dohā (1480-81) 16.Queen’s Dohā (1480-81) 17.Tattvopadeśa (1480-81) In addition, he also wrote: 18.Diagrams (sa ris) for the Rtsis la ’khrul pa sel ba (1475)67 19.’Jig rten dang ’jig rten las ’das pa’i lam gyi rten rnam par bkod pa rab tu gsal ba’i sgron ma (1478-79) 20.Rten ’brel sgra sgrub (1478) Zhwa dmar IV stipulates that ’Gos lo tsā ba composed numbers 9 and 19 at his request and numbers 15 to 17 at the behest of his disciple and secretary Smon lam grags pa. In 1473, ’Gos lo tsā ba suffered so severely from ocular problems that he basically had to compose his massive Uttaratantravyākhyā from memory, an intellectual feat that falls well beyond the pale of the ordinary. If this were not serious enough, he was also visited by a life-threatening illness in the fall of 1474 from which, however, he seems to have made a rather decent recovery. Zhwa dmar IV records that his recovery was due to the positive ritual activity Khrims khang lo tsā ba had undertaken on behalf of his teacher.68 The prospect of dying becomes ever more real the older one gets, but its inexorableness can to some degree be mitigated by the occurrence of positive omens of better things to come, and thus perhaps even temporarily postponed. An auspicious dream ’Gos lo tsā ba had just after the New Year of the fire-male-monkey (me pho spre’u) year (January 27, 1476) led him to conclude that he would be able to live an active life for some years to come. So, when Zhwa dmar IV expressed before him the wish that he live up to one hundred years so that he could continue to learn from him, the aged master replied that he would indeed be able to study under his guidance for a few more years.69 In the company of a few select disciples, ’Gos lo tsā ba went into 67 See also above note 36. 68 Zhwa dmar IV, Ngo mtshar rgya mtsho, 101b-2a. 69 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 47a-b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 111]: bdag gis lo [ ]brgya’i bar du bzhugs par gsol ba btab pa’i dus su/ lo grangs de ga tsam khas longs dka’ yang/ lo ’ga’ zhig gi bar du chos gsan pa’i bzhed pa sgrub par byed ces zhal gyis bzhes pa ltar/ dgung [s] lo dgu bcu’i bar du bzhugs nas [47b]kho bo’i ’dod chos rags pa grub par mdzad do//. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 19 partial retreat in Mngon dga’ from mid-October of 1476 to March/April of 1477.70 The regimen he imposed upon himself and his students, some of whom were already respected teachers in their own right, during these months was far from being a walk in the park. Indeed, its severity comes somewhat as a surprise in view of his old age and physical frailty. The retreat began with an intense study of the Laghukālacakratantra together with the annotations (mchan) to the Vimalaprabhā written by Bu ston rin chen grub (1290-1364) and ’Jam dbyangs chos kyi mgon po,71 and the “grand commentary” of the Chos rje bla ma. Unless the term bla ma implies that he was ’Gos lo tsā ba’s or Zhwa dmar IV’s teacher, I suspect that Chos rje bla ma might be the Sa skya pa scholar Bla ma dam pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan,72 but this is admittedly but a slightly educated guess. The teaching regimen ’Gos lo tsā ba maintained during the retreat embraced a wide variety of other treatises ranging from other tantric texts to the writings of Mkhan chen las kyi rdo rje (1326-1401) alias Lho brag grub chen and his disciple Tsong kha pa, and a number of sūtras. It was during this time that The Blue Book was begun. The hectic pace of these months notwithstanding, he was sufficiently restored and refreshed upon the conclusion of this teaching marathon to remark that he felt much better and more healthy than before, and that his newly found vigor was due to the energies of his earnest students.73 Khrims khang lo tsā ba – Zhwa dmar IV refers to him here and elsewhere as “Rje lo chen” – did not attend these sessions as he was preoccupied with construction projects at his newly acquired see of Byams gling Monastery in 70 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 70b-1b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 166-67]. To be more precise, the site of his retreat is called Rgyal chen brag mgo of the Mngon par dga’ ba chos rdzong. 71 The very little that is known about this master in astrology and the calendar is summarized in Tshul khrims rgyal mtshan (1933-2002), Dpal dus kyi ’khor lo ji ltar dar tshul brgyud pa’i lo rgyus dang bcas pa, skar nag rtsis kyi lo rgyus skor, ed. Byams pa ’phrin las (Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1998), 1:158. He succeeded G.yag sde paṇ chen brtson ’grus dar rgyas (1299-1378) to the abbatial throne of E waṃ Monastery the latter had founded in 1358. One of his main disciples, Rkyang chen shākyashrī (1369-1448) was an important Kālacakra master of ’Gos lo tsā ba; see here also Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 4b ff [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 13 ff]. 72 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 12b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 30], also mentions a “Chos rje bla ma” without giving his name in religion. Tshul khrims rgyal mtshan alludes to this event in his Dpal dus kyi ’khor lo, 244, where he has “Dpal ldan bla ma” rather than “Chos rje bla ma.” The following four Kālacakra commentators are enumerated in Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 18a [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 43-4]: Kun mkhyen chen po jo mo nang ba [= Dol po pa], Chos rje bla ma dam pa [= Bla ma dam pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan], Lo chen byang chub rtse mo (1303-81), and Chos rje phyogs pa [= Phyogs las rnam rgyal (1306-86) alias Mnga’ ris chos kyi rgyal po]. Lha khang steng pa sangs rgyas rin chen apparently used their writings when teaching the Kālacakra cycle. For some of Bla ma dam pa’s Kālacakra-related writings, see my “Fourteenth Century Tibetan Cultural History III: The Oeuvre of Bla ma dam pa Bsod nams rgyal mtshan (1312-1375), Part One,” Berliner Indologische Studien 7 (1993), 139-41. 73 Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ms.), 71b [Zhwa dmar IV, Gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam thar (ed. 2004), 169]: sku nyams kyang sngar bas bzang ba/ sku khams shin tu dangs pa/ bzhes stobs kyang shin tu che ba byung ba rnams dpon slob rnam par dag pa’i stobs las byung ba yin no zhes/. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 20 the Grwa Valley. According to Zhwa dmar IV,74 he and Chos rje nam pa [= Nam mkha’ blo gros, 1403-77] briefly met ’Gos lo tsā ba in late 1475 or early 1476 for some teachings, at which time the aged master presented them with an edition of what is said to have been a complete copy of his collected writings (bka’ ’bum tshang ma). In light of the eleven or so of his writings that could not have been included in this edition at this time, the expression “collected writings” is arguably a trifle premature. Perhaps Zhwa dmar IV’s use of it conveys the possible sense of urgency ’Gos lo tsā ba may have felt, thinking that his end was not all that far off and that this collection of his writings represented the sum total of what he was to write in his life. They met again sometime in 1477 and 1478, as well as in fall of 1479. Khrims khang lo tsā ba was visited by ’Gos lo tsā ba in a dream he had in the second lunar month (February 11 to March 12) of 1480. Having been transported in his immediate presence, his old Tibetan mentor taught him his Abhisamayālaṃkāra commentary and then changed into the shape of Vanaratna, the Indian teacher they had in common. They met for the last time during the third lunar month (March 31 to April 29/30) of 1481 when Khrims khang lo tsā ba had come to see him in Bsam gtan gling in Rtses thang (?or in Dol). Again, this was not a mere courtesy visit and he had not come with empty hands. Out of friendship, and hopefully a pleasant sense of obligation, the almost ninety-year-old ’Gos lo tsā ba gave him the supreme empowerment[?s] (mchog dbang) of Kālacakra and explanations of the allied Bde mchog stod ’grel [= Laghutantrapiṇḍārthavivaraṇa / Laghutantraṭīkā by Vajrapāṇi]. I have no idea how he was able to manage all this at his age. But Khrims khang lo tsā ba also had things to do in Bsam gtan gling. “To me,” Zhwa dmar IV writes, “[Khrims khang lo tsā ba] gave the textual transmission (lung) for the Pronouncement of Cakrasaṃvara-equal-to-the-sky, a bit (?togs) of the collected writings of ’Gro mgon rin po che [= Phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po, 1110-70 or Zhang g.yu brag pa], [and] the large Jñānavajrasamuccaya.”75 Word reached him in the eleventh month of that year that ’Gos lo tsā ba’s health was declining. And in spite of prayers and entreaties from afar by Khrims khang lo tsā ba and his monks, the old Sanskritist and scholar passed away on the twenty-eighth day of the eleventh lunar month (December 19) of 1481; later, in the middle of 1482, both Khrims khang lo tsā ba and Zhwa dmar IV consecrated the stūpa in Brag kha that contained his remains.76 Khrims khang lo tsā ba followed him some ten months later, as he passed away on the seventh day of the ninth lunar month (September 21/23) of 1482.77 As a rule and no doubt in part following Indian practice, the identification of the author of a text and, when given, the provision of such other details as the person(s) who requested him or her to write it, the place and time of its composition, 74 What follows is culled from Zhwa dmar IV, Ngo mtshar rgya mtsho, 105b, 115b-6a, 117a. 75 Zhwa dmar IV, Ngo mtshar rgya mtsho, 119b: der bdag la bde mchog nam mkha’ dang mnyam pa’i bka’ dang/ ’gro mgon rin po che’i bka’ ’bum thogs shig/ ye shes rdo rje kun las btus che ba rnams kyi lung stsal/. I read togs for thogs at the suggestion of Rgya sprul drung rams rin po che. 76 Dpa’ bo II, Mkhas pa’i dga’ ston, 2:1125-26. 77 Zhwa dmar IV, Ngo mtshar rgya mtsho, 128b. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 21 and the identity of the scribe(s) are given in the colophon that is placed at the end of the text. Though this is usually called the author’s colophon, it is not always obvious or even the case that the person who wrote it was in fact the author himself. There are plenty of occasions that such colophons were not actually written by the author. Therefore, what are called author’s colophons are sometimes authorially somewhat ambiguous. When a work is blockprinted, the author’s colophon is as a rule followed by a printer’s colophon. When for whatever reason certain changes are effected in the printing blocks, such as carving new ones when the originals had been damaged or lost in a fire, then this new circumstance would more often than not be identified in subsequent post-printer’s colophons. A print from an additional printing block that functions as a supplement to the original number of blocks would then give the relevant information. A diachronic study of these different colophons, their structural features, and the particular signatures of the different printeries are important desiderata in the field. We already meet with the sequence of an author’s colophon being followed by a printer’s colophon at the end of what is so far the oldest extant print of a Tibetan text, namely, the December 16, 1284, Dadu print of Sa skya paṇḍita’s celebrated Tshad ma rigs pa’i gter gyi rang gi ’grel pa.78 Space permitting, a printer’s colophon could be carved on the same block where the text (including the author’s colophon) ends, but it seems only if it were brief and to the point. However, irrespective of its length, the printer’s colophon is frequently carved onto new blocks, thereby effectively distinguishing it from the main body of the work. These colophons can sometimes, as for example in the case of the 1538-39 Gung thang print of the Bka’ gdams glegs bam collection or the Tsum print of the Skyes bu gsum gyi lam rim rgyas pa by ?Bo dong paṇ chen ’jigs med grags pa (1375-1452) alias Phyogs las rnam rgyal, extend over a good number of folios (or printing blocks) and may even include a brief history of the way in which the carved textual corpus was handed down until it came to be printed and a listing of those who had been involved in its production, its patron(s), carver(s), and editor(s).79 In these cases, colophons serve as important and often unique historical sources. They can also be followed by a brief prayer composed for the occasion by one or another notable scholar and man of religion to promote the carved text’s dissemination and to give it his official imprimatur. If there are anomalies with the way in which The Blue Book opens its narratives in general, with its section footers as well as with what I have called its “Apology,” then the same holds for the location of the author’s and printer’s colophon within 78 See my “Two Mongol Xylographs (hor par ma) of the Tibetan Text of Sa skya Paṇḍita’s Work on Buddhist Logic and Epistemology,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 16 (1993), 279-98. The Tibetans learned the art of woodblock printing from China. By contrast, Indian Sanskrit texts were printed much later. 79 See F.-K. Ehrhard, Early Buddhist Block Prints from Mang yul Gung thang (Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2000), 118-29, 148-61. I believe J. Bacot, “Titres et colophons d’ouvrages non-canoniques tibétains – textes et traduction,” Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient XLIV (1947-50), 275-337, was among the very first publications to provide detailed accounts of colophons. See now also J. I. Cabezon, “Authorship and Literary Production in Classical Buddhist Tibet,” in Changing Minds: Contributions to the Study of Buddhism in Tibet in Honor of Jeffrey Hopkins, ed. G. Newland (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2001), 233-63. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 22 the blockprinted text. It is indeed quite odd that the author’s colophon80 of the blockprints of The Blue Book is placed after the first printer’s colophon and before the other printer’s colophon(s).81 We have already seen that what I have called the author’s colophon was a very slight piece. In fact, given its curious position, it was most likely not written by ’Gos lo tsā ba at all. Thus, it is probably inaccurate or simply wrong to call it an “author’s colophon.” Within the text of The Blue Book we have one indication that the process of the carving of the blocks was staggered. We read uniquely at the end of the section on the history of the Kālacakra in the New Delhi edition that it was “realized as a print in the Chos rgyal lhun po Palace.”82 Chos rgyal lhun po was of course the name of the residence of the Bya family in Dol. The first printer’s colophon is designed to do double duty. It does not merely provide us with details of the carving of its printing blocks as such. As a preamble to the particulars of the origin of the blockprint, it also provides us with a history of the family of its principal patron. We learn there that Khrims khang lo tsā ba had been instrumental in finding the necessary means to begin getting The Blue Book blockprinted, and he had done so at the behest of Spyan snga ngag gi dbang phyug grags pa [or Spyan snga ngag gi dbang po grags pa] alias Spyan snga tshes nyi pa, who functioned as the Spyan snga hierarch of Gdan sa mthil from 1454 to 1458 and from 1473 to 1481. He had assumed rule of Sne’u gdong in 1481, which he more or less maintained until his passing. In 1493, Zhwa dmar IV himself was elected or elevated to the Spyan snga hierarch and was, according to Dpa’ bo II and no doubt with the support of the powerful Rin spungs pa ruler Don yod rdo rje (d. 1512), “...the head of the two systems [spiritual and secular] of the Phag mo gru government.”83 To my knowledge, he was the first Spyan snga hierarch who was not born in the Rlangs family. Erecting a prosopocentric slum by inserting a host of first-person pronouns where there are none in the Tibetan text, Roerich confidently assumed that ’Gos lo tsā ba had written the printer’s colophon and states that he had requested his patron Bkra shis dar rgyas legs pa’i rgyal po to organize and release the initial funds for this project in the iron-female-ox (lcags mo glang) year. According to the different calendars of D. Schuh’s “Tabellen,” this year began either on December 31, 1480, or January 1 or 30, 1481, and ended on January 18 or 19, 1482.84 This means that the colophon’s iron-female-ox year might even indicate that the project was begun when ’Gos lo tsā ba was still alive. 80 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 969 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1271-72]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 1091-92; and Guo, Qingshi, 713-14. Roerich’s translation is here quite misleading. 81 ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 968-69, 970 [’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:1270-71, 1273-74]; Roerich, Blue Annals, 1090-91, 93; and Guo, Qingshi, 712-13, 713-14. Guo does not translate the second printer’s colophon. 82 // pho brang chos rgyal lhun por par du bsgrubs// ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1976), 741; Roerich, Blue Annals, 838; and Guo, Qingshi, 545. It is lacking in ’Gos lo, Deb sngon (ed. 1984), 2:979. 83 Dpa’ bo II, Mkhas pa’i dga’ ston, 2:1135. 84 Schuh, Kalenderrechnung, *116*. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 23 But there is nothing elsewhere in the sources that would substantiate the scenario of him having such close connections with the ruling house of Bya. Initially, however, the cost of getting the pages of the manuscript ready for carving (par yig rnams) – par yig seems to be an abbreviation of par gzhi’i yi ge [= par rtsa] – was subvented by Lady Rdo rje bde ma (d. 1490/1), the wife of Rgyal ba shes rab85 and his younger brother Rin chen bzang po (d. 1475/6), the rulers of the principality of Yar rgyab that included the Grwa Valley. Chos kyi rgyal mtshan and Dge legs dpal mgon, both erstwhile students of ’Gos lo tsā ba, were involved in editing and proofreading (zhus shing dag par byed pa) the manuscript, and Shar dwags po pa dpal phyogs thams cad las rnam par rgyal ba’i lha was evidently responsible for overseeing the entire project.86 There is no question that the latter must be identified as the very precocious Karma ’phrin las pa I, who was to become one of the major scholars of his generation during the first half of the sixteenth century.87 One of his aliases is Dwags po paṇ chen III, which we find used in the colophon of a blockprint of his 1511 biography of his uncle Bkra shis rnam rgyal (1398-1458) alias Dwags po paṇ chen I;88 Dwags po paṇ chen II, too, was his uncle, who is better known as Zur mkhar ba mnyam nyid rdo rje (1398-1458), the great physician. His future in the Kaṃ tshang sect of the Bka’ brgyud pa school was sealed when the Karma pa hierarch Zhwa nag VI Chos grags rgya mtsho (1454-1506) gave him the name “Karma ’phrin las pa” and appointed him abbot of Chos ’khor lhun po in, it seems, the 1480s.89 The second printer’s colophon is found in the last folio of the New Delhi reprint and in the penultimate folio of the Chengdu reprint of the The Blue Book. It contains a notice to the effect that some of the original blocks had been lost during the 85 Rgyal ba shes rab was the father of his more famous son, the scholar Gong dkar ba kun dga’ rnam rgyal (1432-96). 86 The difficult phrase rkyen du ’phrod pa’i ched du bya ba ched thang du sbyar defies literal translation as is evidenced in Roerich’s and Guo’s attempts to come to terms with it. 87 A sketch of his life is found in Dpa’ bo II, Mkhas pa’i dga’ ston, 2:1162-64. 88 See the Kun mkhyen bkra shis rnam rgyal gyi rnam par thar po ngo mtshar gyi rgya mtsho, fifty-one-folio blockprint, C.P.N. catalogue no. 002655(5), 50a-b. The printer’s colophon of this biography of the second abbot of ’Phan po na len dra Monastery (from 1442 to 1458) is entirely uninformative. It has a marginal notation ka which suggests that it may have formed an edition of Bkra shis rnam rgyal’s collected writings. Karma ’phrin las pa I himself was an extremely versatile and fairly prolific author – his oeuvre amounted to more than ten volumes – and, of course, he exerted an enormous influence on the intellectual development of Zhwa nag VII Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507-54); for studies of some of his writings, see lastly H. V. Guenther, Ecstatic Spontaneity: Saraha’s Three Cycles of Dohā, Nanzan Studies in Asian Religions 4 (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1993), passim, and J.-U. Sobisch, Three-Vow Theories in Tibetan Buddhism: A Comparative Study of Major Traditions from the Twelfth through Nineteenth Centuries, Contributions to Tibetan Studies 1 (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2002), 217-71. Unpublished but sighted are his: Chos ’brel dang rab gnas bsngo ba thor bu in twenty-one folios, Rdzogs rim rlung sems gnyis med kyi khrid yig zhal shog dang bcas pa’i zin bris in twenty-three folios, Sgyu ma gsum [b]rgyud kyi man ngag dmar khrid in eight folios, and the Dpal ldan bla ma dam pa ngag gi dbang po grags pa dpal bzang po’i rnam par thar pa yid phrog lha’i rnga chen in one hundred and thirteen folios. The subject of the latter is a trifle ambiguous. It is either the life-story of the erstwhile Spyan snga ngag gi dbang po or of his virtual namesake, the extraordinary twelfth abbot of Stag lung Monastery, whose dates are 1418 to 1496. 89 Dpa’ bo II, Mkhas pa’i dga’ ston, 2:1076, 1106. van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 24 troubles of the Nepal-Tibetan war of 1792, and that these were carved anew under the aegis of Rta tshag VI. We learn there that the original blocks had been housed in Yangs pa can Monastery, which, having been founded in 1503, was for close to three hundred years the see of the Zhwa dmar line of reembodiments. Zhwa dmar X Chos grub rgya mtsho’s (1742-92) association with the wrong side of the said war and his death or suicide led the Lhasa government effectively to prohibit this line from manifesting itself again – an inquiry into the metaphysical presuppositions and the mechanism of such a prohibition would be an interesting undertaking. The line was not officially “reinstated” until the formal recognition of Mi pham smra ba’i go cha, the present Zhwa dmar incarnation, who was born in 1952. Among the other consequences of the war and the role Zhwa dmar X played in it were the conversion of Yangs pa can into a Dge lugs pa monastery and the transfer of The Blue Book’s printing blocks to Dga’ ldan brtan bzhugs chos ’khor, better known as Kun bde gling. This was the newly (1792) established residence (bla brang) of Rta tshag VI in Lhasa, from which he later served as regent (rgyal tshab) during the minority of Dalai Lama IX Lungtok Gyatso (Da lai bla ma sku phreng dgu pa lung rtogs rgya mtsho, 1805-15). This is the edition that was reprinted in New Delhi.90 Later, a new set of printing blocks were carved for it at Dga’ ldan chos ’khor gling Monastery in A mchog, in distant (from Lhasa) A mdo. This formed the basis of the edition of the text that was printed in Chengdu. Summing up, the results of this brief inquiry into the history of the text(s) of The Blue Book are admittedly pretty meager. In the first place, given the problems ’Gos lo tsā ba had with his health and eyes, it is virtually certain that he did not work on it alone. Rather, he most likely supervised a team of his disciples as they were compiling it by way of excerpting what must have been a very large collection of biographical sources in particular. The evidence suggests that the lion’s share of this undertaking was probably carried out between late 1476 and early 1477. Secondly, he himself appears to have given the nickname The Blue Book to the original piece, a name that evidently stuck. And thirdly, it was never completed and its final shape, including the mchod par brjod pa and the various inserts, was the result of the editorial efforts of at least two individuals: Khrims khang lo tsā ba and the still very young Karma ’phrin las pa I. For now, we cannot rule out the possibility that Zhwa dmar IV had an editorial stake in it as well. In other words, then, the text of The Blue Book as we have it postdates ’Gos lo tsā ba’s passing by more than a year, and the carving of its printing blocks was not completed until the beginning of 1483 at the earliest. In short, then, the text was very much a group effort. 90 Lobsang Shastri, Catalogue of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Manuscript Section), vol. 2, Historical Works (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, 1990), no. 151, 129-30, lists a four hundred and eighty-six folio blockprint of The Blue Book, which the author identifies as the Pho brang chos rgyal lhun po print. This is not so. The print in question is identical to the one published in New Delhi. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 25 Glossary Note: Glossary entries are organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. All entries list the following information in this order: THDL Extended Wylie transliteration of the term, THDL Phonetic rendering of the term, English translation, Sanskrit and/or Chinese equivalent, dates when applicable, and type. Ka Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates kam tshang Kamtsang Organization karma Karma Organization karma pa Karmapa Lineage karma ’phrin las pa Karma Trinlepa karma ’phrin las pa sku phreng dang po Karma Trinlepa Kutreng Dangpo kun mkhyen chen po Künkhyen Chenpo Person kun mkhyen chen po jo mo nang ba Künkhyen Chenpo Jomo Nangwa Person kun tu bzang po Küntu Zangpo Monastery kun bde gling Kündé Ling Monastery kun bzang rtse pa Künzang Tsepa Person kun bzang rdzong Künzang Dzong Place krung go’i bod kyi shes rig zhib ’jug lte gnas su nyar ba’i ta la’i lo ma’i bstan bcos (sbyin shog ’dril ma’i par) gyi dkar chag mdor gsal Trunggö Bökyi Sherik Zhipjuk Tenesu Nyarwé Talé Lomé Tenchö (Jinshok Drilmé Par) gyi Karchak Dor Sel Text bka’ Ka bka’ ’gyur Kangyur Textual Collection bka’ brgyud pa Kagyüpa Organization bka’ chems ka khol ma Kachem Kakhölma Text bka’ gdams kyi rnam par thar pa bka’ gdams chos ’byung gsal ba’i sgron ma Kadamkyi Nampar Tarpa Kadam Chönjung Selwé Drönma Text Person Karma Trinlepa I 1456-1539 Author; Person Pronouncement Term bka’ gdams glegs bam Kadam Lekbam bka’ gdams pa Text Kadampa bka’ ’bum tshang ma kambum tsangma bkra shis rgyal mtshan Trashi Gyeltsen bkra shis dar rgyas legs pa’i rgyal po Trashi Dargyé Lekpé Gyelpo Type Organization collected writings Term Person d. 1499 Person bkra shis rnam rgyal Trashi Namgyel 1398-1458 Person rkyang chen shākyashrī 1369-1448 Person Kyangchen Shakyashri van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po skabs kap skar nag rtsis kyi lo rgyus skor Kar Nak Tsikyi Logyü Kor 26 section Term Text skyes bu gsum gyi lam Kyebu Sumgyi Lamrim Gyepa rim rgyas pa brkos kyi ’du byed pa kökyi dujepa Text carver of the blocks Term Kha Wylie Phonetics kha brda khada khri dpon tripön khrims khang lo tsā ba Trimkhang Lotsawa khrims khang lo tsā ba bsod nams rgya mtsho’i sde Trimkhang Lotsawa Sönam Gyatsö De English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Term myriarch Term Person 1424-82 mkhan [b]rgyud rnam Khengyü Namsum gsum byon tshul gyi Jöntsülgyi Namtar rnam thar Person Text mkhan chen las kyi rdo rje Khenchen Lekyi Dorjé mkhas pa lde’u rgya bod kyi chos ’byung rgyas pa Khepa Deu Gya Bökyi Chönjung Gyepa Text mkhas pa rnams la ’jug pa’i sgo Khepa Namla Jukpé Go Text 1326-1401 Person mkhas pa’i dga’ ston Khepé Gatön Text Ga Wylie Phonetics Gangchendu Chöluk gangs can du chos lugs ji tar byung ba’i Jitar Jungwé Rimpa Tönpé Logyü Chenmo rim pa ston pa’i lo rgyus chen mo English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates The Great Annals Showing the Stages of How the Buddhist Religion Emerged in the Snowy [Land] Type Text gangs can rig mdzod Gangchen Rikdzö Series gung thang Gungtang Place gung ru Gungru Person gung ru shes rab bzang po Gungru Sherap Zangpo Author gong dkar ba kun dga’ rnam rgyal Gongkarwa Künga Namgyel grags pa rdo rje Drakpa Dorjé 1432-96 Person Author; Person grags pa rdo rje dpal Drakpa Dorjé Pelzangpo bzang po b. 1444 Author; Person grwa Dra Place grwa phug pa lhun grub rgya mtsho Drapukpa Lhündrup Gyatso Person glegs thag lektak strap Term glegs bam lekbam book Term glegs bam gyi po ti lekbamgyi poti book Term Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 27 glegs bam po ti lekbam poti book Term glegs shing lekshing two wooden boards Term dga’ ldan chos ’khor Ganden Chökhor Ling gling Monastery dga’ ldan brtan bzhugs chos ’khor Ganden Tenzhuk Chökhor Monastery dgun zla ’bring po günda dringpo dge ’dun chos ’phel Gendün Chömpel dge ’dun chos ’phel Gendün Chömpel Text dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung rtsom Gendün Chömpelgyi Sungtsom Text dge lugs pa Gelukpa Organization dge legs dpal mgon Gelek Pelgön Person ’gos lo tsā ba Gö Lotsawa ’gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal Gö Lotsawa Zhönnu Pel ’gyur byang gyurjang intermediate winter-month Term 1903-52 Author; Person Person 1392-1481 Author; Person translator’s colophon Term ’gro mgon rin po che Drogön Rinpoché Person rgya sprul drung rams Gyatrül Drungram Rinpoché rin po che Person rgyal chen brag mgo Gyelchen Drakgo Place rgyal ba shes rab Gyelwa Sherap rgyal tshab gyeltsap sgo sel Gosel Place sgo sel ba Goselwa Person Person regent Term Nga Wylie Phonetics ngag gi dbang po Ngakgi Wangpo English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type 1439-91 ngag dbang chos kyi nyi ma ’jigs med bzang po Ngawang Chökyi Nyima Jikmé Zangpo Person ngag dbang rnam rgyal Ngawang Namgyel ngor chen Ngorchen Person ngor chen kun dga’ bzang po Ngorchen Künga Zangpo Author mnga’ ris chos kyi rgyal po Ngari Chökyi Gyelpo Person mngon dga’ Gönga Place mngon par dga’ ba Gönpar Gawa Place mngon par dga’ ba chos rdzong Ngönpar Gawa Chödzong Place rngog lo [tsā ba blo ldan shes rab] Ngok Lo[tsawa Loden Sherap] rngog lo tsā ba Ngok Lotsawa sngon po ngönpo Person 1571-1626 Author; Person 1005-64 Person Person blue Term van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 28 Ca Wylie Phonetics lcags mo glang chakmo lang English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Term lcang zhabs pa ’gyur Changzhappa Gyurmé Tsewang med tshe dbang Person lcang zhabs pa ’gyur Chang Zhappa Gyurmé Tsewang med tshe dbang Author lce sgom pa Person Chegompa Cha Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese Chak Lotsawa Chak Lotsawa II chag lo tsā ba sku phreng gnyis pa chos Kutreng Nyipa Chöjé Chöje Pel Pel rje dpal chu mo bya chumo ja Dates Type 1197-1264 Person water-female-bird Term chos kyi rgyal mtshan Chökyi Gyeltsen Person chos ’khor gling Chökhor Ling Monastery chos ’khor sgang lo tsā ba manydzushrī Chökhor Gang Lotsawa Mendzushri Person chos ’khor lhun po Chökhor Lhünpo Monastery chos rgyal lhun po Chögyel Lhünpo Place chos rje nam pa Chöjé Nampa Person chos rje phyogs pa Chöjé Chokpa Person chos rje bla ma Chöjé Lama Person chos rje bla ma dam pa Chöjé Lama Dampa Person chos dpal dar dpyang Chöpel Darchang Person chos ’byung chen po chönjung chenpo chos ’byung dpag bsam ljon bzang Chönjung Paksam Jönzang Text chos ’byung me tog Chönjung Metok snying po sbrang rtsi’i Nyingpo Drangtsi Chü bcud Text large ecclesiastic chronicle Term chos rdzong chödzong religious citadel Term mchan chen annotation Term mchims Chim mchims [nam mkha’ grags] Chim [Lozang Drakpa] mchog dbang chokwang mchod par brjod pa chöpar jöpa Person 1299-1375 Person supreme empowerment Term Term Ja Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type jo nang Jonang Place jo nang Jonang Monastery jo nang bka’ bzhi pa Jonang Kazhipa Person jo nang pa Jonangpa Organization Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) jo bo rje San. Atiśa Jowo Jé 29 c. Person 982-1054 Jowo Yapsé Letröpé jo bo yab sras las ’phros pa’i skyes bu Kyebu Dam Gazhikgi Jönpé Tsül Tentsi dam ’ga’ zhig[ g]i ’byon pa’i tshul bstan rtsis Text ’jam dbyangs chos kyi Jamyang Chökyi Ngönpo mgon po Person ’jam dbyangs pradznya badzra Jamyang Pradznya Badzra Person ’jig rten dang ’jig rten las ’das pa’i lam gyi rten rnam par bkod pa rab tu gsal ba’i sgron ma Jikten dang Jiktenlé Depé Lamgyi Ten Nampar Köpa Raptu Selwé Drönma Text rje thams cad mkhyen pa don gyi slad lo tsa ba chen po’i rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar rgya mtsho Jé Tamché Khyenpa Döngyi Lé Lotsawa Chenpö Nampar Tarpa Ngotsar Gyatso Text rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan Jetsün Drakpa Gyeltsen rje btsun gzhon nu’i zhabs Jetsün Zhönnü Zhap Person rje lo chen Jé Lochen Person 1148-1216 Person Nya Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese nyang ral nyi ma’i ’od Nyangrel Nyimé Özer zer Dates Type 1124-92 Author; Person nyi ma rgyal mtshan Nyima Gyeltsen Person nyi shar bkra shis Nyishar Trashi Person gnyal Nyel Place rnying ma pa Nyingmapa Organization snying po gsal sgron Nyingpo Seldrön Text Ta Wylie Phonetics ter ter English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type togs tok gtum ston blo gros grags pa Tumtön Lodrö Drakpa gter ter Term rta tshag Tatsak Person rta tshag sku phreng drug pa Tatsak Kutreng Drukpa Person rta tshag sku phreng drug pa ye shes blo bzang bstan pa’i mgon po Tatsak Kutreng Tatsak VI Yeshé Drukpa Yeshé Lozang Lozang Tenpé Tenpé Gönpo Gönpo rta tshag tshe dbang rgyal Tatsak Tsewang Gyel Term Term 1086-1166 Person 1716-1810 Person Author; Person van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 30 rten ’brel sgra sgrub Tendrel Dradrup Text rtogs pa brjod pa ngo Tokpa Jöpa Ngotsar mtshar tshangs pa’i Tsangpé Gendi gaṇḍi Text stag sgo Takgo Place stag lung Taklung Monastery stag lung Taklung Lineage stag lung chos ’byung Taklung Chönjung Text stag lung pa Taklungpa Organization bstan rtsis gsal ba’i nyin byed lhag bsam rab dkar Tentsi Selwé Nyinjé Lhaksam Rapkar Text Tha Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type thal ba’i rgyud Telwé Gyü Text thugs tuk Term ther ter Term Da Wylie Phonetics da lai bla ma sku phreng dgu pa lung rtogs rgya mtsho Dalai Lama Kutreng Dalai Lama IX Gupa Lungtok Gyatso Lungtok Gyatso English da lai bla ma sku phreng lnga pa Dalai Lama Kutreng Ngapa Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type 1805-15 Person Dalai Lama V Author; Person dung dkar rin po che Dungkar Rinpoché Person deb dep deb sngon Depngön deb ter depter deb ter sngon po Depter Ngönpo deb gter depter deb gter sngon po Depter Ngönpo deb ther depter book Term deb ther dkar po Depter Karpo White Book Text deb ther khra bo Depter Trawo Multicolored Book Text deb ther sngon po Depter Ngönpo deb ther dmar po Depter Marpo book Term Text book Term Text book Term Text Text Red Book Text deb ther dmar po gsar Depter Marpo Sarma ma Text don yod rdo rje Dönyö Dorjé dol Döl dol po pa Dölpopa dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan Dölpopa Sherap Gyeltsen dwags po paṇ chen sku phreng gnyis pa Dakpo Penchen Kutreng Nyipa Dakpo Penchen II Person dwags po paṇ chen sku phreng dang po Dakpo Penchen Kutreng Dangpo Dakpo Penchen I Person d. 1512 Person Place Person 1294-1361 Person Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 31 dwags po paṇ chen ske phreng gsum pa Dakpo Penchen Kutreng Sumpa drang bden gyis bslus pa’i slong mo ba/ mdo smad pa dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi mi tshe dpyad brjod Drangdengyi Lüpé Longmowa, Domepa Gendün Chömpelgyi Mitse Chejö Text gdan sa mthil Densatil Monastery Dakpo Penchen III Person bde mchog stod ’grel Dechok Tödrel Text ’dul ’dzin mkhyen rab Dündzin Khyenrap Gyatso rgya mtsho Author ’do li doli rdo rje rgyal Dorjé Gyel rdo rje bde ma Dorjé Dema sde dge Degé Place sde srid ’phrin las rgya mtsho Desi Trinlé Gyatso Person brda bkrol gser gyi me long Datröl Sergyi Melong Text carrier San. ḍolī Term Author; Person d. 1490/1 Person Na Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Naktso Lotsawa nag tsho lo tsā ba tshul khrims rgyal ba Tsültrim Gyelwa nags khrod naktrö nam mkha’ blo gros Namkha Lodrö Type Person grove Term 1403-77 Person norwé nyokpa dangjé the pure-water nor ba’i rnyog pa jewel cleansing the dang byed chu ’dang chudanggi norbu mud of mistakes gi nor bu Term gnam gang namgang full moon’s day Term rnam thar gtsang ba namtar tsangwa biography Term snar thang Nartang Monastery sne’u gdong Neudong Place Pa Wylie Phonetics pad dkar zhal lung Pekar Zhellung English Text paṇ chen bsod nams grags pa Penchen Sönam Drakpa Author paṇḍita grags pa rdo Pendita Drakpa Dorjé rje Sanskrit/Chinese San. Paṇḍita Kīrtivajra Dates Type Person par gyi glegs bu yongs pargyi lekbu yongdruppa sgrub pa one who made the labeling of the print[-ing blocks] Term par byang parjang printer’s colophon Term par rtsa partsa Term par gzhi’i yi ge parzhi yige Term par yig paryik par yig rnams paryik nam Term pages of the manuscript ready for carving Term van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 32 pu to ba’i rnam thar Putowé Namtar po ti poti book Term po ti glegs bam poti lekbam book Term po to Poto Monastery po to ba Potowa Person Text po to ba rin chen gsal Potowa Rinchen Sel Person po to ba’i rnam thar Potowé Namtar pod pö book Term pod nag ma Pö Nakma Black Book Text pod ser ma Pö Serma Yellow Book Text dpag bsam gyi snye ma Paksamgyi Nyema Text dpa’ bo sku phreng gnyis pa Pawo Kutreng Nyipa Pawo II Person dpa’ bo sku phreng gnyis pa gtsug lag phreng ba Pawo Kutreng Nyipa Pawo II Tsuklak Tsuklak Trengwa Trengwa Text 1504-66 Author; Person dpal dus kyi ’khor lo Pel Dükyi Khorlo Jitar Dartsül Gyüpé Logyü ji ltar dar tshul brgyud pa’i lo rgyus dang Chepa dang bcas pa Text dpal dus kyi ’khor lo’i rgyud kyi dka’ ’grel snying po’i don rab tu gsal ba’i rgyan Pel Dükyi Khorlö Gyükyi Kadrel Nyingpö Dön Raptu Selwé Gyen Text dpal ldan bla ma dam pa mkhan chen thams cad mkhyen pa don gyi slad du mtshan nas smos te gzhon nu dpal gyi rnam par thar pa yon tan rin po che mchog tu rgyas pa’i ljon pa Penden Lama Dampa Khenchen Tamché Khyenpa Döngyi Ledu Tsenné Mö te Zhönnu Pelgyi Nampar Tarpa Yönten Rinpoché Choktu Gyepé Jönpa Text spyang lung pa gzhon Changlungpa Zhönnu Lodrö nu blo gros 1372-1475 Person spyan mnga’ Chennga Lineage spyan snga Chennga Lineage spyan snga ngag gi dbang po Chennga Ngakgi Wangpo Person spyan snga ngag gi dbang po grags pa Chennga Ngakgi Wangpo Drakpa Person Chennga Ngakgi spyan snga ngag gi dbang phyug grags pa Wangchuk Drakpa Person spyan snga nyer gnyis Chennga Nyer Nyipa pa Person spyan snga nyer gnyis Chennga Nyer Nyipa pa bsod nams rgyal Sönam Gyeltsen mtshan 1386-1434 Person spyan snga dpal ldan Chennga Penden Zangpo bzang po 1383-1407 Person Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 33 spyan snga tshes nyi pa Chennga Tsé Nyipa Person spyi bo lhas pa Chiwo Lhepa Place Pha Wylie Phonetics pha dam pa Padampa English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Person pha dam pa sangs rgyas Padampa Sanggyé Person phag mo gru Pakmodru Clan phag mo gru gdan sa Pakmodru Densatil mthil phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po Type Monastery Pakmo Druppa Dorjé Gyelpo 1110-70 Person Podrang Gyelzang pho brang rgyal bzang[s] smon mkhar Mönkhar Place pho brang chos rgyal Podrang Chögyel Lhünpo lhun po Place Podrang Chödzong pho brang chos rdzong chen po bi dzā Chenpo Bidzaya Prastir ya prasthir Place Podrang Chödzong pho brang chos rdzong chen po bi dzā Chenpo Bidzaya Prastir ya prasthir Place phya pa Person Chapa phya pa chos kyi seng Chapa Chökyi Senggé ge Person phyogs las rnam rgyal Choklé Namgyel Person phyogs las rnam rgyal Choklé Namgyel ’phan po na len dra 1306-86 Penpo Nalendra Person Monastery Ba Wylie Phonetics bu ston kha ches mdzad pa’i chos ’byung rin po che’i mdzod las/ rig pa ’dzin pa tshe dbang nor bus nye bar btus pa’o Butön Khache Dzepé Chönjung Rinpoché Dzölé, Rikpa Dzinpa Tsewang Norbü Nyebar Tüpao English beubum bo dong Bodong bo dong paṇ chen ’jigs med grags pa Bodong Penchen Jikmé Drakpa Bökyi Yüldu Chö bod kyi yul du chos dang chos smra ba ji dang Chömawa Jitar ltar byung ba’i rim pa Jungwé Rimpa Dates Type Text bu ston rin chen grub Butön Rinchendrup be’u bum Sanskrit/Chinese 1290-1364 Person booklet Term Place 1375-1452 Person The Stages of How Buddhism and Buddhists Emerged in Tibet Text bya Ja Clan bya bkra shis dar rgyas legs pa’i rgyal po Ja Trashi Dargyé Lekpé Gyelpo Person van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po bya rgod gshongs Jargö Shong bya yul Jayül byang bdag rnam rgyal grags bzang Jangdak Namgyel Drakzang byams gling Jamling 34 Place Place 1399-1475 Person Monastery byams gling paṇ chen Jamling Penchen bsod nams rnam rgyal Sönam Namgyel 1400-1475 Person byams gsar Jamsar Person byas jé Term brag dmar me ba Drakmar Mewa Place brag ram Drakram Place bris dri bla brang labrang bla ma lama bla ma dam pa Lama Dampa bla ma dam pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan Lama Dampa Sönam Gyeltsen blo bzang mi ’gyur rdo rje Lozang Mingyur Dorjé Term residence Term Term Person 1312-75 Person Person dbang phyug lo gzhon Wangchuk Lo Zhönnupel nu dpal Person dbu can uchen Term dbu med umé Term ’bri khung lo tsā ba Drikhung Lotsawa Person ’brog mi rin chen rgyal mtshan Drokmi Rinchen Gyeltsen Person ’brom Drom Person ’brom ston [rgyal ba’i Dromtön [Gyelwé Jungné] ’byung gnas] 1005-64 Person Dates Type Ma Wylie Phonetics mang thos Mangtö mang thos klu sgrub rgya mtsho Mangtö Ludrup Gyatso mang thos klu sgrub rgya mtsho mang thos klu sgrub rgya mtsho Author mar pa bka’ brgyud pa Marpa Kagyüpa Organization mi pham smra ba’i go Mipam Mawé Gocha cha English Sanskrit/Chinese Person 1523-96 Person Person me pho spre’u mepo treu dmar ston rin chen shākya Martön Rinchen Shakya rma Ma Name rma sgom shes rab bla ma Magom Sherap Lama Person smon lam grags pa Mönlam Drakpa Person Term 1291-?1365 Person Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 35 Tsa Wylie Phonetics tsong kha pa Tsongkhapa English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Person btsan lha ngag dbang Tsenlha Ngawang Tsültrim tshul khrims Author [b]tsum Tsum Place rtsis tsi rtsis la ’khrul pa sel ba Tsila Trülpa Selwa Text rtses thang Tsetang Place rtses thang Tsetang Monastery rtsom par dam bca’ ba tsompar damchawa Term chronological calculation Term Tsha Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Tsema Rigpé Tergyi tshad ma rigs pa’i gter gyi rang gi ’grel Ranggi Drelpa pa tshal pa Text Tselpa Person tshal pa kun dga’ rdo Tselpa Künga Dorjé rje tshal pa dkar nag Tselpa Karnak tshul khrims rgyal mtshan Tsültrim Gyeltsen Type 1309-64 The Black Catalogue of the Tshal pa [Kangyur] Person Text Author tshe ring dbang rgyal Tsering Wanggyel Author; Person [tshong ’dus] brag kha [Tsongdü] Drakkha Place mtsho skyes rdo rje Tsokyé Dorjé 1479-1519 Person Dza Wylie Phonetics English mdzad byang dzejang the author’s colophon ’dzam gling rig pa’i dpa’ bo rdo brag dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi byung ba brjod pa bden gtam rna ba’i bcud len Dzamling Rikpé Pawo Dodrak Gendün Chömpelgyi Jungwa Jöpa Dentam Nawé Chülen rdzong dpon pa sku mched dzong pönpa kuché castellan-brothers Wylie Phonetics English zhang g.yu brag pa Zhang Yudrakpa Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Term Text Term Zha Zhang Yudrakpa zhang g.yu brag pa brtson ’grus grags pa Tsöndrü Drakpa zhang shar ba pa Zhang Sharbapa Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Person 1123-93 Person Person van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po zhang shar ba pa [yon Zhang Sharbapa [Yönten Drak] tan grags] 36 1070-1141 Person zhal brda zhelda Term zhal brda phebs pa zhelda peppa Term zhi byed Zhijé Lineage zhus shing dag par byed pa zhü shing dakpar jepa editing and proofreading Term zhwa nag sku phreng Zhanak Kutreng Drukpa Chödrak drug pa chos grags Gyatso rgya mtsho Zhanak VI Chödrak Gyatso 1454-1506 Person zhwa nag sku phreng Zhanak Kutreng Dünpa Mikyö Dorjé bdun pa mi bskyod rdo rje Zhanak VII Mikyö Dorjé 1507-54 zhwa dmar Zhamar Person Lineage zhwa dmar sku phreng Zhamar Kutreng Chupa bcu pa Zhamar X zhwa dmar sku phreng Zhamar Kutreng bcu pa chos grub rgya Chupa Chödrup Gyatso mtsho Zhamar X Chödrup Gyatso zhwa dmar sku phreng Zhamar Kutreng Zhipa bzhi pa Zhamar IV Person 1742-92 Person Person Zhamar IV Chödrak zhwa dmar sku phreng Zhamar Kutreng bzhi pa chos grags ye Zhipa Chödrak Yeshé Yeshé shes 1453-1524 Author; Person zhwa lu lo tsā ba chos Zhalu Lotsawa Chökyong Zangpo skyong bzang po 1441-1528 Person gzhon nu dpal Zhönnupel Person gzhon nu’i zhabs Zhönnü Zhap Person Za Wylie Phonetics English zab pa dang rgya che ba’i dam pa’i chos kyi thob yig ganggā’i chu rgyun Zappa dang Gyachewé Dampé Chökyi Topyik Ganggé Chu Gyün Record of Teachings Received Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Text zur mkhar ba mnyam Zurkharwa Nyamnyi Dorjé nyid rdo rje 1398-1458 Person zul phu ba Zülpuwa Person zul phu ba brtson ’grus ’bar Zülpuwa Tsöndrü Bar Person Ya Wylie Phonetics English yang dgon yanggön additional monastery Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Term yang dgon rdul bral Yanggön Düldrel byang chub kyi snying Jangchupkyi Nyingpo po Monastery yangs pa can Yangpachen Monastery yar rgyab Yargyap Place yar lung Yarlung Place Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 37 yar lung jo bo shākya Yarlung Jowo Shakya Rinchen Dé rin chen sde Author yar lung jo bo’i chos Yarlung Jowö Chönjong ’byung Text yi ge pa yigepa scribe Term yi ge’i rig byed pa yigé rikjepa knower of graphs Term ye shes rgyal mtshan Yeshé Gyeltsen 1713-93 Yongdzin Yeshé yongs ’dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan lam rim Gyeltsen Lamrim Lama Gyüpé Namtar bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar Person Text Yakdé Penchen g.yag sde paṇ chen brtson ’grus dar rgyas Tsöndrü Dargyé 1299-1378 Person Ra Wylie Phonetics [rang byung bdud rtsi’i rgyun can] mngon par dga’ ba [Rangjung Dütsi Gyünchen] Gönpar Gawa English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Place ri chos nges don rgya Richö Ngedön Gyatso mtsho Text ri bo dge ’phel Riwo Gempel Monastery rig ’dzin Rindzin Person rig ’dzin tshe dbang nor bu Rindzin Tsewang Norbu 1698-1755 Author; Person rin chen bzang po Rinchen Zangpo d. 1475/6 Person rin spungs Rinpung Place rin spungs pa Rinpungpa Clan La Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates rlangs Lang Clan lam ’bras Lamdré Doxographical Category lam ’bras bu dang bcas pa’i man ngag gi byung tshul gsung ngag rin po che bstan pa rgyas pa’i nyi ’od Lam Drebu dang Chepé Menngakgi Jungtsül Sungngak Rinpoché Tenpa Gyepé Nyi’ö Text lam rim chen mo Lamrim Chenmo Text las chen Lechen Person las chen kun dga’ rgyal mtshan Lechen Künga Gyeltsen Author; Person lung lung lo Lo Monastery lo rgyus tshigs su bcad pa dad pa’i ’dza’ bshes Logyü Tsiksu Chepa Depé Dzashé Text lo chen byang chub rtse mo Lochen Jangchup Tsemo textual transmission Type Term 1303-81 Person van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 38 Sha Wylie Phonetics sha ’ug Sha Uk English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Place sha ’ug [stag sgo] Sha Uk [Takgo] Place shad shé shar gyi Shargyi shar dwags po pa dpal phyogs thams cad las rnam par rgyal ba’i lha Shar Dakpopa Pelchok Tamchelé Nampar Gyelwé Lha Person shing dang me tog sogs kyi ngos ’dzin dang ngos ji ltar ’phrod tshul Shing dang Metok Sokkyi Ngöndzin dang Ngö Jitar Trötsül Text Term of the East Term shes rab kyi pha rol tu Sherapkyi Paröltu phyin pa’i sgom rim Chinpé Gomrim Text shes rab rdo rje Sherap Dorjé 1394-1467 Person shes rab rdo rje Sherap Dorjé 1124/5-1204/5 Person Sa Wylie Phonetics sa skya pa Sakyapa sa skya paṇḍita Sakya Pendita sa skya paṇḍita kun dga’ rgyal mtshan Sakya Pendita Künga Gyeltsen English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Organization Person 1182-1251 Person sa skya pa’i bka’ bum Sakyapé Kabum sa pho khyi sa po khyi sa ris sari Type Textual Collection Term diagram Term sangs rgyas bstan pa’i Sanggyé Tenpé chos ’byung dris lan Chönjung Drilen Norbü Trengwa nor bu’i phreng ba Text sangs rgyas yar byon Sanggyé Yarjön 1203-72 sangs rgyas rin chen Sanggyé Rinchen 1339-1424 Person sum pa mkhan po Sumpa Khenpo sum pa mkhan po ye shes dpal ’byor Sumpa Khenpo Yeshé Penjor se spyil bu ba Se Chilbuwa Author; Person 1704-88 Person Person se spyil bu ba [?chos Se Chilbuwa [?Chökyi Gyeltsan] kyi rgyal mtshan] sems Person 1121-89 sem Person Term srong btsan sgam po Songtsen Gampo d. 649/50 Person slob dpon phya pa la Loppön Chapa Latöpa bstod pa Text slob dpon bsod nams Loppön Sönam Tsemo rtse mo Author gsang phu sne’u thog Sangpu Neutok gsung sung bsam grub grags Samdrup Drak Monastery statement Term Person Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) bsam gtan gling Samten Ling bsod nams bzang po Sönam Zangpo 39 Monastery 1380-1416 Person Ha Wylie Phonetics hor gtsang ’jigs med Hortsang Jikmé Author; Person lha khang steng Lhakhang Teng Place lha khang steng pa Lhakhang Tengpa Person Lhakhang Tengpa lha khang steng pa sangs rgyas rin chen Sanggyé Rinchen Person lha khang[s] stengs Lhakhang Teng lha sa Lhasa lho brag grub chen Lhodrak Drupchen English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Person Lhasa Place Person lho rong chos ’byung Lhorong Chönjung Text A Wylie Phonetics a mchog Amchok English Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type Place a mdo Amdo Place a ra chos rje nyi ma rgyal mtshan Ara Chöjé Nyima Gyeltsen Person a ro chos rje nyi ma rgyal mtshan Aro Chöjé Nyima Gyeltsen Person e wam Ewam Evam Phonetics English Monastery Non-Tibetan Wylie Sanskrit/Chinese Dates Type San. Abhidharmakośabhāsya Text San. Abhisamayālaṃkāra Text San. Anāthapiṇḍada Person San. Atiśa Person San. Bodhicāryāvatāra Text San. Bodhipathapradīpa Text San. Buddha Deity San. Dvayasatyāvatāra Text San. Guṇāparyantastotra Text San. Jñānavajrasamuccaya Text San. Kālacakra Term San. Laghukālacakratantra Text San. Laghutantrapiṇḍārthavivaraṇa Text van der Kuijp: On the Composition and Printings of the Deb gter sngon po 40 San. Laghutantraṭīkā Text San. Lokātītastava Text San. Madhyamakāvatāra Text San. Madhyamakopadeśa Text San. Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra Text San. pañjikā Term San. poṭhi Term San. Pradīpoddyotana Text San. Puṇḍarīka Person San. pustaka Term San. Ratnagotravibhāga Text San. Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā Text San. sarga San. Śākyaśrībhadra Term 1127-1225 Person San. Smṛtijñānakīrti Person San. Sthiramati Person San. Tattvārtha Text San. Tattvopadeśa Text San. Uttaratantra Text San. Uttaratantravyākhyā Text San. Vairocanavajra Person San. Vaiśrāvaṇa Person San. Vajrapāṇi Deity San. 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