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Some Corrections and Critical Remarks on Dr. Johan van Manen's Contribution to the Bibliography of Tibet1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Andrew Vostrikov
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Extract

The bibliography of the literature of Tibet is beset with extraordinary difficulties. The access to the literary treasures of this country is not easy and our knowledge in this domain is therefore exceedingly limited. If we exclude the two great Collections of Translations (the Kanjur and the Tanjur) which are tolerably well known from the bibliographical standpoint, we must confess that the great ocean of the original Tibetan literature, the literature of Tibet proper, remains almost entirely unknown.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 1935 , pp. 51 - 76
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1935

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References

page 51 note 2 The most prominent works in this line are: “Index du Bstan-hgyur,” par Cordier, P. (Catalogue du fonds tibétain de la Bibliothèque Nationale, ii and iii), Paris, 1909–1915;Google ScholarVerzeichnis der tibetischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, von DrBeckh, Hermann, 1 Abt. Kanjur (Bkah-hgyur), Berlin, 1914;CrossRefGoogle Scholar“Analysis of Kanjur and Tanjur,” by Körösi, Alexander Csoma (in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xx, Calcutta, 1836)Google Scholar, and its emendated translation by Feer, L. (in the Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. ii, Paris, 1881);Google Scholar the works of I. J. Schmidt, A. Schiefner, B. Laufer, and many others.

A considerable number of Tanjur texts has been edited and translated by Professor Th. Stcherbatsky, M. de la Vallee Poussin, and others.

page 52 note 1 As an example of much labour spent on an unimportant subject, we can quote the work of ProfessorBacot, J.: “Une grammaire tibétaine du tibétain classique; les Šlokas grammaticaux de Thon. mi. sam. bho. ta avec leur commentaires, trad. du tibétain et annotés par J. Bacot” (Annales du Musée Guimet, Bibliothèque d'Étude, t. 37), Paris, 1928.Google Scholar

It is a splendidly executed work, but the choice of the text is strange. Its main part is not the short tract of Thon. mi. sam. bho. ta, which has been published several times before. but its commentary, which is here reproduced with great technical skill phototypically, a transcription in Tibetan and Roman characters, as well as a French translation being added. But just this commentary is not at all worthy of the great attention devoted to it. It is a very popular primer; hundreds of such elementary manuals exist in Tibet. It represents a short and anonymous extract from the very well-known grammar of Situ and from the notes on it by Considering that there are most important, fundamental grammars written by Tibetans, as e.g. the grammar of , which was followed by a whole school of grammarians, a school which is constantly referred to and criticized by Situ; or the grammar of , containing a very interesting, quite new form of exposition and many other important and interesting works on grammar by the Tibetans, all of them unpublished and hardly known by name; considering all this, it is very strange to see Professor J. Bacot spending so much work on a quite insignificant tract, without at all mentioning and apparently without suspecting the existence of works of much greater importance.

page 53 note 1 These lists are indicated in Professor F. W. Thomas' Memorandum and invan Manen's paper. Their number is now increased by a catalogue of the Schilling collection compiled by ProfessorBacot, J.. Cf. “La collection tibétaine Schilling von Canstadt à la Bibliothèque de l'Institut,” par Jacques Bacot (Journal Asiatique, tome ccv, 10–12, 1924, pp. 321–348, Paris, 1924).Google Scholar

page 53 note 2 It contains e.g. the list of “Annals of Monasteries and Priestly Successions” excerpted from the Verzeichniss der Tibetischen Handschriften und Holzdrmke im Asiatischen Museum of I. J. Schmidt and O. Böhtlingk. But this is a mistake. The nine works mentioned in the Memorandum under this item are not at all “Annals”. No. 1 represents a supplement to the collection of sādhanas Nos. 2–4 point to the literature devoted to the custom of “total fasting” printed , and Nos. 5–9 represent collections of hymns recited and sung at different divine services. These collections of hymns are different in different monasteries, and the list of Professor F. W. Thomas contains five such collections in use in five different monasteries in Buriat-Mongolia.

Professor F. W. Thomas equally repeats the mistake or misprint of the Verzeichniss in spelling and interpreting the term (printed ). This term is nothing else than the Russian word , written in Tibetan letters; the English “deputy”. It was the title given at that time to the (sounds in the Buriat pronunciation “Bandida-Khanbo”), or the archbishop of the Buddhist clergy in Buriat-Mongolia, Msgr. Dambadarje Zayagiin (Zayayeff), as a member of the Buriat-Mongolian deputation in the Imperial Commission set up by the Empress Catherine II for elaborating the New Code of 1766. His work is a short MS. containing his autobiography and the history of the foundation of the first Buddhist Monastery in Transbaikalia, the Zongol monastery called in Tibetan (so called in imitation of the celebrated Tibetan monastery of that name). It is a very interesting account, containing a lively picture, of the manner in which Buddhism has spread in Buriat-Mongolia.

page 54 note 1 “A contribution to the Bibliography of Tibet,“ by Manen, Johan van, Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, vol. xviii, 1922, No. 8, pp. 445–525Google Scholar (issued November, 1923, Calcutta).

page 55 note 1 This bibliographical composition is entered in the complete works of this author under No. 25, 65 folios.

page 55 note 2 Their importance for Tibetan bibliography has already been pointed out by ProfessorWasilieffin, W. P. his paper, “Die auf den Buddhismus bezüglichen Werke der Universitäts-Bibliothek zu Kasan,” Mélanges Asiatiques, tome ii, pp. 347–386, St.-Petersburg, 1855. (Bulletin historico-philologique de l'Academie Imp. des Sciences de St.-Petersburg, t. xi, No. 22, 23).Google Scholar

page 55 note 3 This composition is entered in his complete works, published in Ganden-rabgye-ling monastery Amdo, vol. vi , 63 folios.

page 55 note 4 “Verzeichniss der tibetischen Handschriften und Holzdrucke im Asiatischen Museum der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften,“ verfasst von I. J. Schmidt und 0. Böhtlingk (Bulletin historico-philologique de l'Academie Impérial des Sciences de St.-Petersburg, t. iv, No. 6, 7, 8).

page 57 note 1 Manen, J. van, op. cit., p. 449.Google Scholar

page 57 note 2 The attempt to receive bibliographical information from Tibet by the way of questioning the Tibetans themselves is not quite new. In the year 1901 Dr. Emil Schlagintweit, supported by W. W. Rockhill and Sarat Chandra Das, applied to the Dalai Lama himself asking him to give his assent to a compilation of lists of old Sanskrit MSS. preserved in the libraries of Tibetan monasteries. This attempt failed. A letter from these scholars was delivered (in 1902) by the ambassadors of the U.S.A. and Germany to the Chinese Government, who answered that they had forwarded the letter to Tibet. However, no answer from Tibet was received. The history of these transactions is related in “Bericht iiber eine Adresse an den Dalai Lama in Lhasa (1902) zur Erlangung von Bueherverzeichnissen aus den dortigen buddhistischen Klostern”, Schlagintweit, von Emil (Abhandlungen der philosophisch-philologischen Klasse der Kōnigl. Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, xx Bd., iii Abt., S. 657–674, München, 1905).Google Scholar We find here the English and Tibetan texts of the letter and all the correspondence referring to the incident. Dr. E. Schlagintweit had even the intention to make use of the authority of the German Kaiser in order to impress the Dalai Lama with the importance of his demand. But this scheme was finally dropped.

Dr. van Manen is quite all right when he says about this attempt: “Its legacy is a rather amusing and prolific description of the attempt, together with all documentary material connected with it, which Schlagintweit published in Munich in 1904, and which is a very serious report concerning a more or less comic episode in the progress of Tibetan studies” (cf. op. cit., p. 446). However, this condemnation did not prevent his repeating a similar attempt “in a more unambitious and unofficial manner”, as he says.

Leaving alone the manner in which the transactions have been conducted by Dr. E. Schlagintweit and his associates, it is obvious that the question regarding the preservation in Tibet of Sanskrit works is more or less natural inasmuch as it refers to such works which are known, be it only by name, to have existed in India. But Dr. van Manen's plan of getting information regarding works quite unknown was doomed a priori to failure independently from the manner in which it was conducted.

page 57 note 3 Op. cit., p. 448.

page 58 note 1 Ibid., pp. 475–6 and 524–5.

page 58 note 2 Cf. the very detailed review of the historical and biographical literature of Tibet contained in the celebrated work on the History of Buddhism in Amdo, by (born 1800). This history was written in 1833 and is known under the abridged title . The full title is: 3 vols. The bibliographical review is found in the first volume, f. 4 recto, 1. 6 – f. 19 recto, 1. 4.

page 58 note 3 Its full title is composed in 1322 by (1290–1364). The work ia edited in the monastery and includes 244 oblong folios. It, strictly speaking, represents a systematic review of the whole canonical literature of Northern Buddhism translated into Tibetan, but the review is supplemented by an introductory historical sketch of the evolution of the Buddhist doctrine in India and its first steps in Tibet. This review and this sketch are translated by E. E. Obermiller in the Materialien zur Kunde des Buddhismus, herausgegeben von Dr. M. Walleser, Heft 18 and 19, Heidelberg, 1931–2, with an introduction by Professor Th. Stcherbatsky. The remaining part of Butön's work, the part containing the Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, is not yet issued.

page 59 note 1 It was composed in 1476–8 by the celebrated translator Shonnupal, native of Göi, (1392–1481). It was edited in the monastery in Tibet and later on in the monastery in Amdo. The second edition consists of two volumes and includes 568 oblong folios.

page 59 note 2 An idea of the extent of the obligatory school manuals only, can be gathered from the above-mentioned bibliographical work of Longdöl-lama.

page 59 note 3 Manen, J. van, op, cit., p. 448.Google Scholar

page 60 note 1 In our quotations the figures before the Tibetan titles refer to Dr. van Manen's Index, the other figures (in brackets), after the titles, refer to both his book-lists.

page 60 note 2 J. van Manen, op. cit., Index, No. 120.

page 61 note 1 The Table of Contents of this work is given by Longdöl-lama in his Terminology of Logic entered in his complete works under No. 14 , 27 folios), f. 2, verso, 11. 2–4.

page 61 note 2 J. van Manen, op. cit., Index, No. 28 and 120.

page 61 note 3 Cf. below, our remark on No. 121 of Dr. van Manen's Index.

page 62 note 1 The Tibetan name of this monastery is

page 62 note 2 The title of this catalogue of the printing office of Aga monastery (in Buriat-Mongolia), which we will have several times the opportunity to quote, is It is divided into four parts, according to the length of the folios: (1) “catalogue of the long blocks” (2) catalogue of the “intermediate” blocks (3) catalogue of the “short” and (4) “very short” blocks.

page 62 note 3 Cf. Aga catalogue f. 6 recto, 1. 3.

page 63 note 1 Cf. below our remark on No. 141 of Dr. van Manen's Index.

page 64 note 1 In Tibetan they are called the two Great Vehicles of Mahāyāna.

page 64 note 2 Cf. Kanjur, Mdo, vol. v

page 64 note 3 Ibid., Mdo, vol. xvi

page 65 note 1 Longdöl-lama mentions this work among the obligatory manuals of the school of the Depung monastery. Compare his bibliographical work indicated above, f. 44, verso.

This work is also contained among other manuals used in this school, which were purchased by the late G. Zybikoff in Tibet. Cf. Musei Asiatici Petropolitani Noticiae, 1902 r., No. 21 Petersburg, 1904). The Tibetan title there given is not correct. Zybikoff's collection contains no “complete works” of but a series of obligatory manuals (unfortunately incomplete) of the school, a series containing, among others, several works of this author.

page 65 note 2 Cf. Tanjur, Mdo, vol. xliv Cf. Cordier, , op. cit., p. iii, p. 374.Google Scholar

page 65 note 3 Both texts have been translated into English by Obermiller, E. E.. Cf. Acta Orientalia, vol. ix, pp. ii–iii, 1931.Google Scholar

page 65 note 1 Cf. the Aga catalogue quoted above, f. 2, verso, 1. 1.

page 66 note 1 Manen, J. van, op. cit., p. 478.Google Scholar

page 66 note 2 1919), p. 352.

page 66 note 3 Cf. Noticiae, iv, p. 3, No. 23.Google Scholar

page 66 note 4 Cf. his bibliographical work quoted above, f. 34, recto, 1. 2–f. 35, recto, 1. 2.

page 67 note 1 Cf. , op. cit., p. 270.

page 67 note 2 i.e. A Tibetan–English Dictionary, compiled by Sarat Chandra Das.

page 67 note 3 Cf. the above-mentioned bibliographical work of Longdöl lama, f. 44, verso, II. 1–2.

page 68 note 1 These three works are mentioned in the bibliographical work of Longdöl–lama, f. 44, verso, 1. 4. They are contained in Zybikoff's collection, No. 21, vol. ix.

page 68 note 2 A short summary of this subject is given in the work of Longdöl-lama: f. 22, verso, 1. 2 sqq. This work is entered in the complete works of this author, under No. 12

page 68 note 3 Cf. the work of Longdöl-lama, called f. 4, recto, 1. 4. This work is entered in his complete works, under No. 22

page 69 note 1 Cf. Aga catalogue, 6, verso, 1. 6.

page 69 note 2 About his heresy as well as the heresy of it is told that neither in India nor in Tibet is there anything similar to them. Cf. History of the Rise, Progress, and Downfall of Buddhism in India and History of Tibet from Early Times to 1745 A.D., by . Ed. by Sarat Chandra Das, Calcutta, 1908, p. 197.

page 70 note 1 See previous remark.

page 70 note 2 The Tibetan translation of the is found in Tanjur, Mdo, vol. cxxxiv

page 70 note 3 Cf. e.g. the special work on this subject, composed by the above-mentioned Lama of Choni . Its title is 14 folios.

page 71 note 1 Dr. van Manen's Index mentions under No. 122 an edition of his complete works, and under the Noa. 120, 121, 151, 152, and 153 his different works separately. No. 120 indicates his work on Eristics (cf. above our remark on No. 28 of Dr. van Manen's Index); No. 121 represents his work on Phonetics; No. 151 refers to his great work on Astronomy; No. 152 indicates his celebrated work on Medicine; and No. 153 represents his work on the history of the Gelugpa sect.

No. 187,, refers very probably also to a composition of this author, whose full title is 473 folios. It contains a repudiation of objections which were raised against another work of his, the , 633 folios. Both these works are indicated in Schmidt and Böhtlingk's Verzeichniss, under Nos. 432 and 433, and in Zybikoff's Catalogue under Nos. 31 and 29. These works, as is clear from their titles, are devoted to Astronomy. The first of them is that very work which A. Csoma Körösi mentions in his Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English (Calcutta, 1834), p. 191Google Scholar, and the second is that very work from which he borrows his Chronological Table (ibid., pp. 181–191).

From hearsay I myself, as well as Dr. van Manen, have heard of the existence of a medical work , but even if this rumour is founded, it is hardly meant in the present case. It is much more probable that the very well known work of this author, the work mentioned above, is meant, since it appears together with his other work, as an edition of that very printing office, viz. which is known as the place where this astronomical work is usually printed.

page 73 note 1 Cf. e.g. the work of the Mongolian lama, Ngagwang-päldän more known under the surname , bearing the title: 3 vols. The work was composed in 1846 and printed in the Great Monastery of Ourga, Mongolia.

This work represents a commentary on the celebrated work of the first Jamyangshepa Ngagwang-tsöndüi 1648–1722 A.D.), called per abbreviation the title being ( 2 vols. it was edited several times in Tibet, Amdo, and Mongolia. It was also edited in the Aga monastery in Buriat-Mongolia. It is mentioned in Dr. van Manen's Index under No. 39. It is contained in his first list among the publications of the school of the Depung monastery; the obligatory manuals of that school are mostly the works of the first Jamyangshepa.

page 74 note 1 Cf. Tanjur, Mdo, vol. i . The Sanskrit and Tibetan texts of this work are published by ProfessorStcherbatsky, Th. and Obermiller, E. E. in the Bibliotheca Buddhica, xxiii.Google Scholar

page 74 note 2 Cf. Tanjur, Mdo, vol. xxiii The Tibetan text of the Mādhyamakāvatāra is published by M. L. de la Vallée Poussin in the Bibliotheca Buddhica series, vol. ix.

page 74 note 3 Cf. his bibliographical work mentioned above, f. 44, verso, 11. 4–6.

page 75 note 1 Cf. Tanjur, Mdo, vol. i

page 75 note 2 Cf. ibid., Mdo, vol. xliv . Sanskrit text (with commentary) was edited and translated by Levi, M. Sylvain in the Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes. Sciences historiques et philologiques, fasc. 159 et 182, Paris, 1907–1911.Google Scholar

page 75 note 3 Cf. ibid., Mdo, vol. xliv . The Sanskrit text of the subcommentary on it, composed by Sthiramati now Partly published by Dr. Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya and Professor G. Tucci in the Calcutta Oriental Series, Ko. 24, Calcutta, 1932 (only the first part issued).

page 75 note 4 Cf. ibid., Mdo, vol. xliv

page 75 note 5 Cf. ibid., Mdo., vol. xliv Cf. also above our remark on Xo. 56 of Dr. van Manen's Index.

page 75 note 6 Cf. e.g. a special work of the Choni lama (born 1727), devoted to a review of the contents of these five treatises of Maitreya. This work is called: 10 folios.

page 75 note 7 Cf. e.g. the Aga catalogue mentioned above, f. 2, verso, II. 2–3.

page 75 note 8 Cf. B. II. part iii, p. 119, footnote 1. Cf. also , Bibliotheca Buddhica, xxii, p. 25, footnote 1, etc., etc.Google Scholar

page 76 note 1 J. van Manen, op. cit., Index, No. 136.

page 76 note 2 Ibid., No. 72.

page 76 note 3 In his introduction to the edition of the Samtānāntarasiddhi (Bibliotheca Bvddhica, xix) Professor Th. Stcherbatsky has given the full list of the works of But his example has unfortunately not so far been followed by other scholars.