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The paper discusses how Buddhism survived in Mongolia from 1921 to 1989 regardless of the communists’ attempts to destroy it. It starts with a short account of the destruction of Buddhist institutions and mass repression and the condition of Buddhism after the battle: the remains of Buddhist heritage and the attitude of the Mongolian state to Buddhism. Then follows information about Buddhist institutions during the Mongolian People’s Republic and methods of Mongolian Buddhists to continue the religious practice – examples from Gandantegchenlin Monastery and depiction of some individual practices are provided, as well as a description of Buddhist rituals conducted in secret. Finally, as an epilogue, the revitalization of Buddhism, which started with the democratization process in Mongolia at the end of 1989, is briefly characterized.
More...Preliminary Remarks on the Character of Old Tibetan Funerary Texts, Exemplified with IOL Tib J 489 and IOL Tib J 562
The paper is a first attempt of a complete translation and interpretation of two short and only partially preserved manuscripts, ITJ 489v and ITJ 562r. In terms of their contents, ITJ 489v and ITJ 562r belong to the collection of Buddhist texts that were composed to discredit funeral practices and afterlife beliefs attributed to non-Buddhist ritual specialists and their community. The manuscripts have to be treated in the broader context of the spread of Buddhism on the Tibetan Plateau and the methodical replacement of local rites and customs by their Buddhist equivalents in practice and on the linguistic level by new, Buddhist interpretations.
More...The Tradition of the Monastery Before 1959 and Its Revival in Exile
The Shel dkar chos sde Monastery is located in the Southwest of Tibet, close to the Nepalese-Tibetan border at Kodari, Nepal. The monastery was founded and sponsored by a chieftain of La stod Lho, Si tu chos kyi rin chen in 1385 AD, on Rgyal mo shel ri Mountain in Ding ri Shel dkar. Prior to Si tu’s involvement in the establishment of this monastery, in the times of Dpang lo tsa ba in the 13th century, there was a small temple at the location. Before it was transformed into a Dge lugs pa school in the middle of the 17th century there were twenty-one colleges (grwa tshangs) of different Tibetan Buddhist traditions: the Sa skya pa, Bo dong, and Dga’ ldan pa practitioners. In 1959 the monastery was destroyed and the monks were resettled by the Chinese army. Out of around three hundred monks of the Shel dkar Monastery in Tibet, only forty-seven were able to escape into exile in Sollu Khumbu, Nepal. Thanks to donations given by the Tibetans, Sherpas, and Westerners the settlement monastery in Sho rong bde legs gling camp was built at Sollu Khumbu and assigned for the Shel dkar and Chu bzang monks to live in and continue their religious practices. In the middle of the 1980s, the Shel dkar monks decided to move to Kathmandu, Nepal. Nowadays the Shel dkar Monastery is in the vicinity of Tintsuli Baudhanath, Kathmandu. At present, there are around a hundred and ten monks at the monastery and the majority of the monks are from the Himalayan regions of Nepal and India. Only one-third of the monks are Tibetans from Tibet and the Tibetan community in exile.
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In this article a simple rule from Candragominʼs Cāndrasūtra, namely Cān 1.2.108, identical with rule 3.2.162 in Pāṇiniʼs Aṣṭādhyāyī, and the comments on it presented in the Cāndravr̥tti are discussed in some detail. The main commentary on this sūtra turns out to be quite important and particularly revealing, since it contains an interesting literary example, namely doṣāndhakārabhidura- “cleaving the darkness of faults / splitting the blackness of night”, which is attested in Candragomin’s own Śiṣyalekha, or “Letter to a Disciple”. While this passage from the Cāndravyākaraṇa has already attracted the attention of earlier scholars, it is discussed here for the first time in the light of the later Cāndra tradition, in particular taking into consideration the lucid scholarly explanation found in Ratna’s Cāndrapañjikā and the treatment of the same grammatical issue in Pali dealt with in Moggallāna’s grammar and Saṃgharakkhita’s commentary on it. It is shown, among other things, that the passage in the main Sanskrit commentary on Cān 1.2.108 certainly does not contradict the old idea, first introduced by Bruno Liebich, about a common authorship of the Cāndrasūtra and the Cāndravr̥tti, and in fact rather supports this proposition, which – apparently in vain – a few later scholars were tempted to put in doubt.
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This paper suggests a new understanding of some key-concepts used in the Vigrahavyāvartanī (VV), such as dṛṣtānta (reading note 1), pratijñālakṣaṇa (note 4) and hetu (note 6). It argues that contrary to the commonly held opinion, Nāgārjuna’s opponent was not a Naiyāyika inasmuch as the philosophical tradition of Nyāya did not yet exist, but rather an Ābhidharmika, yet not of the Sarvāstivāda tradition (note 5, cf. also note 12). In this connection, the paper underscores the fact that certain Buddhists held a theory of four pramāṇas, and explains how the rejection of pramāṇas by Nāgārjuna did not keep him from making use of dialectics and knowledge claims (note 8). Furthermore, it advances a nihilistic interpretation of the VV against the claims that Nāgārjuna was a prāsaṅgika (K. Bhattacharya) or a skeptic (E. Mills), or that he availed himself of special semantics (J. Westerhoff). The paper also argues that Nāgārjuna held a thesis, in fact a triple thesis, namely, that all things are empty, his own statement is included in all things, and empty things can perform actions (note 7). Finally, it distinguishes two different proofs of emptiness advanced in the VV (notes 9–10).
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Although various sources have long indicated the existence of a canonical text with a probable Sanskrit title, Kṣāranadī-sūtra, “Discourse on the Salt River”, and even quoted from it, neither the title nor citations could be connected to any surviving text. Only the discovery of an unknown Tibetan translation, preserved in two of the so-called proto-Kanjurs, Gondhla and Tholing, brought to light a sūtra that contains one of the previously known quotations, and could thus be connected to the Sanskrit title. Shortly afterwards, the full Sanskrit text of the Kṣāranadī-sūtra was found in a so far unstudied text, the Tridaṇḍamālā ascribed to Aśvaghoṣa. The Sanskrit sūtra closely corresponds to the Tibetan translation. The body of evidence, including a related sūtra in the Chinese translation of the Saṃyuktāgama, shows that this version must belong to the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādins.
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On the basis of an edition of a short passage in the "Vinayakṣudrakavastu", this article argues that Tibetan has an intransitive verb regs ‘be shaven’ and a transitive verb ḥdreg, bregs, breg, reg(s) ‘shave’.
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The paper discusses the metaphor of river in the Dhammapada with the assumption of the embodied cognition and the use of the conceptual metaphor theory. Such an approach allows for reconstructing the enriched meaning of this metaphor and its conceptual relationship with the earlier Vedic tradition.
More...Critically Edited and Translated
The "Digambara-parikalpitâtma-parīkṣā" is a relatively brief section of the voluminous "Tattva-saṅgraha" of Śāntarakṣita. It presents a fictitious, idealised Mahāyānist-Jaina debate, its subject being the Jaina doctrine of the soul. The Sanskrit original of both Śāntarakṣita’s verses and Kamalaśīla’s prose commentary thereon, the "Pañjikā", has been edited twice thus far: in the complete editions of the two texts by E. Krishnamacharya (1926), and D. Shastri (1968). Both works are of limited reliability, and neither consults the Tibetan versions of these texts. The present article offers a new critical edition of said section of the "Tattva-saṅgraha(-pañjikā)", together with an annotated English translation.
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In his “Dignāga, sein Werk und seine Entwicklung” (1959), Erich Frauwallner examines the theory of “the wheel of reasons” and that of “exclusion of others” in the logico-epistemological works of Dignāga, thereby establishing the historical order of those works; namely, "Hetucakraḍamaru, Nyāyamukha, Hetumukha", and "Pramāṇasamuccaya". It is amazing that he could come to such a conclusion primarily by means of Chinese and Tibetan translations of Dignāga’s works, with just a few fragmentary materials left in Sanskrit. Since then we have obtained more Sanskrit materials of Dignāga, especially from the Sanskrit version of Jinendrabuddhi’s "Pramāṇasamuccaya-ṭīkā". Thus, the aim of this paper is to clarify the difference between perception and conceptual cognition in Dignāga’s epistemology, by focusing on the phrase “Not known in toto” (na sarvathā gatiḥ) that appears three times in the "Pramāṇasamuccaya".
More...The “Mongolian Years” of the Second sTong ’khor Qutuɣtu Yon tan rgya mtsho (1556–1587)
This contribution offers a glimpse into the life of the second sTong ‘khor Qutuɣtu Yon tan rgya mtsho (1556–1587), who arrived in Mongolia in the entourage of the Third Dalai Lama bSod nams rgya mtsho (1543–1588) and stayed on in the country for five years before returning to his native Tibet. Drawing on Mongolian historical sources and his Tibetan rnam thar, I provide, among other aspects, information about his ritual preferences, including the choice of protective deities he propagated among his Mongolian audience. The sources confirm the now familiar picture of the conversion techniques used by the dGe lugs pa in the Mongolian religious field. Furthermore, they point to a rather close connection of the dGe lugs pa with the bKa’ brgyud pa during the early conversion period.
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In my reflections I refer to the broadest understanding of the sāṁkhya tradition. I place the sāṁkhya within one of the three traditions of ānvīkṣiki, which above all strove to explain reality in a rational way. For this purpose, various schemata were searched to make the description as simple and as clear as possible. One of them was the enumeration/numbering of the components of a given object of cognition by means of systematic reasoning. This clearly refers to the act of cognition itself. Its analysis determines the most basic components which are the starting point for the establishment of the principal numbers. For my consideration, the most important, apart from “one”, are numbers “two” and “three”. The key passages in the śruti texts that I refer to are the Vedic hymns I.164, X.90 and X.129 as well as the sixth book of "Chāndogyopaniṣad". I would argue that the teachings of Uddalaka Aruni may be considered a coherent protosankhya treatise.
More..."Mahābhārata" 10, 6–7
The paper discusses the events described in the "Mahābhārata" 10, 6–7 and the scene which is one of the most famous epic descriptions of epiphany – the vision of god. The author of the paper tries to answer the question of which god is hiding behind the illusionary form of a huge guardian protecting the Pañcālas and Pāṇḍavas’ military camp after the great battle, thus barring the way to the camp from Aśvatthāman, who wants to slaughter the sleeping warriors of the enemy army by night. Taking into account previous interpretations, but based primarily on the text of the epic, the identification of the great being with the god Śiva is particularly highlighted. The paper ends with the author’s translation into Polish of Mbh 10, 6–7.
More...Meditations of a Philosophical Buddhologist
There was a famous incident in the 1980s that sent shivers down spines. A prominent Princeton philosopher put a notice on his office door that philosophy students should just say “No” to the history of philosophy – Western and Eastern alike, no doubt. I am going to turn the tables and look at some arguments by historians for nay-saying to philosophy, in particular arguments by historians of Asian thought and specialists in Buddhist Studies. Such arguments, too, don’t fare well. I close with an instructive example from another field, i.e., linguistics, and a few morals to the story.
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The short letters to the Russian-German printing pioneer concern a Manchu font cut by Johann Gottfried Schelter, and mainly deal with the reasons why Schelter was late finishing his work. Thus a few details regarding the font, including, not insignificantly, the price, are revealed. An old riddle is solved, namely Rémusat’s statement that Carl Tauchnitz simultaneously had a Manchu font cut that was designed by Julius Klaproth. In addition, Schilling’s and Schelter’s role in the printing of three Tibetan texts is discussed.
More...The Missed Chance
Heinrich Roth is the author of the first known European Sanskrit grammar. Although his work is unique in its perfection and the author’s palpable admiration for and dependence on the indigenous Indian tradition (especially on the Sārasvata system), it has not yet been published and consequently has had little impact on the history of Indology. This paper attempts to highlight the great loss that Sanskrit studies have suffered as a result of this omission. It does so by analysing the first chapter of Roth’s treatise on the basis of the edition and translation currently being prepared by Johannes Schneider (Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities). After a detailed analysis, which includes the explanation of technical vocabulary, and after dealing with the general features of Roth’s grammar and his supposed and actual errors or inconsistencies, the way Roth presents his material is compared with the description in other early European grammars: four Latin (Hanxleden, Pons, Paulinus’ "Siddharubam" and "Vyàcarana") and four English (Colebrooke, Carey, Wilkins, Forster). The paper concludes with the slightly speculative question of what would have happened if Roth’s grammar had been published during his lifetime and had received the interest and recognition it deserved.
More...O przypowieści, rozdział trzeci. Przekład z języka chińskiego
"The Lotus Sutra" ("The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law") is one of the most important and well-known texts of the Mahāyāna Buddhism. It has been one of the most popular texts for many schools of Buddhism in Japan, especially Tendai and Nichiren, but also Zen practitioners use parts of it for daily chanting practice. From the doctrinal point of view, in this sutra the most important is the teaching of One Vehicle (ekayāna, or ichijō in Japanese), which unites all the Buddhist teachings, because all the different paths lead to enlightenment. The Buddha guides people using different methods, the so-called upāya-kauśalya, or hōben in Japanese, meaning “skillful means”, in order to ease their suffering and make them understand the ultimate truth. These are also the main subjects of the third chapter, “The Parable of the Burning House”, one of the most famous Buddhist parables, often used also as a subject in art and literature. In this chapter the Buddha tells a story about the wealthy man who in order to lure his children out of the dangerous, burning house, promises to give them many beautiful carts, like those they always wanted to have, and when they finally do leave the house, he gives them one wonderful vehicle. The translation in this volume is based on the "Taishō Tripitaka" text, as published in "Butten Kōza", a series containing Chinese Buddhist texts accompanied by a yomikudashi bun transcription, translation into modern Japanese, studies, and commentaries. This is the first full and annotated translation of “The Parable of the Burning House” into the Polish language.
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It will take some time before research can finally settle the questions related to the relative chronology and absolute dating of Kucha paintings. Recently, several studies have approached the issue from different angles, be it a discussion of the school affiliations of the narratives illustrated in the caves or an attempt to establish by which trade routes lapis lazuli – which was used only after a certain date – was brought to Kucha. The present study cautions against the late dating of caves in the periphery of Kizil (whose paintings are to be classified as early for various reasons) merely due to their inconvenient locations and considers possible parallels with Indian monastic complexes, the oldest of which were built in the periphery, close to the burial grounds.
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