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Robert Mayer's analysis of Guru Chowang's enduring connection between territorial deity cosmologies and the preservation of hidden teachings in Tibetan Buddhism Academic scholars are accustomed to understanding gter as sacred texts often associated with Padmasambhava, within a cult deriving historically from ancient imperial burials. Yet the great 13th-century Padmasambhava devotee Guru Chowang primarily understood gter, by definition, within a mundane framework, barely mentioning Padmasambhava at first, and with not a word about ancient tombs. Even more striking about Chowang’s understandings of gter are their widespread and continuing persistence, as suggested by recent ethnographies of Tibet’s territorial deity cosmologies. For rather than place ancient tombs at the centre of his analysis, Chowang looked to popular terrestrial deity cosmologies to provide a vehicle for Padmasambhava’s hidden teachings. This graft of Indian Buddhist notions of transcendent, spiritual, transmission onto mundane Tibetan territorial deity cosmologies still thrives to this day. Indeed, Tibetan scholars understood Indian Buddhism previously to have made a similar use of India’s nāga and yakṣa territorial deity cosmologies for the concealment and rediscovery of Buddhist teachings.
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Robert Mayer's analysis of Guru Chowang's enduring connection between territorial deity cosmologies and the preservation of hidden teachings in Tibetan Buddhism Academic scholars are accustomed to understanding gter as sacred texts often associated with Padmasambhava, within a cult deriving historically from ancient imperial burials. Yet the great 13th-century Padmasambhava devotee Guru Chowang primarily understood gter, by definition, within a mundane framework, barely mentioning Padmasambhava at first, and with not a word about ancient tombs. Even more striking about Chowang’s understandings of gter are their widespread and continuing persistence, as suggested by recent ethnographies of Tibet’s territorial deity cosmologies. For rather than place ancient tombs at the centre of his analysis, Chowang looked to popular terrestrial deity cosmologies to provide a vehicle for Padmasambhava’s hidden teachings. This graft of Indian Buddhist notions of transcendent, spiritual, transmission onto mundane Tibetan territorial deity cosmologies still thrives to this day. Indeed, Tibetan scholars understood Indian Buddhism previously to have made a similar use of India’s nāga and yakṣa territorial deity cosmologies for the concealment and rediscovery of Buddhist teachings.
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Kristin Scheible uncovers the hidden role of nāgas in defining Buddhist treasures and explores their surprising significance in safeguarding sacred relics through early texts Much of the literature on nāgas in Indian Buddhist monasticism has focused on their rain-making and monastery-protecting duties. However, early Buddhist texts are full of narratives about nāgas serving the Buddha, dharma, and saṅgha by guarding in their subterranean palaces a variety of specifically Buddhist treasures. For example, nāgas played exactly this role in an important Pāli Buddhist text from Nāgārjuna’s roughly contemporaneous and neighbouring Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa. The fifth century Mahāvaṃsa enhances the depiction of nāgas as hoarders and valuers of treasures. Scheible argues that nāgas were not background characters in the Pāli Buddhist imaginaire around Nāgārjuna’s time; by stealing, hoarding, and venerating various types of sacred relics of the Buddha in their nāgaloka they in fact define what a treasure is.
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Kristin Scheible uncovers the hidden role of nāgas in defining Buddhist treasures and explores their surprising significance in safeguarding sacred relics through early texts Much of the literature on nāgas in Indian Buddhist monasticism has focused on their rain-making and monastery-protecting duties. However, early Buddhist texts are full of narratives about nāgas serving the Buddha, dharma, and saṅgha by guarding in their subterranean palaces a variety of specifically Buddhist treasures. For example, nāgas played exactly this role in an important Pāli Buddhist text from Nāgārjuna’s roughly contemporaneous and neighbouring Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa. The fifth century Mahāvaṃsa enhances the depiction of nāgas as hoarders and valuers of treasures. Scheible argues that nāgas were not background characters in the Pāli Buddhist imaginaire around Nāgārjuna’s time; by stealing, hoarding, and venerating various types of sacred relics of the Buddha in their nāgaloka they in fact define what a treasure is.
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Team presentation on the project "For a Critical History of the Northern Treasures" (FCHNT) Research into the main rDzogs chen cycle of the Northern Treasures, the dGongs pa zang thal (c. 1366), easily shows that a large part of it is a rewritten version of the mKha' 'gro snying thig. A prophecy in the dGongs pa zang thal even presents it as such. This talk will summarize the results of the FCHNT's research into the gradual revelation of the mKha' 'gro snying thig: after its initial discovery in 1313, it appears to have been rewritten and expanded several times, a problem that is intertwined with that of the only gradual decipherment of the brda yig, which for the mKha' 'gro snying thig does not appear to have been fully completed until 1331, and possibly not even until Klong chen pa finalized the text, perhaps as late as the 1340s. There is also evidence of an ongoing process of "translating" the brda yig for the Northern Treasures literature, which continued until late in the life of Rig 'dzin rGod ldem.
This presentation will sketch a research project whose axis would be to consider what Tibetan tradition presents as distinct terma cycles as successive versions of one and the same text, exploring this heuristic hypothesis on a first corpus: the entire Padma snying thig category within the Rin chen gter mdzod. To what extent can the termas of Rin chen gling pa, rDo rje gling pa, Padma gling pa, and others, including bsTan gnyis gling pa's additions to rGod ldem's Lung phag mo zab rgya, be considered variations of one and the same text? Can we establish a typology to divide the rDzogs chen corpus (etc.) into groups of cycles, which would then be successive layers in the ongoing process of rewriting a single corpus over decades and sometimes centuries, in a continuous work involving many individuals?
The key idea is that Cantwell's (2020) findings from the liturgical works of the Düdjom Vajrakīlaya traditions might seem to apply to terma literature as a whole, if properly divided into typological categories. -
Team presentation on the project "For a Critical History of the Northern Treasures" (FCHNT) Research into the main rDzogs chen cycle of the Northern Treasures, the dGongs pa zang thal (c. 1366), easily shows that a large part of it is a rewritten version of the mKha' 'gro snying thig. A prophecy in the dGongs pa zang thal even presents it as such. This talk will summarize the results of the FCHNT's research into the gradual revelation of the mKha' 'gro snying thig: after its initial discovery in 1313, it appears to have been rewritten and expanded several times, a problem that is intertwined with that of the only gradual decipherment of the brda yig, which for the mKha' 'gro snying thig does not appear to have been fully completed until 1331, and possibly not even until Klong chen pa finalized the text, perhaps as late as the 1340s. There is also evidence of an ongoing process of "translating" the brda yig for the Northern Treasures literature, which continued until late in the life of Rig 'dzin rGod ldem.
This presentation will sketch a research project whose axis would be to consider what Tibetan tradition presents as distinct terma cycles as successive versions of one and the same text, exploring this heuristic hypothesis on a first corpus: the entire Padma snying thig category within the Rin chen gter mdzod. To what extent can the termas of Rin chen gling pa, rDo rje gling pa, Padma gling pa, and others, including bsTan gnyis gling pa's additions to rGod ldem's Lung phag mo zab rgya, be considered variations of one and the same text? Can we establish a typology to divide the rDzogs chen corpus (etc.) into groups of cycles, which would then be successive layers in the ongoing process of rewriting a single corpus over decades and sometimes centuries, in a continuous work involving many individuals?
The key idea is that Cantwell's (2020) findings from the liturgical works of the Düdjom Vajrakīlaya traditions might seem to apply to terma literature as a whole, if properly divided into typological categories. -
This talk explores the intricate cosmology of territorial deities in Tibet and related concepts of land, prosperity, and fecundity, as well as sociality and socio-political organisation This talk explores the intricate cosmology of territorial deities in Tibet and related concepts of land, prosperity, and fecundity, as well as sociality and socio-political organisation. Tibet hosts a vast number of territorial deities. The most powerful ones occupy the highest glacier-capped mountains. These divine lords guard their lands, and people, and others within. They also guard different kinds of concealed ‘treasures’ (ter, terma) – precious substances hidden within the land, such as metals (typically gold), minerals, stones, medicines, water sources, divine objects (weapons and others), special landscapes, as well as Buddhist statues, texts, and other articles. Such ‘treasures’ are conceptualised as crucial in maintaining the prosperity of the land and the very existence of its inhabitants. The land and its ‘treasures’ belonging to territorial deities hold the crucial forces of life and wellbeing (such as yang, cha, la, chü, trashi, tsé, ngödrup, pel, lungta) that people need to protect and acquire to live, produce offspring, and tackle disease. These underlying principles of Tibeto-Himalayan environmental cosmology have parallels in other cultures.
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This talk explores the intricate cosmology of territorial deities in Tibet and related concepts of land, prosperity, and fecundity, as well as sociality and socio-political organisation This talk explores the intricate cosmology of territorial deities in Tibet and related concepts of land, prosperity, and fecundity, as well as sociality and socio-political organisation. Tibet hosts a vast number of territorial deities. The most powerful ones occupy the highest glacier-capped mountains. These divine lords guard their lands, and people, and others within. They also guard different kinds of concealed ‘treasures’ (ter, terma) – precious substances hidden within the land, such as metals (typically gold), minerals, stones, medicines, water sources, divine objects (weapons and others), special landscapes, as well as Buddhist statues, texts, and other articles. Such ‘treasures’ are conceptualised as crucial in maintaining the prosperity of the land and the very existence of its inhabitants. The land and its ‘treasures’ belonging to territorial deities hold the crucial forces of life and wellbeing (such as yang, cha, la, chü, trashi, tsé, ngödrup, pel, lungta) that people need to protect and acquire to live, produce offspring, and tackle disease. These underlying principles of Tibeto-Himalayan environmental cosmology have parallels in other cultures.
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Erik Jampa Andersson's presentation delves into the intricate world of Tibetan eco-daemonology and advocates for a deeper understanding of Traditional Ecological Knowledge In this presentation, Erik Jampa Andersson will introduce his research on the enchanting and oft-misunderstood world of Tibetan eco-daemonology – exploring the complex ways that evolving ‘nature spirit’ paradigms have informed Tibetan historical perceptions of health, the environment, and more-than-human sociality in a volatile and multicultural world. Erik will shed new light on a diverse selection of materials, including the rGyud bZhi (‘Four Tantras’) medical corpus, ritual manuals from the gCod (‘Severance’) tradition, and the gNyan ‘Bum (Nyen Collection) of the Bön canon, demonstrating a centuries-long continuum of nuanced and multivocal negotiations between Buddhist philosophy and indigenous animistic knowledge. Further attention will be paid to the environmental context of evolutions in ritual technologies and ecological paradigms, supported by both historical and paleoclimatic data. This research challenges longstanding ‘psychological’ approaches to spirit ontologies in Tibet, largely rooted in appeals to ‘rational’ anthropocentric empiricism, instead highlighting the ways in which they have helped Tibetan peoples negotiate the complexities of being human in a more-than-human world. Reflecting upon the challenges imposed by the so-called ‘Anthropocene,’ this timely presentation seeks to inspire more thoughtful and critical scholarship on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Tibet and the Himalayas, and earnest consideration of its relevance to the present ecological crisis.
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Erik Jampa Andersson's presentation delves into the intricate world of Tibetan eco-daemonology and advocates for a deeper understanding of Traditional Ecological Knowledge In this presentation, Erik Jampa Andersson will introduce his research on the enchanting and oft-misunderstood world of Tibetan eco-daemonology – exploring the complex ways that evolving ‘nature spirit’ paradigms have informed Tibetan historical perceptions of health, the environment, and more-than-human sociality in a volatile and multicultural world. Erik will shed new light on a diverse selection of materials, including the rGyud bZhi (‘Four Tantras’) medical corpus, ritual manuals from the gCod (‘Severance’) tradition, and the gNyan ‘Bum (Nyen Collection) of the Bön canon, demonstrating a centuries-long continuum of nuanced and multivocal negotiations between Buddhist philosophy and indigenous animistic knowledge. Further attention will be paid to the environmental context of evolutions in ritual technologies and ecological paradigms, supported by both historical and paleoclimatic data. This research challenges longstanding ‘psychological’ approaches to spirit ontologies in Tibet, largely rooted in appeals to ‘rational’ anthropocentric empiricism, instead highlighting the ways in which they have helped Tibetan peoples negotiate the complexities of being human in a more-than-human world. Reflecting upon the challenges imposed by the so-called ‘Anthropocene,’ this timely presentation seeks to inspire more thoughtful and critical scholarship on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Tibet and the Himalayas, and earnest consideration of its relevance to the present ecological crisis.
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In this talk, Dr. Dagmar Schwerk presents the work-in-progress of her current research project, an investigation into identity- and nation-building in eighteenth-century Bhutan In this talk, Dr. Dagmar Schwerk presents the work-in-progress of her current research project, an investigation into identity- and nation-building in eighteenth-century Bhutan. Focusing on the identity and agency of Bhutanese Buddhist masters as important intermediaries in Bhutan’s entangled and turbulent history with Tibet, her research is centred around the joint Bhutanese-Tibetan travels of the Ninth rJe-mKhan-po of the Bhutanese ’Brug-pa bKa’-brgyud school, Shākya Rin-chen (1710–59) to Tibet under the supervision of the Second Dre’u-lhas-sprul-sku Grub-dbang Kun-dga’-mi-’gyur-rdo-rje (1721–69).
Dr. Schwerk’s interdisciplinary research design combines historical-philological methods by analyzing a thus far untranslated corpus of diverse Bhutanese and Tibetan primary sources, such as legal codes and historiographical works; life-writings; and doctrinal works, with a theoretical framework from religious studies focusing on identity and social differentiation between the societal spheres of religion, politics, and law. As a result, this approach enables us to understand and describe the decisive fourfold and multidimensional relationship between religious-doctrinal identity, socio-cultural identity, identity policies, and nation-building in Bhutan at that time. Dr. Schwerk will introduce examples and relevant aspects of her methodologies and textual sources.
More broadly speaking, her research aims to demonstrate how the eighteenth century represents a critical juncture in Bhutanese religious and political history that enables a novel understanding of Bhutan today, particularly of its Buddhism-induced, sustainable development model of Gross National Happiness (GNH).
Moreover, to elicit a fruitful discussion and to also invite questions of a comparative and/or theoretical character with scholars and students from various backgrounds present at the TGSS, Dr. Schwerk will place her case study of Bhutan as a unique example of a non-Western development path in the broader context of Tibetan and Himalayan history and research. -
This talk presents an outline of the Yungdrung Bön ’Treasure’ tradition The Tibetan Bön religion, often called Yungdrung (‘Eternal’) Bön by its adherents, arose in Central Tibet at the same time as the ‘Latter Propagation’ (phyi dar) of Buddhism, i.e. in the 10th-11th century CE. In fact, it shares many traits with the Latter Propagation, and may be viewed as part of a broader socio-religious movement in Tibet at the time.
An important element, shared by both these religions, is the appearance of ’Treasures’, texts (and to some extent objects) considered by their respective adherents to have been hidden in former centuries at a time when the religion was persecuted or when the people of Tibet were not considered sufficiently spiritually mature to receive the texts. The Treasures are believed to have been brought to light by ’Treasure discoverers’ (gter ston), particularly gifted or divinely chosen individuals who passed them on to their circle of disciples or patrons.
This talk will present an outline of the Yungdrung Bön ’Treasure’ tradition, a tradition which is still alive, thus spanning more than a thousand years. From origins which are different compared to those of Buddhist ’Treasures’, it has developed and diversified over the centuries, ultimately becoming the most significant source of Yungdrung Bön canonical scriptures. -
This talk presents an outline of the Yungdrung Bön ’Treasure’ tradition The Tibetan Bön religion, often called Yungdrung (‘Eternal’) Bön by its adherents, arose in Central Tibet at the same time as the ‘Latter Propagation’ (phyi dar) of Buddhism, i.e. in the 10th-11th century CE. In fact, it shares many traits with the Latter Propagation, and may be viewed as part of a broader socio-religious movement in Tibet at the time.
An important element, shared by both these religions, is the appearance of ’Treasures’, texts (and to some extent objects) considered by their respective adherents to have been hidden in former centuries at a time when the religion was persecuted or when the people of Tibet were not considered sufficiently spiritually mature to receive the texts. The Treasures are believed to have been brought to light by ’Treasure discoverers’ (gter ston), particularly gifted or divinely chosen individuals who passed them on to their circle of disciples or patrons.
This talk will present an outline of the Yungdrung Bön ’Treasure’ tradition, a tradition which is still alive, thus spanning more than a thousand years. From origins which are different compared to those of Buddhist ’Treasures’, it has developed and diversified over the centuries, ultimately becoming the most significant source of Yungdrung Bön canonical scriptures. -
This presentation examines Śākta transformations of conceptions of revelation and the transmission of esoteric knowledge in Mantramārga Śaivism This presentation examines Śākta transformations of conceptions of revelation and the transmission of esoteric knowledge in Mantramārga Śaivism. In particular, the presentation focuses on representations of Yoginīs, both divine and human, as sources of power or hidden knowledge, as guardians of esoteric teachings, and as agents of revelation.
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This presentation examines Śākta transformations of conceptions of revelation and the transmission of esoteric knowledge in Mantramārga Śaivism This presentation examines Śākta transformations of conceptions of revelation and the transmission of esoteric knowledge in Mantramārga Śaivism. In particular, the presentation focuses on representations of Yoginīs, both divine and human, as sources of power or hidden knowledge, as guardians of esoteric teachings, and as agents of revelation.
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In this talk, Jacob Fisher presents his research on a history of the Buddhist discussions surrounding perceptual relativism, in India and Tibet Indian and Tibetan epistemologists have spent millennia grappling with the central philosophical questions of relativism and intersubjectivity. This talk will present my ongoing DPhil research that attempts to map a philosophical history of the discussion, by focussing on a specific Buddhist example that problematises perceptual relativism. This classic Buddhist example is the perception across world spheres of a river, which depending on the realm one belongs to, will be perceived as either blood for hungry ghosts, water for humans, or nectar for the gods. This classic example of at least three contradictory perceptions emphasises the paradox of relativism and elicits novel philosophical and epistemological solutions to this real-world problem.
The story begins in India with a brief map of the chronological and philosophical developments of the example, beginning with a Pāli discourse and followed by Vinaya, Abhidharma, and Mahāyāna sources. Next, the discussion shall survey the major Tibetan exegetes of Madhyamaka philosophy over the last millennia, specifically those who use the example. Finally, we will zoom inwards to focus on a specific debate on a highly controversial interpretation of the example by Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), in which he simultaneously bolsters the importance of conventional epistemic instruments (tshad ma, pramāṇa) while at the same time undermining them through ascribing an illusory nature to all existence. -
In this talk, Jacob Fisher presents his research on a history of the Buddhist discussions surrounding perceptual relativism, in India and Tibet Indian and Tibetan epistemologists have spent millennia grappling with the central philosophical questions of relativism and intersubjectivity. This talk will present my ongoing DPhil research that attempts to map a philosophical history of the discussion, by focussing on a specific Buddhist example that problematises perceptual relativism. This classic Buddhist example is the perception across world spheres of a river, which depending on the realm one belongs to, will be perceived as either blood for hungry ghosts, water for humans, or nectar for the gods. This classic example of at least three contradictory perceptions emphasises the paradox of relativism and elicits novel philosophical and epistemological solutions to this real-world problem.
The story begins in India with a brief map of the chronological and philosophical developments of the example, beginning with a Pāli discourse and followed by Vinaya, Abhidharma, and Mahāyāna sources. Next, the discussion shall survey the major Tibetan exegetes of Madhyamaka philosophy over the last millennia, specifically those who use the example. Finally, we will zoom inwards to focus on a specific debate on a highly controversial interpretation of the example by Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), in which he simultaneously bolsters the importance of conventional epistemic instruments (tshad ma, pramāṇa) while at the same time undermining them through ascribing an illusory nature to all existence. -
Nicola Bajetta takes us through Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo's commentary on the Nāmasaṅgīti, a hymn of praise dedicated to Mañjuśrī Among the circa thirty-two extant works by the seminal rNying-ma scholar Rong-zom Chos-kyi-bzang-po (11th–12th cent.), his Explanation in Three Points (rNam gsum bshad pa) is one of the earliest autochthonous Tibetan commentaries on the (Mañjuśrī)nāmasaṅgīti. Included within the author’s Collected Writings, the commentary is also transmitted, anonymously, in all editions of the bsTan ’gyur, with the title Lamp that Clarifies the Three Methods (Tshul gsum gsal bar byed pa’i sgron ma). Rong-zom-pa’s commentary, as the title suggests, is an exegesis of the tantra in three main points (rnam gsum): 1) a discussion of the nature of Mañjuśrī (i.e., non-dual gnosis), 2) of His different Names (i.e., the names of all defiled and undefiled phenomena), 3) and of the way His Names should be chanted (i.e., by viewing His Names as having the meaning of good qualities, by viewing His Names as having the meaning of mantras, and by viewing His Names as having the meaning of non-duality). Following a general introduction to the Nāmasaṅgīti, the commentaries thereupon, and the life and works of Rong-zom Chos-kyi-bzang-po, my talk will lay emphasis on the Indian sources that underlie the composition of the rNam gsum bshad pa. Particularly significant is Rong-zom-pa’s reliance on Vilāsavajra’s (late 8th cent.) Nāmamantrārthāvalokinī (NMAA) (one of three Indian commentaries on the Nāmasaṅgīti that are still extant in Sanskrit) and Smṛtijñānakīrti’s (11th cent.) *Guhyāpannopāyikāvṛtti, a commentary on Vilāsavajra’s maternal uncle Agrabodhi’s (8th cent.) *Guhyāpannopāyikā, translated by the same Smṛtijñāna, who also translated the NMAA. After analysing different modalities and degrees of textual borrowing / textual re-use from these two sources to the rNam gsum bshad pa, I will conclude by drawing a few comparisons between the canonical versions of the Tibetan translation of the NMAA and an extra-canonical version extant in a single dBu-can manuscript from the ’Bras-spungs-gnas-bcu-lha-khang in lHa-sa.
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Nicola Bajetta takes us through Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo's commentary on the Nāmasaṅgīti, a hymn of praise dedicated to Mañjuśrī Among the circa thirty-two extant works by the seminal rNying-ma scholar Rong-zom Chos-kyi-bzang-po (11th–12th cent.), his Explanation in Three Points (rNam gsum bshad pa) is one of the earliest autochthonous Tibetan commentaries on the (Mañjuśrī)nāmasaṅgīti. Included within the author’s Collected Writings, the commentary is also transmitted, anonymously, in all editions of the bsTan ’gyur, with the title Lamp that Clarifies the Three Methods (Tshul gsum gsal bar byed pa’i sgron ma). Rong-zom-pa’s commentary, as the title suggests, is an exegesis of the tantra in three main points (rnam gsum): 1) a discussion of the nature of Mañjuśrī (i.e., non-dual gnosis), 2) of His different Names (i.e., the names of all defiled and undefiled phenomena), 3) and of the way His Names should be chanted (i.e., by viewing His Names as having the meaning of good qualities, by viewing His Names as having the meaning of mantras, and by viewing His Names as having the meaning of non-duality). Following a general introduction to the Nāmasaṅgīti, the commentaries thereupon, and the life and works of Rong-zom Chos-kyi-bzang-po, my talk will lay emphasis on the Indian sources that underlie the composition of the rNam gsum bshad pa. Particularly significant is Rong-zom-pa’s reliance on Vilāsavajra’s (late 8th cent.) Nāmamantrārthāvalokinī (NMAA) (one of three Indian commentaries on the Nāmasaṅgīti that are still extant in Sanskrit) and Smṛtijñānakīrti’s (11th cent.) *Guhyāpannopāyikāvṛtti, a commentary on Vilāsavajra’s maternal uncle Agrabodhi’s (8th cent.) *Guhyāpannopāyikā, translated by the same Smṛtijñāna, who also translated the NMAA. After analysing different modalities and degrees of textual borrowing / textual re-use from these two sources to the rNam gsum bshad pa, I will conclude by drawing a few comparisons between the canonical versions of the Tibetan translation of the NMAA and an extra-canonical version extant in a single dBu-can manuscript from the ’Bras-spungs-gnas-bcu-lha-khang in lHa-sa.
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Reinier Langelaar’s talk on early Tibetan treasure literature’s influences, inspirations, and narrative themes Early Tibetan treasure literature was pivotal in the development of a distinctly Buddhist vision of Tibetan history. In formulating such narratives, two influential early works, the Ma-ṇi-bka’-‘bum and the Bka’-chems-ka-khol-ma, appear to have relied quite heavily on inspiration from Buddhist scriptures, as they refer to, and sometimes explicitly cite from, a raft of sūtra, dhāraṇī, and tantra. These sources include a somewhat enigmatic set of 21 scriptures that were taught to the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara.
This talk will explore to what degree Buddhist scripture in fact informed the composition of these two authoritative treasure texts. Were references and citations from Buddhist scripture chiefly window dressing, or did they provide genuine inspiration for the narratives formulated in these works? What narrative themes were adopted from Buddhist scripture? Did some sūtras play a particularly large role? By delving into such questions, this talk opens a window on the gestation of early Buddhist treasure texts, as well as the role that the Buddha’s Word (buddhavacana) played in Tibetan Buddhism during the phyi dar period. - もっと表示する
