Oliver von Criegern. ‘Das Sarvadharmaguṇavyūharājasūtra: ein Mahāyānasūtra zum Buchkult aus den Gilgitfunden’. München Univ., Diss., 2009. 237 pp. [unseen]
Li, ‘Candrakīrti’s Āgama’ (2012)
Li, Shenghai 李勝海 [academia.edu]. ‘Candrakīrti’s Āgama: A Study of the Concept and Uses of Scripture in Classical Indian Buddhism’. PhD diss., University of Madison-Wisconsin, 2012. 311 pp.
From the Abstract
This dissertation examines scripture as a concept and the various roles that authoritative Buddhist texts play as such in the intellectual history of Buddhism. While it considers what Buddhist authors explicitly speak about scripture, the project brings into focus the recorded uses of authoritative texts, with an interest in discovering intellectual practices and learning about the management and transmission of knowledge. The main source materials of this study consist of instances of scriptural references found in the scholastic and commentarial works of several influential Indian and Tibetan authors, all of whom are connected with the pivotal figure of Candrakīrti (ca. 570-640), whose major writings lie at the center of the investigation. […]
Highlighting a keen awareness of the problem of reifying reason displayed by certain Buddhist writers from the Madhyamaka School of thought, the dissertation argues more specifically that the Buddhist scholastic tradition is cognizant of the hermeneutical condition of understanding and of reason’s contingency upon language, context, and tradition.
Toumpouri, ‘L’illustration de Barlaam et Joasaph’ (2010)
Marina Toumpouri [academia.edu]. ‘L’illustration byzantine du Roman de Barlaam et Joasaph’. 3 vols., 792 pp. PhD diss., Université Charles de Gaulle (Lille), 2010.
A worthy study of some real Western Buddhism:
From the Abstract
The Barlaam and Joasaph tale is a text of Buddhist inspiration which tells the story of the son of an Indian king, Joasaph, who, tired of mundane pleasures, is converted by the monk Barlaam and eventually becomes a monk. The Greek version of the Barlaam and Joasaph Romance, the work of Euthyme the Athonite (+1028), monk of Georgian origin, is datable between 975 and 987. The text is known to us in hundred and fifty nine manuscripts, among which six were illustrated, produced between the eleventh and the sixteenth century. The present work is dedicated to the study of the illustrated manuscripts.
Karashima et al, ‘Abhisamācārikā Dharmāḥ’ (2012) [Or: Inappropriate Monastic Wedding Speeches]
What the śrāvakas aren’t supposed to sing to the bride on the happy day:
nagnā nadī anodikā nagnaṃ rāṣṭram arājakam |
istrī 'pi vidhavā nagnā sacesyā daśa bhrātaraḥ || [sic]
This and other abhivinaya jocularity to be found in:
Seishi KARASHIMA unter Mitwirkung von Oskar von Hinüber. Die Abhisamācārikā Dharmāḥ Verhaltensregeln für buddhistische Mönche der Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravādins
herausgegeben, mit der chinesischen Parallelversion verglichen, übersetzt und kommentiert. Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica Volume XIII.1, 2, 3 (Grammatik und Glossar). Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2012. ISBN 978-4-904234-05-1 [PDF flyer fixed]
Hase, ‘Orissa: A Journey into Esoteric Buddhism’ (2012)
長谷 法寿 (編著) 河辺 利晴 (撮影) 『インド･オリッサ秘密佛教像巡礼』 柳原出版 12,000円＋税 A4判変型
Hase, Hōju (ed.), Kawabe, Toshiharu (photography). Indo orissa: himitsu bukkyōzō junrei (Orissa, India: a Journey into Esoteric Buddhism and Its Iconography). Tokyo: Yanagihara Shuppan, April 2012 [official]. 286 pp. ISBN-13: 978-4840950244.
Mak, ‘Indian Jyotiṣa through Chinese Buddhist Canon’ (2012)
Bill Mak [Mak Mànbīu 麦 文彪]. ‘Ratnaketu-parivarta, Sūryagarbha-parivarta and Candragarbha-parivarta of Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra (MSN) – Indian Jyotiṣa through the lens of Chinese Buddhist Canon’. Presented at the “Sanskrit and Science” Panel, 15th World Sanskrit Conference, New Delhi, 8 January 2012 [via Kyoto Erasmus Program: PDF].
Lin, ‘The Wish-Fulfilling Vine in Tibet’ (2011)
Nancy Grace Lin. ‘Adapting the Buddha’s Biographies: A Cultural History of the Wish-Fulfilling Vine in Tibet, Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries’. PhD diss., University of California at Berkeley, 2011. 319 pp. ISBN 9781267228482, ProQuest ID 928450843.
From the Abstract
The Wish-Fulfilling Vine of Bodhisattva Avadānas (Skt. Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā, Tb. Byang chub sems dpa’i rtogs pa brjod pa dpag bsam gyi ’khri shing) by Kṣemendra is an eleventh-century Sanskrit anthology of stories about the previous existences of the Buddha and his disciples, along with events from the Buddha’s final life. Translated into Tibetan circa 1270 and incorporated into the Tibetan Buddhist canon, by the seventeenth century the Vine occupied a place of high prestige in Tibet. I argue that adaptations of the Vine—condensed literary digests, paintings, and woodcuts—constitute sophisticated forms of commentary that reveal the ingenuity and concerns of their producers. […]
In Chapter One I trace how the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) and his court popularized the Vine through public instruction, paintings, and literary activities. These conspicuously cultured displays promoted renewed interest in Sanskrit and the Indic origins of Buddhism, while contributing to broader projects of knowledge production and state-building. In Chapter Two I demonstrate how the lay Pho lha dynasty (r. 1728-1750) appropriated the Vine, sponsoring two large-scale multimedia productions while developing models for lay kingship and patronage. In Chapter Three I argue that Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas (1700-1774), an influential monk of Sde dge in eastern Tibet, articulated his vision of the ideal monastic through the design of Vine paintings and other literary and visual productions on the Buddha’s life. In Chapter Four I study Zhu chen Tshul khrims rin chen (1697-1774), court chaplain of Sde dge, and his work on the Vine as commentaries on cultural production.
Searchable Tibetan canons: ACIP & THL (2012)
The Asian Classics Input Project recently announced the “complete distribution of the long awaited Kangyur (བཀའ་འགྱུར་) and Tengyur (བསྟན་འགྱུར་) etext collections in Tibetan unicode script”. Big up to the ACIP: this is quite an achievement. It’s old news for some, but when I recently asked some colleagues about this, none had any inkling that etexts of the full bKa’ ’gyur were available.
Using the ACIP etexts requires working in Tibetan script and registration — the latter possibly encouraging lying (it’s doubtful that most registrants will have anything like formal permission to read the entire tantric corpus).
However, there is alternative online access to the same body of scripture — though not necessarily the same electronic corpus (THL’s bKa’ ’gyur is specified as sDe dge, rather than ACIP’s Lha sa) — at the Tibetan and Himalayan Library: http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/canons/kt/catalog.php#cat=d/k. Type Wylie or Tibetan Unicode text in the search box and you’re away. (Thanks to J.)
Talukdar, ‘Chakma Buddhists and their pulverization worldwide’ (2010)
That title is hyperbole, I trust:
Talukdar, S. P. Genesis of indigenous Chakma Buddhists and their pulverization worldwide. Delhi: Kalpaz Publications, 2010. 307 pp. ISBN 9788178357584.
Hugon & Tomabechi, ‘Pramāṇaviniścaya 3’ (2012)
Pascale Hugon and Toru Tomabechi (eds.) Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇaviniścaya Chapter 3. Critically edited by Pascale Hugon and Toru Tomabechi with a preface by Tom J.F. Tillemans. Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region 8. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2012. 223 pp, €45. ISBN13: 978-3-7001-6893-5. [official site]