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Tanaka, ‘Nāgabodhi’s *Samājasādhanavyavasthālī II’ (2011)

田中 公明 「『秘密集会』の身体曼荼羅論 : Nāgabodhiの安立次第論』第2章サンスクリット写本ローマ字化テキスト」 『東洋文化研究所紀要』 第160冊 2011.12

Tanaka, Kimiaki. ‘Nāgabodhi’s *Samājasādhanavyavasthālī: The Tibetan Translation and Sanskrit Text of Chapter II’ [in Japanese]. Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo kiyō 160, 2011, pp. 324(313)–338(299). [URI / PDF]

From the Abstract

“In this article I have transcribed the Sanskrit text of Chapter II of the Vyavasthālī. This chapter mainly explains the body-maṇḍala theory of the Guhyasamāja-tantra. For further details, reference should be made to pp. 333-324.”

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Shrestha, ‘Street transformation in Kathmandu’ (2011)

Dr. Shrestha reports on a happy new role for Newar Buddhist monasteries, one that the advocates of ‘Rebuilding Buddhism’ would surely welcome: the parking lot.

Bijaya K. Shrestha. ‘Street typology in Kathmandu and street transformation’.
Urbani izziv 22 no. 2, 2011, pp.107–121. DOI:10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2010-21-02-002 [PDF]

There is much useful information here (like the data showing the Kathmandu Valley’s population amost tripling in three decades; p.115, fig.7), in addition to Shrestha’s lucid account of how the Newars’ great cities have been mismanaged.

Te Bāhā, Kathmandu, as car park.
Te Bāhā, Kathmandu, as car park. Bijaya Shrestha (2011:118).

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Steinkellner, ‘News from the Manuscript Department’ (2011)

Old news for most:

Steinkellner, Ernst. ‘Opening speech: News from the manuscript department.’ In Krasser, Lasic, Franco & Kellner (eds)., Religion and Logic in Buddhist Philosophical Analysis: Proceedings of the Fourth International Dharmakīrti Conference, Vienna, August 23–27, 2005. Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens Nr. 69. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2011, pp.xvii–xxi. [PDF]

Briefly: the author of the Hetubinduṭīkātātparyavyākhyā (2d, p.xx), “a certain Jayabhadra (?)” is quite unlikely to have been “a scholar belonging to Nepalese royalty”; this would be unprecedented. At least one tantric commentary by an ācārya called Jayabhadra was preserved in Nepal, and I suppose it is not out of the question that this person had access to Bhaṭṭa Arcaṭa’s commentary, but I am unaware of any reference to him holding the post of rājaguru (a title which was not unknown in India).

Locating the original material doesn’t seem to be high on the agenda: “as of September 2007 the result has been: Nothing. (By the end of 2010: still no changes)” (p.xxi n.9). This is a surprising statement. On the one hand, the collaborators are accused, implicitly, of ineptitude; on the other, it is an admission that ‘our side’ cannot improve anything. Time to end the monopoly and hand the baton to someone who can get the job done.

Then there is the mention of several (Sanskrit?) pramāṇa texts on “Bhutanese paper”, p.xx, which also sounds weird.

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Wakahara, ‘Buddhist Sanskrit MSS in Bangladesh’ (2011)

若原雄昭 「バングラデシュ国内に保存されるサンスクリット仏教写本 , 他」 龍谷大学アジア仏教文化研究センター

Wakahara, Yusho. ‘Sanskrit Buddhist Manuscripts Preserved in Bangla Desh’. Ryukoku University Research Center for Buddhist Cultures in Asia, Working Paper 1, 2011. [PDF]

Kudos to Prof. Wakahara for getting some good photographs of Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts out of Bangladesh. So in future reports on these manuscripts there should be no problem with providing full transcriptions of the colophons, including all the information about their Nepalese (and Tibetan, in one case) transmitters and users.

Karunapundarika and Karandavyuha
Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka and Kāraṇḍavyūha.
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Raguram et al, Reconstruction of Reflected Input (2011)

Extreme philology: typed text can be recovered from a reflected image of the writer’s hand motions, even when the writing device itself is in motion and the writing itself is invisible. For example, if you sit at the front of a vehicle and type on a mobile phone, someone at the back of the vehicle can record the reflection in glasses or a window and extract the typed text from the recording. The process is innovative, but its constituent elements are not; it chains digital magnification, image stabilization, difference matting and optical character recognition into a single hair-raising violation of privacy:

Rahul Raguram, Andrew White, Dibyendusekhar Goswami, Fabian Monrose and Jan-Michael Frahm. ‘iSpy: Automatic Reconstruction of Typed Input from Compromising Reflections’. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2011. [author’s site / PDF]

From the Abstract

Using footage captured in realistic environments (e.g., on a bus), we show that we are able to reconstruct fluent translations of recorded data in almost all of the test cases, correcting users’ typing mistakes at the same time. We believe these results highlight the importance of adjusting privacy expectations in response to emerging technologies.

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Acri, van der Meij (2011): Two Indonesian Buddhism reviews

Two recommended review essays:

Andrea Acri. ‘Alternative approaches to eighth-century Central Javanese Buddhist architecture’. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- end Volkenkunde 167, No. 2-3 (2011), pp.313-321. [abstract/PDF]

Dick van der Meij. ‘Kakawin Sutasoma and Kakawin Nāgara Kṛtāgama’. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- end Volkenkunde 167, No. 2-3 (2011), pp.322-332. [abstract/PDF]

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Bühnemann, ‘The Buddha’s Journey to Lumbinī’ (2011/06/11)

Gudrun Bühnemann. ‘The Buddha’s (Return) Journey to Lumbinī (lumbinīyātrā).’ Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens vol. 54 (in press; to appear in November 2011).

Prof. Bühnemann’s upcoming presentation of selected findings in Nepal was announced today on sanskritbuddhism:

Date: June 11, 2011
Time: 3 pm
Venue: Kholcha Pokhary, Manimarga, Chakupat 22 (NIEM Library Building), Lalitpur

According to Newar Buddhists, Śākyamuni Buddha visited his birthplace Lumbinī after his enlightenment. Depictions of this journey became popular in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Nepal. They show the Buddha riding standing up on a snake while being attended by Hindu deities in service to him. The scene, known as the lumbinīyātrā, is represented in numerous paintings and in wood and metal work, and is also described in texts. This strand of the Buddha legend is specific to Newar Buddhism and not attested in Indian biographic or hagiographic accounts of the Buddha’s life. In this paper I will trace the history of the lumbinīyātrā theme by examining descriptions in texts and artistic representations. I will then discuss elements of the yātrā which are also found independently in other contexts. In conclusion, I will offer some thoughts on the significance of the lumbinīyātrā theme.

Nrityamandalavihara-Lumbiniyatrapaubha
Gautamavajra Vajrācārya, Lumbinīyātrā paubhā (Nṛtyamaṇḍala-Mahāvihāra, Portland), NS 1125
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Serbaeva-Saraogi, ‘Relative Chronology of Śaiva Texts’ (2009)

Olga Serbaeva-Saraogi. ‘A Tentative Reconstruction of the Relative Chronology of the Śaiva Purāṇic and Śaiva Tantric Texts on the Basis of the Yoginī-related Passages’. In: Jezic, M; Koskikallio (eds.) Parallels and Comparisons: Proceedings of the Fourth Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas. Zagreb: 2009, pp.313–348. [official / PDF]

Dr. Serbaeva-Saraogi’s article inspired me to create the ‘required reading’ tag. This impressive piece of research is associated with a recently completed project at Universität Zürich, which sounds equally intriguing: ‘Translating the Non-Evident: “Altered States of Consciousness” in Vidyapitha Tantras and in Western Transcreations of “Tantrism”‘.

A Tentative Reconstruction of the Relative Chronology of the Śaiva Purāõic and Śaiva Tantric Texts on the Basis of the Yoginī-related Passages