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DiValerio, ‘An Historical Study of Tibet’s Holy Madmen’ (2011)

DiValerio, David Michael. ‘Subversive Sainthood and Tantric Fundamentalism: An Historical Study of Tibet’s Holy Madmen’. Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 2011, 727 pp. ProQuest document ID: 2516363731.

From the Abstract

This dissertation is an historical study of Tibetan Buddhists generally referred to as “madmen” (smyon pa), whose “madness” carries a positive valuation more often than a negative one. Technically they are referred to as “mad siddhas” (grub thob smyon pa) or “mad yogis” (rnal ‘byor smyon pa). […] This study views this eccentric behavior as strategic, purposeful activity, rather than being the byproduct of a state of enlightenment. This study also considers how these holy madmen have been understood by Tibetans and Euro-Americans, with the purpose of highlighting certain lines of thinking that have become commonplace within those respective discourses.

This study takes into consideration “madmen” living from the 12th century to the present, but with a special focus on the three most famous exemplars of the tradition: Sangyé Gyeltsen (better known as the Madman of Tsang, 1452-1507), Drukpa Künlé (better known as the Madman of the Drukpa, 1455-1529?) and Künga Zangpo (better known as the Madman of Ü, 1458-1532).

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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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Gutschow, ‘Architecture of the Newars’ (2011)

Niels Gutschow. Architecture of the Newars: A History of Building Typologies and Details in Nepal. 3 volumes. Serindia, November 2011. 1030 pp. USD$450 (excluding postage). ISBN 978-1-932476-54-5 [official site]

From the Abstract

Architecture of the Newars by Niels Gutschow presents the entire history of architecture in the Valley of Kathmandu and its neighbours over a period of 1,500 years — right up to the present. It is a rare tribute to an urban culture which has preserved fascinating lifestyles to this very day. Gutschow first travelled to Nepal in 1962, returning in 1970 after reading architecture, and has constantly worked since then on the connections between ritual and the city. Since 1980 he has worked with measured drawings to identify the various building typologies, which are documented in three volumes with 862 photos and 939 drawings.

Buddhist monasteries (bāhā, bahī); Gutschow (2011:707, 724)

The first volume presents the complexity of the sacred landscape of the Valley and the urban context as well as the early periods, Buddhist votive structures (caityas), architectural fragments and temples from the early periods (5th–14th century). The second volume presents the Malla period (1350–1769) with a host of drawings documenting caityas, maths, tiered temples, shrines and monasteries. The third volume presents the modern period with temples and palaces of the Shaha kings and the Ranas; a variety of new caitya types; domestic architecture of the early 20th century; modern architecture and urban planning. The final chapter presents selected architectural details populated by airborne spirits in a transcultural perspective.

[preview]

Update: Book signing by the author at Vajra Books, Kathmandu, 2pm 14 December 2011.

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Ramachandran, Lumbini ‘courts controversy’ (2011/11/17)

An article published in the Asia Times this month* reminds us what an awful mess Lumbini is:

Mired in corruption, it evokes despair rather than spiritual upliftment.

[…]

“The monastic zone is dominated by Japanese Mahayana sects. Vajrayana, the Himalaya’s own distinctive contribution to Buddhism, is the most neglected,” Pathak pointed out.

[…]

This has “sparked competition among sects” and encouraged “factionalism – that, too, based on nationality”, Rachana Pathak wrote in Himal magazine.

[…]

But crass commercialization and ostentation evident in new buildings prompted a Western scholar of Himalayan Buddhism to lament that Lumbini was on its way to becoming a “religious Disneyland”.

It’s a little late to complain about that. When you hitch your wagon to globalized culture, which the McBuddhism at Lumbini epitomizes so well, false taste and colonial structure is what you inevitably get. It’s a small world, after all:

Lumbini's Theravadin monastery (this image may be factually inaccurate).

* Sudha Ramachandran. ‘Buddha’s birthplace courts controversy’. Asia Times, November 17, 2011. [link]

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Ehrhard, ‘A Rosary of Rubies’ (2008)

Franz-Karl Ehrhard. A Rosary of Rubies. The Chronicle of the Gur-rigs mDo-chen Tradition from South-Western Tibet. Collectanea Himalayica 2. München: Indus Verlag, 2008. http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/12212/ [PDF]

Contains an edition of the དཔལ་ལྡན་གུར་རིགས་མདོ་ཆེན་བརྒྱུད་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཉུང་ངུའི་ངག་གི་བརྗོད་པ་པདམ་རཱ་གའི་ཕྲེང་བ་:

From the Abstract

This book presents a critical edition, an annotated translation and a photo­graphic reproduction of a manuscript copy of a rare chronicle of the Gur-rigs mDo-chen tradition written by Brag-dkar rta-so sPrul-sku Chos-kyi dbang-phyug (1775–1837). The text provides us with an over­view of the tradition’s development mainly through biographical accounts but also through pro­ph­ecies, prayers and praises for individual masters. The study concludes with two appendices based on the mDo chen bka’ brgyud gser ’phreng, a lin­­eage history composed in the 15th century, and the “records of teachings received” (thob yig) of three important mem­bers of the Gur family, thus allowing us to gain an insight into the trans­missions of the mDo-chen bKa’-brgyud-pa school and the interactions of its represen­tatives with other important Bud­dhist teachers up to the 18th century.

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‘Cambridge to study ancient Sanskrit texts’ (2011/11/08)

Someone in England is studying the sources of the South Asian Buddhist mainstream?

“The project, which is led by Sanskrit-specialists Dr Vincenzo Vergiani and Dr Eivind Kahrs, will study and catalogue each of the manuscripts, placing them in their broader historical context, a university release said.

So far, so good.

“In the 1870s, Dr Daniel Wright, surgeon of the British Residency in Kathmandu, rescued the now-priceless cultural and historical artefacts from a disused temple, where they had survived largely by chance.”

Oh dear. Still, this sounds better:

“Most of the holdings will also be digitised by the library and made available through the library’s new online digital library (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/).”

Let’s hope the cameras get to those masterpieces of Nepal and the Pāla Dynasty before the local twits [see final sentence], eh?

(‘Cambridge to study ancient Sanskrit texts.’ Deccan Herald, Nov 8, 2011.)

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Luo Hong, Buddhakapālatantra & Abhayapaddhati 9–14 (2010)

May it be auspicious:

Luo, Hong 罗鸿 (ed. & tr.). The Buddhakapālatantra, Chapters 9 to 14. Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region 11. Hamburg & Beijing: Asien-Afrika-Institut & China Tibetology Research Center, 2010. lxi+249 pp. ISBN 978-7-80253-188-8.

Luo, Hong 罗鸿 (ed. & tr.). Abhayākaragupta’s Abhayapaddhati, Chapters 9 to 14. Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region 14. Hamburg & Beijing: Asien-Afrika-Institut & China Tibetology Research Center, 2010. xxxiii+130 pp. ISBN 978-7-80253-309-7.

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Madsen, Digitization in Tibetan and Himalayan studies (2010)

Christine McCarthy Madsen. ‘Communities, innovation, and critical mass: understanding the impact of digitization on scholarship in the humanities through the case of Tibetan and Himalayan studies’. D.Phil. diss., Oxford University, 2010. 345 pp. [official site / PDF]

From the Abstract

The author presents detailed evidence of how digitization is changing the inputs, practice, and outputs of scholarship in this field, as well as the characteristics of digitization that have led to these changes. Importantly, these findings separate out the success of individual projects from the success of digitization across the field as a whole.

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Triumph of the people’s uprising (or: soldiers low on ammo)

Here’s something you won’t read about in inspiring new books on Varieties of Activist Experience. One recent disclosure suggests that the 2006 street riots which marked the beginning of the end of the Shah monarchy only succeeded because the Royal Nepalese Army ran out of bullets. Apparently, the previous year’s embargo had affected ammunition procurement. The preferred alternative — going through the black market — evidently consumes more time and money.

TNN, ‘W□□□□□□□s throws new light on Nepal king’s surrender’. Times of India, 5 September 2011.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/W□□□□□□□s-throws-new-light-on-Nepal-kings-surrender/articleshow/9871594.cms

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Light of the Valley: The 15th Renovation of Swayambhu

Light of the Valley: The 15th Renovation of Swayambhu. 2011. 30 minutes. Directed by Pema Gellek. [press release]

A short documentary of the 2008–2010 renovation of the Kathmandu Valley’s most sacred Buddhist site, generously sponsored by Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche and coordinated by his daughter, Tsering Gellek. I, and other readers, had the good fortune to witness this monumental undertaking at various stages.

There’s also a book (no publication information available yet).

Light of the Valley Trailer from Guna Foundation on Vimeo.

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