Tibet Autonomous Region – Page 4

2011-12-012011-12-01

Li, ‘The 13th-century monk U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal’ (2011)

Brenda W. L. Li. ‘A critical study of the life of the 13th-century Tibetan monk U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal based on his biographies’. D.Phil dissertation, Oxford University. 2011. [official site]

From the Abstract

U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal (1230–1309) was a great adept of the bKa’ brgyud school of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly renowned for his knowledge of the Kālacakra tantra and the unique teaching known as the Approach and Attainment of the Three Vajras (rDo rje gsum gyi bsnyen sgrub), said to have been given to him in his vision by Vajrayoginī (rDo rje rnal ‘byor ma) in the Miraculous Land (sprul pa’i zhing) of U rgyan. He was the student of the 2nd Karma pa, who entrusted him with the Black Hat, which he passed to the 3rd Karma pa. He was also a great traveller who journeyed widely across and beyond Tibet. He met Qubilai Khan in the capital of Yuan China and visited sacred Buddhist sites in South India. He has been aptly described by van der Kuijp as “the great Tibetan yogi, thaumaturge, scholar, alchemist, and traveler”.

Thanks to the availability of a large amount of hitherto unknown materials from eleven biographies, the thesis has put considerable weight on the bibliographical comparison and analysis of the different works in an attempt to establish the possible relationship between them.

2011-11-292011-11-29

Pabongkha / Gonsalez, ‘Secret Dakini of Naropa’ (2011)

Pha bong kha pa Byams pa bstan ʼdzin ʼphrin las rgya mtsho (David Gonsalez, tr.) The extremely secret Dakini of Naropa: Vajrayogini practice and commentary. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2011. 408 pp. ISBN 9781559393867. [official site]

From the Blurb

The Extremely Secret Dakini of Naropa is the commentary to the practice of Vajrayogini in the Naro Kacho lineage composed by Kyabje Pabongkha [1874–1941] as revealed to him directly by Vajrayogini herself. This text has become the basis for almost every subsequent Vajrayogini commentary in the Gelug tradition.

Restriction: The material in this book is restricted. This book may be read only by those who have received a Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment. [Unless you are an Indologist, in which case you may consider this requirement beneath you.]

2011-11-152011-11-15

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.

2011-10-032011-10-04

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.

2011-09-272011-09-27

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.

2011-09-212011-09-21

Kittay, ‘Interpreting the Vajra Rosary’ (2011)

David R. Kittay. ‘Interpreting the Vajra Rosary: Truth and Method Meets Wisdom and Method’. PhD diss., Columbia University, 2011. xxii+820 pp. ISBN: 9781124782362. ProQuest document ID: 2428776231.

Abstract

This essay, accompanied by the first full English translation of the Vajramālā or Vajra Rosary, one of the explanatory Tantras of the Buddhist Guhyasamāja, or Secret Community, Tantric system, and a partial translation of Alaṃkakalaśa’s Commentary, sets out a novel hermeneutic method by which twenty-first century scholars of religion might approach the interpretation of the Tantra and other texts.

Kittay_2011_InterpretingTheVajraRosaryVajramala_p783 — Add a punctuation mark to improve this paragraph (p.783).

2011-09-202011-09-20

Young, ‘The 14th Dalai Lama, Nationalism, and Ris med‘ (2011)

Young, Elena. ‘The Boundaries of Identity: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Nationalism, and Ris med(non-sectarian) Identity in the Tibetan Diaspora’. M.A. thesis, McGill University, 2011. 107 pp. [official site]

Will Tuladhar-Douglas had a theory that the Ris med pas drew their inspiration from Lhasa Newars. Until we hear more on that, there’s Elena Young’s Masters’ thesis:

From the Abstract

This thesis examines the complex process by which Tenzin Gyatso (Bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho), the fourteenth Dalai Lama, has publicly and consciously sought to rise above traditional structures of sectarianism in order to forge a coherent Tibetan identity in exile. […] I argue in this thesis that this “non-sectarianism” can be historically traced back to the nineteenth century ris med (“non-bias” or “non-sectarian”) movement, a trend spearheaded in the eastern region of Khams, Tibet. In this way, the current Dalai Lama’s efforts to unify Tibet under a rubric that delineates a non-sectarian identity, indeed parallels an earlier moment in the story of Tibet, one that was equally unstable and yet central to the historical narrative of Khams. Employing a historical and textual analysis based on primary and secondary sources, this thesis is a study of the fourteenth Dalai Lama’s appropriation of the historical ris med model, and an investigation of the techniques and modes of “non-sectarian” representation adopted and disseminated by this leader and his administration-in-exile.

2011-09-202011-09-20

Turenne, ‘Śākya mchog ldan & 5 treatises of Maitreya’ (2011)

Philippe Turenne. ‘Interpretations of unity: Hermeneutics in ŚĀKYA MCHOG LDAN’s Interpretation of the Five Treatises of Maitreya’. PhD diss., McGill University, 2011. 271 pp. [official site/PDF (may not work)]

Includes a partial translation of the Byams chos lnga’i nges don rab tu gsal ba of Śākya mchog ldan.

From the Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the process through which Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, by synthesizing doctrines and texts into consistent models, integrates views of reality within doctrinal and soteriological systems. […] the dissertation surveys and analyzes Tibetan interpretation of the set of texts referred to as the Five Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga), and at the way those interpretations deal with the doctrinal tensions found in that set of text[s]. In addition to providing a recension of major interpretations of the Five Treatises developed between 1100 and 1500, a detailed account is given of the model of interpretation given by gSer mdog Paṇ chen Śākya mchog ldan, a famous teacher of the Sa skya school of Tibetan Buddhism.

2011-09-012011-09-19

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.

Before

After

2011-07-242011-07-25

Mori, ‘Buddhist art & mandalas of Tibet’ (2011)

森雅秀 (著) 『チベットの仏教美術とマンダラ』名古屋大学出版会 2011年07月 12,600円

Mori, Masahide. Chibetto no Bukkyō bijutsu to mandara [*Buddhist Art and Mandalas of Tibet]. Nagoya: The University of Nagoya Press, 2011. 315 pp. ISBN 978-4-8158-0670-5. [official site]

Contents
第１部（チベットの地理と歴史チベットの仏教美術概観　ほか）
第２部（ラダック地方アルチ寺三層堂のマンダラペンコル・チョルテン第五層の金剛界マンダラ）
第３部（マンダラ儀軌集成書『ヴァジュラーヴァリー』ゴル寺の「ヴァジュラーヴァリー・マンダラ集」とその周辺　ほか）
第４部（集会樹に見られる宗教実践とイメージ「五百尊図像集」に関する基本的問題　ほか）