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Dan Yerushalmi

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Literary, religious, & general cultural history of Tibet, Vajrayâna Buddhism and Bon... syzygy, apophatic theology, homeopathic psychology and other counterintuitive methodologies... popular religious practices, relics, pilgrimage, sacred space, meditation and monasticism... Special interests in the historical emergence of the various sects — the history of the Bon religion in particular — and the social history of medicine in Tibet.
Supervisors: Everyone, Inner Teacher, and Senex

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University of Oxford

Nicola Schneider

CRCAO

Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy ཨ་ལྕེ་ལྷ་མོ།

Université Laval

University of Oxford

Matthew Kapstein

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Francoise Pommaret

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research

Erwan Temple ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་

Tsering Samdrup

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Università Degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"

Gregory Forgues

Universiteit Leiden

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Papers by Dan Yerushalmi

A Gift of Tibet’s History for Qubilai Khan

Tibeto-logic, 2023

A previously scarcely noticed history written in 1287 has a few surprising things to tell us. Fo... more A previously scarcely noticed history written in 1287 has a few surprising things to tell us. For instance how some of the earliest monks of the Second Spread, with two Uighur Turks among them, held esoteric Dzogchen lineages of the Aro tradition. Another matter: we might say that a small light falls on how Tibetan religious leaders and Mongolian rulers of the post-conquest era forged an often uncomfortable relationship by acknowledging, and to a degree going along with, the limitations and 'false consciousness' of their interlocuters.

Earth and Wind, Water and Fire: Book Binding and Preservation in pre-Mongol Bon Ritual Manuals for Consecrations

Bon and Naxi Manuscripts. Edited by: Agnieszka Helman-Ważny and Charles Ramble, Volume 28 in the series “Studies in Manuscript Cultures”, 2023

Bon religious texts dating to more-or-less a thousand years ago do contain not only signs of a we... more Bon religious texts dating to more-or-less a thousand years ago do contain not only signs of a well developed 'cult of the book', but also some unexpectedly informative passages about the book making arts. This essay concentrates on ideas about bookbinding found in early Bon ritual literature on consecration of icons, including scriptural Volumes. These evidence a remarkable concern for book preservation, as well as a keen awareness of how each element of the binding is meant to protect the book from damage by a specific physical element. This bears comparison and contrast with closely contemporaneous evidence on book binding found in the consecration literature of Tibet's predominating schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Divinations Padampa Did and Did Not Do

This paper investigates four divination practices attributed to the eleventh-century South Indian... more This paper investigates four divination practices attributed to the eleventh-century South Indian luminary Pha dam pa Sangs rgyas, who is said to have visited Tibet on several occasions and finally retired there. It attempts to tackle the question to what degree it might be appropriate to associate these four practices, which all interpret patterns using particular objects (five finger divination, arrow divination, stone divination, and Tibetan rosary divination) with the Indian master. The four techniques described in their respective manuals are compared with the literary accounts describing Pha dam pa practicing divination during his lifetime, which suggests that the techniques attributed to him do not correspond to the divinations that he is known to have practiced. This leads to reflections about how cultural figures, in the afterlife, may often be awarded authorship of texts that are somehow appropriate for them.

Atiśa’s Ritual Methods for Making Buddhist Art Holy.

Contained in: Shashibala, ed., Atiśa Śrī Dīpaṅkara-jñāna and Cultural Renaissance: Proceedings of the International Conference, 16th-23rd January 2013, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (New Delhi 2018), pp. 123-138. , 2018

This article, like others in the volume (link supplied above), was unsatisfactorily edited, and n... more

Crazy Wisdom in Moderation.pdf

The Highland Vinaya Lineage: A Study of a 12th-century Monastic Historical Source, the ‘Transmission Document’ by Zhing-mo-che-ba.

Reassembly and annotated translation of an early Vinaya historical source. This previously appear... more

Yak Snot: Padampa’s Animal Metaphors and the Question of Indian-ness (Theirs and His)

Yak Snot: Padampa’s Animal Metaphors and the Question of Indian-ness (Theirs and His). Contained... more

Olmo Lungring, a Holy Place Here and Beyond. Contained in: Samten G. Karmay and Jeff Watt, eds., Bon, the Magic Word: The Indigenous Religion of Tibet, Rubin Museum (New York 2007), pp. 98-123.

Letters for the Khans: Six Tibetan Epistles for the Mongol Rulers Hulegu and Khubilai, and the Tibetan Lama Pagpa. Co-authored with Jampa Samten.

by Dan Yerushalmi and jampa samten

Translations of a selection of letters by Togdugpa with particular importance for understanding t... more Translations of a selection of letters by Togdugpa with particular importance for understanding the political history of Tibet in the period of Mongol domination of Eurasia.
THIS PAPER is available as a PDF for free download in "Revue d'Etudes Tibetains." You can find the link here, where you are.

Lay Religious Movements in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Tibet — A Survey of Sources

This essay goes together with an earlier paper on similar subject: “The Star King and the Four Ch... more

Knowing Zhang-zhung: The Very Idea

Journal of the International Association for Bon Research, 2013

This paper takes what some may find a surprisingly optimistic position that it just might be poss... more This paper takes what some may find a surprisingly optimistic position that it just might be possible to know the Zhang-zhung language of the Bon religion, or at least come to know it a lot better. NOTE: What you see here is the slideshow. For the paper, go up and tap on the "3 files" and you will find the actual paper.

— Translated into Chinese by Bade-Qunzhu in Journal of Qinghai Nationalities Institute, 1st issue for the year 2018, pp. 147-154.

Ritual Indigenization as a Debated Issue in Tibetan Buddhism (11th to Early 13th Centuries)

A Brief Political History of Tibet by Gu-ru Bkra-shis.

Just to be clear, Tsering Samdrup (of Oslo) is not actually the coauthor, but rather the one who ... more

The Book Moving Incident of 1209

Contained in: Jean-Luc Achard, Anne Chayet, Christina Scherrer-Schaub, Françoise Robin, et al., eds., Édition, éditions: l'écrit au Tibet, évolution et devenir, Indus Verlag (Munich 2010), pp. 197-218.

'Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place

Pearls from Bones — Relics, Chortens, Tertons and the Signs of Saintly Death in Tibet.

Numen, vol. 41 (1994), pp. 273-324.

The Highland Vinaya Lineage: A Study of a Twelfth-Century Monastic Historical Source, the 'Transmission Document' by Zhing-mo-che-ba

One of the earliest among Tibetan historical texts could be recovered by combining two long and o... more

Pavements Like the Sea and the Name of the Jokhang: King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in Lhasa?

The Gold Drink Rite: Indigenous but not Simply Indigenous.

Mongolo-Tibetica Pragensia '14, vol. 7, no. 2 (2014), special issue: Indigenous Elements in Tibetan Religions, edited by Daniel Berounsky, pp. 79-95.

A general discussion around the probability that the Tibetan rite known as the Gold Drink (Gser-s... more

Indian Kāvya Poetry on the Far Side of the Himālayas: Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality.

Contained in: Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb, eds., Kâvya, Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a New History of Sanskrit Literature., 2014

Contained in: Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb, eds., Kâvya, Innovations and Turning Po... more

A Gift of Tibet’s History for Qubilai Khan

Tibeto-logic, 2023

A previously scarcely noticed history written in 1287 has a few surprising things to tell us. Fo... more A previously scarcely noticed history written in 1287 has a few surprising things to tell us. For instance how some of the earliest monks of the Second Spread, with two Uighur Turks among them, held esoteric Dzogchen lineages of the Aro tradition. Another matter: we might say that a small light falls on how Tibetan religious leaders and Mongolian rulers of the post-conquest era forged an often uncomfortable relationship by acknowledging, and to a degree going along with, the limitations and 'false consciousness' of their interlocuters.

Earth and Wind, Water and Fire: Book Binding and Preservation in pre-Mongol Bon Ritual Manuals for Consecrations

Bon and Naxi Manuscripts. Edited by: Agnieszka Helman-Ważny and Charles Ramble, Volume 28 in the series “Studies in Manuscript Cultures”, 2023

Bon religious texts dating to more-or-less a thousand years ago do contain not only signs of a we... more Bon religious texts dating to more-or-less a thousand years ago do contain not only signs of a well developed 'cult of the book', but also some unexpectedly informative passages about the book making arts. This essay concentrates on ideas about bookbinding found in early Bon ritual literature on consecration of icons, including scriptural Volumes. These evidence a remarkable concern for book preservation, as well as a keen awareness of how each element of the binding is meant to protect the book from damage by a specific physical element. This bears comparison and contrast with closely contemporaneous evidence on book binding found in the consecration literature of Tibet's predominating schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Divinations Padampa Did and Did Not Do

This paper investigates four divination practices attributed to the eleventh-century South Indian... more This paper investigates four divination practices attributed to the eleventh-century South Indian luminary Pha dam pa Sangs rgyas, who is said to have visited Tibet on several occasions and finally retired there. It attempts to tackle the question to what degree it might be appropriate to associate these four practices, which all interpret patterns using particular objects (five finger divination, arrow divination, stone divination, and Tibetan rosary divination) with the Indian master. The four techniques described in their respective manuals are compared with the literary accounts describing Pha dam pa practicing divination during his lifetime, which suggests that the techniques attributed to him do not correspond to the divinations that he is known to have practiced. This leads to reflections about how cultural figures, in the afterlife, may often be awarded authorship of texts that are somehow appropriate for them.

Atiśa’s Ritual Methods for Making Buddhist Art Holy.

Contained in: Shashibala, ed., Atiśa Śrī Dīpaṅkara-jñāna and Cultural Renaissance: Proceedings of the International Conference, 16th-23rd January 2013, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (New Delhi 2018), pp. 123-138. , 2018

This article, like others in the volume (link supplied above), was unsatisfactorily edited, and n... more

Crazy Wisdom in Moderation.pdf

The Highland Vinaya Lineage: A Study of a 12th-century Monastic Historical Source, the ‘Transmission Document’ by Zhing-mo-che-ba.

Reassembly and annotated translation of an early Vinaya historical source. This previously appear... more

Yak Snot: Padampa’s Animal Metaphors and the Question of Indian-ness (Theirs and His)

Yak Snot: Padampa’s Animal Metaphors and the Question of Indian-ness (Theirs and His). Contained... more

Olmo Lungring, a Holy Place Here and Beyond. Contained in: Samten G. Karmay and Jeff Watt, eds., Bon, the Magic Word: The Indigenous Religion of Tibet, Rubin Museum (New York 2007), pp. 98-123.

Letters for the Khans: Six Tibetan Epistles for the Mongol Rulers Hulegu and Khubilai, and the Tibetan Lama Pagpa. Co-authored with Jampa Samten.

by Dan Yerushalmi and jampa samten

Translations of a selection of letters by Togdugpa with particular importance for understanding t... more Translations of a selection of letters by Togdugpa with particular importance for understanding the political history of Tibet in the period of Mongol domination of Eurasia.
THIS PAPER is available as a PDF for free download in "Revue d'Etudes Tibetains." You can find the link here, where you are.

Lay Religious Movements in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Tibet — A Survey of Sources

This essay goes together with an earlier paper on similar subject: “The Star King and the Four Ch... more

Knowing Zhang-zhung: The Very Idea

Journal of the International Association for Bon Research, 2013

This paper takes what some may find a surprisingly optimistic position that it just might be poss... more This paper takes what some may find a surprisingly optimistic position that it just might be possible to know the Zhang-zhung language of the Bon religion, or at least come to know it a lot better. NOTE: What you see here is the slideshow. For the paper, go up and tap on the "3 files" and you will find the actual paper.

— Translated into Chinese by Bade-Qunzhu in Journal of Qinghai Nationalities Institute, 1st issue for the year 2018, pp. 147-154.

Ritual Indigenization as a Debated Issue in Tibetan Buddhism (11th to Early 13th Centuries)

A Brief Political History of Tibet by Gu-ru Bkra-shis.

Just to be clear, Tsering Samdrup (of Oslo) is not actually the coauthor, but rather the one who ... more

The Book Moving Incident of 1209

Contained in: Jean-Luc Achard, Anne Chayet, Christina Scherrer-Schaub, Françoise Robin, et al., eds., Édition, éditions: l'écrit au Tibet, évolution et devenir, Indus Verlag (Munich 2010), pp. 197-218.

'Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place

Pearls from Bones — Relics, Chortens, Tertons and the Signs of Saintly Death in Tibet.

Numen, vol. 41 (1994), pp. 273-324.

The Highland Vinaya Lineage: A Study of a Twelfth-Century Monastic Historical Source, the 'Transmission Document' by Zhing-mo-che-ba

One of the earliest among Tibetan historical texts could be recovered by combining two long and o... more

Pavements Like the Sea and the Name of the Jokhang: King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in Lhasa?

The Gold Drink Rite: Indigenous but not Simply Indigenous.

Mongolo-Tibetica Pragensia '14, vol. 7, no. 2 (2014), special issue: Indigenous Elements in Tibetan Religions, edited by Daniel Berounsky, pp. 79-95.

A general discussion around the probability that the Tibetan rite known as the Gold Drink (Gser-s... more

Indian Kāvya Poetry on the Far Side of the Himālayas: Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality.

Contained in: Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb, eds., Kâvya, Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a New History of Sanskrit Literature., 2014

Contained in: Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb, eds., Kâvya, Innovations and Turning Po... more

Drenpa's Proclamation: The Rise and Decline of the Bön Religion in Tibet

Drenpa's Proclamation: The Rise and Decline of the Bön Religion in Tibet, 2022

Never before translated, this is the earliest lengthy Bon historical work ever written, with one ... more Never before translated, this is the earliest lengthy Bon historical work ever written, with one possible exception (the one-volume biography of Lord Shenrab). Although as of September 2023 it is not listed on Amazon, the book was released in June 2023, published in Vajra Books' new series called "Vajra Academic" as number 3 in the series. It is listed online at Vajra's website https://www.vajrabookshop.com. At this time it is only available in hardbound book format.

A History of Buddhism in India and Tibet: An Expanded Version of the Dharma’s Origins Made by the Learned Scholar Deyu.

Wisdom Publications in association with the Institute of Tibetan Classics, 2022

Translation from Tibetan of a circa 1261 history of Buddhism compiled by an anonymous author as a... more Translation from Tibetan of a circa 1261 history of Buddhism compiled by an anonymous author as a commentary on a verse work by one Deyu written in circa 1180. Even if it shares a similar title with the 1326 work of Bu-ston, it is much longer and has much more to say on the subject of Tibet’s imperial era. It incorporates several rare imperial era sources otherwise unavailable (or not available in as complete a form), quoting from them at length. Fully annotated, with an introduction and bibliography, in 952 pages. It belongs to the series entitled The Library of Tibetan Classics, volume 32. Sample pages may be viewed at Googlebooks.

TIBETAN HISTORIES: A Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Historical Works

by Dan Yerushalmi and Yael Bentor

Now the 2020 2nd edition, which replaces the one you see here, is available: Go to https://www.b... more

A CATALOGUE OF THE BON KANJUR.

Served as volume editor (‘general editor’), co-author, and author of the introduction (pp. 1-19).

UNEARTHING BON TREASURES: The Life and Contested Legacy of an Eleventh-Century Tibetan Scripture Revealer, with a General Annotated Bibliography of the Bon Religion

The subject for this study, the Tibetan “treasure revealer” Gshen-chen Klu-dga’, is a crucial fig... more The subject for this study, the Tibetan “treasure revealer” Gshen-chen Klu-dga’, is a crucial figure in the development of Bon as an organised religion after the eleventh century. Here for the first time he is situated in the context of what was happening in Buddhism at the time.

By scrutinizing his life and gter-ma (“treasures”), that were to be of much controversy in later ages, Dan Martin sheds light on the mechanism of Tibetan polemical tradition and the ways in which sectarianism accords itself legitimacy by resurrecting ancient arguments in a subtly distorted manner.

The exhaustive annotated bibliography of previous works about Bon, forming the second part of the work, can rightly be seen as a legacy of Gshen-chen. Both parts taken together make this an indispensable guide to any student of Bon.

MANDALA COSMOGONY: Human Body Good Thought and the Revelation of the Secret Mother Tantras of Bon

Tibetan Proper Names Index - TPNI

Tibetosophy, 2018

A work of many decades, I expect it to be helpful to persons seriously engaged in research on Tib... more

Zhangzhung Dictionary.

Tibetan Vocabulary

Tibetan Vocabulary

This vocabulary is of specialized vocabulary, and isn't meant to be a complete dictionary of the ... more This vocabulary is of specialized vocabulary, and isn't meant to be a complete dictionary of the Tibetan language. But it has expanded to dictionary length, with over 1200 pages. For most part this has been integrated into the THL Dictionary Tool (find the link below), but the bibliographic key is nowhere there to be found. For this, look above at the "Tibetan Vocabulary — Bibliography." As of 2019, this work has an independent existence at the following address: https://sites.google.com/view/tibvocab/home

Some Useful Tibetan Studies Bibliographies

Tibetan Vocabulary — Bibliography

Bon Bibliography

Go to the link! https://sites.google.com/view/bonbiblio/home

Verses on Good and Bad Physicians, Composed by the Tsangtö Teacher. Co-authored with Penpa Dorjee (Sarnath).

Contained in: Charles Ramble & Ulrike Roesler, eds., Tibetan and Himalayan Healing: An Anthology for Anthony Aris, Vajra (Kathmandu 2015), pp. 529-541., 2015

In a work dating to about the time of the Mongol advent in Eurasian history, the poetic work tran... more In a work dating to about the time of the Mongol advent in Eurasian history, the poetic work translated and annotated here [1] seeks to correct some common mistaken notions the author had encountered during his time as a teacher of medical arts, [2] extols good doctors and [3] condemns the bad. He ends with breathtakingly boastful verses praising his own accomplishments as a physician.

A Twelfth-Century Tibetan Classic of Mahāmudrā, The Path of Ultimate Profundity: The Great Seal Instructions of Zhang.

Zhang's Path of Ultimate Profundity, Tibetan Text Edition

This is a text edition done years ago when not so many versions of the text were available. Toda... more

Dorjiev: Memoirs of a Tibetan Diplomat

The full text is available at the link from "Tibetological" website (look and you shall find it).... more The full text is available at the link from "Tibetological" website (look and you shall find it). Dorjiev: Memoirs of a Tibetan Diplomat. Hokke-Bunka Kenkyû (=Journal of the Institute for the Comprehensive Study of the Lotus Sûtra), Hokekyô Bunka Kenkyûjo (Rissho University, Tokyo), no. 17 (March 1991), pp. 1-105 (an annotated translation with introduction and bibliography). Russian translation from the English in: Agvan Dorjiev (1854-1938), Predanie o krugosvetnom puteshestvii, ili, Povestvovanie o zhizni Agvana Dorzhieva, Olzon (Ulan Ude 1994), pp. 10-75.

Padampa's Animal Kingdom, Part One

https://tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2008/10/padampas-animal-kingdom-part-one.html

Padampa's Animal Kingdom, Part Two

Proverbs of Dezhung Rinpoche

Veil of Kashmir — Poetry of Travel and Travail in Zhangzhungpa's 15th-Century Kāvya Reworking of the Biography of the Great Translator Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055 ce)

This essay is about one of the more significant poetic works written in the developing Tibetan sn... more This essay is about one of the more significant poetic works written in the developing Tibetan snyan-bsngags (Sanskrit: kāvya) tradition. It takes a literary-historical approach to the text. Translated here are the first two-thirds of the text, the part concerning his childhood and his first journey to Kashmir and Magadha. A comparative text edition is supplied. The narrative poem is analyzed not so much in order to gain information about its subject, the Great Translator Rinchen Zangpo, but rather to learn more about the background, motivations and aims of the composer. Efforts are made to understand the author's place in the history of Tibetan poetry and to learn whether he contributed anything new to it.

Some More Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama

White Conch Fragments

Sa-skya Pandita's Advice for Tibetan Contemplatives

The Tingri Hundred, the Last Will and Testament of Padampa Sanggyé

A massive file accumulating textual materials for the study of the Tingri Hundred (Ding-ri Brgya-... more

Great Gate of Entry into the City of Supreme Liberation: A Dharma Exposition on Transition, by Mkhas-dbang Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho (1569-1645 C.E.).

This scan I would like to dedicate to my brothers who have gone before me.

Review of Per Kværne’s Tibet Bon Religion.

Per Kværne, Tibet Bon Religion: A Death Ritual of the Tibetan Bonpos. Review in The Journal of t... more

Review of Tsang Nyon

Tsang Nyön Heruka (Gtsang-smyon He-ru-ka), The Life of Marpa the Translator, translated by the Na... more

Review of Prayer Flags

'Bri-gung Chos-rje 'Jig-rten-mgon-po, et al., Prayer Flags, tr. by Khen po Rin-poche Könchog Gyal... more 'Bri-gung Chos-rje 'Jig-rten-mgon-po, et al., Prayer Flags, tr. by Khen po Rin-poche Könchog Gyaltsen, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1985) and Kun-dga'-rin-chen, The Garland of Mahamudra Practices, tr. by Khenpo Rinpoche and Katherine Rogers, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1986). Review in The Journal of the Tibet Society, vol. 8 (1988), pp. 50-59.

Review of Terry Clifford, Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry.

Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 106, part 2 (1986), pp. 388-390.

Namkhai Norbu, Drung, De’u and Bön: Narrations, Symbolic Languages and the Bön Tradition in Ancient Tibet.

translated from Tibetan into Italian, edited and annotated by Adriano Clemente, translated into E... more

Jung's Psychology.

The Journal of the Tibet Society, 1986

Review of Radmila Moacanin, Jung’s Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism.

Fernand Meyer, ed., Tibet: civilisation et société.

Ngag dbang skal ldan rgya mtsho, Shel dkar chos ’byung: History of the ‘White Crystal’ — Religion and Politics of Southern La stod.

Civilization at the Foot of Mount Shampo: The Royal House of lHa Bug-pa-can and the History of g.Ya’-bzang, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien 2000).

Review in Acta Orientalia (Copenhagen). vol. 63 (2002), pp. 313-316.

Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse Denkschriften, 290.... more

Review of Christoph Baumer, Tibet’s Ancient Religion Bön, Orchid Press (Bangkok 2002).

Circle of Inner Asian Art Newsletter (SOAS, London), vol. 17 (2003), pp. 91-94.

Ernst Steinkellner & Helmut Tauscher, eds., Contributions on Tibetan Language, History and Culture: Proceedings of the Csoma de Körös Symposium Held at Velm-Vienna, Austria, 13-19 September 1981.

Review in Acta Orientalia, vol. 57 (1997), pp. 259-262.

Secularity Divinized.

White Old Man Sūtra

Tibeto-logic, 2022

A paper with slideshow presented at a small seminar entitled “Tibet & the Oirats — Oirat Cultural... more A paper with slideshow presented at a small seminar entitled “Tibet & the Oirats — Oirat Cultural Legacy and the Earliest History of Tibetan and Mongolian Studies,” held on 14–15 November 2022. The original title was “From Lhasa to Philadelphia: The White Old Man Sūtra and the Long Life Tableau on the Back of Tibetan Currency Notes.

Translator Trip-Ups 1 - Script.pdf

On oddities likely to trip-up translators of Tibetan literary works. In this part one oddities o... more On oddities likely to trip-up translators of Tibetan literary works. In this part one oddities of script are featured. Based on part of a powerpoint presentation given in the translation conference at Boulder earlier this year, sponsored by Tsadra. If you want to click on links you will have to go to the blog version (the URL is on the first page).

Atiśa's Ritual Methods for Making Buddhist Art Holy

Draft of a forthcoming paper for the Atisha conference at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for t... more

The All Making King's Earliest Fragment

Tibeto-logic , 2023

A 12th-century (at latest) fragment of the ཀུན་བྱེ ད་རྒྱལ་པོ ་, the All Making King, came to ligh... more

Tibetan Proper Name Index

Tibetan Proper Name Index, 1983

This is an index of personal and place names in quite a number of Tibetan-related and Tibetan-lan... more This is an index of personal and place names in quite a number of Tibetan-related and Tibetan-language books. It also has some text titles and names of Buddhas, deities and spirits. I hope the weblink in this PDF will work for you if you click on it in this one-page flyer. Forward it to any friends you think may find it interesting.

The Flood that Backfired, and the Tangut Refugees

Tibeto-Logic, 2019

A rather well-known episode in the early stages of the Mongol world conquest was told by an eyewi... more

Śākyaśrī's Chronology (Bstan-rtsis) of 1207 CE

The link to follow is this one: https://sites.google.com/site/tiblical/sakyasri-s-chronology-bsta... more

Foreign Doctors in Tibet, An Old Zhijé Source Shows Up

Taking a new look at early (7th-8th century) Tibetan medical history in view of a new ca. 1300 CE... more

That Tibetan Bell in Armenia Once More

This parts one and two. Part three is yet to come. If you want the links to work, you will have ... more

Biographies in "Treasury of Lives"

45 Biographies of Tibetan Buddhist saints. You have to use the link that I've supplied here in o... more

Newsweek's Photo Fact-Check Fail

I should add that after several weeks Newsweek seems to have taken down the photo from the websit... more

A Bronze Portrait Image of Lo-ras-pa's Disciple: Tibetological Remarks on an Item in a Recent Asian Art Catalog.

Identification of a bronze Lama portrait in the Simon Norton Museum.

On the Canonical Catalogs of Rangjung Dorjé.

A guest-blog posted at Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center:

August Hermann Francke, Die Vorbuddhistische Religion Tibets

Another short contribution to the bibliography of the Tibetan Bon religion written by the Moravia... more

August Hermann Francke, Die Frage der Bon-Religion

Another early contribution to the literature about the Tibetan Bon religion published in Allgemei... more

August Hermann Francke, Das Christentum und die tibetische Bon-Religion

Yet another rare and early contribution to the literature abou the Tibetan Bon religion, this was... more

August Hermann Francke, Die Zufluchtsformel der Bon-Religion der Tibeter

August Hermann Francke's article “Zufluchtsformel der Bon Religion der Tibeter," published in Neu... more August Hermann Francke's article “Zufluchtsformel der Bon Religion der Tibeter," published in Neue Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift, vol. 4 (1927), one of the earlier writings about Bon, is extremely difficult to find, so I make a scan of it available here. It starts with a refuge formula found in the Gzer-myig biography of Lord Shenrab, which he goes on to compare with the Christian trinity, perhaps betraying to us a little bit of his Moravian theology in the process.

Turrell V. Wylie, Was Christopher Columbus from Shambhala?

Difficult to find, yet one of Turrell V. Wylie's most fascinating papers.

Dreloma vol1 no1.pdf

An early and short-lived publication that miraculously has not crumbled completely into dust.

Helmut Hoffmann Manichaeism and Islam in the Buddhist Kâlacakra System.

This may be difficult to find. It has additional notes on Helmut Hoffmann's identifications of th... more This may be difficult to find. It has additional notes on Helmut Hoffmann's identifications of the foreign prophets mentioned in the first chapter of the Kâlacakra Tantra. For his main studies on this topic, see Kâlachakra Studies I: Manicheism, Christianity and Islam in the Kâlacakra Tantra, CAJ vol. 13 (1969), pp. 52-73. Kâlachakra Studies II, CAJ vol. 15 no. 4 (1972), pp. 298-301.

Phun-tshog Wangdan, A Catalogue of Tibetan Blockprints and Manuscripts Brought from Tibet by Çri Sarat Chandra Das in 1879 and 1882.

No publisher (1886), a booklet of only around 20 pages. I had never seen this and therefore imag... more

W.W. Rockhill, A Pilgrimage to the Great Buddhist Sanctuary of North China.

The Atlantic Monthly, June 1895, pp.758-769. An interesting account of his visit to Wutai Shan (... more

Tokan Tada, The Thirteenth Dalai Lama.pdf

ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་སྐུ་འཕྲེང་བཅུ་གསུམ་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར། Tokan Tada (Tokyo 1965). This can be quite difficult t... more

Valentine, Norbu Chen Healer

I think other Tibetanists will find entertainment and edification in this story from Fate. The s... more

Divinations Padampa Sangye Did or Did not Do

Glimpses of Tibetan Divination, Past & Present, 2019

Padampa Sangyé (d. 1105 or 1117) is best known for his Mahâmudrâ teachings, while divinations are... more Padampa Sangyé (d. 1105 or 1117) is best known for his Mahâmudrâ teachings, while divinations are at best a side note. Bringing this peripheral aspect into central focus, we look into the question of whether Padampa actually performed divinations, and which divinations those may have been. We also consider the authorship problem: Which types of divination texts have been ascribed to him? Working under the inspiration of Jan Assmann's mnemohistory, we seek to divine whether or not these very likely falsely ascribed texts might still bear cultural significance worthy of consideration.

Calling, Hooking and Ransoming: Popular Tibetan Rituals for Recovering Lost Souls.

Draft of a paper dated April 23, 1986. For a more up-to-date survey, see Barbara Gerke's "Engagi... more

Dezhung Rinpoche Proverbs Tibetan Script Typed.pdf

This is my typed (on a Tibetan typewriter) version of Dezhung Rinpoche's proverbs (the English tr... more This is my typed (on a Tibetan typewriter) version of Dezhung Rinpoche's proverbs (the English translation has already been posted here), based on a cursive version in his own calligraphy. Unfortunately, I only have a xerox of a xerox of this autograph version, which I then covered with my own scribbled notes. Perhaps the original autograph has been preserved in the Latse Library in New York where Thubten Jigme Norbu's papers have been deposited?

The Work of the Workless, or, Chuang-tzu Plays Career Counselor?

This was written back in 1983, and I put it up here mainly for archival reasons, not that I think... more

Sga-ston's Works, Handlist

This attempts to collect all the known literature created by Sga-ston Tshul-khrims-rgyal-mtshan, ... more

New Padampa Manuscripts

An initial investigation on three remarkable manuscripts from Bhutan containing materials relevan... more