Tibetan Literature

This paper explores the development of new primary monastic textbooks by Jamyang Shepa (’jam dbyangs bzhad pa, 1648–1721/22) at Gomang Monastic College in Drepung Monastery from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. It highlights Gomang College’s method of preserving tradition by transitioning old textbooks to supplementary status as new ones were adopted. Jamyang Shepa’s three-decade effort in composing these textbooks is detailed, with a comparison between the Gomang and Labrang editions. The Gomang edition, engraved in 1804, integrates both early and later works of Jamyang Shepa, facilitated by economic efficiency and reliance on oral tradition. Through the textual comparison of eight chapters from Jamyang Shepa’s Decisive Analysis of (Maitreya’s) Ornaments for Clear Realization across the two editions, it reports that the seventh chapter was lost during the Qing military campaign in Amdo around 1724, rewritten by his disciple Ngawang Tashi (ngag dbang bkra shis, 1678–1738) afterward, and added to the Gomang edition in 1944. It suggests that Gomang College continued to teach the Perfection of Wisdom class without the seventh chapter until 1944 by using other resources related to the topic of the chapter. Furthermore, the paper posits that Jamyang Shepa’s Decisive Analysis of the Interpretable and the Definitive, which borrowed heavily from Gungru Chöjung’s (gung ru chos kyi ’byung gnas, 16th–17th c.) earlier textbook, should not be considered plagiarism. Instead, it should be seen as a hypertext built upon Chöjung’s work, maintaining the unbroken lineage of the Gomang Tradition. This approach underscores the continuity and evolution of monastic education and scholarship at Gomang College.

This paper analyses immortality through the hagiographies of the Tibetan
master lHa btsun Rin chen rNam rgyal (1473-1557). His autobiography with songs (vol. 657/5) recounts the extraordinary bond of Rin chen rNam rgyal with his main master, gTsang smyon Heruka (1452-1507), who continued to teach his heart-son after his death, passing his legacy to him and becoming ‘immortal’ through his teachings, songs, works and relics. Rin chen rNam rgyal’s biography (vol. 657/6) describes instead this master’s funerary rituals, when different kind of relics appeared in the gdung khang and were distributed among people and sacred places to be worn in amulets, placed in temples and shrines, mixed with inks and pigments to be used for statues, paintings or books. In Tibetan culture, amulets—besides protecting people—encapsulate the memory of deceased masters. Equally, ashes and
corporal fluids empower and sanctify statues, paintings and books and, by emboding religious masters and their teachings, make them immortal.

The paper studies the Balti epic Kesar-The Son of God from an ecocritical perspective using the conceptual tropes of the Pastoral and the Wilderness proposed by Greg Garrard (2004). Despite the vast literature devoted to this epic in terms of its folklore and historical aspects, this paper seeks to fill the current knowledge gap concerning its ecological imagination. Through the textual analysis of the epic collected by Abbas Kazmi, the paper demonstrates how the "Old World" wilderness is represented as an unruly and monstrous place of test that needs to be mastered for ensuring collective existence. On the other hand, the pastoral world is shown to be not an innocent and harmonious nature but a precarious socio-political order sustained by ethical management and work. Thus, by bringing Balti indigenous mythology into dialogue with modern environmental thought, the paper emphasizes the timeless wisdom contained in the epic about human-land relations.

This chapter is part of a monograph dedicated to René Nebesky(-Wojkowitz), a native of Czechoslovakia who later became an Austrian citizen, whose work continues to resonate in Tibetan studies to this day. It focuses on the still enigmatic Tibetan "war deities" (dgra lha/bla), whose cult remains alive throughout Tibet to this day. René Nebesky devoted a chapter to them in his still widely cited book "Oracles and Demons of Tibet". However, in that work he drew upon numerous Tibetan manuscripts from Buddhist sects. Given that the cult of the 'war deities' conflicts with the central tenets of Buddhism, this chapter examines textual traditions that lie either outside the direct influence of Buddhism or on its periphery. It begins with isolated references found in the divination texts from Dunhuang, where their name is consistently written as 'dgra bla'. Given the high status of beings whose names include the syllable 'bla' in ancient Tibet, it is likely that they were regarded, alongside the 'sku bla' beings, as highly significant entities generally associated with enmity and war, hence the working translation 'supreme enmity'. In the second part, the chapter focuses on manuals of rope divination (juthig), in which they are again consistently written as 'dgra bla', but a number of other beings of a similar nature suddenly appear, called werma, shugön, and cangseng. Their central role in divination is reflected today in the classifications of divination methods within the Bön tradition, which in some references considers them the principal deities of divination. In its final section, the chapter focuses on a number of texts from the lay ritual tradition of northeastern Tibet known as "le'u." The cult of "war deities" is abundantly represented therein. However, it has already been shown in the texts of rope divination that these gradually merge with the cult of other, "fierce spirits" known as gnyan. In the leu tradition, a ritual called "bya rdang" (bird perches), dedicated to war deities, was often performed. In this particular locality, however, birds are the primary representatives of the gnyan spirits. A ritual text dedicated to "artemisia birds," which were individual offerings to the gnyan spirits, reveals this merging quite clearly. Other beings called shugön are domestic animals sacrificed to the gnyan spirits, which then serve as intermediaries between them and humans (bshug ma).

Tibetan thangka refers to a genre of pictorial art widely produced across the Tibetan cultural region since the 11th century. Although scroll painting is its most common form, thangkas are also created through embroidery, appliqué, and brocade weaving. The subjects depicted encompass a wide range of themes within Tibetan Buddhism and the Bön religion,
including various Buddhas, bodhisattvas, deities, monks, mandalas, as well as astronomical and medical knowledge. Within Tibetan religious beliefs, thangkas are not merely visual representations; they are venerated as supports of Buddha (Tib.sku rten), understood as physical embodiments of divine presence. At the same time, the creation and veneration of thangka
constitute a rich aesthetic tradition in which artists repeatedly integrate realist elements into this sacred canvas.This paper offers a micro anthropological examination (Tanaka 2005; 田中 2006) of the depiction of thangka as a practice oscillating between inscribing the canonical and drawing the real. Through critically engaging with the theory of agency
of art (Gell 1998), and the analysis of writing and drawing (Ingold 2017), this study examines the dialectical relationship between rendering sacred images and depicting worldly reality, and how such practices unfold in the tension between prescriptive authority and embodied perception.

Indian Mahāmudrā Texts Catalogue arranged by 7th Karmapa, Chodrag Gyatso. Newly compiled into Tibetan and Sanskrit, translated into English by Adele Tomlin (2023). 

The Catalogue was originally published with an extensive introduction to it, here in Tomlin (2023), “EARRINGS OF THE INDIAN MAHĀSIDDHAS”: 7th KARMAPA’S ASTONISHING LEGACY OF INDIAN MAHĀMUDRĀ TEXTS. The 7th Karmapa’s handwritten, ‘dictated from memory’ vast collection of Indian Mahāmudrā texts (Chag Chen Gya Zhung): An overview of its publication, contents, and newly translated catalogue (English, Sanskrit Tibetan)": https://dakinitranslations.com/2023/04/09/earrings-of-the-indian-mahasiddhas-the-7th-karmapas-astonishing-tibetan-buddhist-legacy-of-indian-mahamudra-texts/

The terms discussed in this brief communication are well known to Tibetanists chiefly owing to their occurrence in the famous narratives revealed as “treasures” (gter ma) during the fourteenth century by O rgyan gling pa (1323-1360?), namely, the epic tale of Padmasambhava, the Padma bka’ yi thang yig, and its five shorter annexes, grouped together as the Bka’ thang sde lnga. Recent Tibetan lexicographers have usually been content to identify bka’ thang and thang yig as referring to books drawn out of the earth, or else have defined them with reference to well-known literary genres. The precise meaning of these terms remains in some respects puzzling, and I seek here to clarify them regarding their history and possible origins.

The main objective of the survey is to trace the Old Tibetan term gnam babs in post-imperial sources to determine its exact meaning and origin. The term came to the attention of western scholars in the incipit of the Old Tibetan text now shelf-marked as IOL Tib J 370/6, but was hitherto falsely understood due to its association with the Classical Tibetan topos of books coming down from the sky during the reign of lha Mtho-do-re Sña-brcan.

Religious Studies 327 is a selective survey of the philosophical, cultural, and historical aspects of Buddhist and related formations in Tibet. We initially consider the Indian Buddhist doctrines and practices that are often essentialized as "Buddhism," which nevertheless are necessary for understanding “Buddhism” as it developed in Tibet. The course then surveys the history of Buddhism in Tibet, from Buddhism’s introduction into this country up to the predominance of Tibet’s four principal Buddhist traditions. We then focus upon selected thematic topics such as the gradual stages to awakening (lam rim) literature, mind training (blo sbyong), buddha-nature, tantra, women in Tibetan Buddhism, life and institution of the Dalai Lama, along with the issues of orientalism and the modern interpretation of Tibetan Buddhist formations.

Nachfolgend eine Rezension von Benjamin Scholl:

Zusammenfassung

Der Neurochirurg Michael Egnor hat zusammen mit der auf Kognition spezialisierten Wissenschaftsjournalistin Denyse O‘Leary im Juni 2025 ein neues Buch herausgebracht, das in der Intelligent Design-Bewegung und darüber hinaus einige Bekanntheit erlangt hat: „The Immortal Mind“. Darin geht es um die Frage, ob die klassische Neurowissenschaft die Existenz einer Seele bzw. eines vom Gehirn unabhängigen Geistes widerlegen konnte oder nicht. Dabei stellen die Autoren die typische Sichtweise des strikten Materialismus, d. h. dass die Seele mit dem Gehirn und seinen biochemischen Prozessen identisch ist, der Sichtweise des Dualismus gegenüber, welche davon ausgeht, dass der Mensch einen physischen Körper und zusätzlich einen immateriellen Geist hat.

Letztlich fasst Egnor seine eigene Entdeckungsreise zu diesem Thema so zusammen (S. 120): „Ich habe gelernt, dass die Fähigkeit, frei zu wählen, nicht aus dem Gehirn selbst zu kommen scheint, obwohl unbewusste Versuchungen, die aus dem Gehirn auftauchen, uns ständig bombardieren. Ich erfuhr auch, dass manche Menschen selbst im tiefsten Koma noch klar denken können und mit Hilfe moderner Technik sogar Fragen beantworten können. Ich erfuhr, dass Nahtoderfahrungen erstaunlich häufig vorkommen und dass einige dieser Erfahrungen auftreten, obwohl die Ärzte bestätigt haben, dass das Gehirn überhaupt nicht funktioniert hat. Im Fall von Pam Reynolds konnte ihr Gehirn gar nicht arbeiten, als sie ihre Nahtod-Erfahrung hatte – ihr Herz hatte aufgehört zu schlagen, und ihr Gehirn war nicht mehr durchblutet!“ Damit bleibt laut Egnor festzuhalten, dass es „keinen Grund zu der Annahme gibt, dass die materialistische Neurowissenschaft ‚wissenschaftlicher‘ ist als der traditionelle Dualismus, den sie zu ersetzen hoffte“ (S. 111). Die dualistische Sicht des Geistes ist stattdessen empirisch wesentlich tragfähiger als die materialistische (S. 103).

Wie überzeugend die im vorliegenden Buch angebrachten Argumente insgesamt sind, wird in der folgenden Rezension (22 Seiten) besprochen.

This paper presents a multilingual translation of the Subhāṣita-Mañjarī (literally, “a cluster of wise sayings”; Padmaja Prakashan, 2015, 4th rev. ed.), a traditional Sanskrit collection of didactic verses selected and compiled by Dr. Sadananda Das of Leipzig University. It contains 101 verses suitable for Sanskrit language study and moral instruction, accompanied by parallel translations in 13 languages: Japanese, Korean, Modern Chinese, Classical Chinese, Tibetan, Odia, Czech, Polish, German, Italian, French, English, and Spanish. The work was undertaken as an international collaboration led by Dr. Sadananda Das and Dr. Yosuke Fujimoto of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, and originated in a summer school in Spoken Sanskrit held in Leipzig in 2024. The translations reflect the varied approaches by individual translators in balancing semantic fidelity to the Sanskrit original with literary expression appropriate to each target language. Alongside the translated texts, this paper includes appendices containing an overview of the Sanskrit meters used in the Subhāṣita-Mañjarī and audio recordings of the subhāṣitas in Sanskrit, Odia, Czech, and Korean. The publication is thus intended to serve as a resource for the study of classical Sanskrit wisdom and culture worldwide.

The article fills the gap in our understanding of a subset of Old Tibetan vocabulary by examining the semantics of the terms derived from the primary root *nam 'sky', reconstructing their etymologies, sketching their connotations and semantic prosody, and tracing their distribution in texts.

This narrative essay bridges forty years of professional experience in landscaping and agriculture with neurobiological insights. It explores the concept of 'Biological Justice' through the lens of the dopamine reward system, arguing that while the cost of stimuli varies across socioeconomic strata, the fundamental human experience of satisfaction remains a biological equalizer.

This study centers on Ti shri Ras pa Shes rab seng ge (1164–1236),
the last Imperial Preceptor of the Tangut Empire, situating his career
within the empire’s struggle for survival and its deployment of Tantric
statecraft. A lineage holder of the ’Ba’rom Bka’ brgyud tradition, Ti
shri Ras pa served the Tangut court during its final three decades (c.
1196–1226). Celebrated for conducting battlefield Mahākāla rituals to
fortify Tangut forces against Mongol incursions, he exemplified the
fusion of esoteric Buddhism and secular governance that defined
Tibet-Tangut relations. His career offers a critical vantage point from
which to explore the entanglement of religion, warfare, and political
vulnerability in a collapsing empire.

An article from a book dedicated to Guntram Hazod (https://austriaca.at/5067-1), edited by Christian Jahoda and Per Sørensen describes the discovery of an ancient Tibetan text at the Twin Stupas in Gansu Province, which today lies far from areas with a Tibetan population. It is the oldest version of a text known from the Bönpo Kangyur as the Nyen Collection (Gnyan 'bum). Although the vast majority of the locations mentioned in the manuscript relate to the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, it also includes myths set in Central Tibet. One of them concerns the separation of the dead and the living during a funeral ceremony. This is translated and commented on in the article. Does this manuscript bear witness to the merging of still distinctly different local ritual traditions into a single universal Tibetan tradition?

Introduction- seeking, finding and translating the outline of 8th Tai Situpa’s Collected Works at Sherab Ling Monastery, India (March 2026)
Here is the first compiled, translated and annotated outline (kar-chag in Tibetan) of Eighth Khenting Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jungne (1770-1774)’s Collected Works in the English language (with the original Tibetan), together with a brief introduction and overview of the texts .
The work was completed while staying alone as a foreign woman at Sherab Ling Monastery for one month (between 14th February to 15th March 2026) and first published online on Dakini Day (13th March 2026) .  There were some obstacles to doing this work, while there (see summary article here about the research I did while there), but fortunately I was able to overcome them, with devotion to 8th Tai Situpa, White Tārā and the presence and blessings of 12th Tai Situpa and 9th Gyalton Rinpoche’s presence.
I have translated outlines of Collected Works before, including those of Je Gampopa, some of the different Karmapas (see new website here) and created a new website for a Jonang group in the USA, on Je Tāranātha’s Collected Works.

The 8th Kenting Tai Situpa was one of the most famous and accomplished masters in Tibetan history. He was acknowledged as a supreme scholar and master, without equal . 

It is hard to fathom how or why it took so long (almost forty years) to make such a “one document” contents list (even in Tibetan) of 8th Tai Situpa’s works since the establishment of Palpung Sherab Ling Monastery in exile.  But better late than never, as we say in English! Even though it was a challenge to see all the volumes (as detailed in this introduction below), I persistently returned to the Sherab Ling library and thankfully the persistence paid off.  The BDRC (Buddhist Digital Resource Centre) contain some scans of the Collected Works but not all of them (see more on the different online editions available in the article).

After having a profound red-hat White Tārā experience and vision at the 8th Tai Situpa’s Golden Relic Stupa, I felt compelled to go and find his Collected Works.  However, I had no idea that finding a copy of his Collected Works there would prove so difficult.  It was nothing personal against me, but just a general issue regarding the texts and their location, accessibility and library opening times.

I returned to the library every day during opening hours for six days, but it was locked every time and no-one around. However, on 9th March almost one week after I had read some of the volumes, after waiting for half an hour from 8.30 am, I saw the same lama library worker who graciously allowed me to read the remaining volumes and take photos of the titles of the texts in the Collected Works. I told him that I wanted to make a contents outline (kar-chag) of them as there was not one readily available, and translate it into English not only for intellectual research and scholarly purposes, but for the Dharma and sentient beings.

After I took the photos of each volume’s outline, I returned to my room and hand-typed the Tibetan names of the texts, in both Tibetan script and Wylie, and then translated them into English. While doing this, in front of me was a glorious window view of the golden relic stupa of 8th Tai Situpa and the snow-peaked surrounding mountains. It seemed a cycle of time (Kalacakra) had indeed passed since I was last there and wrote about in 2019, just as the COVID lockdown started, and I personally began one of the most challenging periods of my life (more on that in an autobiographical note perhaps!).

The following day, after an emotional offering of a framed image of the red-hatted White Tara (with permission by the lama looking after it) to the golden stupa and finding out about the 98 year-old lama who guards the stupa there above, I walked back again over the bare, dry land in front of the golden stupa building. Even though there were no planted, colourful flower beds or beautiful shrub areas (as there were at the main monastery), the spring sun was shining, and I noticed there were some stunning small blue wildflowers growing from the dry land.  It was a fitting natural and spontaneously arising symbol for the completion of the compilation and translation of the 8th Tai Situpa’s Collected Works Outline and finding their storage location in the library. Showing that despite cold winters, “icy neglect”, lack of care and suitable conditions, etc. wild flowers can (and do) still grow in such places, showing the power of warmth, and the water of passion, persistence and the raw, wild, giving heart of mother nature. Beauty is all around us, if we only care to look.

Attending the Dakini Day ritual, that same day at Sherab Ling Monastery, as the gya-ling horns, huge drums, damaru drums and bells created a cacophony of blissful sound, the central channel opened wide up and the loud, bellowing laughter of the dakini spontaneously and naturally cackled several times. In this context, no-one batted an eyelid (as we say in English) and some monks even spontaneously smiled and laughed too. The spontaneous joy of the bliss-emptiness expanse of the dakinis came to life.

Although it is by no means perfect, and apologies for any errors, I hope this first compilation/translation is useful and of benefit to the Dharma and beings. And that it inspires people to do new translations and read the remarkable 8th Tai Situpa’s Collected Works.

Adele Tomlin, 28th March 2026.

One of the key terms of religion and statecraft under the Tibetan empire (7th – 9th centuries) appears to have been gtsug lag, often translated “wisdom,” and in particular sometimes interpreted as “the special capacity whereby a monarch knows to bring proper order to his subjects.” I believe, however, that it will be useful now to consider anew the significance of gtsug lag, taking account of the full range of its occurrences in Old Tibetan documents. Although this undertaking does not yield a fundamental change in our comprehension of the term and its place in Tibetan imperial discourse, a more finely nuanced understanding does come into view, in particular, in its relation to Buddhist canonical conceptions of learning.

While Tibetan texts of some of Padmasambhava’s teachings are recorded in the Dunhuang material, depictions of Padmasambhava are considerably later and appear to become common only in the course of the thirteenth century. This lecture will present some of the earliest such depictions and explore their historical and religious contexts. It will also discuss the distinct appearance of the Precious Teacher in depictions up to the fifteenth century. 

When I first stepped foot in Colombia, I found myself surrounded by a different culture, different food, and a different language, but what I found in Colombia was the universality of the human experience, and the importance of community health. I came face to face with it at the two children's hospitals we v i s i t e d. O d d l y e n o u g h , i t w a s t h e p a r e n t s , r a t h e r t h a n t h e children, that caught my attention. One baby, attached to feeding tubes and ventilators, giggled happily with a nurse. Other children, blissfully ignorant to the worries of their parents, ran around the clinic joyfully, sometimes bumping into our large group of students, pushing, laughing and playing. The parents looked on, meeting us with smiles that didn't reach their eyes. In a single moment I could read the worry in their eyes, the sleepless nights, the tears and self-blame. I realized that what caught my attention about these parents were the familiarity that I felt. They...

This is a detailed inquiry about the life and the role of a forgotten tertön, Meben Rinchen Lingpa (1389–1368), who, in his time, was Longchenpa's (1308–1364) rival and later most probably became Rigdzin Gödem's (1337-ca.1401) Dzogchen master.

As we were concluding our ANR-funded collective project, "For a Critical History of the Northern Treasures" (2022–2026), I felt the need to revisit the first publication about the Northern Treasures: Eva Neumaier (Dargyay)'s 1970 paper, "bKa'-brgyad rang-byung rang-shar, ein rDzogs-chen Tantra." I initially considered translating the article into English, but ultimately decided that, more than 50 years after the original publication, it would make more sense to extract the still-informative materials, redo the Tibetan translations completely, and provide more context about the Eight Pronouncements (bKa' brgyad) in a Byang gter context.

The General Introduction to the Hidden Lands is a widely known
treasure text, traditionally attributed to Padmasambhava
(8th c.) and revealed by Rig ʼdzin rGod ldem (1337–1408?), the
founder of the Northern Treasures (byang gter) tradition. This article
serves as an introduction to Martin Boordʼs translation, offering a form
of commentary that provides historical context and conceptual
framework for this interesting Tibetan work. Although the General Introduction belongs to the genre of prophetic revelation (lung bstan)—
a category that permits a wide range of interpretations—it is hoped
that reading the translation alongside relevant historical and religious
contexts, illuminated by comparable Tibetan sources and informed by
academic scholarship, will enrich our understanding of the complex
phenomenon of hidden lands.

sNgags ’chang Shākya bzang po (1480–later than 1541) is
perhaps best known for his role in the excavation and
reconstruction of the great stupa of Bodhnāth in the
Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. He was a Tibetan treasure master, who
participated in the transmission of teachings of various traditions and
opened the Hidden Land of Yol mo Gangs ra. He established the first
temple in the present-day Helambu region of Nepal and was
posthumously venerated as the first Yol mo sprul sku,2 the founder of
an incarnation lineage dedicated to disseminating the Northern
Treasure teachings across the Himalayan region between the 16th and
18th centuries. In the absence of a surviving contemporary biography,
this chapter aims to reconstruct his life and contributions by critically
examining later biographical accounts preserved in various textual
collections, hagiographies of his contemporaries, and oral histories
recorded in Nepal.3
Parts 1–10 trace the life of sNgags ’chang Shākya bzang po, drawing
upon various versions of his brief biographies (CHN, DTChW, TASHI,
KUNSANG, KONGTRUL) included by renowned Tibetan scholars in
collections dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries. These
hagiographical accounts recount the prophecy found in the Legend of
the Bya rung kha shor stupa (LOGYU) about him being the reincarnation
of an 8th century Tibetan minister who vows to reborn in the Dark Age
to restore the stupa. They further detail sNgags ’chang Shākya bzang po’s birth in the late 15th century, his visits in bSam yas and lHa sa to
reveal hidden treasures (gter ma), the renovation of the Bodhnāth stupa
in Nepal, his pivotal role in the transmission of the Byang gter and ’Bri
gung bka’ brgyud teachings, a subsequent treasure revelation and
retreat at Ri bo dPal ’bar, the opening of the hidden land (sbas yul) of
Yol mo gangs ra, his spiritual testament, and his subsequent rebirth.
These sources are augmented by a local manuscript preserved in
Helambu (DANGPO), oral traditions recorded in the region, and
relevant insights from Western scholarship. Part 11 examines the
transmission of sNgags ’chang Shākya bzang po’s teachings and the
diffusion of the Northern Treasure (Byang gter) in Helambu. The work
concludes with a summary that contextualizes the events mentioned
within a broader historical framework.

In my previous study on gNyan chen Thang lha,  through an analysis of sixteen ritual texts dedicated to this deity in the volume 15 of CNT 2015 (see Appendix), I delineated three core Buddhist identities constructed through his tripartite vows in front of Padmasambhava:

1）With his first vow taken in Byang lam bar ba, Thang lha offered his life essence (srog snying) to the Master Padmasambhava. He then became a protector (srung ma, bstan bsrung) of Buddhism and got a secret name, rDo rje ’bar ba rtsal .
2）With the second vow taken on Mount Has po ri of bSam yas monastery, Thang lha was designated by Padmasambhava as the body god (sku lha) and life force god (srog gi lha) of the Dharma King Khri srong lde btsan.
3）With the last vow taken at the top of Mount bKra bzang, Thang lha received a sādhana cycle (sgrub skor) from Padmasambhava and became the treasure guardian (gter bdag, gter bsrung) of the Copper Red Treasury (Zangs mdzod dmar po) in Zang zang lha drag, the holy place where Rig ’dzin rgod ldem discovered his five treasures (mdzod lnga). As the Copper Red Treasury is one of the five treasures, this vow signifies that Thang lha officially became with it the protector of Byang gter itself. 

Having thus encountered Padmasambhava three times, Thang lha gradually acquired his triple identity as a Buddhist protector, the body god and life force god of the Dharma King, and the treasure guardian of Byang gter. In this article, I argued that this evolving triple identity can be understood as a symbol of the gradual Buddhicization of a mountain god under the Buddhist developing process of Tibet.
Beyond this tripartite framework, the Byang gter texts further elaborate on other auxiliary identities that collectively delineate Thang lha’s multidimensional role in Byang gter cycles:

1) First of all, Thang lha is the antidote (gnyen po) and executioner (gshed ma) of vow-breakers and various demons.
2) He is the ancestral male god (pho lha) of marvelous men and the protector of wealth.
3) Akin to the role of pho lha, he is also portrayed as the guardian of property, the wealth god.
4) Thang lha is the territorial god (yul lha) to the four regions of Tibet
5) Thang lha is given a transcendent nature, he is renowned for having “one nature and six names”, meaning that he is the incarnation of Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha and has six titles.
6) As for the body images, Thang lha possesses various manifestations in Byang gter texts, including animal manifestations.
7) Finally, the Byang gter texts also introduce Thang lha’s family and retinue.

This multilayered identity system not only codifies Thang lha’s transition from mountain god to fully-integrated Buddhist entity, but also epitomizes the Nyingma strategies for incorporating autochthonous deities into Vajrayana frameworks after the 14th century.

Análisis de las marchas procesionales creadas por Germán Álvarez Beigbeder (1882-1968) entre 1900 y 1963, bajo la influencia del nacionalismo musical español representado por autores como Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Turina, Isaac Albéniz o Enrique Granados.

This article deals with one aspect of the Tibetan meditation system, i.e., the educational dimension embedded in it. Using Clifford Geertz’s theory of symbolic anthropology and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, I would like to draw attention to the ability of the act of meditation to impart cultural knowledge to the adept, to influence their social attitudes, and to perpetuate in their mind the structural relationships that characterise the culture in which they grew up. The literary context here is a chapter of the 17th-century
manual by the Fourth Panchen Lama on meditation for calming the mind.

Among the earliest extant Tibetan writings from Dunhuang, there is a text, pressmark ITJ 733, that belongs to a cult that prays for the coming of an apocalypse known as the Tempest. This Tempest will put an end to the present Evil Age and usher in a new Good Age, at the beginning of which the believers and their ancestors will live again. The cult features a mixture of ostensibly Tibetan, Chinese, Indian, and Uygur cosmologies, mythologies, and practices that seem to have been drawn from early Tibetan religious traditions, Buddhism, Daoism, and Manichaeism. Despite the interest of tracing these various influences, it is ultimately a moot point whether this was a foreign cult that was deeply acculturated to a Tibetan milieu, or, conversely, a Tibetan cult that was deeply influenced by foreign eschatologies and rituals. Though the cult seems not to have survived, it was the target of a Buddhist polemic that railed against how the Tempest allowed people to escape the logic of karma. The cult's location in a murky middle ground between amoral and moral cosmologies marks it as representing an important, transitional phase in the Tibetan assimilation of the Buddhist moral cosmology of karma and rebirth.

Especially earlier Tibetan Buddhist historiography tended towards a “borderland complex” that fueled fascination with, and pilgrimage to, holy sites in South Asia. Yet, focusing on central Nepal—as both a destination for devotees and a periphery from the perspective of the major sites of the Buddha’s life—problematises applying such discourse to modern times. Kathmandu’s Boudhanath Stūpa has on its own periphery a newly created “Ghyoilisang Pond and Peace Park” expressing Tibetan, Newar, Tamang and other Himalayan identities as part of its architecture, iconography and as used by pilgrims, tourists and locals. Yet the park is also a leisure destination run by municipal administrators. This begins the process of analysing the site in its context and the iconography related to Padmasambhava or Guru Rinpoché that it contains.

The question of perceptual relativism—the notion that a single object can be perceived differently by various observers—has been fundamental to Buddhist philosophy throughout its history, both supporting and challenging key Buddhist ethical, metaphysical, and soteriological doctrines.  This thesis maps the tumultuous relationship Buddhist philosophers have had with perceptual relativism in their intellectual history, through a specific example that became central to Buddhist epistemological discourse. This example concerns the perception of a river as nectar by gods, water by humans, and blood by hungry ghosts. Given its widespread use across Buddhist epistemological literature, this example provides a focused and revealing lens through which to examine the role of perceptual relativism in Buddhist thought.
Following this example’s transmission across more than two millennia, the study begins with its earliest appearance in a Pāli text (Petavatthu, c. 2nd cent. BCE) and tracks its development through early Vinaya, Abhidharma, and Mahāyāna sources. It examines influential philosophical interpretations by Asaṅga, Vasubandhu (4th cent.), and Candrakīrti (7th cent.) with brief considerations of its usage by Daoshi (7th cent.) in China, and Japan by Kōbō Daishi (7th cent.). The main section focuses on Tibet, from Rongzompa's eleventh-century treatment through the vigorous debates between Gelugpa and Sakyapa traditions in the 14th-15th centuries, culminating in Ju Mipham’s nineteenth-century interpretation.
Contemporary scholarship has discussed the philosophical implications of perceptual relativism and scepticism for Madhyamaka, using Western philosophical “analytical” frameworks (cf. Cowherds 2011), and several distinct Tibetan solutions (Wangchuk 2009, Yakherds 2021). This study offers the first comprehensive investigation of its historical development across Buddhist traditions. By mapping, contextualizing, and critiquing the unique current of philosophical thought surrounding this example, the dissertation illuminates broader questions about the role of epistemic relativism in Buddhist thought, such as: Has epistemic relativism and scepticism always concerned Buddhists? To what extent did Tibetan exegetes innovate beyond their Indian predecessors? Furthermore, what does this two thousand year long conversation tell us about relativism itself? Can the sophisticated Tibetan frameworks for resolving perceptual relativism inform contemporary approaches to historiography and hermeneutics? Through exploring these questions, the study offers novel insights into this significant stream of Buddhist philosophical thought, and is a contribution to larger discussions on relativism within world philosophy.

(from the Introduction) The present work, titled Tibet and the Himalayas: Past and Present I is a result of the collective efforts of the whole Tibetological group in a volume edited by Magdalena Szpindler, Paulina Koniuch and Stanisław Jan Kania. The core of the work was formed during the international conference that was organized on October 21–22, 2024 at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, currently the Faculty of Asian and African Cultures, of the University of Warsaw.
In the present volume we included research results of Tibetologists presenting them from the most general to those most specialized. With the variety of research topics introduced briefly in the volume, the first of the series of studies and publications that we plan at the University of Warsaw, the authors and editors humbly hope that their contributions will bring interest and better understanding of the rich cultures of Tibet and the Himalayas.

Histoire des manuels de pratique du dGongs pa zang thal * Stéphane Arguillère (INALCO) u fil du très long travail qui a abouti à la parution (2016) de ma traduction française du manuel de pratique du dGongs pa zang thal de sPrul sku Tshul khrims bzang po ou sPrul sku Tshul lo (1884-1957) 1 , j'ai eu tout loisir de me poser bien des questions sur la composition de ce vaste texte, qui est communément regardé comme le plus substantiel des khrid yig de ce cycle. Dans les notes de bas de page du Manuel de la transparution immédiate, on trouve non seulement l'identification de pratiquement tous les textes cités (notamment ceux du dGongs pa zang thal, des dix-sept tantra ou du Klong gsal) 2 , mais encore l'explication de ce que l'on pourrait appeler la structure cachée du texte -la manière dont l'auteur se sert du grand manuel de pratique du mKha' 'gro yang tig de Klong chen pa (1308-1364), le Zab don rgya mtsho'i sprin -jamais cité -comme cadre et comme liant de tous les éléments du dGongs pa zang thal qu'il combine, quand les khrid yig inclus dans le gter chos n'y suffisent pas. Cependant, dans le Manuel de la transparution immédiate, j'ai complètement laissé de côté l'un des champs d'interprétation possibles : celui des rapports de sPrul sku Tshul lo à la littérature des manuels composés entre l'époque de Rig 'dzin rGod ldem et la sienne. J'avoue n'avoir trouvé dans cette littérature que bien peu des réponses aux perplexités que la lecture du Khrid yig skal bzang re skong et celle du dGongs pa zang thal lui-même m'avaient inspirées au fil des ans. Mais, comme souvent, le chercheur, qui ne trouve pas ce qu'il * Je suis très reconnaissant à Mme Anne-Marie Blondeau pour sa relecture très méticuleuse de cet article et pour ses précieuses suggestions.

Histoire des manuels de pratique du dGongs pa zang thal * Stéphane Arguillère (INALCO) u fil du très long travail qui a abouti à la parution (2016) de ma traduction française du manuel de pratique du dGongs pa zang thal de sPrul sku Tshul khrims bzang po ou sPrul sku Tshul lo (1884-1957) 1 , j'ai eu tout loisir de me poser bien des questions sur la composition de ce vaste texte, qui est communément regardé comme le plus substantiel des khrid yig de ce cycle. Dans les notes de bas de page du Manuel de la transparution immédiate, on trouve non seulement l'identification de pratiquement tous les textes cités (notamment ceux du dGongs pa zang thal, des dix-sept tantra ou du Klong gsal) 2 , mais encore l'explication de ce que l'on pourrait appeler la structure cachée du texte -la manière dont l'auteur se sert du grand manuel de pratique du mKha' 'gro yang tig de Klong chen pa (1308-1364), le Zab don rgya mtsho'i sprin -jamais cité -comme cadre et comme liant de tous les éléments du dGongs pa zang thal qu'il combine, quand les khrid yig inclus dans le gter chos n'y suffisent pas. Cependant, dans le Manuel de la transparution immédiate, j'ai complètement laissé de côté l'un des champs d'interprétation possibles : celui des rapports de sPrul sku Tshul lo à la littérature des manuels composés entre l'époque de Rig 'dzin rGod ldem et la sienne. J'avoue n'avoir trouvé dans cette littérature que bien peu des réponses aux perplexités que la lecture du Khrid yig skal bzang re skong et celle du dGongs pa zang thal lui-même m'avaient inspirées au fil des ans. Mais, comme souvent, le chercheur, qui ne trouve pas ce qu'il * Je suis très reconnaissant à Mme Anne-Marie Blondeau pour sa relecture très méticuleuse de cet article et pour ses précieuses suggestions.

This study explores the impact of Chinese medicine on Mongolian medical traditions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Through the analysis of Mongolian medical texts, the literature reveals the selective approach Mongolian healers used when integrating Chinese concepts and treatments into their own. As infectious diseases was an important factor in shaping the Mongol population, a key focus is found on their strategy against this, particularly to smallpox. By filtering and engaging with Chinese knowledge, Mongolian scholars actively tailored it to the contextual needs of their country to strengthen their preexisting medical system. Alongside this, this article further aims to unpack the importance of translation in the dissemination of medical knowledge, notably through the Mongolian translation of The Fine Words of Smallpox (1814). Ultimately, this research underscores the impact of Chinese medical practices on Mongolian medicine, illustrating the significance of cross-cultural connections in advancing medical traditions and public health.

У робочій навчальній програмі подано мету, зміст та завдання вивчення дисципліни "Вступ до спеціальності".В рабочей учебной программе представлены цели, содержание и задачи изучения дисциплины "Введение в специальность".In the work study program given purpose, content and objectives of the discipline "Introduction to.

In this paper, we present our work-in-progress on Information Extraction and Text Classification from large manuscript collections that have not yet been transcribed. We propose a three-stage pipeline starting with digitisation using a collaborative Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) workflow, followed by Normalisation and Segmentation of the texts to create searchable collections, and, finally, we discuss how Text Classification and Information Extraction can help us identify the texts with Tibetan 'Pagan' religious features that are hidden among texts that belong to the Buddhist and Bön religious traditions.