Traditional Cataloguing &
Classification of Tibetan Literature
By Ngawang Tsepag
Abstract
Various types of scripts and letters
have been innovated from time to time with the development of human
communication skill, and the recording of the knowledge is continuing its
process to date. In the process of storage, retrieval and dissemination of
recorded knowledge, various tools and techniques that are largely known as
cataloguing, classification, and indexing and abstracting systems etc have been
acquired. In any part of the world where intellectual activities have taken
place, there have been attempts at developing tools and methods for organizing
the given literature of respective times and space. This further developed today
into a profession of library and information science. The Tibetans are one such that has developed
a method for organizing their literary collections. Though Tibet is not developed in today's
material context, it has made great strides in early practice of documentation.
Tibetans had feasible system of cataloguing since early ninth century.
Tibetan literature and its script do
not date before the seventh century, but it has an astonishing number of
records of early sub-continent arts and sciences along with enormous Buddhist
scriptures. Due to the Tibetan traditional cataloguing practice the long lost
golden literature of Indian heritage has today became possible to be
reintroduced and restored in India and also made available for scrutiny for the
rest of the world. This paper is a simple
endeavor to introduce to the outside world the Tibetan traditional practice of
Cataloguing and Classification with special reference to Bu-ston rin-chen-grub's
(1290-1364) works.
Introduction:
Tibet, which till recently was a
forbidden country possesses literature that stretches back to 1300 years.
Tibet’s literary heritage came to be known beyond its physical boundaries
largely as a result of political trouble in the 1950’s, which caused thousands
of Tibetans to flee out of Tibet carrying much of their literary corpus with
them. Despite its relative isolation, Tibetans have contributed a great deal
towards world literature during the past few millennia. The significance of
such contributions was enhanced by native traditions of scholarship in edification,
redaction, repackaging, and publishing.
The Tibetan literary corpus amounts to
an astonishing number of works, making it one of the great literary traditions
of Asia in terms of both its size and range of influence. Though the bulk of
Tibetan literature is an important accumulation of Buddhist teachings, it also
covers many more topics as diverse as linguistics, literature, biography,
history, philosophy, astronomy, medicine etc. It has had an abiding influence
not only in Tibet itself but also in those territories that constitute today’s
Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Sikkim and other Himalayan areas in India as
well as northern part of Pakistan, western China and southern Russia.
Despite its wide geographical range of
influence, Tibetan literature was largely unknown as late as the middle of this
century. Tibet was then geographically isolated from the rest of the world and
the western colonial power had no encounter with its culture. Only a few
intrepid missionaries, adventurers, soldiers, and scholars, like the Jesuit
father Ippolito Desideri (1684-1733), Alexander Csoma de Koros (1784-1842) and L.A. Waddell (1854-1939), had made their
way to Tibet. And their writings perpetuate Tibet as “The Forbidden Land”, “The
Roof of the World”, “The Inaccessible Home of the Ascendant Masters”, “The
Utopian Shangri-La”, “The Lost horizon”, “The land of Psychic Mystics” etc.
These individuals were also responsible for dubbing Tibet’s Buddhist traditions
as “Lamaism”, a derogatory term which suggested Tibet’s spiritual practice as a
degenerate form of Buddhism.
The
major part of Tibetan literature corpus is that of translation works of Indian
Buddhist treatises. The
entire Buddhist canon comprising of three scriptural collections, or Tripitaka,
as well as an enormous volume of Indian commentarial works, were translated
into Tibetan and compiled into the two sections of the Tibetan canon—bka’-’gyur
& bstan-’gyur, translation of Buddha’s discourses and translation of
commentarial works respectively. Nevertheless, although these translations from
Sanskrit and other languages constitute a major portion of Tibetan literature,
Tibetans have also published numerous indigenous literary works pertaining to
both Buddhism and other topics.
According
to written records, the present Tibetan script was invented in the seventh
century. Modeled on an Indian script, the Tibetan script was specifically
commissioned to make possible the translation of vast numbers of Indian
Buddhist texts into Tibetan, and thus facilitate the transmission of Buddha
Dharma into Tibet. Although late to acquire a script, Tibetans have such a
great collection of literary works that they can deservedly pride on. The dawn
of Buddhism in Tibet radically altered Tibet’s culture and her literary
trajectory. Buddhism revolutionized Tibet by introducing it to the arts and
sciences of the sub-continent including its traditions of linguistics,
literature, philosophy, astronomy, and medicine etc. which thus did impose the
compulsion of a foreign language for the study of its scriptures. Tibetan
translation works came from multi-lingual sources, besides the Indian languages
translation were also carried out from rgya (Chinese), Li (Sinkiang-China),
Kha-che (Kashmiri), Ogyen (Afgani), Sambhala (Shangrila?), Sengali (Ceylon-Sri
Lanka), gser-ling (Sumatra-Indonesia), Zang-ling (Cambodia?), Za-hor (Bengali),
Bal-yul (Nepali), Nas-ling
(Java-Indonesia) etc[1].
The development of Tibetan
Buddhism and Tibetan literature from the seventh century onwards is marked by
two phases of growth. In the first phase, the three Dharma Kings of the
Yar-lung dynasty– srong-btsan sgam-po (617-649), khri-srong lde’u-btsan
(742-797), and khri ral-pa-can (806-839) and Indian Mahapandita Shantarakshita
and Mahayogi Padmasambhava, and translators such as ye-shes dbang-po,
Vairocana, and Vimalamitra etc were mainly responsible for the development and
during which thousand of texts were translated from their Sanskrit originals.
This period came to be known as “early-translation period.” (snga-‘gyur rnying-ma)
and also called “early promulgation of Buddhism” (bstan-pa snga-dar). The later phase of literary activities
centered around the princes Ye-shes ’od
and byang-chub ‘od in the Gu-ge region of mnga’-ris, western-most part of Tibet
and their collaborators like the great translator Lo-chen rinchen-bzangpo (958-1055),
rngog-legs-pai blo-ldan sherab (1059-1109) and the Indian Mahapandita Deepankar
Shreegyan popularly known as Atisha (982-1054). This period is known as “the
era of new translation” (phyi-’gyur gsar-ma) and also “revival or later
promulgation of Buddhism” (bstan-pa phyi-dar) in Tibet. In the span of two
hundred years starting from Emperor srong-btsan sgam-po to khri ral-pa-can, a
period known as the first phase of Tibetan literary development, over five
hundred and fifty one Tibetan and Indian scholars had contributed in the
translation works. And in the later development, stretching from the great
lo-tsa-wa rin-chen bzang-po (958-1055) to smin-grol ling lo-chen dharmashri
(1654-1717), spanning over seven hundred eighteen years, there were more than
hundred and seventy scholars involved[2]. According to the sde-dge edition of Dharma
publication, there are 870 scholars
involved in translation works figuring, 250 in bka’-’gyur collection containing
1,115 texts and 620 in bstan-’gyur having some 3387 texts with additional 607
supplementary copies of texts[3].
The Tibetans have played their part on the world stage, in one
phase of their history having ruled a vast empire in Central Asia; in another,
having accumulated and developed an enormous store of Buddhist learning, much
of it lost in its original form and now extant in only such translation works.
Overall, Tibetan literature is better known for its finest experiment in
spiritual and philosophical works.
Cataloguing of
Tibetan Literature:
Tibetan literary activity has been
privileged as a state project under the royal patronage and translation works
rapidly enhanced to its zenith. Mastering Buddhism, Tibetans became one of the
finest scholarships in both spiritual savvy and literary publishing. As the
number of literary works has been increased rapidly since seventh century
onward, existing literature were compiled and catalogued from time to time which
later extended, upgraded, classified, reorganized and put in different sets of
different collections. A separate set of translation works was re-grouped into
two major collections popularly known as bka’-’gyur and bstan-’gyur, translation
of Buddha’s discourses and translation of commentarial works respectively.
The very first Tibetan catalogue was
introduced during the period of the 39th Tibetan King khri-lde srong-btsen,
also known as sad-na legs-mjing-gyon (776-815), who issued decrees “requiring
all translation works that were extant in Tibetan from their Indian original to
be catalogued and subjected to be recurrently reviewed and to set guidelines of
terminology in order to standardize all translation works”[4]. A team of Indian and Tibetan scholars was
assigned for the purpose.
As a major step in
this remarkable attempt at literary standardization, the bi-lingual glossary
known as the Mahavyutpatti (sgra-sbyor bam-po gnyis-pa) was successfully
accomplished in the Tibetan horse year i.e. 814 A.D. Another great achievement
was the cataloguing of the collections then available in royal libraries of the
three famous Tibetan palaces under the supervision of the famous translator
Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs with help from his colleagues, Bande chos-kyi
snying-po, Lo-tsa-wa Bande debendhara, Bande lhun-po and Bande klu’-dbang-po
etc. The earliest catalogue compilation was recorded from the manuscript of the
royal collection housed in the palace- pho-brang ‘phang-thang ka-med kyi
gtsug-lag-kang in the Tibetan dog year i.e. 818 A.D[5]. This cataloguing work became famous by the
name of the palace and known as dkar-chag phang-thang-ma. Soon afterwards two
further catalogues of collections available in two other royal libraries-
pho-brng bsam-yas mchims-phu-ma and pho-brng stong-thang ldan-dkar were compiled
and came to be known as dkar-chag mchims-phu-ma and dkar-chag Idan-dkar-ma
respectively. dkar-chag Idan-dkar-ma was compiled in the dragon year i.e. 824
A.D.[6]
There is confusion between dkar-chag
Idan-dkar-ma and dkar-chag phang-thang-ma as to which is the earlier of the
two. Those who refer to Bu-ston rin-po-che, dkar-chag Idan-dkar-ma is
believed to be have appeared first[7].
According to this belief, the dog year has to be fixed after the dragon, which
then comes to 830 A.D. Among these three catalogues, ldan-dkar-ma, included in the volume Jo of sna-tsogs in sde-ge
bka’-bstan, is generally believed to be the only surviving so far. But recently a manuscript of dkar-chag phang-thang-ma is discovered and published from Tibet which
clearly states its published date as dog year which as per sde-dge
bka’-’gyur
dkar-chag[8], can be conformed five years prior to ldan-dkar-ma of dragon year. It
contains 961 titles listed under 34 subject headings with additional
information of numbers of verses (soloka and bampo[9])
that contains in each text[10].
The ldan-dkar-ma
catalogue comprises 735 titles and listed under a category of 27 subject
headings. An interesting unique feature of Tibetan catalogue is that, alongside information about the
source material of translation and the bibliographical details, it gives in
physical descriptions, such as the nos. of words, verses, canto (bampo) and
folios-pages in each of textual contents. Thus today we have a record of 73
millions words contained in the bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur collection. According to the latest edition of Dharma
Publication, the bKa’-‘gyur contains 1,115 texts, spread over 65,420 Tibetan folios amounting
to 450,000 lines or 25 million words. Likewise, the bsTan-'gyur contains 3,387
texts using 127,000 folios amounting to 850,000 lines and 48 millions words.
The sum total of both these collections is 4,502 texts in 73 millions words. By
fixing bampo to verses and to words of each of the textual contents, the
individual works are interpolation and alteration. This further strengthened
the authenticity of Tibetan Buddhist literature.
These are the first
Tibetan catalogues in three versions that were compiled and published in the
beginning of the ninth century by the great sgra-sgyur gyi lo-tsa-wa Bande
sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs and his team. Tibet, thus, becomes the earliest to
accomplish catalogue as inventory in the history of evolution of catalogue[11].
Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs is thus, honored as the pioneer of the Tibetan
system. All the later compilers of the Tibetan Canon based their works
extensively on sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs creation.
After the period of suppression during
the reign of king glang-dar-ma’s (803-842) which brought the first chapter of
the history of Tibetan literature to an abrupt end, the second phase in its
development is reactivated. Since the beginning of 11th century
onward Tibetan translators together with Indian panditas once again resumed
their literary activity to bring about a new chapter to be known as "the
era of new translation" and also "revival or later promulgation of
Buddhism in Tibet". In addition to the previous works Tibet has produced a
huge literary wealth both in terms of volume and range of coverage by the 13th
century and this growth imposed to carry a fresh comprehensive bibliographical
record and control existing literature.
In the mid 13th century[12],
a student of bcom-ldan rigs-ral (1200?), ’Jam-gag pak-shi, also known as mchims
’jam-dpal dbyangs (?-1267), who was the state priest of the Mongol emperor
Ching Tsung, had managed to collect some amount of writing material and sent to
his master with request for organizing and preparing catalogue of literature
that were scattered all over Tibet. bcom-ldan rigs-ral with the help of his
pupils dbu-pa blo-gsal byang-chub ye-shes, lo tsa-wa bsod-nams ’od-zer and
rgyang-ro byang-chub ’bum, surveyed various parts mostly covering central and
western Tibet. Authenticating and rectifying, they carefully scrutinize all the
manuscripts of old and new translations and arranged them in order, compiling a
comprehensive catalogue of a proto-bka’-‘gyur & bstan-’gyur. The catalogue
was prepared into two sets of collections, entitled the dkar-chag bstan-pa
rgyas-pa and dka-’gyur gyi dkar-chag nyi-ma’i ’od-zer respectively.
Classification of Tibetan Buddhist canon or translation works into two main
classes as bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur is basically derived from this
catalogue.
’Jam-gag pak-shi was once again able to
gather some good amount of writing materials and sent to Tibet with the
requesting to re-inscribe all manuscripts and set in separate volumes. dbu-pa blo-gsal byang-chub ye-shes, who was
the disciple of both bcom-ldan rigs-ral and ’jam-gag pak-shi, was entrusted for
this new task. He with colleagues, dutifully accomplished the work and published
for the first time a complete and new set of volumes of - bka’-’gyur &
bstan-’gyur and placed at atemple, ‘jam-lha-khang of the snar thang monastery
which later became famous as snar thang edition[13].
Unfortunately, both the catalogues and volumes of this hand-written oldest
edition of the bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur are no longer available.
Classification
of Tibetan Literature
By the 13th century Tibetan
translation works from Sanskrit and other originals had highly augmented, and
Tibetan commentaries and edification were also enhanced in both Buddhist and
other subject areas. Tibetan literature became enriched in number of volumes as
well as diversity of subjects' coverage, which were defined in various forms
and subject classes from time to time.
During the period of the great Tibetan
luminary, Sa-skya Pandita kun-dga’ rgyal-mtsen (1182-1251), he founded Tibetan
literature to be defined into ten sciences as fields of studies by adding five
more subject classes in addition to the already existing five, and sets
categorized them as five major subjects and five minor subjects. The five major sciences of study are as
below:
Five Major Classes:
1. sgr-rig-pa
= Science of phonetics: (its includes) linguistic and literature
etc.
2. gtan-tsigs rig-pa = Science
of syllogisms: (its includes) Philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology etc.
3. gso-ba rig-pa = Science
of healing: (its includes) Medicine, alchemy etc.
4. bzo-rig-pa = Technical Science: (its includes) Engineering, Fine &
useful arts and other technologies.
5. nang-don rip-pa = Inner
Science: (its includes) Buddhism and other spiritual science.
Five Minor Classes:
(1).
sNyan-ngag = Poetics. (2). sDeb- sbyor = Metric. (3). zlos gar = Drama. (4).
mNgon-brJod = Lexicography and (5). sKar-rts's = Astronomy[14].
Thus,
Tibetan is among the earliest to be defined literature into taxonomy by the
13th century along the line of the well-defined Buddhist scripture. The idea of
defining literature in this pragmatic way as “texts of the concerned area of
knowledge” as in the above ten fields would be the most appropriate practice
and the Tibetan coined “rig-gnas”, an accurate word for subject taxonomy of
literature. However, in modern parlance, the term "rig-gnas" is
frequently employed as the equivalent of the English word
"culture", referring in some contexts to culture in general, in
others to classical culture. The sense, in which the term "rig-gnas"
means "Area of learning" or Field of study as in Sa-skya Pandita’s
enumeration, became the basis for the taxonomy of Tibetan literature. It was
the most appropriate way of portraying Tibetan literature and previous Tibetan
classifiers has rightly followed it. In the present study the term
"literature" is taken in its usual meaning i.e. to include all
aspects of Tibetan recorded materials as well as their study as a subject
matter.
The
Tibetans have developed and practiced numerous modes and norms of classifying
literature at different occasions and times. There are also eighteen sciences
(rig-gnas bco-brgyad) other than ten Tibetan sciences (rig-gnas) in Tibetan
traditional studies. They are again according to different norms have different
modules such as dus-skor nas bshad-pa (kalcakara norm) ‘dul-ba (vinaya norm),
mzod (abhidharma norms) nas bshad-pa etc[15]. Buddhism, in particular, too adopts various
modes for classifying itself such as through the brjod-byed sgo nas (the
subjective mode)- into twelve scriptural division; gnen-po (antidotal mode)-
into the three vessels; time and space mode- into the three wheels of dharma; and
through the brjod-bya (objective mode)- into the three siksas (the three
trainings); brang-nges gnyes (interpretive & definitve); sutra &
tantra, through the pupil mode- into the two vehicles; through the statement of
responsibility mode- into the bka-‘gyur & bstan-'gyur;
through the causal mode- into the given words,
blessed words and indirect words;
through the textual subjective mode- into the thirteen and eighteen great treatises;
through the textual objective mode- into the five great treatises, and so
forth. Further subdivision of given areas is also enumerated. Tibetans have
thus, well defined taxonomy of given literature.
Bu-ston’s
Catalogue:
Bu-ston Rin-chen-grub (1290-1364) was one of the great Tibetan scholars of 14th century.
His collected works contain 28 volumes and 258 texts. He was multi-faceted,
well versed in all Tibetan areas of study along with his par excellence in
Buddhism. He was born in the family of a learned rnying-ma tantric master, yab
(father) brag-ston rgyal-tsan pal-zang-po. He received his basic education from
his parents and at very young age attained excellence in all Tibetan studies.
Later he received Buddhist vows and teachings from various great masters. At age 32, Tibetan water dog year i.e. (1322
A.D)[16]
he visited snar-thang monastery and edited the previous work of the snar-thang
collection and compiled a comprehensive catalogue, which is now contained in
his “History of Buddhism” chapter four, entitled chos-bsgyur-ba’i rnam-grangs. He also compiled a bstan ’gyur catalogue known as yid-bshin-norbu dbang-gyi rgyal-poi phreng-ba
for sha-lu edition 1335 A.D. Later, he also contributed in Tsal-pa bka’-‘gyur
(1347-49) and rtse-thang bka’-bstan (1362) editions[17].
The Bu-ston’s catalogues inscribed in the sha-lu monastery went on to become
the standard reference work for all the future editions. The significance of
Bu-ston’s work Tibetan literature is landmark in the development of art and
science of Tibetan cataloguing & classification system, and particularly in
classification system he deserves the credit for its development. Buton’s
catalogues was brought for the first time with systematized order and wide
range of subject classes division. The enumerated classes are restricted to
Bu-ston definition and no further classification has been attempted. Later, all
bka-‘gyur & bstan-'gyur editions strictly followed Bu-ston pattern. New
translations and later discovered texts that were not available during
Bu-ston’s period were put in separate class as miscellaneous without disturbing
the existing system.
Scope and
Purpose:
The
bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur collections are the most heavily and extensively
used reference source in Tibetan literature in which Bu-ston’s catalogues has
great share in its development. The Bu-ston catalogue has become most authentic
reference source for portraying Tibetan Buddhist literature being rooted an
authentic Indian origin, which not only facilitated access to the early works
of Tibetan literary collection, but also became extensively worth reference
source for all later works. He evaluated earlier cataloguing works of ska-wa
dpal-brtsegs, bcom-ldan rigs-ral, dbu-pa blo-gsal and others and prepared
enlarged and abridged catalogues that set up the framework for Tibetan
cataloguing and classification system.
The early catalogue of Bu-ston entitled
“chos-bsgyur-ba’i
rnam-grangs” has contains more than 2978
manuscripts in both collection of the bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur. (1) bka’-‘gyur, in which are found all the works attributed to Buddha, some 794
titles, and the (2) bstan-'gyur, translations of commentaries and treatises by
Indian masters, comprises of 2184 titles.
Though the collection was basically devised as an encyclopedic
collection of Tibetan Buddhist literature or canon, it also extended to works
of subject diverse such as biographies, lyrical poetry, medicine, astronomy,
art, history and politics etc they are being as Indian origin and translation
works.
Subject
Classification and Arrangement:
Translation works extant in Tibetan are
arranged in systematic order with the categorized subject classes, and set
under two main collections-bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur, the literature attributed to Buddha and commentarial treatises by
Indian Buddhist Masters respectively.
Both bka’-’gyur
& bstan-’gyur possess the same subject classes
separately. However, bstan-'gyur has larger number of subject classes that also
includes subjects other than Buddhism. Titles of texts are listed under given
subject classes and volume series, with information about number of verses and
bampo, authors and translators as involved in the particular work.
The arrangement of literature is well
defined. The basic category of Buddhist literature is defined into two headings
as above and they are further classified into Sutrayana and Tantrayana.
Sutrayana is further sub-divided into three: Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma. In Tantrayana, four classes are specified as
Kriyatantra, Caryatantra, Yogatantra, and Anuttarayogtrantra. They are placed according to the order of the
turnings of the wheel of Buddha teaching (Dharma Chakraparivadhan). Thus it
includes Vinaya in the first turning, Prajnaparamita in second turning, and
Vaipulya sutra, Ratna-kuta, and other sutra etc. in third turning. Thereafter
follows the secret wheel of tantra teachings which is further sub-divided into
five classes i.e. four schools of tantra and tantra-in-general. In bsTan-'gyur
collection, three broad classes are appear in Sutrayana as particular
commentarial or Tikas, General Tikas and General Sciences, and then it is
followed by Tantra Tikas and collective works of Tibetan master. But in later
works of Bu-ston, the order is otherwise than in the bKa’-‘gyur. It follows an ascending order as follow: Stotra Sangraha,
Tantra-Tika, Pranjna-Tika, Madhyamika, Sutra-Tika, Vijnana-vada,
Abhidharma-Tika, Vinaya-Tika, Jatakas, Katha and Lekika, Pramana Shastras and
general sciences, such as Vyakarana, Chikitsa, Niti shastra, Sadharna Shastra
etc.
Lost And No
More Available Documents:
The catalogue separately list hundred of
documents that were earlier translated and published but lost and no more
available, and some documents unconfirmed of their extinction. It also
discusses about different opinions for class categorization of the particular
documents and is left unsolved. Bu-ston Rin-chen-grub had revised the previous
catalogues and compared with existing translated works and framed them into
systematized order, and published enlarged catalogue known as Chos bsgyur-ba’
rNam-grangs that included in his religious history chapter - IV as below:
dka' 'gyur
|
ཨང་།
Sl. No
|
སྡེ་ཚན་དང་གོ་རིམ།
Subject Class
|
ཆོས་ཚན།
Title |
བམ་པོ། Metres
|
ཤོ་ལོ་ཀ།
Verses
|
|
सूत्र। sūtra མདོ་ཕྱོགས།
|
398
|
2257.67
|
677167
|
|
|
༡
|
प्रथमधर्मचक्र चत्तुरार्यसत्य prathamadharmacakra cattuarāryasatya- विनय vinaya བཀའ་དང་པོ་བདེན་བཞི་ཆོས་འཁོར། འདུལ་བ།
|
7
|
337
|
101100
|
|
༢
|
द्वितीयधर्मचक्र अलक्षण dvitīyadharmacakra
alakṣaṇa བཀའ་བར་པ་མཚན་ཉིད་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་འཁོར། प्रज्ञापारमिता prajñāpāramitā ཤེར་ཕྱིན།
|
23
|
510.10
|
154551
|
|
༣
|
तृतीयधर्मचक्र tṛtīyadharmacakra: Sutra
of Clear Discrimination
བཀའ་ཐ་མ་ལེགས་པར་རྣམ་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་ལ།
|
368
|
1405.16
|
421516
|
|
༣ ༡
|
अवतंसकः avataṁsakaḥ ཕལ་ཆེན།
|
1
|
130.30
|
39030
|
|
༣ ༢
|
रत्नकूटम् ratnakūṭam དཀོན་བརྩེགས།
|
49
|
152.117
|
45717
|
|
༣ ༣
|
सूत्र
पिटक sūtra piṭaka མདོ་སྡེ།
|
318
|
1122.151
|
336769
|
|
༣ ༣ ༡
|
हीनयान
सूत्र hīnayāna sūtra ཐེག་པ་ཆུང་ངུའི་མདོ།
|
92
|
121.31
|
36331
|
|
༣ ༣ ༢
|
महायान
सूत्र mahāyana sūtra ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པའི་མདོ།
|
204
|
998.141
|
299541
|
|
༣ ༣ ༣
|
परिणाम
प्रणिधन मंगलम् pariṇāma praṇidhana maṁgalam བསྔོ་བ་སྨོན་ལམ་བཀྲ་ཤིས།
|
22
|
2.279
|
897
|
|
तन्त्र। tantra སྔགས་ཕྱོགས།
|
396
|
117.125
|
35225
|
|
|
༤ ༡
|
क्रिया
तन्त्र kriyā tantra བྱ་རྒྱུད།
|
108
|
70.60
|
21060
|
|
༤ ༢
|
चर्य तन्त्र carya
tantra སྤྱོད་རྒྱུད།
|
6
|
18.150
|
5550
|
|
༤ ༣
|
योग
तन्त्र yoga tantra རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱུད།
|
12
|
13
|
3900
|
|
༤ ༤
|
उत्तरयोग
तन्त्र uttarayoga tantra རྣལ་འབྱོར་བླ་མེད་རྒྱུད།
|
103
|
2.109
|
709
|
|
༤ ༥
|
तन्त्र
सामन्य tantra sāmanya རྒྱུད་སྡེ་སྤྱི།
|
41
|
5.290
|
1790
|
|
༤ ༦
|
धराणी
सग्रह dharāṇī sagraha གཟུངས་འདུས།
|
126
|
7.116
|
2216
|
|
Grand Total ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས།
|
794
|
237
192
|
712392
|
|
II bstan 'gyur
|
ཨང་།
Sl. No
|
སྡེ་ཚན་དང་གོ་རིམ།
Subject Class
|
ཆོས་ཚན།
Title |
བམ་པོ། Metres
|
ཤོ་ལོ་ཀ།
Verses
|
|
|
सूत्र। Sūtra མདོ་ཕྱོགས།
|
605
|
|
1289031
|
||
|
1. Particular Tikas བཀའ་བྱེ་བྲག་གི་དགོངས་པ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ།
|
495
|
|
1232603
|
||
|
༡ ༡
|
प्रथमधर्मचक्र चत्तुरार्यसत्य prathamadharmacakra cattuarāryasatya- विनय vinaya བཀའ་དང་པོ་བདེན་བཞི་ཆོས་འཁོར། འདུལ་བ།
|
50
|
479.149
|
143849
|
|
|
༡ ༢
|
द्वितीयधर्मचक्र अलक्षण dvitīyadharmacakra
alakṣaṇa བཀའ་བར་པ་མཚན་ཉིད་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་འཁོར།
|
111
|
|
890447
|
|
|
༡ ༢ ༡
|
प्रज्ञापारमिता prajñāpāramitā ཤེར་ཕྱིན།
|
39
|
145.28
|
43787
|
|
|
༡ ༢ ༢
|
मध्यमिक madhyamika དབུ་མ།
|
62
|
148.260
|
44660
|
|
|
༡ ༢ ༣
|
बोधिचर्यावतार bodhicaryāvatāra སྤྱོད་འཇུག
|
10
|
3.100
|
1000
|
|
|
༡ ༣
|
Third Dhramachakra: Sutra of Clear
Discrimination -Tikas བཀའ་ཐ་མ་ལེགས་པར་རྣམ་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་ལ།
|
334
|
|
198307
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༡
|
Miscellaneous sutras མདོ་སྡེ་སྣ་ཚོགས།
|
37
|
222.255
|
66855
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༢
|
चित्तमात्र cittamātra སེམས་ཙམ།
|
52
|
350.286
|
105286
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༣
|
चित्तोत्पाद
तथा चर्यशिक्षा cittotpāda tathā caryaśikṣā སེམས་བསྐྱེད་དང་སྤྱོད་པ་སློབ་པ།
|
57
|
34.172
|
10372
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༤
|
कथा kathā གཏམ་ཚོགས།
|
19
|
6
|
1800
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༥
|
सुहृल्लेक suhṛlleka སྤྲིང་ཡིག
|
18
|
6.262
|
2062
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༦
|
भावना ध्यान bhāvanā
dhyāna སྒོམ་དང་བསམ་གཏན།
|
39
|
1.265
|
565
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༧
|
जातक jātaka སྐྱེས་རབས།
|
8
|
13
|
3900
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༨
|
अवदान avadāna རྟོགས་བརྗོད།
|
10
|
1
|
300
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༩
|
स्तोत्र
सग्रह stotra sagraha བསྟོད་ཚོགས།
|
77
|
23.267
|
7167
|
|
|
༡ ༣ ༡༠
|
प्रणिधन
मंगलम् praṇidhana maṁgalam སྨོན་ལམ་བཀྲ་ཤིས།
|
17
|
182
|
-
|
|
|
2. Generalia Tikas སྤྱིའི་དགོངས་པ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ།
|
78
|
|
|
||
|
༢ ༡
|
प्रमाण शस्त्र pramāṇa
śastra ཚད་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
|
59
|
188.128
|
56428
|
|
|
༢ ༢
|
व्याकरण vyākaraṇa śastra སྒྲ་རིག་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
|
19
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
3. General Sciences ཐོར་བུ་བ་ལུགས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
|
32
|
-
|
-
|
||
|
༣ ༡
|
नीति शस्त्र nīti śastra ལུགས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
|
8
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
༣ ༢
|
चिकित्सा शस्त्र cikitsā śastra གསོ་བ་རིག་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
|
7
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
༣ ༣
|
शिल्प शस्त्र śilpa
śastra བཟོ་རིག་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
|
3
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
༣ ༤
|
जोतिष्ठ शस्त्र jotiṣṭha
śastra རྩིས་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ལག
|
8
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
༣ ༥
|
Others
|
6
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
तन्त्र। Tantra སྔགས་ཕྱོགས།
|
1390
|
73.160
|
22060
|
||
|
༤ ༡
|
क्रिया
तन्त्र kriyā tantra བྱ་རྒྱུད།
|
349
|
8
|
2400
|
|
|
༤ ༢
|
चर्य तन्त्र carya
tantra སྤྱོད་རྒྱུད།
|
22
|
7.200
|
2300
|
|
|
༤ ༣
|
योग
तन्त्र yoga tantra རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱུད།
|
134
|
30
|
9000
|
|
|
༤ ༤
|
उत्तरयोग
तन्त्र uttarayoga tantra རྣལ་འབྱོར་བླ་མེད་རྒྱུད།
|
650
|
27.260
|
8360
|
|
|
༤ ༥
|
तन्त्र
सामन्य tantra sāmanya རྒྱུད་སྡེ་སྤྱི།
|
235
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
༥
|
Works
of Tibetan Masters བོད་མཁས་པའི་གསུང་འབུམ།
|
189
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
Total ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས།
|
2184
|
4370.31
|
1311091
|
||
|
Total bKa’-‘gyur བཀའ་འགྱུར་གྱི་བསྡོམས།
|
794
|
234.192
|
712392
|
||
|
Grand Total
བཀའ་བསྟན་གཉིས་ཀའི་བསྡོམས།
|
2978
|
6744.283
|
2023483
|
||
Note:
1.
Portrayal of the bKa’-’gyur &
bsTan-’gyur collection is made on basis of Bu-ston
catalogue entitled Chos bsgyur-ba’ rNam-grangs in his religious history chapter
- IV. His later works on Shalu bsTan-'gyur Catalogue is however more extensive
and exhaustive but not taken into account here.
2.
Numbers of verses and bampo are listed
as per illustrated in the catalogue. There are, however, hundreds of documents
are left without given comprising verses. In bsTan-'gyur out of 1390 texts only
7 texts are numbered. They are assigned from his another catalogue.
3.
Hundred of a lost and yet to discover
documents that are listed separately in the catalogue are not included here.
Afterwards, many more the bKa’-’gyur &
bsTan-’gyur collections were edited and published
from time to time throughout Tibet. Some more newly discovered and later
translated works have been supplemented in these collections, and they are kept
in a separate class as miscellaneous, rather than incorporated into the related
subject-classes. Such additions comprise of 9 volumes and 119 titles. The
enumerated classes are restricted to Bu-ston definition and no further
classification has been attempted. All later editions, however, have variations
in size of volume and numbers of texts. Many of them are no more extant and
some are missing and incomplete and also some are not known as to which
particular they belong. However, some well known editions of bKa’-’gyur &
bsTan-’gyur are listed below:
|
Sl
#
|
Name of
Editions/Publications
|
bKa’-'gyur
|
bsTan-'gyur
|
|||||||||||||
|
Yr. Pub.
|
Texts
|
Vol.
|
Yr. Pub.
|
Texts
|
Vol.
|
|||||||||||
|
1
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
-1335
|
?
|
?
|
||||||||||
|
2
|
1347-1349
|
?
|
260
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
||||||||||
|
3
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
1362
|
?
|
202
|
||||||||||
|
4
|
-1410
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
||||||||||
|
5
|
-1431
|
|
111
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
||||||||||
|
6
|
1605-1700
|
?
|
107?
|
1724-
|
3963?
|
224?
|
||||||||||
|
7
|
Lithang bka’
ལི་ཐང་བཀའ་འགྱུར།
|
1608-1621
|
|
108
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||||
|
8
|
‘Phyongs-rgyes bstan
འཕྱོངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་འགྱུར།
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
1687
|
?
|
224
|
|||||||||
|
9
|
sNar-thang bka’sbtan new
སྣར་ཐང་བཀའ་བསྟན་གསར་མ།
|
1730-1732
|
774
|
100
|
1741-1742
|
3973
|
217
|
|||||||||
|
10
|
Co-ne bka’sbtan
ཅོ་ནེ་བཀའ་བསྟན།
|
1721-1731
|
1056
|
108
|
1753-1772
|
3327
|
209
|
|||||||||
|
11
|
De-dge bka’sbtan
སྡེ་དགེ་བཀའ་བསྟན།
|
1729-1733
|
1108
|
103
|
1737-1744
|
3358
|
214
|
|||||||||
|
12
|
Ra-gya bKa’
རྭ་རྒྱ་བཀའ་འགྱུར།
|
1814-1820
|
?
|
?
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||||
|
13
|
Urga bka’
ཨུར་ག་བཀའ་འགྱུར།
|
1908-1910
|
?
|
?
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||||
|
14
|
Lha-sa bKa’
ལྷ་ས་བཀའ་འགྱུར།
|
1920-1934
|
815?
|
100
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||||
|
15
|
Wa-ri bka’
ཝ་རི་བཀའ་འགྱུར།
|
-183?
|
?
|
206
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||||
|
16
|
Cham-mdo
bka’
ཆམ་མདོ་བཀའ་འགྱུར།
|
1937-1950
|
?
|
101
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||||
|
17
|
Dharma pub. (De-dge)
དར་ཐང་བླ་མའི་ཕྱོགས་སྒྲིག། སྡེ་དགེ་
|
1980
|
1115
|
36
|
1980
|
3387
|
81
|
|||||||||
Tibet thus has a literature of its own,
origin myths, civilization, history, culture, language, script, as well as a
vast literary corpus addressing various fields of human knowledge. So vast,
intricate and sophisticated are the culture, religion, and history of Tibet
that a new academic discipline, Tibetology, has emerged to address the study of
this unique subject. Growing awareness about Tibet and its complex civilization
has also recently given rise to a mushrooming of educational centers,
especially in the West, dedicated to the study of Tibet’s rich intellectual
heritage.
--
Sarvomangalam --
[1] BU-STON
rin-chen-grub. btan-bchos ‘gyur-ro ‘tsal gyi yid bshin nor-bu
rin-po-che’ za-ma-tog. In bu-ston
collected works. lokesh chandra ed. vol. 28 new delhi:
international academy
of indian culture, 1971.
348p.
[2] TSAL-PA
Kun-dgha rdo-rje. deb-ther dmar-po. annotated by dung-kar blo-bzang ‘phrin-las.
mtso-sngon-merig dpe-skrun khang. 1981. 331p.
[3] Bookmarks pamphlet. In Nyingma edition of the sde-dge bka’-’gyur and bstan-’gyur. California:
Dharma Publishing, 1983.
[5] RTA-RTO ED. bod ljongs rten rdzas bshams mjod
khang nas bsgrigs/_sngon dus yar lungs 'phang thang ka med na bzhugs pa'i bka'
bstan mdo phyogs gtso che ba'i dkar chag chos rgyal lo paNa rnams kyis bsgrigs
pa/ = dkar chag 'phang thang ma/. and pho brang 'on cang dor bod dang rgya gar
gyi mkhas pa rnams tshogs shing lha btsan po khri lde srong btsan gyis bskul
nas bkas bcad pa/ = sgra sbyor bam po gnyis pa/ (bod ljongs rten rdzas bshams mjod khang gi
rtsa che'i dpe rnying gces sgrig dpe tsho.ogasa) mi rigs dpe skrun khang /, 2003. 3p.
[6] KANGKAR Tsultrim Kalsang. bstan-pa sng-dar
gyi chos-‘byung ‘brel-yod dang bcas-pai dus-rabs kyi mtha-dpyod ‘phrul gyi
me-long. New Delhi:
western Tibetan culture association, 1984. 91-96pp
[7] BU-STON. Chos ‘byung bde-bar gs’egs pai bstan-pai
gsal-byed chos kyi gnas gsung-rab rin-po-che mzod. Krung-goi bod-kyi ses-rig dpe-skrun kang,
1987. 314p.
[9] SALOKA AND BAMPO is standard Tibetan
measurement system for letter character. Saloka is verse that contains four
lines and each line may contain eight words is standardized as one Saloka and
in running letter, thirty two words is also fixed as one Saloka. Bampo is
standardized as size of containing three hundreds Salokas. Tibetan volume size
is also standardized in pothi form as a small, medium and large size with
containing folio number of pagination. Small pothi may contain 300, medium 400
and large 500 folios.
[10] RTA-RTO ED. bod ljongs rten rdzas bshams mjod
khang nas bsgrigs/_sngon dus yar lungs 'phang thang ka med na bzhugs pa'i bka'
bstan mdo phyogs gtso che ba'i dkar chag chos rgyal lo paNa rnams kyis bsgrigs
pa/ = dkar chag 'phang thang ma/. and pho brang 'on cang dor bod dang rgya gar
gyi mkhas pa rnams tshogs shing lha btsan po khri lde srong btsan gyis bskul
nas bkas bcad pa/ = sgra sbyor bam po gnyis pa/ (bod ljongs rten rdzas bshams mjod khang gi
rtsa che'i dpe rnying gces sgrig dpe tsho.ogasa) mi rigs dpe skrun khang /, 2003, 1-67pp.
[11] LIBRARY
CATALOGUING THEORY BLIS-04: history, purpose and types of library catalogue-1
rep. IGNOU: 2000, (2.2) has marked four phases in evolution of Catalogue: 1.
Early stage (250B.C.-800 A.D.), 2. Age of inventory (1200-1500 A.D.), 3. Age of
finding list (1600-1800A.D.), and 4. Modern catalogue (1900A.D.)... and further
describes that, in age of inventory, simple lists were attempted in good number
in the succeeding periods (900-11AD) Louis Pious (814-840) issued a decree
requiring the monasteries and cathedrals to list all the books in their
possession. So the catalogues of the monasteries and cathedrals were compiled
to serve the need for inventories of the material possession.
[12] NGAG-DBANG
Tse-dpag et. al. bod kyi dkar-chag rig-pai lag-deb. Varanasi: Siddhartha (f) publication, 2004
16-17pp.
[13] ‘GOS LO-TSE-WA
gshonu-dpal (1392-1481). deb-ther sngon-po. stod-ca sarnath: Vajravidya
Institute, 2003. 409-12pp. And TSAL-PA kun-dgha rdo rje. deb-ter dmar-po.
annotation by dung-kar blo bzang ‘phrin-las. mtso-sngon merig dpe-skrun kang,
1981. 331-332pp.
[14] ‘DAR- STOD
tdra-‘dul dbang-po. Tha-snyad rig-sngai byang tsul blo-gsal mgren rgyan (gangs
chan rig mjod deb bshi-pa) bod-ljong me-rig dpe-skrun kang, 1987. 286p.
[15] MGON-PO
dbang-rgyal. chos-kyi rnam-grang sha-ja
nor-ling ‘jug-pai gru-gzing. si khron me-rig pe-skrun khang, 1988. 428-39pp.
[16] DUNG-KAR, lobsang thinley, bod kyi dkar-chag
rig-pa. In sbrang char deb gnyes-pa, 1986. 75p.
[17] NGAG-DBANG
Tse-dpag et. al. bod kyi dkar-chag rig-pai lag-deb. Varanasi: Siddhartha (f) publication, 2004.
22-23pp.
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