Tibeto-logic Blog
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More-or-less monthly musings on mainly antiquarian topics of Tibet-related interest.
Tibeto-logic Blog
3w ago
“Bon-byung Yid-ches Sgron-ma [b]zhugs.” Endangered Archives Project EAP687/1/19
I see no need to overplay that old scenario of the precious object lost and unknown suddenly revealed to the world. It isn’t exactly cognitive science, or is it? Is it a question of ‘Who is paying attention to what?’ or ‘What’s out there that could be seen?’ Surely there must be a handful of learned people in the hills of Himachal, not to mention the high Himalayas who are aware of this historical work in some degree, some may even have read it for all we know. However, Tibetan Histories  ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
2M ago
Guru Rinpoche, with Nyangrel and so on
(see below) HAR 160.
I’ve written before about how there were in the 11th-12th centuries, several popular Buddhist movements that virtually disappeared from history, yet may have had some impact. Led by laypeople, including laywomen, their memory has survived in what amounts to little more than lists, lists that represent different ways of grouping them. Despite or because of the fact that their Buddhist orthodoxy was and still could be framed in different ways, they become all the more important for historians in our contemporary world ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
3M ago
First question: How is it golden and who decided it has to be a rule? It appears the name emerged in England or the continent just a few centuries ago. Wouldn’t it be more of an appeal or an exhortation rather than something as legalistic as a ‘rule’? I don’t know exactly how the name got started, do you? Every religion may agree with some formulation of it, but that doesn’t mean they have to know what it’s called.
Here is a sometimes quoted verse, originally from a Vinaya text, or so I believed until I located it in the Prajñādaṇḍa, a work credited to Nāgārjuna ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
3M ago
Amitābha
The Buddha Amitābha. Chromolithograph. Wellcome Collection.
Every time I write a blog I go ahead and put it up, thinking it’s over and done with. But it usually isn’t too long, maybe an hour, a day or a week, before something I should have included comes to mind. That happened last time, which is why I put up that Postscript with something about a 15th-century painted icon of Padampa. Continuing to mine the vein of probable Padampas, I would like to add another artistic representation of unknown date of origin and unusual appearance. This artwork, not exactly in ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
4M ago
Padampa in Saspola Cave, Ladakh
Photo by Rob Linrothe
Here you will find on offer translations of six Tingrian Couplets. They were preserved in a 15th-century Nyingma & Kagyü meditation manual composed by Khedrup Yeshé Gyeltsen. Those interested in Tibeto-logical details can read all the way to the end of the blog if they like.
The Tingri Gyatsa, or Tingri Hundred is a widely renowned monument of Tibetan literature, always attributed to the authorship of Padampa Sangye, the south Indian meditation master who died in Tibet in 1105 or 1117 CE. Like Kabir ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
4M ago
“Slob-dpon ’Bu-ta Kug-ta”
I’ll admit the drawings may not be the finest of fine art. Still, undeniably pleasing overall. Face it, the coloration, plain clumsy, may have been added by a later owner. The black ink drawings themselves display an early style, one without a doubt inspired by a strong Pāla Era aesthetic. The more obviously odd aspects are the royal folds that rise up like stubby wings behind their shoulders, and the Indian pandita hats that look more like military helmets. The catalog, likely judging from the stylistic evidence, places their making in the 13th ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
5M ago
I first noticed it last winter, in the IsIAO reading room in the National Central Library of Rome. As you see in its title, it’s a Nyingma text, with teachings Padmasambhava granted to seven women disciples. As I was navigating my way through it, I noticed an unusual phrase, yet one that was somehow familiar to me: bu khyo. I tried searching for it in BDRC etext repository, and found it used in the Mani Kambum, a set of revelations that emerged in the course of the 12th century. It took me awhile, but I eventually recalled encountering it now and ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
5M ago
Matho manuscript fragment W1BL9 v314
It’s been a full 20 years since that essay about early Tibetan women religious leaders entitled “The Woman Illusion?” The book is nowhere near being closed on this subject. But we can confidently start off where that essay concludes: Nowhere are more 12th-century women’s life stories told than in the immediate circle of Padampa and the early Zhijé school. This wasn’t only due to Padampa’s open attitude,* but perhaps even more to his Tibetan disciple Kunga, the one responsible for all or at least most of the relevant literary collections. Kun ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
6M ago
Today’s blog is a guest blog by Jean-Luc Achard. It was written in response to the immediately preceding blog, “Turtle in a Bronze Basin.”
The image of the turtle in a bronze basin is quite frequent in Dzogchen texts. For instance, it appears twice in the Zhangzhung Oral Transmission, although illustrating different issues or stages occurring during practice. First, in the mNyam bzhag sgom pa’i lag len, it says :
/rnam rtog ’phro rgod mang pa la/ /rus sbal mkhar gzhong bzhag ltar bcos/
“When you have too many scattered and agitated thoughts,
Correct that li ..read more
Tibeto-logic Blog
6M ago
... the thoughts of a turtle are turtles ...
If you never kept a turtle as a pet, I don’t recommend it. First and most seriously they are difficult to care for unless you know what you are doing, and largely for this very reason are prone to die a young and untimely death. Another problem is that they often get sick and tired of that terrarium you’ve locked them up in and start scratching nonstop on the walls trying to get out. You wonder if they are just bored or nervous, or in need of a larger living room. The constant scraping noise can be so irritating you could scream and throw ..read more