The Culture of the Book in Tibet CC55004466..iinnddbb ii 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3344 PPMM CC55004466..iinnddbb iiii 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3355 PPMM The Culture of the Book in Tibet Kurtis R. Schaeff er Columbia University Press New York CC55004466..iinnddbb iiiiii 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3355 PPMM Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2009 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schaeff er, Kurtis R. Th e culture of the book in Tibet / Kurtis R. Schaeff er. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-14716-3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-51918-2 (electronic) 1. Buddhist literature, Tibetan—History and criticism. 2. Buddhism and culture. 3. Tibet (China)—Civilization. I. Title. BQ7622.S35 2009 002.0951′5—dc22 2008036987 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Th is book was printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. design by martin n. hinze CC55004466..iinnddbb iivv 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3366 PPMM Contents Preface vii 1. Th e Stuff of Books 1 2. Th e Editor’s Texts 19 3. Th e Scholar’s Dream 44 4. Th e Physician’s Lament 73 5. Th e King’s Canons 90 6. Th e Cost of a Priceless Book 120 Epilogue: Th e Boy Who Wrote Sūtra s on the Sky 147 Appendix 1. Büton Rinchendrup’s Lett er to Editors 149 Appendix 2. Th e Contents of the Buddhist Canons 151 Appendix 3. Th e Cost of the Canon at Degé 159 Notes 161 References 215 Index 241 CC55004466..iinnddbb vv 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3377 PPMM CC55004466..iinnddbb vvii 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3377 PPMM Preface W hat was the cultural, social, and economic sig- Every work is the nifi cance of the book in Tibet? How did schol- work of many things ars in Buddhist traditions edit works of religion, besides an author. literature, art, or science? How was the writt en word implicated —Paul Valéry in the construction of power and authority in Buddhist societ- ies? Th e present book i s an att empt to address these questions— issues of broad signifi cance for understanding Buddhist cultures throughout Asia—by looking at a single cultural location, Ti- bet, from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. A motivating conviction is that what has been referred to as a “cult of the book” in Indian and other Buddhist cultures is more pro- ductively conceived as a culture of the book in Tibet, for the de- votional practices that have been highlighted in India can, in the case of Tibet, be viewed as but one part of a set of interrelated material and cultural practices. Th e book in Tibet is variously the embodiment of the Buddha’s voice, a principal tool in education, a source of tradition and authority, an economic product, a fi nely craft ed aesthetic object, a medium of Buddhist writt en culture, and a symbol of the religion itself. From the earliest examples of Tibetan writing upon imperial stele to the mass production of printed canons a thousand years later, Tibetan scribes, scholars, and kings have explicitly made reference to the importance of books and the writt en word in areas of life from social author- ity to soteriology. Tibetan scholars of the fi ve traditionally clas- sifi ed forms of knowledge (arts and craft s, medicine, language, logic, and the “inner art” of Buddhism) have exhibited passion- ate involvement with writt en culture—editorial theory; transla- tion practices; forging authoritative transmissions of knowledge, practice, and lineage. Yet relatively litt le is known about the spe- cifi c contours of the culture of the book in Tibet, such as the roles of patronage in the production of texts, the economic and social implications of producing the massive canons of Buddhist literature on the Himalayan plateau, the position of the scribe in society, and working life in a Buddhist scriptorium. CC55004466..iinnddbb vviiii 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3377 PPMM PREFACE Th e present work concentrates on the book—be it a hand- writt en manuscript or a printed volume—and more broadly the writt en word (inscription, charm, carved mantra, etc.) as a locus of cultural and social practices. It is a contribution to the loosely defi ned area of inquiry known as the history of books. 1 It is in no sense a comprehensive narrative history of the Tibetan book (a project for the next generation), but rather a set of linked case studies highlighting central themes in the study of writt en cul- ture in Tibet. Th e temporal focus begins in the fourteenth cen- tury and the formative period of text-critical literature at Shalu monastery in west-central Tibet. From there the chapters trace an arc through the intervening centuries to the eighteenth cen- tury and the editors of Degé in eastern Tibet, plott ing important points in the history and culture of the book in central, western, and eastern Tibet. Th is temporal range suggests a constructive unity, for this fi ve-century period marks the age of the Buddhist canons (the Kangyur and Tengyur). Within this framework the central chapters off er detailed description and analysis of select moments in the cultural history of books, all of which are united by the intersection of explicit references in the sources to textual scholarship, the production of Buddhist culture, and the social and economic roles of books in Tibet. Th e book is a particularly rich focal point in the study of Tibetan cultural history, for it is a nexus of intellectual, religious, social, artistic, and economic as- pects of life. A physical instantiation of learned culture and tra- dition, the book serves as a principal point for debating culture, whether the role of libraries in religious institutions, the relative merits of oral and writt en teachings, or the price of translated lit- erature. Th e study of this single yet immensely important object of material culture, off ers greater understanding of the cultural and social history of Tibet and of Buddhism. I n what follows I have sought a balance between thematic presentation and specifi c case studies of books, their makers, and their times and places. Each chapter centers on the activities of a few particular times and places while introducing a particular theme. To a greater or lesser extent, most chapters focus on the scholars who were engaged in work on language, literature, trans- lation, editing, and book production. Some chapters dwell on the technical skills of editing manuscripts; others look more closely at the roles that writing and book production have played in the social and cultural life of Tibet or highlight the place of textual viii scholarship in the formation of individual scholars’ identities. CC55004466..iinnddbb vviiiiii 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3388 PPMM Chapter 1 surveys the material aspects of the book, principally PREFACE what traditional sources have to say about the paper, ink, wood, and fabric out of which books are fashioned. Chapter 2 looks fi rst to two lett ers to editors of Buddhist canons, works whose brev- ity belies the rich and detailed sketches they draw of the making of Buddhist scriptural volumes. Th e fi rst lett er—and the more important for the subsequent history of book production— was writt en in the fourteenth century by the great scholar Butön Rinchendrup. It contains instructions to managers at the scrip- torium of Shalu monastery and includes vivid details of scribal practice. Th e second was composed in the early seventeenth century by the twenty-fi ft h abbot of Drikung monastery, Chökyi Drakpa, and off ers advice on the management of a team of scribes and details the methods to be followed in planning, de- signing, and executing the production of books. Th e fi nal section of the chapter shift s focus from Tibetan scholars concerned with canonical literature to those involved with the compilation and reproduction of a single Tibetan writer’s oeuvre—in this case, the famous abbot of Labrang monastery in the Amdo region of northeastern Tibet, Jamyang Shepé Dorjé. Chapter 3 moves to the late fi ft eenth and early sixteenth centuries to chronicle the career of a paradigmatic textual scholar, the translator and editor Shalu Lotsawa Chökyong Zangpo, who followed closely in the footsteps of Butön at Shalu. Th e second half of the chapter looks to the book-making activities of Shalu Lotsawa’s contemporary, Tsangnyön Heruka, the “Madman” of Tsang, famous for redact- ing and printing the most popular version of the life story of that ubiquitous Tibetan hermit-saint, Milarepa. At fi rst glance Shalu Lotsawa and Tsangnyön might seem irreconcilable opposites— the consummate scholar-monk and the ultimate hermit. When viewed from the perspective of their eff orts in textual production and the promotion of the culture of the book, they have more in common than might have been imagined. Chapter 4 moves a step away from canonical literature to take up the themes elabo- rated in previous chapters in a new context: the debates over the proper place of textual scholarship in the medical traditions of Tibet, recounted and fueled principally in the late seventeenth century by Sangyé Gyatso, regent to the Fift h Dalai Lama and scholar extraordinaire of the arts and sciences. Chapter 5 intro- duces the two fi gures who might be considered the central char- acters of the book, Shuchen Tsültrim Rinchen and Situ Chökyi Jungné, the famous editors of mid-eighteenth-century Degé, ix CC55004466..iinnddbb iixx 33//2277//0099 1122::3333::3388 PPMM