Table Of Contentintroduction
Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry
i
introduction
Brill’s
Tibetan Studies
Library
Edited by
Henk Blezer
Alex McKay
Charles Ramble
ii
VOLUME 28
The titles published in this series are listed at www.brill.nl/btsl
introduction
Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry
A Guide to the Arts of the 17th Century
Edited by
Christoph Cüppers, Leonard van der Kuijp, Ulrich Pagel
With a Chinese Introduction by Dobis Tsering Gyal
iii
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
introduction
iv
Cover illustration: Head of the wrathful deity Vajrakīla (Plate 94, Tibetan pagination: 042 verso)
ISSN 1568-6183
ISBN 978-90-04-18014-7 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-47-44464-0 (e-book)
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV
provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center,
222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
introduction
Motto
I described at length the rough and fi ne proportional measures in the g.Ya’
sel, [… as well as in] the Dpyod ldan yid gsos which is a book of illustrations
that places its intent like an Indian gooseberry on the palm of one’s hand
[...].
cha tshad rags zhib mtha’ dag ma tshang ba med par g.ya’ sel du rgyas par bkod
la / de don lag mthil skyu ru bzhin gtan la phab pa’i bris dpe dpyod ldan yid
gsos ... /
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho
Mchod sdong ’dzam gling rgyan gcig dkar chag, p. 335
v
introduction
vi
introduction
Table of contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
Chinese introduction 9
List of abbreviations 17
Plates 19
Table of legends 333 vii
Corresponding passages in the Vai(cid:17)ūrya g.Ya’ sel that provide information
about the illustrations in the Dpyod ldan yid gsos 353
List of divinities 379
List of scripts 383
List of stūpas 385
introduction
viii
introduction
Preface
Th e facsimile publication of this rare iconometric handbook, preserved in a preserve the priceless archival treasures kept in Lhasa, special thanks go to
late seventeenth century manuscript, could not have been achieved without Mr ’Od zer. It was him who guided us at fi rst through the vast collections,
the unfailing help and goodwill of a number of friends and colleagues af- carefully construed channels of communication with Ms sGrol dkar and
fi liated with the International Tibetan Archives Preservation Trust [ITAPT] then proposed avenues of collaboration. While he would never have ac-
and the Tibetan Autonomous Regional Archives [TARA] in Lhasa. Above cepted such prominent role, without ’Od zer there would be no manuscript
all, we are indebted to the collaborative vision of Ms sGrol dkar who served conversation initiative, no archival cataloguing and no book.
as director of the Archives until 2003. Her fi rm belief in the benefi ts of
international cooperation in the domains of manuscript preservation and Two colleagues working at the Archives contributed to this publication.
scholarship inspired the foundation of ITAPT and its conservation work Dobis Tsering rGyal prepared the Chinese Introduction and translated the
at the Archives. Quite fi ttingly for a director of such an important reposi- Tibetan text of the legends that accompany the images into Chinese. bLo
tory, it was her unrivalled knowledge of the thousands of manuscript kept bzang rGyal brtsan produced the Introduction in Tibetan which will be in-
ix
at TARA which led us to this volume in the fi rst place. bLo bzang rNam cluded in a later edition. Back home, at the Lumbini International Research
rgyal, who succeeded Ms sGrol dkar in 2004, continued her eff orts to en- Institute, Tsering Lama Tinley Sang po helped us to decipher phrases com-
hance TARA’s international profi le in research and preservation. In 2005, posed in fi endishly small Tibetan cursive script. Ferdinand Stange of the
within a year of his appointment, he gave us permission to photograph the Tara Foundation (Nepal) lent us his superb camera on two occasions when
Cha tshad kyi bris dpe Dpyod ldan yid gsos for publication. We would like to we travelled to Lhasa in order to photograph the handbook.
thank them both for creating such a fi ne environment for our work at the
Archives. From its very inception, ITAPT had the good fortune to receive Last, but certainly not least, we would like to express our gratitude and ad-
generous fi nancial support through the Fanny & Leo Koerner Charitable miration to Albert Hoff städt of Brill Publishers. He provided leadership in
Trust (Cambridge, MA) as well as the Henry Luce Foundation (New York). times of crisis and encouraged us to persevere when everything appeared
At these organisations, we owe a great deal in particular to Lisbet Rausing to fall apart. Most importantly, perhaps, he remained committed to this
and Helena Kolenda for their unstinting support, extraordinary forbear- publication until the end in spite of countless hurdles and delays. We realise
ance and insightful counsel. Th is publication demonstrates, we hope, that that many other people, whose names we may not even know, followed the
their continuous trust in our work, in spite of many setbacks, was in the end progress of our work with great anticipation; we sincerely hope that they are
not entirely misplaced. satisfi ed with the result. Needless to say, we alone bear responsibility for the
shortcomings and errors that escaped detection.
During our study of the manuscript we also drew on the learning of our
Tibetan colleagues at TARA, including bSod nam dge legs (Head, Historical Christoph Cüppers (Lumbini International Research Institute)
Archive Section), mGon po tshe brtan (Head, Preservation Section) and the Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp (Harvard University)
ever-helpful Liu Wu-yi. Th ey were always at hand when needed and provid- Ulrich Pagel (School of Oriental and African Studies)
ed us with priceless information. Of all those who helped us in our eff orts to
