Tibetan Literary Genres, Texts, and Text Types: From Genre Classification to Transformation

306 Pages·2015·1.36 MB·English

by  Jim Rheingans

Tibetan Literary Genres, Texts, and Text Types
Brill’s
Tibetan Studies
Library
Edited by
Henk Blezer
Alex McKay
Charles Ramble
volume 37
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/btsl
Tibetan Literary Genres,
Texts, and Text Types
From Genre Classification to Transformation
Edited by
Jim Rheingans
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tibetan literary genres, texts, and text types : from genre classification to transformation / edited by Jim
Rheingans.
  pages cm. — (Brill’s Tibetan studies library ; 37)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-30099-6 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-30115-3 (e-book) 1. Tibetan
literature—History and criticism. 2. Buddhist literature, Tibetan. 3. Tibetan language. I. Rheingans, Jim,
1964– editor.
 PL3705.T47 2015
 895’.409—dc23
2015029485
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1568-6183
isbn 978-90-04-30099-6 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-30115-3 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
To E. Gene Smith
∵

Contents
Preface ix
List of Contributors x
Introduction. Typologies in Tibetan Literature: Genre or Text Type?
Reflections on Previous Approaches and Future Perspectives 1
Jim Rheingans
PART 1
Classifying Tibetan Texts and Topoi
1 Classifying Literature or Organizing Knowledge? Some Considerations
on Genre Classifications in Tibetan Literature 31
Ulrike Roesler
2 Classifications of the Fields of Knowledge According to One of Klong
rdol bla ma’s “Enumerations of Terms” 54
Ekaterina Sobkovyak
3 The Long Voyage of a Trickster Story from Ancient Greece to Tibet 73
Giacomella Orofino
PART 2
Fluid Genres and Their Reception
4 Borrowed Texts, Fluid Genres, and Performative Licence: Reflections on
a dGe lugs pa Offering Ritual 89
Roger R. Jackson
5 ‘Cosmic Onomatopoeia’ or the Source of The Waterfall of Youth:
Chögyam Trungpa and Döndrup Gyal’s Parallel Histories of
Tibetan mGur 110
Ruth Gamble
viii contents
PART 3
Studies of Specific Texts and Genres
6 “An Ocean of Marvelous Perfections”: A 17th-Century Padma bka’i
thang yig from the Sa skya pa School 139
Franz-Karl Ehrhard
7 ‘Tools of the Trade’ of the Tibetan Translators 182
Peter Verhagen
8 Nyams mgur of Pha bong kha pa bDe chen snying po (1878–1941): An
Analysis of His Poetic Techniques 197
Victoria Sujata
PART 4
Tradition and Modernity: Tibetan Genres in Transition
9 Tibet’s Critical Tradition and Modern Tibetan Literature 231
Lama Jabb
10 From Hagiography to Modern Short Story: How to Get Rid of Old
Social Ideals and Literary Stereotypes 270
Peter Schwieger
Index 279
Preface
In a hot classroom at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada,
in August 2010, a group of Tibetologists met at the Twelfth Seminar of the
International Association of Tibetan Studies, to discuss Tibetan text types
and genres at length. It was both a rewarding and challenging task. Our panel
was entitled “Contributions to Tibetan Literature: Texts, Genres, and Generic
Terms,” and we were honoured that Gene Smith was present and commented
on it in his keynote address on the following morning. Sadly, this was to be
Gene’s last attendance at a Tibetan Studies seminar.
Inspired by Gene’s exemplary scholarship, this book grew out of our discus-
sions at this meeting. In the absence of centrally published conference pro-
ceedings, it furthermore evolved into a work encompassing a range of papers
not presented at the panel. Contributors to related panels, such as Ruth Gamble
and Lama Jabb, added their papers to the collection, and articles by Franz-Karl
Ehrhard and Peter Schwieger completed this book. Intended to be a kind of
‘follow-up’ to the groundbreaking Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre (Snow
Lion, 1996), this volume turned out to be a different—albeit hopefully infor-
mative—contribution. All papers cover new ground in the study of Tibetan
textual genres.
I am indebted to all my teachers, especially to David Jackson, who first
instructed me in Tibetan language, history, and literature. I would like to thank
Peter Schwieger (University of Bonn) for his encouragement and Dominik Dell
(ITAS) and Julian Schott (University of Hamburg) for their help in preparing
this volume.
Jim Rheingans