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