A Look at Tibetan Books

by Stephen Aldridge
May, 1999


See also: overview of the Kham Aid Foundation text conservation program.

This article is intended primarily for the student of Tibetan language, from the beginner to those with more experience with the language. It is also written partly as a travel guide to enable those interested in acquiring Tibetan books to get some idea of the current situation in Kham today.

 

With the growth of the Internet, creation of computerized databases of catalogues of book collections, reprinting of classic books in Chinese and other languages, the current Chinese printing industry today is really humming along. Modern bookstores in Beijing and Shanghai have coffee shops, Internet terminals, and huge up-to-date collections of books on virtually every subject including many titles in most major world languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and so forth. The printing of Tibetan books is an interesting subset of activities of the current Chinese printing industry.

 

In May of this year, this writer made a trip across China with several projects in mind. One was to review the current state of affairs in the printing of Tibetan books. I approached this project with over 13 years of experience working with Tibetan book publishers in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu. I was traveling this year for the first time to a region of Kham I had visited previously only from the northern edges in Gansu. I traveled across China to Sichuan, west from the capital at Chengdu to Kangding. From Kangding, I traveled northwest, up the Yarlung River valley, and eventually over the Chola Mountains. I visited several printing houses at monasteries in Dege County. This article will cover the changes in the state of affairs of the publishing of Tibetan books, moving from the national level, to the provincial, down to autonomous region research offices and libraries, and the monastery printing houses, miles from the nearest major town.

 

In 1997, the second volume of the Catalogue of Chinese Publications in Tibet Studies (1992-1995) (Tibetan: Krung-go’i bod-rig-pa’i dkar-chag, Chinese: Zhong guo zang xue shu mu) was published by the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing. As the book jacket reads: this book lists “...more than 700 books published by 100-some publishing houses in China...between 1992 and 1995, dealing with...philosophy, religion, politics, law, economy, education, language, literature, art, history, archeology, geography, astronomy, medicine, public health, etc. in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan autonomous prefectures and counties in China. The listing reports the title, editor/author, publisher, date of publication, number of pages, format, and standard book number.” Each book listed has a summary in Chinese, Tibetan or English. The second volume of the catalogue is a sequel to the first volume covering books in Tibetan studies printed from 1949-1991 with some 1500 entries. Any student of Tibetan language who makes a casual perusal of either of these extremely useful reference works will see that Tibetan studies has not stood still in China. Research has proceeded steadily over the years with active support from the Chinese government in the publication of Tibetan books. In brief, most all of the major and most popular books in Tibetan have been printed in Western-style format. New titles appear on a regular basis and there are daily newspapers, weekly magazines, and journals devoted to specific interests such as poetry, Tibetology, and so forth available in different provinces.

 

The Catalogue of Chinese Publications in Tibet Studies provides a good snapshot of Tibetan studies at the national level. The farther away from Beijing one gets, the situation gets more varied. In the capital of Sichuan at Chengdu, the Southwest Minorities College in the Tibetan section of town has the best bookstore going with a very impressive collection of books for sale. The Minorities Press bookstore around the corner and across the street from the Jinjiang Hotel is certainly the 2nd best place. New publications include a collection of medically related texts compiled from the Rin-chen gter-mdzod, one of the most sacred collections of books in the rNying-ma-pa tradition. The classic Tibetan-Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (Bod-rgya tshig-mdzod chen-mo), first released in 1985 in 3 volumes, shrank to a smaller 2-volume set, and is now a 1 volume, 3290 page edition selling for $11.50 (US) in China and $14.00(US) in Hong Kong.

 

Going farther out in the field some 260 miles from Chengdu to Kangding, one finds several Tibetan schools, one Tibetan bookshop, offices of the Translation Bureau for the Garze Autonomous Prefecture, a Tibetan library, monasteries and temples. Kangding, known as Dartsendo to Tibetans, or simply Do, is the traditional meeting place for trade for Tibetans, Yi, Jang, Naxi, Han Chinese and other groups. It is situated on the edge of the region known as Kham. Whereas in central Tibet where four major Buddhist sects are found, the Gelugpa, Sakyapa, Kargyupa, and Nyingmapa, in Dartsendo one finds the four major schools plus monks or nuns from the Jonangpa and Minyakpa. Kham was once part of the kingdom of Minyak, which reached its height of influence during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The kingdom of Minyak has sometimes been confused with the area of Ningxia but recent work by Minyak Gonpo and others has established the former capital of Minyak at present-day Yushu, in Qinghai, and later, for a while, at Dartsendo.

 

Before working outwards from the central administrative point for the Garze Autonomous Region at Kangding, the work of following what is happening with book printing must begin with the work of the local Translation Bureau. The teams there work not only on the reprinting of selected Tibetan texts but also translate books from Tibetan to Chinese and vice versa. Kangding has long been a center for back and forth translation from Tibetan to Chinese. Especially since the 1920s, there has been much translation into Chinese of the Tibetan writings of Buddhist teachers such as Gongkar Rinpoche. He had several Chinese students who became well known in the West such as Garma C.C. Chang, translator of the Hundred Thousands Songs of Milarepa.

 

The Translation Bureau of the Garze Autonomous Prefecture has been working on cataloguing the books at the 473 monasteries in the prefecture, in the some 50 monasteries that are known to have books. The first survey of these collections was made in 1981. A second survey in 1994 did not reveal any books considered precious but neither the survey in 1981 nor in 1994 admits to having covered all the books.Because of the distance between monasteries and the difficulties in travel, it is difficult for a team located down in one corner of the prefecture to keep track of what is going on with book collections or publishing efforts spread out over the rest of the prefecture. Catalogues being compiled will list the tables of contents of books that the printing houses throughout the prefecture can print at the moment. The catalogues will not cover the new printing initiatives that have sprung up over the last few years in the prefecture. Nor will the catalogues cover the collections in libraries that were not reviewed.

 

A visit to the local Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Library (dKar-mdzes bod-rigs rang-skyong khung dpe-mdzod khang) revealed a modest book collection organized in two card indices. One was in order by title according to the order of the Tibetan alphabet (ka-phreng-gi dkar-chag) and the other by subject (khag dbye-ba’i dkar-chag). Books are further organized by the Dewey Decimal and US Library of Congress system. The hiatus in classification of Tibetan texts by the Library of Congress is mirrored in the inconsistencies found in the Tibetan library at Dartsendo in the use of the LOC numbering system. There were several publications on display in newspaper/magazine racks. These included magazines oriented to a youthful readership (Bod ljongs gzhon-nu’i tshags-par), county newspapers (dKar-mdzes gsar-‘gyur), new writing from Qinghai (mTsho-sngon bod-yig gsar-‘gyur), publications from Tibetan schools such as rTser-snyeg (with the English title “Climbing”), published by the mTsho sngon zhing chen tang-gi slob-sgra.

 

Tibetan books printed in classical format from wood blocks can roughly be grouped by distribution from printing houses. First, there are the large general collections such as the Kangyur, original teachings of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni, and the Tangyur, commentaries, poems, spiritual practices based on the teachings of Sakyamuni. The Kangyur and Tangyur were printed at Beijing, Lhasa, Dege, Narthang, and Coni. Monasteries near these cities might have a copy of the edition of the Kangyur or Tangyur, or both, printed at the printing house closest to them. The original wood blocks for these two primary collections are still fully available at Dege and questions remain as to the whereabouts of the Beijing blocks, missing since the Japanese occupation of Beijing in July of 1937. Dege emerged in the 19th century as the first printing house to print works from all the different spiritual traditions in Tibet.

 

Second, the collections of works on philosophy, spiritual practice, medicine, astrology and so forth unique to a particular monastery’s curriculum would be printed at that monastery and copies of those books sent to branches of the monasteries. For example, the The Precious Treasury of Hidden Texts (Rin-chen gter-mdzod) is important to the Nyingmapa and Kargyupa schools. Editions of this collection in some 25 or more volumes were printed at Tshur-phu, the leading monastery for the Karma Kargyupa in the central Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and at Palpung, another Kargyupa monastery, in Kham. Both of these printing houses and others would provide their own editions to other monasteries. Since the different collections varied by texts included, it has been difficult to compile a new, definitive collection. The decision on what to include in a given collection of books was often left to the editor of the collection. Earlier in Tibetan history, the task of compiling the Tangyur was in the editorship of Buton. He questioned the authenticity of a whole group of older books that came from the days of the establishment of the first monastery in Tibet at Samye in 914 and excluded all but a few works he questioned from the printing of the Tangyur. What was left out came to be printed as a separate collection, the Ancient Ones 100,000 Texts (Nying-ma rGyud-‘bum).

 

Third, there are the hand-written or privately printed books available only at certain monasteries and rarely distributed. The third category of book will be more thoroughly discussed below.

 

Because of the distance between monasteries, poor conditions for extended stay at monasteries, and the often-sensitive nature of working on “catalogues” of books, the work of the Translation Bureau team is also under funded and understaffed. At monasteries to the west of the Garze Autonomous Prefecture, little is known of what monasteries may have books, and there are no personnel qualified to take a look at what might be there. Because of the unfortunate history of dishonesty on the part of a few previous visitors to monastic libraries, many monasteries refuse permission for Autonomous Prefecture employees to visit the libraries. One team that visited Sakya in the central part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) apparently took, or copied without permission, some books. This set up an atmosphere of bad feeling and lack of trust for future teams. One might also mention the visits of Western explorers, although much more infrequent, after which books were reported missing. Add to the mixture the destruction of libraries during the so-called “Cultural Revolution” and Tibetans have legitimate grounds for mistrust of people wishing to look at books. Despite the current problems in sometimes getting access to libraries in monasteries, the efforts to officially catalogue what books are available to be printed is important work.

 

New books or new editions of old books are appearing all the time. The process of printing a new edition, Western-style, of an old Tibetan books seems to the outsider to be a bit cumbersome and bureaucratic. However, in the context of limited funding for the printing of books, the process of selecting a title for consideration, time consuming and tedious as it may first appear, has its merits. An individual researcher first writes a synopsis of the subject of a book, often accompanied by a table of contents, and sends it down to Chengdu for review by the Translation Committee. If the book is approved for publication and one gets the right permit, then the book is printed. Sometimes there are active connections with other sellers of Tibetan books in China, and the book can be found on the bookshelves in stores in Beijing, Xining, or Shanghai. Sometimes there is little interest in the book and it sits in a warehouse collecting dust. Some titles, biographies of popular teachers (the biography of Milarepa is always sold out in Tibetan and Chinese) or popular short stories sell well. The 3-volume Rgya-bod tshig mdzod chen mo is now in its third edition. The Dege edition of the Tangyur is being reprinted on special paper in Beijing, Western-style, as a special project. The books published so far are fine editions, works of careful craftsmanship, and a joy to look through. Each volume has a table of contents, annotations, and illustrations.

 

Funding for the printing of new books printed in the traditional style from wood blocks often comes from local Tibetans. Many collections of prayers, for example, may only be a text of 16 pages. The short text will still constitute a book title and have its own set of printing blocks, one block per page, 2 blocks to print the front and back of a page, assigned a name, marked and stored in one group in the printing block racks in the printing “house”. At Dege, there is an entire building, the Dege Printing House (sDe-dge Par-khang) devoted to printing books, prayer flags, and line drawings. At the residence of a local spiritual teacher (lama), the printing “house” might consist of a shed with sleeping quarters provided for those hired to carve printing blocks or print books. At Dzogchen, a medium-sized monastery with a reported 600 monks, the printing house was upstairs on the roof of a temple.

 

Dzogchen Monastery is a good example of a monastery that used to have a substantial printing house and library, both of which were burned to the ground during the “Cultural Revolution.” The books in the core collection were printed and sent out to the 200-odd monasteries that were “affiliates” of Dzogchen at the height of the monastery’s influence in the 1930’s. Sometimes the books in the Dzogchen library were printed from blocks at the Dzogchen printing house; other collections came from monasteries whose printing houses are still in operation. A group of blocks might be cut for a collection of original books owned by one family. The blocks were burned but the original works have survived, enabling reprinting and redistribution of such rare texts to take place. A third category of books would be those that were, for example, on loan to the monastery from another monastery at the time the library was burned and the original wood blocks have been burned or lost as well. What books were taken away from the monasteries before the burnings, where they were hidden, how many books were saved, remains an unsolved mystery. There are private homes throughout Kham, and residences of lama officials that have private libraries. Having a private library of sacred Buddhist books is always considered an act of merit as well as an indispensable aid to spiritual practice for any well-educated Khampa.

 

The Dzogchen Printing House has a list of book titles. Newly-carved blocks have been produced for texts from the “Tibetan Book of the Dead” series, for writings of teachers famous to Dzogchen such as Patrul Rinpoche, biographies of Guru Rinpoche, spiritual practices, some 3500 pages of books.

Monk printing books at Dzogchen 

 

Private libraries, those belonging to families or residing in the private residences of spiritual teachers (lamas) are not spoken of very often. The turbulence of history has made the hiding of books a necessity for many spiritual traditions in different periods of Chinese history. Major recent disruptions that greatly affected book collections were World War II and the so-call Cultural Revolution. Even earlier in Chinese history when Buddhism fell out of favor after the fall of the Tang dynasty much poetry, art, and literature was destroyed or hidden. About 20 years ago, a substantial cache of Tang dynasty poetry was found undamaged in the attic of a barn outside of Xi'an where it had rested hidden for over a 1000 years. The collection of books included the works of poets that others, for centuries, had written off as destroyed or otherwise lost. During the Cultural Revolution, books in Tibet were hidden in caves, buried, taken to far-off places where it was unlikely that they would be disturbed, hidden away in abandoned buildings. Because of the great problems, suffering and the need for the utmost in discretion during times of crisis when it was not “politically correct” to own a library, it is difficult even years after the fact to obtain access to private libraries or to even hear of the whereabouts of such without what is called guanxi in Chinese. This means having a connection with someone who knows you and trusts you or is very good friends with someone you know well. The Tibetans speak of “tendel”, which also means “connection” or “affinity.” If you really hit it off with someone, if you are lucky and happen to be interested in Tibetan books, he or she might show you what’s in the family library. This writer had the good fortune to spend several days looking through several private collections in Kham. One home near Kangding contained the collected works of a famous teacher that is available nowhere else.

 

Given the remoteness of so many monasteries, temples, lama residences, retreat houses, fortresses and the vast spread of Buddhist and Daoist ideas in Kham since the 5th century, many areas of Kham have not been explored. Parts of Kham, traditionally defined by Khampas to include northern Yunnan, western Sichuan, Gansu and most of Qinghai, remain wilderness. When comparing the indices of collections of Tibetan books in the West at the Library of Congress, British Library, India Office Library, and numerous collections in Europe, the books preserved and reprinted in the culturally Tibetan parts of China compare favorable in number, author and subject. Tibetan book collections in Western libraries tend to be somewhat central-Tibet focused because early Western explorers traveled to Western and Central Tibet more frequently than Kham. The collections of books in Kham have yet to be catalogued, indexed, or fully assessed. For aspiring Tibetologists, work in Kham remains a wide-open field of enormous opportunity and benefit for others.