THE DIPLOMAT AND THE DALAI LAMA
![Tibetan Amitayus Sutra.](images/0024-th.jpg)
Tibetan Amitayus Sutra. Shown
here is "The Noble Mahayana Sutra Named Boundless Life
and Knowledge," the Tibetan version of a Sanskrit sutra
in praise of Amitayus, the Buddha of Infinite Life.
Amitayus is an important deity in Mahayana Buddhism,
and many longevity rituals are based on this sutra. Amitayus
is one form of the Buddha of Boundless Light, Amitabha,
who is also the protector of Tibet, according to local
tradition. Tibetan Buddhism holds that the Panchen Lama
is the reincarnation of Amitābha. This unusual manuscript
is written in silver ink on dark blue paper. Copying the
text in silver or gold ink gains the copier extra merit. (Rockhill
Tibetan Collection, Asian Division)
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Wu T'ai Shan, one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains,
lies to the west of Peking, in Shansi province. The large temple
complex on top of the mountain has attracted pilgrims for centuries.
One of the monastery's more recent guests was Tibet's thirteenth
Dalai Lama, who had fled Lhasa during the 1904 British invasion
of his homeland. He sought refuge first in Mongolia, then at
the lamasery of Kumbum near Koko Nor. In early 1908, he arrived
at Wu T'ai Shan with some three hundred attendants.
On June 17, 1908, another distinguished "pilgrim" arrived at
the head of a mule pack train, having walked much of the distance
from Peking to call on the Dalai Lama. Standing six feet, four
inches, William Woodville Rockhill, the U.S. Minister to China,
still had the stiff bearing of the French military officer he
had once been and was not given to strong expressions of emotion.
But after two meetings with the Dalai Lama, Rockhill could barely
conceal his excitement in a twelve-page letter describing the
meetings to Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. The letter is among Roosevelt's
papers in the Library's Manuscript Division.
The Dalai Lama presented Rockhill with a number of gifts, one
of which was a beautiful Buddhist text called the Sutra of
the Perfection of Wisdom, now in the Asian Division's rare
book collection, a gift from Mrs. Rockhill in 1942.
![Vajrapani Than-ka](images/0025-th.jpg)
Vajrapani
Than-ka. A unique form of Tibetan art, the than-ka
is a painted cloth scroll featuring objects of worship
framed in brocade for use as a support
for meditation. This than-ka depicts Phyag-na Rdo-rje
(Vajrapani), a Bodhisattva who represents the power
of all the Buddhas and who conquers all negativity. Above
the main figure are past lamas who practiced the teaching
tradition related to Vajrapani. (Alo Chhonzed
Tibetan Collection, Asian Division) |
As noted earlier, Rockhill played an important role in the development
of the Library's Asian collections and especially in making the
Library one of the world's leading centers for Tibetan books.
During his youth in France, Rockhill developed a strong interest
in Tibet that remained with him during his years as an officer
in the French Foreign Legion, a stint as a rancher in New Mexico,
and a long career as a diplomat and China specialist. He is best
known as the framer of America's "Open Door" policy toward China
at the turn of the century. But Rockhill remained first and foremost
a scholar. A book Rockhill published in 1891, The Land of
the Lamas, grew out of his 1888-1889 journey into eastern
Tibet and Mongolia. The Smithsonian Institution sponsored Rockhill's
second trip to Tibet and Mongolia in 1891-1892 and published
his detailed travel diary. Throughout his long career, Rockhill
published a number of other scholarly works on Tibet and China,
and his personal library became the heart of the Library of Congress's
extensive holdings on Tibet.
Religion played a central role in traditional Tibetan society,
and the Library's holdings of Tibetan Buddhist scriptures are
especially strong. The Tibetan Buddhist canon is contained in
the Kanjur, usually consisting of about a hundred volumes
of sutras, and the Tanjur, most editions totaling some
225 volumes of commentaries. Of special value to scholars, the
Tibetan canonical texts are accurate translations of the original
Buddhist texts, written in Sanskrit between 500 B.C. and 900
A.D. Although many of the originals were lost, they can be reconstructed
using the Tibetan translations. The Library of Congress has several
rare woodblock printings of the Kanjur and Tanjur and
in addition holds one of the first modern printings of the Bon-po Kanjur,
the scriptures of Tibet's pre-Buddhist religious tradition.
Rockhill's donation included an edition of the Kanjur he
acquired from the monastery of Derge in eastern Tibet. The Library
of Congress also has a Tanjur printed at the Narthang
monastery in central Tibet. This rare work was originally obtained
by another leading Tibetologist, Dr. Berthold Laufer, who collected
Tibetan texts for two libraries in Chicago: the Newberry and
the John Crerar. In 1928, the Crerar Library transferred an important
group of Laufer's Tibetan books, including the Narthang Tanjur,
to the Library of Congress.
During one of his expeditions in western China, the redoubtable
Joseph Rock obtained another valuable addition to the Library's
holdings of Tibetan sacred texts. On behalf of the Library of
Congress, Rock purchased a complete set of the Kanjur and Tanjur in
1926 from the famous Tibetan monastery of Choni in China's
Kansu province. The fine quality of Choni's wooden blocks and
its excellent Tibetan paper, strengthened by the lamination of
eight sheets together to make an individual page, make the Kanjur and Tanjur purchased
by Rock of the highest caliber. They are also very rare, since
the monastery at Choni, including the printing blocks for the Kanjur and Tanjur,
was completely destroyed by fire in 1929 during a period of armed
conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in Kansu. The only other
complete copy of the Choni Kanjur and Tanjur is
in China, although a partial set is in Japan.
![Tibetan Musical Score](images/0028-th.jpg)
Tibetan Musical Score. Music is a major
form of expression in Tibetan Buddhist rites and rituals.
This Tibetan manuscript is a small musical score used for
chanting rituals in Buddhist ceremonies. Curves, rather
than scales, are used to record the correct recitation
melodies, all orchestrated to the accompaniment of bells,
cymbals, and other musical instruments. Scholars speculate
that the Tibetan curved notation is one of the oldest forms
of musical scoring in the world. (Rockhill Tibetan
Collection, Asian Division)
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![The Tibetan Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita Sutra) in 100,000 Verses](images/0026-th.jpg) "The Tibetan Sutra of the Perfection
of Wisdom (Prajñaparamita Sutra)
in 100,000 Verses." This illuminated manuscript
in Tibetan is one of twelve volumes of a major Mahayana
Buddhist
scripture known as the Prajñaparamita Sutra
in 100,000 verses. Introduced into Tibet from India around
750 A.D., the Prajñaparamita literature
forms a central part of the Tibetan philosophical tradition.
It explains the ideal state of mind, resulting from perfect
compassion and wisdom, that penetrates beyond appearance
to reality. On this particularly ornate volume, probably
dating to the eighteenth century, the exterior sides
are painted with religious symbols. On the right side
are the Triple Gems representing the founding principles
of Buddhism: the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha. The
frontal piece is covered with five layers of different
colored brocade, representing the Five Buddha families.
Painted illustrations on the first folios depict two
of the thirty-five Buddhas of confession and two of the
sixteen Arhats. (Tibetan Collection, Asian Division)
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The contributions of Rockhill, Rock, Laufer, and others have
made the Library's Tibetan-language collection one of the largest
in the West. Besides the Buddhist and Bon-po scriptures, the
collection contains a wide range of history, biography, traditional
medicine, astrology, iconography, musical notations, grammars,
social science, and secular literature. The poems and legends
of Milarepa, Tibet's twelfth-century poet-saint, are especially
popular, and both old and modern editions can be found in the
collection. Another work of historical importance in the Asian
Division's collection is the Mai Bka' 'bum, the collected
works of Tibet's famous seventh-century king, Songsten Gampo.
Aside from covering their own history, Tibetan historical materials
are of special interest to scholars because they are sometimes
able to fill in blank spaces in the history of India and Inner
Asia.
Tibet has long fascinated Westerners, and early accounts of
travellers found eager readers over the centuries. The first
European to travel from India over the Himalayan mountain range
to enter Tibet was the Portuguese Jesuit Antonio de Andrade.
Driven by stories of a Christian community supposedly living
in Tibet, Andrade disguised himself as a Hindu and left Agra
in March 1624 with a group of Indian pilgrims. After numerous
adventures, he reached Tsaparang in western Tibet five months
later. A copy of Andrade's account of the journey, Nvevo
descvbrimiento del gran Cathayo, o reynos de Tibet, published
in Lisbon in 1626, may be found in the Rare Book and Special
Collections Division. Another rare, early work on Tibet found
in that division is a language text, Alphabetum Tibetanum
Missionum Apostolicarum Commodo Editum, by Antonio Agostino
Giorgi, published in Rome in 1762.
![Tibetan Almanac](images/0029-th.jpg)
A Tibetan Almanac. Astrology played an
important role in traditional Tibetan culture, for both
the laity and the monastic community. Almanacs such as
this one in cursive Tibetan script were meticulously compiled
each year by lamas trained in astrological and calendrical
arts and divination. Unlike most Tibetan books, almanacs
were bound along one side. This almanac is for the Water
Horse Year in the thirteenth "rab byun" (Buddhist
cycle), or 1762. (Rockhill Tibetan Collection, Asian
Division)
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