Project

Five Tibetan Books from Dunhuang: Buddhist Teachings and Rituals

Program

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Translation Grants in Buddhist Studies

Department

Asian Studies

Abstract

This project focuses on five ancient Tibetan books from Dunhuang kept in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Three of these books contain texts translated from Sanskrit: The Sutra of the Supreme Sublime Samadhi, The Mahayana Sutra on Prajñaparamita in the Seven Hundred [Lines], and The Mahayana Sutra of Noble Mahabala. Another book contains sacral formulas— dharani— and one more comprises a collection of short texts forming a ritual program. This project produces the edition of these books, their full annotated translation into English and Russian, and a comprehensive text-critical analysis—comparing them with all available canonical versions and other Dunhuang fragments from the same texts.