Determining Its Historical Significance. Tibetan Religious Language Study

Buddhism was introduced to Tibet during the first half of the seventh century to the fifteenth century and the Buddhism has developed in much a wider way in Tibet during this period. It is during this historical period that the Tibetans started to localize this foreign culture. In this process of Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism, the successive Tibetan translators engaged enormously in the project of translating Buddhist texts into Tibetan, generations of Tibetan translators in Tibet contributed to form a new intellectual ground upon which Buddhism has been approached based on the larger corpus of translated treatise. Skyogs ston rin chen bkra shis conveniently divided the intellectual process of the introduction of Buddhism from Indian into Tibet into three stages which were defined as " the three decrees of Tibet" in his great book compiled in the15th century.This study is primarily an exploration on "the three decrees", the structure of this dissertation consists of four chapters which shall be explaining in detail in the following paragraphs. The dissertation approached "the three decrees" from the philological perspective. This study launched a philological investigation on the Buddhist texts translated in different stages, the periodization of the Tibetan localization of the Sanskrit will be discussed through a historical linguistic perspective. In order to reflect the historical process of the Tibetanization of Sanskrit throughout the intellectual history of Tibet, case study on the individual text with consideration given to the Buddhist terminologies served as a good start to look at the process of its transformation. The methodologies of Religious historiography was applied to outline the periodization of the Tibetanization of Indian Buddhism with a hope to articulate the crucial question of the how did these translated Indian Buddhist treatise became the central texts in the frame of Tibetan Buddhism. The philology, historical linguistics and the religious historiography form the three major methodological focus of this dissertation.Chapter one is a study on the terminologies and concepts associated with "the three decrees". Chapter two deals with "the first decree". This chapter analyzed the Buddhist texts translated during the period of "the first decree" in detail. Discussions mainly centered around the question of the successive transmission line of Indian treatise translated during the "the first decree"in Tibet. This chapter tries to approach "the first decree"by a comparative research on the Tibetan texts translated both from Sanskrit and Chinese originals. The comparative scrutiny on the Tibetan translations respectively from the Sanskrit and Chinese reveals a certain degree of the difference in terms of the choice of Tibetan equivalences.Chapter three focuses on "the second decree"of Tibet. A robust discussion on the date of "the second decree"has been initiated at first in order to define the chronological sequence of "the three decrees" and contribute a new analysis to the long standing debate concerning this question in the field. My investigation on this topic began from a critical reconsideration on the previous discussions by scholars at different times, and primarily a result from consulting a larger corpus Tibetan literature. Having clarified the date, the second concern of this chapter went to the crucial question of the content and the result of "the second decree". Specific questions such as which texts can be associated with this second intellectual project in the translation history of Tibet, and can we locate these texts in the Dunhuang Tibetan collection and other earlier catalogues. This chapter raised these questions and tries to approach these questions through a wider range of methodological perspectives. In addition, this chapter summarized the translation principles and problems in the historical process of the transmission of Buddhist texts from Sanskrit and Chinese originals. A close scrutiny on the date, editions as well as the current state of the research allows discussion on the further topics. This chapter also compares and investigated the earlier editions of bye brad rtogs byed chen mo, the bye brag rtogs byed'bring pa as well as the bye brag rtogs byed chung ba. The three imperial catalogues are also explored. This chapter also referenced old Tibetan sources characterized by the Dunhuang Tibetan materials and the inscriptions of this time to trace the historical evolution of the Buddhist nomenclatures with a hope to outline the historical trajectory of the texts, terminologies and translation theories of the Buddhist literature.Chapter four focuses on "the third decree". Considering to the significance of the great11th century Tibetan translator Rinchen bzang po to the third stage, the chapter begins a discussion on his translation works in specific and other Buddhist texts in general. This chapter takes the earlier and the late version of the dag yig li shi'i gur khang as a vantage point to approach a critical edition for the works translated during the period. In addition, a number of central texts and their editorial details are examined in order to pry into the real process of the translation project. This chapter aims to approach the crucial research question of how did "the three decrees "and the influx of the translations contribute to the formation of the civilization of Tibet in general.The innovations of this dissertation are:Firstly, this work explored the so-called "the three decrees"which came down to us from the Tibetan literature of various period. In order to get a closer understanding of the preliminary question of what are those successive"decrees"on earth, the work examined the relevant Tibetan literature through the viewpoint of historical linguistics and religious historiography. This scrutiny on the extant literature suggested a alternative solution to the over debated questions concerning "the three decrees"and "the newly revised terminologies". This dissertation first proposed that the so-called "the three decrees" were actually a concept which originally had to do with the religious nomenclature. To wit,"the three decrees" is a concept largely based on the historical process of the standardization and the regulation of the religious nomenclature of Tibet. The study on the literary texts concerning "the three decrees" allows investigation on a number of further questions such as the date, content and the influence of each regulation.Secondly, this dissertation examined the historical narrative account of the translation works done during the reign from srong btsan sgam po to khri ral pa can, also explored a number of significant translator and central texts. Such reconsideration of the translators of different historical period and their translated treatises as well as the relevant Kanjur, Tanjur and Dunhuang Tibetan sources resulted a better understanding on the historical evolution and development of the Buddhist nomenclature and the principles of the translation throughout the history.Thirdly, this research is based on the larger corpus of earlier Tibetan literature. Earlier texts which were translated during the period of the first decree" such as mdo sde dkon mchog sprin and ling ka mkhan po dang slob ma mjal ba'i mdo, which have gone unnoticed by scholars inside China and studied only sporadically by international scholars, were first studied fully in this dissertation. Dam chos pad ma dkar po, which was translated during the period of "the second decree", has never been examined by scholars in China except a number of Japanese scholars, was investigated fully by this work. Although the works translated during the time of "the third decree" have been included in the Kanjur and Tanjur collection, however, no attention has been given to the chronological problems of these texts. For example, it is commonly agreed by scholars in the field there is no single alternative edition of the dag yig li shi'i gur khang by skyogs ston rin chen bkra shis, this dissertation reported a new edition of this work. Having analyzed and compared the great number of texts associated with these three regulations, this dissertation articulated the historical development, variations, transmission and transformation existed between the three linguistic regulations occurred in the intellectual history of Tibet. The conclusion is:"The first decree" improved Tibetan grammar and the vocabularies."The second decree" standardized the combination principles of Tibetan phoneme."The third decree" is mainly a reconsideration on the texts gone unnoticed by "the second decree".Fourth, critical analysis has also been launched to the relevant questions such as the date of the Dunhuang Tibetan sources by looking at the current research state and the different version of certain texts in later collection.Fifth, this dissertation finds out that there is a gradual process of the Buddhist expression from being complex and informal into concise and formal throughout these decrees. This observation is actually based on a number of examples which would clarify this linguistic and cultural trend in the translation history of Tibet.In conclusion, when we are exploring the tradition which is about nine hundred years, it is possible to reconstruct its original face of the translation progressives of Tibet and the unsettled debates in the field by looking closely at the historical literature left by the successive Tibetan scholars of different times, the works appeared during the different periods of the "decree" as well as the literature founded underground and the extant inscriptions.