Tibetan Book of the Dead; Zhi-khro; Sgam-po-gdar Mountain; Revelations; Karma-Gling-pa; Philosophy; religion and theology
摘要
This is a historical study of an influential collection of Tibetan funerary texts which has long been popularized in America and Europe as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Until now the history of the Tibetan texts upon which this book was based has not been well documented, and hence the origin and diffusion of the Tibetan tradition has been understood only vaguely. The principal goal of the study was thus to document for the first time the manner in which the original collection had been articulated and transmitted within its own religious and social contexts.
It is demonstrated that the so-called Book of the Dead is actually a fluid compendium of related books from different historical periods reaching as far back as the fourteenth century. Ostensibly, the texts were designed for use in Tibetan Buddhist funeral rituals and describe the experiences to be expected at the moment of death, during a perilous and prolonged postmortem phase called bardo, and during the confused journey into a new existence. By the latter half of the fifteenth century, the core texts had been arranged and codified into a coherent liturgical program. Over time this ritual system was supplemented and adapted to meet the local demands of diverse communities, and was ultimately transmitted throughout Tibet and beyond her borders. The program eventually became one of the most pervasive forms of Tibetan Buddhist funeral liturgy.
It is concluded that the Tibetan texts accompanying this ritual service are actually derived from a single textual arrangement which was first standardized in the late seventeenth century. This standard version became the editio princeps of most of the subsequent Tibetan-language editions, and served as the basis for the first western-language translation in 1927 by Kazi Dawa Samdup and Walter Y. Evans-Wentz.
This work contributes to the study of broader aspects of the transmission of religious ideas, the production and distribution of religious texts, and the influence of institutions on religious practice within Tibet and surrounding regions.
