From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Testament of Ba
Testament of Ba
Up until 2009 it was thought that the Testament of Ba
dated back to no earlier than the 11th or 12th century,
and therefore its composition may not have been con-
temporaneous with the late 8th century events that it
recorded.[1] However, in 2009 Sam van Schaik of the Bri-
tish Library realised that two Tibetan manuscript frag-
ments catalogued amongst the Chinese manuscripts of
the Stein collection (and consequently previously over-
Fragment of the Testament of Ba at the British Library, with
looked by Tibetan scholars) preserved a section of the
six incomplete lines of Tibetan writing (Or.8210/S.9498A).
Testament of Ba relating to the arrival of the Indian monk
Śāntarakṣita, abbot of Nalanda University, to Lhasa:[3]
The Testament of Ba (Tibetan ???????? or ???????; Wylie
• Or.8210/S.9498A (6 lines)
transliteration: dba’ bzhed or sba bzhed) is an account writ-
• Or.8210/S.13683 (1 line)
ten in Old Tibetan of the establishment of Buddhism in
These two fragments came from the ’Library Cave’ at
Tibet and the foundation of the Samye Monastery during
Dunhuang, which was sealed in the early 11th century,
the reign of King Trisong Detsen (r. 755–797/804), reput-
and so pre-date all of the other known versions of the
edly as recorded by Ba Salnang (Tibetan ??????????? or
Testament of Ba. Van Schaik dates the fragments to the 9th
??????????; Wylie transliteration: dba’ gsal snang or sba
or 10th centuries.[1]
gsal snang), a member of the king’s court. The earliest
The text of the British Library fragments is very close
known versions of the text are two manuscript fragments
to that of the Dba’ bzhed manuscript discovered in Lhasa
dating to the 9th or 10th centuries that are held at the
in 1997, but has some differences that suggest that it
British Library.
represents an earlier recension of the Testament of Ba.
Most notably, in the British Library fragments the king
Versions of the text is concerened that the foreign monk may have brought
The Testament of Ba was transmitted in manuscript form evil spirits with him, and so Śāntarakṣita is confined in
over many centuries, and so there are many different re- the Jokhang and interrogated for three months through
censions of the text, but not one single, canonical printed an interpreter called Ananta. However, the Lhasa manu-
version.[1] Two early versions of the text have been iden- script softens the language, politely asking Śāntarakṣita
tified by scholars: to stay at the Jokhang rather than having him forcibly
• A manuscript in 31 folios discovered in Lhasa in 1997, confined there.[3]
titled Dba’ bzhed (with a ’d’ prefix to the Ba clan
name), that is thought to be a revised copy of an 11th Bibliography
century manuscript, and which was published in
• Stein, R. A. 1961. Une chronique ancienne de bSam-yas :
facsimile with an English translation in 2000;[2]
sBa-bzed (édition du texte tibétain et résumé
• Three manuscripts titled Sba bzhed (with an ’s’ prefix
français). Paris: Bibliothèque de l’Institut des Hautes
to the Ba clan name), one of which dates to the 12th
Études chinoises, Textes et Documents.
century, that were used as the basis of an edition
• Wangdu, Pasang, and Diemberger, Hildegard. 2000.
published in Beijing in 1980.[1]
dBa’ bzhed: The Royal Narrative concerning the bringing
The Testament of Ba is also widely quoted in later Tibetan
of the Buddha’s Doctrine to Tibet. Vienna: Verlag der
historigraphical works, for example the Scholar’s Feast
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
(mkhas pa’i dga’ ston). The author of the Scholar’s Feast calls
ISBN 9783700129561.
the Testament the Rba bzhed (with an ’r’ prefix to the Ba
clan name), and refers to ’genuine’, ’impure’, ’large’ and
’medium’ versions of the text.[1] See also
A later, expanded version of the Testament of Ba, titled
• Old Tibetan Annals
Sba bzhed zhabs brtags pa (Supplemented Testament of Ba),
• Old Tibetan Chronicle
was produced during the mid 14th century. A manuscript
copy of this text was published with a summary in French
by Rolf Stein in 1961.[1]
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Testament of Ba
References ISBN 9783700129561. http://books.google.com/
books?id=yEgnAQAAIAAJ.
[1] ^ van Schaik, Sam; Iwao, Kazushi (2009). [3] ^ Van Schaik, Sam (20 November 2009). "The
"Fragments of the Testament of Ba from Abbot, or Ironing out History’s Wrinkles".
Dunhuang". Journal of the American Oriental Society http://earlytibet.com/2009/11/30/the-abbot/.
128 (3): 477–487. ISSN 0003-0279. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
[2] Wangdu, Hildegard; Diemberger (2000). dBa’ bzhed:
the royal narrative concerning the bringing of the
Buddha’s doctrine to Tibet. Verlag der
External links
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. • Transliteration of Or.8210/S.9498A
• Transliteration of Or.8210/S.13683 folio C
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