farfel_n06_096_449

449
Gift-Corina
Oct. '96

Tibet - in Tebetan
19th C? -Buddhist ritual texts. (Skt: sadhena)
Manuscript on paper - 4 leaves, 7.5x27.5cm.
Purchased from a vendor outside the Endeni Dzu
Monastery near Kharakhorum, Mongolia.
Tibetan script - paper differs - A 2 leaves, written in black ink, 6 lines on
3 pages, some lines written in smaller letters
+ second in yellow - "dbu-can" (head possessing)
style i.e. main text. "dbu-med" (headless)
B 2 leaves, written in black ink 6 or 7 lines on
3 pages - "dbu-can" (head possessing) style.
-ecah folio (4) begins with the ornament. [??]

A Title of text - marked 1 + 2nd leaf marked 2
on left margin.
its place in the collection inicated by the
letter 'dza' [inserted] numerical figure 19- [?] (TIbetans used the letters of the alphabet
to mark sequential texts or volumes.
B marked 4 + 2nd leaf 5 on left margin (written out in script)
- some parts in "dbu-med" style.
Translation of Buddhist texts from Sanskrit into
Tibetan began in the 7th C + continued until the
13 C. It was this corpus of Tibetan texts that
would eventually be used to make the Mongolian
Version of the Buddhist canon. Divided into 2
sections, the Kanjur + the Tanjur, the canon grew
until by the 18th C it had more than 4500
different texts. Early MSS copies of the canon were
put on paper using wooden or reed pens. This was
the primary method of writing used by the Tibetans,
unlike the Chinese who used brushes. For Buddhist
texts the paper sheets were long + narrow
keeping the form of the palm leaf MSS that were
used in India. Tibetan paper was heavy + soft
+ the volumes of the Tibetan canon are distinct
from the rest of East Asia (i.e. stacked sheets vs.

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