H-140. The History & Culture of the Tibetan Book - Advance Reading List

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  • Preliminary Advices

    We recommend starting with the works marked off by asterisks and then, as time allows, review the other articles and books. Students admitted to this course will receive further instructions for accessing these readings.

  • General Introductions

    * Eliot, Mark, Hildegard Diemberger, and Michela Clemente, eds. Buddha’s Word: The Life of Books in Tibet and Beyond. Cambridge, UK: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, 2014.

    Helman-Ważny, Agnieszka. The Archaeology of Tibetan Books. Leiden: Brill, 2014.

    Schaeffer, Kurtis R. The Culture of the Book in Tibet. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.

    * van Schaik, Sam. “Manuscripts and Printing: Tibet.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Volume 1: Literature and Languages, edited by Jonathan A. Silk, 959–67. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

  • Manuscripts

    Chinnery, Colin and Li Yi. “Bookbinding.” International Dunhuang Project (IDP), 2007. A short paper with many useful diagrams of Chinese bookbinding styles. Although focused on Chinese books, similar bookbinding styles are found among the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts and later prints and manuscripts produced under Ming and Qing patronage.

    * Cüppers, Christoph. “Some Remarks on Bka’ ’gyur Production in 17th-century Tibet.”  In Edition, éditions: l’écrit au Tibet, évolution er devenir, edited by Anne Chayet, Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, Françoise Robin, and Jean-Luc Achard, 115–128. München: Indus Verlag, 2010.

    * van Schaik, Sam. “Towards a Tibetan Palaeography: Developing a Typology of Writing Styles in Early Tibet.” In Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field, edited by Jörg B. Quenzer, Dmitry Bondarev, and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch, 299–337. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.

  • Printed Books

    * Blo bzang ’phrin las, Dung dkar. “Tibetan Woodblock Printing: An Ancient Art and Craft.” Translated by Tsering Dhundup Gonkatsang. Himalaya 36:1 (May 2016): 163–177.

    Clemente, Michela. “Different Facets of Mang yul Gung thang Xylographs.” In Tibetan Manuscript and Xylograph Traditions: The Written Word and Its Media within the Tibetan Cultural Sphere, edited by Orna Almogi, 67–104. Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, 2016.

    Diemberger, Hildegard, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, and Peter Kornicki, eds. Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities and Change. Leiden: Brill, 2016. An edited volume with many good contributions on Tibetan printing as well as some comparative pieces focusing on other Asian print cultures.

    * Jest, Corneille. “A Technical Note on the Tibetan Method of Block-Carving.” Man 61 (1961): 83-85.

  • Some Approaches to the Study of Tibetan Books and Book History

    * Cabezón, José Ignacio. “Authorship and Literary Production in Classical Buddhist Tibet.” In Changing Minds: Contributions to the Study of Buddhism and Tibet in Honour of Jeffrey Hopkins, edited by Guy Newland, 233–263. Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2001.

    Childs, Geoff. “How to Fund a Ritual: Notes on the Social Usage of the Kanjur (bKa’ ‘gyur) in a Tibetan Village.” Tibet Journal 30:2 (2005): 41–48.

    * Diemberger, Hildegard. “Holy Books as Ritual Objects and Vessels of Teaching in the Era of the ‘Further Spread of the Doctrine’ (bstan pa yang dar).” In Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan Context, edited by K. Buffetrille, 9–41. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

    Diemberger, Hildegard. “The Younghusband-Waddell Collection and Its People: The Social Life of Tibetan Books Gathered in a Late-colonial Enterprise.” Inner Asia 14:1 (2012): 131–171.

    * Eubanks, Charlotte. Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture in Medieval Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. Pp. 4-7, 34-36, 40-41.

    * Howsam, Leslie. Old Books and New Readers: An Orientation to Studies in Book and Print Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. Chapters 1 and 2.

    Klein, Anne Carolyn. “Oral Genres and the Art of Reading in Tibet.” Oral Tradition 9:2 (1994): 281–314.

    van Schaik, Sam. “The Uses of Implements are Different: Reflections on the Functions of Tibetan Manuscripts.” In Tibetan Manuscript and Xylograph Traditions: The Written Word and Its Media within the Tibetan Cultural Sphere, edited by Orna Almogi, 221–242. Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, 2016.