![British Library fragment of the Testament of Ba](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/British_Library_fragment_of_the_Testament_of_Ba.jpg)
''The Testament of Ba'' (Tibetan or ;
Wylie transliteration
Wylie transliteration is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English-language typewriter. The system is named for the American scholar Turrell V. Wylie, who created the system and published ...
: or ) is an account written in
Old Tibetan
Old Tibetan refers to the period of Tibetan language reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to works of the early 11th century.
In 816 CE, during the reign of Sadnalegs, literary Tibetan ...
of the establishment of
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
in Tibet and the foundation of the
Samye Monastery
Samye (, ), full name Samye Mighur Lhundrub Tsula Khang (Wylie: ''Bsam yas mi ’gyur lhun grub gtsug lag khang'') and Shrine of Unchanging Spontaneous Presence is the first Tibetan Buddhist and Nyingma monastery built in Tibet, during the reig ...
during the reign of King
Trisong Detsen
Tri Songdetsen () was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and th ...
(r. 755–797/804), reputedly as recorded by Ba Salnang (Tibetan or ;
Wylie transliteration
Wylie transliteration is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English-language typewriter. The system is named for the American scholar Turrell V. Wylie, who created the system and published ...
: or ), a member of the king's court. The earliest known versions of the text are two manuscript fragments dating to the 9th or 10th centuries that are held at the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
.
Versions of the text
The ''Testament of Ba'' was transmitted in manuscript form over many centuries, and so there are many different recensions of the text, but not one single, canonical printed version.
Two early versions of the text have been identified by scholars:
* A manuscript in 31 folios discovered in Lhasa in 1997, titled (with a 'd' prefix to the Ba clan name), that is thought to be a revised copy of an 11th-century manuscript, and which was published in facsimile with an English translation in 2000;
* Three manuscripts titled (with an 's' prefix to the Ba clan name), one of which dates to the 12th century, that were used as the basis of an edition published in Beijing in 1980.
The ''Testament of Ba'' is also widely quoted in later Tibetan historiographical works, for example the ''Scholar's Feast'' (). The author of the ''Scholar's Feast'' calls 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.
A later, expanded version of the ''Testament of Ba'', titled (''Supplemented Testament of Ba''), was produced during the mid 14th century. A manuscript copy of this text was published with a summary in French by
Rolf Stein Rolf Alfred Stein (13 June 1911 – 9 October 1999) was a German-born French Sinologist and Tibetologist. He contributed in particular to the study of the ''Epic of King Gesar'', on which he wrote two books, and the use of Chinese sources in Tibeta ...
in 1961.
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 contemporaneous with the late 8th century events that it recorded.
However, in 2009
Sam van Schaik
Sam Julius van Schaik is an English tibetologist.
Education
He obtained a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist literature at the University of Manchester in 2000, with a dissertation on the translations of Dzogchen texts by Jigme Lingpa.
Career
Sinc ...
of the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
realised that two Tibetan manuscript fragments catalogued amongst the Chinese manuscripts of the
Stein
Stein is a German, Yiddish and Norwegian word meaning "stone" and "pip" or "kernel". It stems from the same Germanic root as the English word stone. It may refer to:
Places In Austria
* Stein, a neighbourhood of Krems an der Donau, Lower Aust ...
collection (and consequently previously overlooked by Tibetan scholars) preserved a section of the ''Testament of Ba'' relating to the arrival of the Indian monk
Śāntarakṣita
(Sanskrit; , 725–788),stanford.eduŚāntarakṣita (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)/ref> whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particul ...
, abbot of
Nalanda University, to
Lhasa
Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...
:
* (six lines)
* (one line)
These two fragments came from the '
Library Cave' at
Dunhuang, which was sealed in the early 11th century, and so pre-date all of the other known versions of the ''Testament of Ba''. Van Schaik dates the fragments to the 9th or 10th centuries.
The text of the British Library fragments is very close to that of the manuscript discovered in Lhasa in 1997, but has some differences that suggest that it represents an earlier recension of the ''Testament of Ba''. Most notably, in the British Library fragments the king is concerned that the foreign monk may have brought evil spirits with him, and so Śāntarakṣita is confined in the
Jokhang
The Jokhang (, ), also known as the Qoikang Monastery, Jokang, Jokhang Temple, Jokhang Monastery and Zuglagkang ( or Tsuklakang), is a Buddhist temple in Barkhor Square in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Tibetans, in ...
and interrogated for three months through an interpreter called Ananta. However, the Lhasa manuscript softens the language, politely asking Śāntarakṣita to stay at the Jokhang rather than having him forcibly confined there.
Bibliography
*
Stein, R. A. 1961. (édition du texte tibétain et résumé français). Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Institut des Hautes Études chinoises, Textes et Documents.
* Wangdu, Pasang, and Diemberger, Hildegard. 2000. ''dBa' bzhed: The Royal Narrative concerning the bringing of the Buddha's Doctrine to Tibet''. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. .
See also
*
Old Tibetan Annals
The ''Tibetan Annals'', or ''Old Tibetan Annals'' (''OTA''), are composed of two manuscripts written in Old Tibetan language found in the early 20th century in the "hidden library", the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang in northwestern Gansu province ...
*
Old Tibetan Chronicle
The ''Old Tibetan Chronicle'' is a collection of narrative accounts and songs relating to Tibet's Yarlung dynasty and the Tibetan Empire. The three manuscripts that comprise the only extant copies of the Chronicle are among the Dunhuang Manuscr ...
References
External links
Transliteration of Or.8210/S.9498ATransliteration of Or.8210/S.13683 folio C
{{DEFAULTSORT:Testament Of Ba
British Library oriental manuscripts
9th-century manuscripts
10th-century manuscripts
History of Tibet
Tibetan literature
Tibetan Buddhist treatises