Major Measures Taken by the Chinese Government to Protect the China Tripitaka, Collation and Publication of the Tibetan Tripitaka and Establishment of the Tripitaka Collation Bureau

　　Tibetan Tripitaka has always been regarded as holy scripture by Tibetan monks and religious believers, because it both collected numerous kinds of Buddhist scriptures and preserved large amounts of cultural classics. The existing Tibetan Tripitaka contains 4,570 kinds of Buddhist classics, one-third more than its Chinese counterpart. The translated Buddhist classics by Indian scholars and masters in the Tibetan Tripitaka double those in the Chinese edition. However, a quite interesting fact is that those Buddhist classics by Indian scholars and masters are today rarely found in their birthplace in India. As the Tibetan Tripitaka came into being later than the Chinese Tripitaka, the later naturally contains more than the former. Tibetan studies workers both at home and abroad agree that the Tibetan Tripitaka is one of the most important available materials for research on Buddhism and Tibetan studies. It is not only an encyclopedic Tibetan classic, but also a treasure of both Chinese and world culture.

　　Due to faulty copying and poor printing techniques, many available editions contain various misspellings, missing words and redundancies, as well as improperly arranged chapters. They affected the completeness and authority of the Tibetan Tripitaka. This points up to the necessity to have the comprehensive collation of existing wood-block editions. Collation of the Chinese Tripitaka got underway in May 1982, with the new edition being published volume by volume in the following years. Both Tibetan and Chinese Tripitaka make great contributions to world culture.

　　Almost immediately after its establishment in June 1986, the China National Center for Tibetan Studies submitted a report to the Central Government, applying for approval to collate the Tibetan part of the China Tripitaka. The report states in part: "It is of far-reaching significance both in culture and religion to collate and publish the Tibetan Tripitaka, so as to make it a unique and complete China Tripitaka, together with the Chinese Tripitaka which is being printed volume by volume.'' The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to the work and decided to allocate special funds for the publication of Tibetan Tripitaka. The China National Center for Tibetan Studies was in charged of the work. Both CPC Central Committee and the State Council advised the center to do the work meticulously so as to make the Tibetan Tripitaka one of high quality and high level. In the same year, the project was listed as one of the country's key social science research projects for the seventh Five-Year Plan period (1986-90). The time was ripe for the systematic collation of the Tibetan Tripitaka.

　　After repeated discussions, Tibetologists and scholars agreed to collate and publish Dangyur first and Gangyur second. They bolstered their decision by arguing that the four existing editions of Dangyur in China are relatively complete and easier to collate; moreover, the Dangyur, which consists of classics involving many branches of learning, is of high academic value for the study of Buddhism, as well as Tibetan and ancient oriental culture. But there are many editions of the Tibetan Tripitaka with different volumes. After careful comparison of different editions, the Dege edition engraved in 1730 was selected as the master copy, with three other editions--the Beijing, Natang and Zho'nyin editions--selected as reference materials. It is based on the fact that the Dege edition not only features rich content and relatively accurate engraving, but is also exquisitely printed and well preserved.

　　The research center attempted to standardize the collation work by formulating special rules, instructing collators to proofread material on a word by word basis and, proceeding from the premise of retaining the flavor of the original text, find out differences in wording and misprints. According to the rules, materials found in reference editions, but not in the master set, should be added to the latter, and a collation note and reference list should be attached to each volume.

　　In May 1987, the China National Center for Tibetan Studies established its Tripitaka Collation Bureau in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. The bureau was staffed with a number of scholars and appointed more than 20 Tibetan studies experts, professors and eminent monks as advisors to help resolve difficult problems.

　　The collation work is a gigantic, trans-century cultural project!

　　This is a great event in the history of the dissemination of the Tibetan Tripitaka, and should be recorded in gold letters.

　　The comprehensive collation project, being carried out after the Tibetan Tripitaka has been in circulation for several hundred years, will offer a complete and authorized edition to academic circles at home and abroad, and establish a special international niche for China's Tibetan studies circles.