A: The Tibetan Tripitaka includes Gangyur (a canonical collection of Buddhist
scriptures) and Dangyur (an interpretation of Buddhist sutras and commandments),
totaling 4,570 volumes. It is both a Buddhist classic and an encyclopedic thesaurus
which involves philosophy, history, linguistics, literature, arts, astronomy,
calendrical calculation, medicine, and architecture. It is a priceless literary
artifact within the vast cultural reservoir of china and the world.
The first
relatively complete Tibetan edition of the Tripitaka came into being in the early
14th century. In 1410, the eighth year of the Ming Dynasty Yongle reign, Emperor
Chengzu, Zhu Di, ordered a special envoy to Tibet to bring back to Nanjing the
handwritten Tibetan Tripitaka, with the intention of making a woodblock in order
to print the work. The first woodblock printing of the Tibetan Tripitaka thus
occurred in China. After woodblock printing technology had been introduced to
the Tibetan region, printing and publication of the Tibetan Tripitaka flourished.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties several block printed versions of the
Tibetan Tripitaka appeared, including the Natang, Zhoinnyer, Dege, and Kulun editions.
However, owing to the complex and lengthy process of copying, collating and engraving,
several editions of the Tibetan Tripitaka contained errors, omissions, and redundancies,
due to misprinting or miscopying. There were also discrepancies in the arrangements
of chapters, which affected the completeness and exactitude of the Tibetan Tripitaka.
The central government has consequently given priority to the correct ordering
and arrangement of the Tibetan Tripitaka, and listed it as a state key research
project within the Seventh Five- Year Plan. The Collating Burau of Tripitaka in
Chengdu, Sichuan Province, was set up by the China Tibetological Research Center.
It invited a number of Tibet experts, professors, and high-ranking monks along
to order this body of work. In March of 1995, the first volume of the Dangyur
Division collated version of the Tibetan Tripitaka was published by the China
Tibetological Publishing House. Publication of the remaining 70-odd volumes of
the collated version of Dangyur is expected to be completed by 2005. |
