audiobook Curtiss F11C/BFC BF2C (ALLIED WINGS) (Volume 11) by Phil H. Listemann in History

Description

This volume presents the first translation into a western language of the earliest known version of the great Tibetan history known as the dBa'/sBa bzhed. The original version of this famous text; traditionally attributed to sBa/dBa'gSal snang; is believed to have been written in the 9th century; but until now the only extant versions; which are much reworked and which date back to the 12th and 14th centuries; have never been translated into English. In 1997; in Tibet; as the result of the co-operation between the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences and the Austrian Academy of Sciences; a manuscript of 31 folios came to light in Lhasa bearing the title dBa'bzhed; and the telling subtitle:The Royal Narrative (bka'mchid) Concerning the Bringing of the Buddha's Doctrine to Tibet. This text is now presented as a joint publication by the two Academies in a facsimile edition with an annotated translation. The outline of the events narrated by the dBa'bzhed corresponds to a large extent to the known versions of the sBa'bzhed: a detailed account of the foundation of the monastery of bSam yas (the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet;consecrated in A.D.779); the famous doctrinal debate which took place there in A.D. 792 -794 and the political and religious conflicts which relate to the establishing of Buddhism as the dominant religion in Tibet during the reign of Khri srong lde btsan. There are; however;considerable differences in the dBa'bzhed from the extant sBa'bzhed versions in the mention of numerous historical details and in the narrative. These elements indicate that the dBa'bzhed pre-dates the extant sBa'bzhed versions;or at least represents an early and different elaboration drawn from the ancient sources of this tradition.