With this publication a first comprehensive overview of Tibetan book studies is delivered to students of Tibetan literary traditions. The flourishing interest in Tibetan written artefacts, including their material aspects, was raised only about two decades ago, spurred by studies of Old Tibetan documents. The first volume of this two-volume publication maps the developments in the approaches to Tibetan written records, covering fields from palaeography to digital technologies, but also humbly pointing to numerous gaps in our knowledge.
The introduction sets the context for the more detailed topics of the following chapters by providing the historical background to modern studies of Tibetan books. Despite the fact that one leaves this section without really knowing how “book” is to be understood in the Tibetan cultural context, the arguments convince of the multidimensional nature of the problematics that require concerted, in-depth research to enable further progress.
The first chapter “The material basis” is devoted to the materiality of the Tibetan book. Agnieszka Helman-Ważny introduces the reader to material supports in use for Tibetan writings, with special attention given to the primary material – paper – its composition and manufacture that has remained almost unchanged for centuries. Indispensable items such as inks, pigments, and writing instruments complement the description of material objects related to text composition.
We stay with the material aspects of written artefacts in the chapter “Format and layout”, in which Brandon Dotson and Agnieszka Helman-Ważny discuss the five most common formats of Tibetan books: scrolls, concertinas, codices, single sheets, and the most notable, dpe čha, also called poti. In addition to their outer characteristics and construction details, the reader learns about differences in layout bound to or imposed by the specific format.
With the chapter “The written text”, we turn to the medium of script – the backbone of all written artefacts. Sam van Schaik, Hanna Schneider, and Matthew T. Kapstein guide us through various styles of Tibetan script, beginning with the most pervasive distinction between the dbu čan “headed” and dbu med “headless” styles. The authors propose taxonomy of Tibetan styles as displayed in various periods of Tibetan written history, but also across different genres, especially of administrative documents. Since Tibetan palaeography remains a much-understudied field, time and again the reader is cautioned that the various styles should not be projected on the chronological scale, leading to unwarranted conclusions on the age of a manuscript.
The chapter “Marking the text: interventions of scribes, editors, and readers” by Matthew T. Kapstein continues the thread on palaeographical features with a presentation of scribal and editorial conventions, such as punctuation, foliation, abbreviation, rubrication, or corrections. The author also draws our attention to the fact that the life of a book starts rather than ends with its being committed to paper; readers’ notes, annotations, or doodles add colours to its history, making the object an artefact of social circumstances.
Heretofore, social aspects of book production have been mainly restricted to the studies of colophons, to which the chapter “Colophons”, by Brandon Dotson and Matthew T. Kapstein, is also dedicated. Colophons, like script styles or editorial conventions, may contain information crucial to the identification of persons involved in the production process. Accordingly, their study has the potential of informing our understanding of Tibetan social history in this sector of knowledge preservation and dissemination.
Another important index of provenance can be sought in book illuminations, studied in the chapter “Manuscript illumination” by Amy Heller and Matthew T. Kapstein. The chapter provides an overview of the most important styles of book ornamentation and illustration that appear to have derived from trends prevailing in visual arts.
In the chapter “The xylographic print”, Michela Clemente guides us through the history and technicalities of Tibetan block printing. The technique, despite its earliest attestations going back to the twelfth century, gained momentum only in the seventeenth century, when it spread rapidly throughout the Tibetosphere.
All we know today about Tibetan books and manuscripts results from the obvious fact that the objects have been preserved despite often difficult circumstances. In “Conservation, storage, and cataloguing”, Agnieszka Helman-Ważny and Matthew T. Kapstein give us a glimpse not only of the techniques applied to enhance preservation (such as the use of insecticidal substances in paper and pigment production), but also how collections have traditionally been catalogued and stored.
With Jeff Wallman's contribution “Digital technologies and the study of Tibetan manuscripts”, the leap into the twenty-first century materializes. The digital era offers new possibilities for Tibetan studies, especially in the domain of text criticism and corpus studies. For these to be properly applied and understood in their advantages but also limitations it seems now necessary to include digital technologies in the curriculum of Tibetan studies.
Finally, I have to mention two bad habits burgeoning in Tibetan studies, into which the authors of this otherwise excellent publication unfortunately also fall. The first one is the unconcerned “use of the term “transcription” for both “transcription” and “transliteration”: བོད་ཡིག་ can be rendered letter-by-letter (transliteration) as bod yig, or, for instance, its modern Lha-sa pronunciation can be approximated in the International Phonetic Alphabet as pʰøji (transcription). The second bad habit is the apparently irresistible temptation to help everyone pronounce Tibetan by providing a walking stick of English-based transcription. Giving modern pronunciation to terms written down centuries ago, however, gives the misleading impression that the words were pronounced the same way 1,200 years ago as they are today. Moreover, favouring one particular modern variety, Westerners have chosen to be “the standard”, disregards the linguistic diversity of Tibetan languages; a Ladakhi author of the twelfth century is quoted in a way a Lha-sa citizen would pronounce the word today. This is not only ahistorical, but may also be regarded as disrespectful.
These critical remarks aside, this publication will prove indispensable for everyone interested in Tibetan literary culture. A significant factor contributing to the professional impression the book makes is the rich visual documentation comprising over 300 high-quality photos and illustrations that allow the reader to participate in the materiality of the objects discussed.
