With this brilliant study of book production and the materially situated project of textual scholarship in Tibet, Kurtis R. Schaeffer provides a stimulating but grounded examination of the discursive role of the book, patronage, editing theory, cultural production and place, symbolic and social value, and what he coins an “economy of significance.” The questions he explores, and the wealth of hard-obtained data he provides, will interest scholars of religious, literary, intellectual, and social history, as well as cultural studies—and the work opens a new field of inquiry for Tibetan studies.
Drawing from auto/biographical accounts of learned and visionary leaders (whose authority was often religiopolitical), Schaeffer offers sustained glimpses of the authors, teachers, patrons, scribes, editors, wood-block carvers, printers, and even readers of Tibetan texts during the past 1,300 years. In particular, he concentrates on the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, after the advent of wood-block printing and the mass dissemination of texts, in order to examine “discourse about books in the region's history, that discourse's attendant practices, and the communities and institutions formed by that discourse and in which it is debated and contested” (p. 17).
Schaeffer's scholastic versatility is reflected in the various contexts treated in each chapter. After laying the theoretical grounds in chapter 1 for the “thematic mining” (p. 120) he undertakes, Schaeffer explores several case studies in four chapters, and in more or less chronological fashion. Each chapter starts with a poignant encounter, often between teacher and student, which reveals the earnest nature of these publishing practices and cultural questioning. Chapter 2 examines a letter by Butön Rinchendrup (1290–1364), apparently written to the scholar-craftsmen overseeing the production of the reorganized Tengyur (Buddhist canonical commentaries) at Shalu Monastery in what Schaeffer describes as “midwestern Tibet” (pg. 19). Butön's strict but positive assessment of “conjectural emendation” (p. 24) is contrasted with the more conservative view of Chökyi Drakpa, a scholar cum “project manager” writing similar instructions in the mid-seventeenth century. The relative propriety of making revisions based on reasoned understanding confounded editors throughout Tibetan history, especially when it was a revered teacher who was grammatically or orthographically challenged (pp. 38–39).
In chapter 3, Schaeffer discusses how both Butön's successor, Shalu Lotsawa, and the latter's “intellectual antithesis and competitor” (p. 45), the adept Tsangnyön (also known as “the Madman of Tsang”), worked in “networks of intellectual cooperation and contest” such that the publishing activities of each served to glorify their respective patrons as well as the places where they worked. Shalu Lotsawa's work entailed the revisiting of original (Indic) texts for the purpose of reassessing the accuracy of earlier Tibetan translations. Chapter 4 illustrates that “debates about philological scholarship in premodern Tibet were not limited to discussions involving Buddhist literature but also went on in fields such as medical scholarship (as well as history, poetics, linguistics, etc.)” (p. 73). Schaeffer argues that the exacting and driven approach of the prolific Sangyé Gyatso, regent to the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, to the production of his detailed history of Tibetan medicine, the Beryl Mirror, was tied to his leadership of the Ganden government: “The connection among textual scholarship, medical tradition, and Mahāyāna social/soteriological ideals becomes something more: a persuasive technique to argue for the authority of certain groups and against the authority of others” (p. 88).
The production of knowledge was thus controlled through rhetorical practice and the concrete means of disseminating texts (p. 87), but the scale and geographic scope of Tibetan publishing dispels any monolithic sense of that power. On the contrary, The Culture of the Book in Tibet highlights regional differences, the debates, discourse, and contestation. These dynamics are further explored in chapter 5, which looks at 1729–33 canon production in eastern Tibet, where Situ Panchen (1699/1700–1774) and Shuchen Tsultrim Rinchen (1697–1774) served as “project managers” to produce the Degé Kangyur and Degé Tengyur, respectively, and at the near draining of the central Tibetan government coffers by Polané (1689–1747) in order to produce four Tibetan canons, including one penned in gold ink mixed with the ashes of his deceased mother.
In the sixth and final chapter, Schaeffer identifies an unavoidable tension characterizing the production of Tibetan texts across time, place, and literary genre—that is, the interplay of economic value and spiritual worth, or, as the title chapter quips, “the cost of a priceless book.” To resolve this conundrum, the author demonstrates with a few last biographical passages that however much books in Tibet symbolize intellectual and esoteric authority and Buddhist salvation, their production is economically enmeshed. Indeed, to distinguish “the book as an object of faith, or as a symbol of practices and discourse extending far beyond its material form … sustains the value of books in the economy of religion” (p. 140).
Few scholars could have written this book. It is Schaeffer's third book-length monograph and reflects material gathered over fifteen years of scholarship. The range of sources he consults is breathtaking for its breadth and depth. While he draws considerably from the Blue Annals in translation, the majority of his sources are Tibetan-language accounts, and Schaeffer's mastery in religious studies and Sanskrit serves his analysis well. While Schaeffer's work may not tangibly realize his secondary goal of helping contemporary scholars “enhance their own efforts in editing” Tibetan literature” (p. 15), he powerfully achieves his primary goal: “to convey a more concrete sense of the production of Tibetan literature and, more generally of textual scholarship within the social and cultural history of Tibet” (p. 15). Moreover, the book is extremely pleasurable to read. Schaeffer is a seasoned translator; his renderings of countless original passages are both trustworthy and exquisitely worded.
At the same time, the well-spoken Schaeffer does not shy at numbers. At several intervals, he offers interesting, if anecdotal, tallies: figures for the hundreds of texts offered to a king, the equivalent price of the canon in bags of barley, the hundreds of students who each owned their own print copy of a text being expounded by their teacher, the several hundreds of persons involved to produce a canon over twenty years, and so on. Fascinating details convey the prominence of book culture beyond the scriptorium, and appendix 3 offers supporting details on the great cost of producing the Degé canon.
I can offer no emendations to the current text (aside from noting a handful of typographical errors overlooked by the publisher), only suggestions for ongoing research. One next step would be to team with scholars in Tibet with access to a greater number of original manuscripts and who have published on related topics, such as Lütsang Dorjé Rinchen, author of Bod kyi rtsom rig rnam bzhag (1992), whom Schaeffer cites (p. 170 n. 72). More research is also needed on the material aspects of production. For instance, the “decorative hole” (p. 9) to which Schaeffer refers likely served at one time as a means for tying scriptures to one's waist, as once pointed out by Gendün Chöpel and as suggested in a reference on page 130. A future study might also draw comparisons with current production: Schaeffer's observation that “regional interests were strongly in mind when authors and editors printed works” (pp. 61–62) still holds truth, and one finds a surprising amount of continuity in the role of patrons and monasteries as publishing centers today. Not least, Schaeffer leaves for future study a closer look at the editorial changes these dedicated scholars rendered.
