The contribution of Rolf Stein (1911–99) to the field of Tibetan studies is immense, and the relevance of his work seems only to have increased with the passage of time. Among his many publications are studies of Tibet's Bon religion and the overlapping “nameless” religion of Tibet mythology and ritual, the Tibetan traditions of oral storytelling in the Gesar epic, and the role of the Tibetan clans in early Tibetan history. In a series of articles entitled “Tibetica Antiqua” dating from 1983 to 1992, Stein turned his attention to a range of topics arising from his research into the earliest sources for Tibet history: the manuscripts from Dunhuang and the inscriptions from Central Tibet.
Of the six articles, Tibetica Antiqua I is the longest, and perhaps the most ambitious. Here, Stein explores the “two vocabularies” found in the translated Buddhist literature from Dunhuang, showing that terms such as tathāgatha are translated with different Tibetan terms in texts translated from Indic and Chinese sources, respectively. Building on the work of Japanese scholars such as Daishun Ueyama, Stein brings together a great deal of textual evidence to show that there were indeed two different translation vocabularies.
Some of the issues raised in this first article are pursued in detail in later articles. Tibetica Antiqua II takes up a manuscript that was mentioned in passing in Tibetica Antiqua I, and makes it the centerpiece of a discussion of honorific insignia and seals in the Tibetan empire. Tibetica Antiqua III is almost a review article of a groundbreaking essay by Ariane Macdonald on the pre-Buddhist mythology of Tibet. Stein is critical of many of Macdonald's arguments, including her belief that some of the Dunhuang documents are truly representative of pre-Buddhist Tibet. Stein's interest in early Tibetan religious traditions continues in Tibetica Antiqua IV and V, in which he investigates the early materials relating to the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, and the meanings of the term bon po (often used indiscriminately to refer to non-Buddhist religious practices in Tibet) in the early period. Tibetica Antiqua VI ends the series with a brief but useful review of some Confucian material found in the early Tibetan sources. This volume also includes three of Stein's Annuaires from the late 1960s, summaries of his teaching and research at the time, which are loosely related to the main articles through their discussion of the Bon tradition. Finally, a bibliography of Stein's publications allows the reader to see how the works translated here fit within his complete corpus.
In general, Arthur McKeown's translation is clear and readable, though at times a bit mechanical; for example, “La tradition relative au début de bouddhisme au Tibet” is rendered as “The tradition relative to the debut of Buddhism in Tibet” (p. 191). There are also occasional mistakes. For example, in Tibetica Antiqua III, Stein discusses the fragments of early Tibetan religion and mythology preserved in the Dunhuang manuscripts and early inscriptions. He then writes, “Mais ces fragments ce retrouvent dans la tradition postérieure à l'an mille, et là ils sont insérés dans des ensembles compréhensibles et explicites.” McKeown translates this as, “Yet these fragments find themselves in the later tradition of the year one thousand, and there they are inserted into comprehensible and explicit contexts” (p. 121). The first clause here is clearly wrong, as Stein is referring to the literary productions of the Tibetan tradition subsequent to the year 1000. Unfortunately, mistakes such as this mean that these translations do not obviate the need to consult the original articles.
McKeown has wisely chosen to replace Stein's use of French systems for transliterating Tibetan and Chinese with the Wylie and pinyin systems. He also gives Chinese characters within the text, an improvement and a great service to readers. One of the very best things in the book comes at the end, where all of the articles are indexed together, and the general index is supplemented with specific indices of Tibetan terms, Chinese terms, and Dunhuang manuscript numbers. Another valuable addition found throughout the text are editorial comments cross-referencing the articles and pointing to new publications and discoveries that were not available to Stein at the time of his writing. In addition, comments by Cristina Scherrer-Schaub (who also provides the introduction) are provided in additional footnotes.
The questions that Stein asks here are still relevant, and anyone who is interested in the early sources for understanding Tibetan culture will profit from reading these articles. Though the translations are not perfect, their presentation here with full indexing, modern transliteration and unobtrusive editorial references to more recent studies in the same fields of enquiry make this a very attractive volume.
