Indo-Tibetan Classical Learning according to Jamgon Kongtrul’s Treasury of Knowledge

with Dr Gyurme Dorje

This talk will briefly examine the assimilation of four distinct disciplines of Indian origin, which have all contributed richly to the formation of the Indo-Tibetan cultural milieu: language, logic, art and astro-medical studies. Language here includes Sanskrit grammar, poetics, prosody, lexicography and dramaturgy. Reference will be made to the key literary sources representing each of these genres, and their content will be summarised from the perspective of Jamgon Kongtrul’s terse 19th century compilation—The Treasury of Knowledge (Shes bya kun khyab mdzod). Some recent developments within these genres will also be noted, whether in terms of indigenous Tibetan scholarship or practical application.

Gyurme Dorje

Gyurme Dorje was born in Edinburgh in 1950, and holds higher degrees in Tibetan literature (Ph.D, SOAS), and Sanskrit with Oriental Studies (MA, Edin). As founder and director of Trans Himalaya (www.trans-himalaya.com), he has been visiting Tibet annually since 1985. Gyurme’s doctoral dissertation is entitled the Guhyagarbhatantra and its XIVth Century Tibetan Commentary Phyogs bcu mun sel (3 vols, SOAS 1986). His previous publications, as author, editor or translator (excluding short articles and Tibetan texts) include: Dudjom Rinpoche’s The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism (with Matthew Kapstein, Wisdom Publications, 1991, 2002), Tibetan Medical Paintings (with Yuri Parfionovitch and Fernand Meyer, Serindia, 1992), Tibet Handbook (Footprint, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2009), Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings (Eskenazi and Fogg, 2001), An Encyclopaedic Tibetan English Dictionary vol. 1 (with Tubten Nyima, Beijing/SOAS, 2001), Bhutan Handbook (Footprint, 2003, 2010), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation (Penguin, 2005), A Buddhist Response to the Global Climate Emergency (with John Stanley and David Loy, Wisdom Publications, 2009), Jokhang: Tibet’s Most Sacred Buddhist Temple (with Tashi Tsering, Heather Stoddard and Andre Alexander, Thames and Hudson, 2010), and Jamgon Kongtrul’s Indo-Tibetan Classical Learning and Buddhist Phenomenology: The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six Parts One and Two (Snow Lion Publications, 2012). He is currently translating and editing the Prajñāpāramitāsūtra in Ten Thousand Lines, and the Guhyagarbha sections of Longchen Choying Tobden Dorje’s Treasury of Sūtra and Tantra (mDo rgyud mdzod).

Price: Free / Donation

Bookings: No booking required

Location: Room V211, SOAS, Vernon Square Campus, London, WC1X 9EW See Map