The Manuscript copy of the Bardo Thodol edited by Dr. W. Y. Evans-Wentz
The copy was procured by the editor in the early 1919 from a young lama of the Kargyutpa Sect of the Red Hat School attached to the Bhutia Basti Monastery, Darjeeling who said that it had been handed down in his family for several generations. It was illustrated by paintings in colour painted on the folios of the text. When procured, the manuscript was in a very ragged and worn condition, now remedied by each folio being inserted in a protective frame of the Tibetan paper of the same sort as the one on which it was originally written. Though faded , all the folios were in a fair state of preservation. Folio number 111 which was missing, was replaced by a fathful copy of the from a Block-print version of Bardo Thodol belonging to Dr. Johan Van Manen, Secretary of The Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
The manuscript was far older than the modern Block-print and seems to have been copied from an older version of an earlier manuscript.
It is undated but the translator judged it to be from 150 to 200 years old.
From the Block-Print, and also from other Tibetan sources, we learn that the Bardo Thodol text originated, or, was first committed to writing in the time of Padmasambhava, in the eighth century A. D. ;was subsequently hidden away, and then, when the time came for it to be given to the world, was brought to light by Rigzin KarmaLing-pa.
The Block-Print account is as follows :
This has been brought from the Hill of Gampodar on the bank of the Serdan (Tibetan meaning ' Karma Land ' If Rig is the word correctly intended, the name means a Knowledge-holder, a caste or class designation in another small section of a Bardo Thodol in possession of the translator Rigzin Karma Ling-pa is otherwise called 'Terton' (Tibetan Gter-bston), or 'Taker-out of Treasures'. The Bardo Thodol is therefore, one of the Tibetan Lost Books recovered by Rigzin of Karma Ling-pa, who is held to be an emanation or incarnation of Padmasambhava, the founder of Lamaism.
It was in the eighth century A. D. that Lamaism, which we may define as Tantric Buddhism, took firm root in Tibet. A century earlier, under the first king to rule over a united Tibet, King Song-Tsan-Gampo (who died in A. D. 650), Buddhism itself entered Tibet from two sources : from Nepal; and from China, through his marriage-in the year 641-with a princess of the Chinese Imperial Family.
The King had been nurtured in the old Bon faith of Tibet, which, with its primitive doctrine of rebirth, was quite capable osf serving as an approach to Buddhism; and under the influence of his two Buddhist wives he accepted Buddhism, making it the state religion; but it made little headway in Tibet until a century later, when his powerful successor, Thi-Srong-Detsan, held the throne from A. D. 740 to 786. It was Thi-Srong- Detsan who invited Padmasambhava ( Tib. Pedma Jungne, i. e. 'The Lotus-Born'), better known to the Tibetans as Guru Rin-po-che, 'the Precious Guru', to come to Tibet. The famous Guru was at that time a Professor of Yoga in the great Buddhist University of Nalanda, India, and far-famed for expert knowledge of the Occult Sciences. He was a native of Udyana or Swat, in what is now a part of Afghanistan.
The great Guru saw an opportunity which the King's invitation offered, and promptly accepted the call, passing through Nepal and arriving at Samye (Sam-Yas), Tibet, in the year 747. It was to Samye that the King had invited him, in order to have exorcized the demons of the locality; for as soon as the walls of a monastery which the King was having erected there were raised they were overthrown by local earthquakes, which the demons opposing Buddhism were believed to have caused. When the Great guru had driven away the demons, all the local earthquakes ceased, much to the wonder of the people; he himself supervised the completion of the monastery, and established therein the first community of Tibetan Buddhist lamas, in the year 749.
The copy was procured by the editor in the early 1919 from a young lama of the Kargyutpa Sect of the Red Hat School attached to the Bhutia Basti Monastery, Darjeeling who said that it had been handed down in his family for several generations. It was illustrated by paintings in colour painted on the folios of the text. When procured, the manuscript was in a very ragged and worn condition, now remedied by each folio being inserted in a protective frame of the Tibetan paper of the same sort as the one on which it was originally written. Though faded , all the folios were in a fair state of preservation. Folio number 111 which was missing, was replaced by a fathful copy of the from a Block-print version of Bardo Thodol belonging to Dr. Johan Van Manen, Secretary of The Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
The manuscript was far older than the modern Block-print and seems to have been copied from an older version of an earlier manuscript.
It is undated but the translator judged it to be from 150 to 200 years old.
From the Block-Print, and also from other Tibetan sources, we learn that the Bardo Thodol text originated, or, was first committed to writing in the time of Padmasambhava, in the eighth century A. D. ;was subsequently hidden away, and then, when the time came for it to be given to the world, was brought to light by Rigzin KarmaLing-pa.
The Block-Print account is as follows :
This has been brought from the Hill of Gampodar on the bank of the Serdan (Tibetan meaning ' Karma Land ' If Rig is the word correctly intended, the name means a Knowledge-holder, a caste or class designation in another small section of a Bardo Thodol in possession of the translator Rigzin Karma Ling-pa is otherwise called 'Terton' (Tibetan Gter-bston), or 'Taker-out of Treasures'. The Bardo Thodol is therefore, one of the Tibetan Lost Books recovered by Rigzin of Karma Ling-pa, who is held to be an emanation or incarnation of Padmasambhava, the founder of Lamaism.
It was in the eighth century A. D. that Lamaism, which we may define as Tantric Buddhism, took firm root in Tibet. A century earlier, under the first king to rule over a united Tibet, King Song-Tsan-Gampo (who died in A. D. 650), Buddhism itself entered Tibet from two sources : from Nepal; and from China, through his marriage-in the year 641-with a princess of the Chinese Imperial Family.
The King had been nurtured in the old Bon faith of Tibet, which, with its primitive doctrine of rebirth, was quite capable osf serving as an approach to Buddhism; and under the influence of his two Buddhist wives he accepted Buddhism, making it the state religion; but it made little headway in Tibet until a century later, when his powerful successor, Thi-Srong-Detsan, held the throne from A. D. 740 to 786. It was Thi-Srong- Detsan who invited Padmasambhava ( Tib. Pedma Jungne, i. e. 'The Lotus-Born'), better known to the Tibetans as Guru Rin-po-che, 'the Precious Guru', to come to Tibet. The famous Guru was at that time a Professor of Yoga in the great Buddhist University of Nalanda, India, and far-famed for expert knowledge of the Occult Sciences. He was a native of Udyana or Swat, in what is now a part of Afghanistan.
The great Guru saw an opportunity which the King's invitation offered, and promptly accepted the call, passing through Nepal and arriving at Samye (Sam-Yas), Tibet, in the year 747. It was to Samye that the King had invited him, in order to have exorcized the demons of the locality; for as soon as the walls of a monastery which the King was having erected there were raised they were overthrown by local earthquakes, which the demons opposing Buddhism were believed to have caused. When the Great guru had driven away the demons, all the local earthquakes ceased, much to the wonder of the people; he himself supervised the completion of the monastery, and established therein the first community of Tibetan Buddhist lamas, in the year 749.
