Tibetan Buddhist Texts from Central Asia
- Course Code:
- 15PSRH004
- Status:
- Course Not Running This year
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Any
About two thirds of the course is spent on reading and interpreting the selected texts. This is done in seminar settings, and students are expected to contribute actively to the linguistic, religious and cultural interpretation of the read material. For this to advance at a reasonable pace, it is essential that students must prepare the relevant texts at home and be broadly familiar with their contents. The majority of texts are selected from the Indo-Tibetan tradition, mainly stemming from the Kanjur and textual finds in Central Asia.
The second segment consists of lectures on the literary, historical and religious context of the selected texts. This is intended to impart to students a broad understanding of early Tibetan religious literature, and also to cover material beyond the parameters set by the selected texts. Particular emphasis is given to exegetical materials written in the early phase of Tibetan Buddhism in order to bring out the essential socio-religious factors that led to the full adoption of Buddhism in Tibet.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
At the end of the course, a student should:
- be able to demonstrate that he/she has acquired a sound understanding of the historical, cultural, religious and linguistic components of the Central Asian texts read in class;
- have acquired the skill to read and interpret texts from related genres of Tibetan Buddhist historical literature without significant assistance;
- have acquired competence in the linguistic peculiarities of early Tibetan text materials from Central Asia;
- have developed a good grasp of the religio-historical context in which the selected texts were conceived and discuss the ways in which a particular work reflects the development of Tibetan civilisation in Central Asia.
