An annotated translation of the Treasury of Good Sayings (Legs-bshad-mdzod).

The work of which I here offer a partial translation is a history of the Bon religion from its origins down to the lifetime of the author (1859-1935). The sections which I have left Untranslated are those dealing with the origins of the religion. I have preferred to limit myself to the sections concerning the spread of Bon (approximately the second half of the work) on the grounds that these are the sections most likely to be of interest to historians. The translated sections, therefore, concern the spread of Bon. The work divides this into three phases, interruption having been brought about by persecution and abolition on two occasions. The reassembly of the textual material dispersed at these times is a major object of attention. The sources of the work are numerous and varied and it is the principal aim of my notes to indicate them as fully as possible. In an introduction I have tried to make some assessment of the historical value of the work, to consider the extent of its reliability and factual accuracy, to define its scope and note its limitations

Alchemical Gold and the pursuit of the Mercurial Elixir: An analysis of two alchemical treatises from the Tibetan Buddhist Canon

This article focuses on the analysis of two Tibetan treatises on iatrochemistry, The Treatise on the Mercurial Elixir (Dngul chu grub pa’i bstan bcos) and the Compendium on the Transmutation into Gold (Gser ’gyur bstan bcos bsdus pa). These texts belong to the rasaśāstra genre that were translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by Orgyenpa Rinchenpel (O rgyan pa Rin chen dpal, 1229/30–1309) and integrated into the Tibetan Buddhist Canon of the Tengyur (Bstan ’gyur). The treatises deal with the processing of mercury, which is indispensable to convert metals into gold (gser ’gyur) and to accomplish the ‘mercurial elixir’ (dngul chu’i bcud len). The texts start with the description of a ‘pink-coloured’ (dmar skya mdog) compound, which is described as the amalgam of ‘moonlight-exposed tin’ (gsha’ tshe zla ba phyogs), gold, and copper. According to the texts, mercury has to be ‘amalgamated’ (sbyor ba) with ‘minerals that devour its poisons’ (za byed khams) and with ‘eight metals that bind it’ (’ching khams brgyad); at the same time, mercury is cooked with ‘red substances’ (dmar sde tshan) and other herbal extracts, types of urine and salts, and reduced to ashes. Starting with an outline of the earliest Tibetan medical sources on mercury, I analyse the two treatises with regard to their entire materia alchemica and the respective purification methods aimed at ‘obtaining essences’ (snying stobs), which are then to be absorbed by mercury. I argue that the two thirteenth-century treatises were particularly significant in the process of consolidating pharmaceutical practices based on mercury and the merging of alchemical and medical knowledge in Tibet

Rare Buddhist Texts kept in Orgyan Chos Gling

The essay, written by Samten Karmay, deals with his work in the Bhutanese village Ogyen Choling. There is located a collection of rare Buddhist texts and manuscripts back the the 14th and 15th centuries

Conférence de M. Samten G. Karmay

Karmay Samten G. Conférence de M. Samten G. Karmay. In: École pratique des hautes études, 5e section, Sciences religieuses. Annuaire. Tome 82, Fascicule III. Comptes rendus des conférences de l'année universitaire 1973-1974. 1973. pp. 53-57