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Tibetan Library

Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Pod Vodárenskou věží 2
182 08 Praha 8

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 Linda  Szabóová
+420 266 052 514

Catalog of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs in the Library of the Oriental Institute in Prague

 

Tibetan Library

The Tibetan Library of the Oriental Institute was founded in 1958. In that year, a complete collection of the Kanjur and Tanjur Tibetan Buddhist canons from the eastern Tibetan town of Derge was purchased. At that time, the Czech Tibetan scholar Dr. J. Kolmaš studied at the Central National Institute in Beijing with Prof. Yu Tao-chuan. Thanks to his enthusiasm and skills in dealing with local authorities, Dr. Kolmaš managed to purchase this collection for the library of the Oriental Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (now the Czech  Academy of Sciences).

The first collection, the Kanjur Buddhist Canon (literally "Translation of the Words of the Buddha"), contains a total of 103 volumes, including one volume which is an index ( dkar-chag ) of all the writings belonging to this collection. All lyrics. Kanjuru are printed in red. Included in the Kanjur are translations of the main Buddhist texts, representing the teachings and precepts of the Master Buddha (sutra), works on monastic discipline (vinaja), philosophical writings (abhidharma), and others.

The second collection, the Tanjur Buddhist Canon (literally "Translation of Commentaries"), contains 213 volumes, including a separate volume providing an index to all the texts included in the Tanjur. All the texts in Tanjur are printed in black, except for the first volume, which is printed in red. The Tanjur collection contains texts that relate to the inner, esoteric meaning of Buddhism. The most comprehensive part of this collection (78 volumes) includes tantric texts, other volumes are devoted to Prajnaparamita, Madhyamika, Abhidharma and Sutras. A number of texts deal with logic, medicine, poetics, past incarnations of the Buddha and other topics. The original woodcuts for printing Kanjur and Tanjur were made in the first half of the 18th century. The Prague collection of Kanžur and Tanžur was printed from these woodcuts in the summer of 1958.

There are two kinds of catalogs of the Tibetan collection of Kanjur and Tanjur, originally on cards and later copied to a PC: a basic catalog of the collection, divided into traditional branches of the canon, and a second, supplementary catalog, in which the Tibetan and Sanskrit names of the texts are arranged in alphabetical order.

The second collection of our Tibetan Fund (in a way unique in Europe) is represented by the collection of title-pages of a large number of xylographic works, which were acquired in two publishing houses in Derge, in the monastery of Dgon-chen and Dpal-spungs. This collection consists of 5,615 individual title pages of Tibetan writings that were purchased in 1958 at Derge during the stay of Dr. Kolmaš in China with the assistance of prof. Yu Tao-chuan. Buying a complete collection of these texts was apparently very expensive at the time and was therefore out of the question. Nevertheless, this collection of title-pages of original Tibetan works is a useful bibliographic guide for the study of Tibetan literature. The collection provides an insight into representative works of Tibetan Buddhist literature, eg the ritual literature and teachings of the Nyingmapa school, the practice of Lamda (Path and Fruit), etc. The collected writings ( gsung-'bum ) of several prominent Buddhist authors are presented in this collection, such as The "Five Great Masters" of the Sakjapa school, the works of Congkhapa, Mipham Gjamccha, Kongtul Lodö Thajä and others. Dr. Kolmaš prepared the publication of this collection of title pages in a photomechanical way in 1971; a two-volume index of the title pages of this collection was published in Prague in 1996.

In addition to these two large collections of Tibetan texts, there is a collection of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs obtained from Tibet, China, India, Nepal, Mongolia, and Buryatia in the library of the Oriental Institute. Dr. J. Kolmaš created and systematically supplemented the Tibetan Fund with his proverbial diligence and tenacity. In 1969 he published A Catalog of Tibetan Manuscripts and Blockprints in the Library of the Oriental Institute Prague (65 writings in total, consist of 41 manuscripts and 24 xylographs). Most of these texts were donated to the Library of the Oriental Institute from the funds of the Thimble Museum in Prague in 1960-1961. The Naprstk museum received most of these Tibetan writings as a gift from Prof. B. Rinčena in Ulaanbaatar in 1958. Some Tibetan texts belong to the private collection of Dr. J. Kolmas.

This collection of Tibetan texts and woodcuts is relatively small in number but rich in content. Most of the texts belong to canonical literature, tantric and ritual writings, philosophical treatises, and literary texts are represented here (e.g, the story of Prince Vishvantara, the story of the girl Nangsa, the fairy tales of Vétala, the love verses of the 6th Dalai Lama, etc.) The reader's attention is drawn to the biographies of important Indian and Tibetan faith teachers such as Padmasambhava, Tilopa, Náropa, Marpa, Milaräpa and others.

The fourth part of Tibetan texts (the so-called Chinese collection) presents Tibetan books, printed in the European manner and bound in the form of booklets. This collection belongs to the private collection of Dr. J. Kolmaš and is temporarily stored in the building of the Oriental Institute. The collection contains books published in China in the years 1952-1959. These books represent unique linguistic material for the study of contemporary spoken and written Tibetan. Fifty two volumes are textbooks and conversation manuals of the four main Tibetan dialects, as well as various dictionaries, phrasebooks, etc. 22 volumes are reprints of various literary texts, some of which are accompanied by Chinese translations. A relatively small number of books include works of classical Tibetan literature (Wise Sayings of Sakjapandita, Chronicle of Tibet by the 5th Dalai Lama, etc.). However, the majority of publications (112 titles) are Tibetan translations from Chinese originals, including political literature, government and party resolutions, speeches of leading state officials, etc. A special group is a collection of Tibetan and Tibetan-Chinese newspapers published in China in the 1950s.

Reference:

Kolmaš, "Notes on the Kanjur and Tanjur in Prague". Oriental Archive, 30 (1962), pp. 314–317.


Kolmaš, Tibetan Manuscripts and Blockprints in the Library of the Oriental Institute Prague. Prague 1969, 112 pp. (Dissertationes orientales, vol. 16).


Kolmaš, Prague Collection of Tibetan Prints from Derge. I–II. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden – Academia, Prague 1971, 517+681 pp. (Asiatische Forschungen, Band 36/1–2).


Kolmaš, Tibetan Books and Newspapers (Chinese Collection) with Bibliographical Notes. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1978, 133 pp. (Asiatische Forschungen, Band 62).


Kolmaš, The Iconography of the Derge Kanjur and Tanjur. New Delhi 1978, 286 pp. (Sata-pitaka Series, vol. 241).

Kolmaš, "Indexing the Prague Collection of Tibetan Prints from Derge". Oriental Archive 53 (1985), pp. 339–346.


Kolmaš, Prague Collection of Tibetan prints from Derge. Vol. III. Index of Titles. Prague 1996, Book 1, 1–252 pp., Book 2, 253–510 pp.


Chaloupková, The Tibetan Dharani Collection in the Library of the Oriental Institute, Prague. Oriental Archive, 65 (1997), Supplement to 2/65, 68 pp.


Chaloupková, J. Kolmaš, A Catalog of J. Kolmaš's Private Collection of Tibetan Texts. Oriental Archive, Supplement to 3/99, 85 pp.

 

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