Soundings in Tibetan Civilization
Contents: Preface by E. Gene Smith. Editors\' introduction. I. The Tibetan language: 1. A survey of the development of Western and Southwestern Tibetan dialects/Roland Bielmeier. 2. The phonetic structure of ABCB type words in Modern Lhasa Tibetan/Zhang Liansheng. II. Fine arts, literature, and oral traditions: 1. A typology of the Tibetan Bell/Mireille Helffer. 2. Aspects of ceremonial behavior in Bon-po Monastic life/Ricardo O. Canzio. 3. The Bhutanese collection in Neuchatel/Marceline de Montmollin. 4. The Jehol Temples and their Tibetan models/Anne Chayet. 5. The first Tsha-tsha published in Europe/Braham Norwick. 6. Tibetan operatic themes/Wang Yao. 7. Ladakhi folk songs/Nawang Tsering Shakspo. 8. Rituals of Bhutanese house construction/Chime Wongmo. 9. On translating oral traditions: ceremonial wedding poetry from Dingri/Barbara Nimri Aziz. III. Historical studies: 1. A passage from the Shih Chi in the old Tibetan chronicle/Tsuguhito Takeuchi. 2. An eighth century list of thousand-districts in Ne\'u Pandita\'s history/Helga Uebach. 3. The three provinces of Mna-ris: traditional accounts of ancient Western Tibet/Lozang Jamspal. 4. A survey of the spread of Buddhadharma in Ladakh/Nawang Tsering. 5. Glosses on the Oeuvre of Bla-ma \'Phags-pa: III. The "Patron-Patronized: relationship/Janos Szerb. 6. Biographical notes on Phyag-na rdo-rje (1239-1267) (abstract)/Turrell V. Wylie. 7. An analysis of Sino-Tibetan relationships, 1245-1911: imperial power, non-coercive regime and military dependency/Dawa Norbu. 8. Nag-ron mgon-po rnam-rgyal: a 19 century Khams-pa warrior/Tashi Tsering. 9. Whose game? Records of the India office concerning events leading up to the Simla Conference/Michael C. Van Walt. IV. Religious life and thought: 1. Belief in Karma and its social ramifications in Samsara/Ugen Gombo. 2. Millenarianism in Tibetan religion/Martin Brauen-Dolma. 3. An early Tibetan ritual: Rkyal \'bud/Amy Heller. 4. On the origin of the Tsha-gsur ceremony/Jampa L. Panglung. 5. The Rdzogs-chen in its earliest text: a manuscript from Tun-huang/Samten G. Karmay. 6. A Rnin-ma Text: the Kun byed rgyal po\'i mdo/Eva K. Dargyay. 7. The Tibetan translation of the Manjusri-nama-samgiti (abstract)/Alex Wayman. 8. The mediating Buddha/Judith Hanson and Mervin V. Hanson. 9. On the nature of Rnam-Thar: early Dge-lugs-pa Siddha biographies/Janice D. Willis. 9. The development of the Good Tradition/Janet Gyatso. 10. Insight and liberation in Nagarjuna\'s seventy Stanzas on emptiness/David Ross Komito. 11. Religious syncretism in 13 century Tibet: the limitless ocean cycle/Matthew Kapstein. 12. Tson-kha-pa\'s integration of Sutra and Tantra/Robert A.F. Thurman. 13. Early Buddhism in Tibet: some anthropological perspectives/Geoffrey Samuel.
"Today Tibetan studies covers a wider range of issues and disciplines than ever before and this volume is representative of the work being undertaken. Volumes on specific themes will continue and the need for specialized monographs remains strong. A collection of papers such as this is relatively new in Tibetan studies and is to be welcomed. It represents the dialogue going on today among a diverse selection of scholars who have much to offer one another as well as experts in their respective areas. This dialogue is reflected by the editorial cooperation between a philosopher and an anthropologist. And with more than a quarter of the contributors here being scholars who were born in Tibet or adjacent Himalayan regions, this volume also represents their increasing role in the international community of scholars.
Originally the 32 chapters and two abstracts published herein were presented at the international seminar convened in 1982 at Columbia University in New York City. The papers were further edited to include the results of the seminar and to combine them together for the large community of interested readers."
