Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 37

REVIEWS
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manuscripts' (Pr. pp. 167-177). Of great importance for the history of Khotan and other regions of Central Asia are the Tibetan sources of which G. Uray presents a very detailed survey which contains exhaustive bibliographical information: The Old Tibetan Sources of the History of Central Asia up to 751 A.D.; A Survey' (Pr. pp. 275-304). Uray indicates the place of these sources in the Tibetan literature and examines in more detail geographical problems connected with the names of the main rivers in Khotan and a passage of the "Catalogue of the Principalities". B. N. Mukherjee's article 'Kharosh thi Documents of Shanshan and the Kushāna Empire' (St. pp. 91–97) tries to refute Brough's thesis regarding the incorporation of the kingdom of Shan-shan in the Kusāna empire around the middle of the second century A.D. ('Comments of third-century Shan-shan and the history of Buddhism', BSOAS 38, 1965, pp. 582-612).
Both the Prolegomena and the Studies are of great interest for all those interested in the history of Central Asia. We look forward to future volumes in this series and hope that they will give detailed information about plans for the collection of the sources.
Australian National University
J. W. DE JONG
Piotr Klafkowski, The Secret Deliverance of the Sixth Dalai Lama as Narrated by Dharmatāla. Edited from the Hor chos-byun by Dharmatāla and Translated into English, with an Introduction and Comments (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde (Heft 3). Wien, Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, 1979. VI, 93 pp. O.S. 200.-.
Chinese and Tibetan sources related that the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tshans-dbyans rgya-mtsho, died in 1706 on the way to China near Kun-dga'-nor, a small lake south of Lake Kukunor. However, a different story is found in the Hor chos-'byun written in 1889 by Dam-chos rgya-mtsho or Dharmatāla. According to Dharmatāla, the Sixth Dalai Lama did not die in 1706 but continued to live in secrecy for another forty years. After having made secret pilgrimages to Central Tibet, Khams, India and Nepal in the years 1 706-1716, he remained most of the time in the land of the A-lag-sa where he died in 1746. Dharma tāla's source concerning the secret life of the Sixth Dalai Lama in the years 1706-1746 is the Thams-cad mkhyen-pa Nag-dbar Chos-grags dPal-bzan-po'i mnam-par thar-pa phul-du byun-ba'i mdzad-pa bzan-po'i gtam-sñan lha' tambu-ra'i rgyud-kyi sgra-dbyans written by A-lag-sa No-mon Han Nag-dban Lhun-grub Dar-rgyas in the Fire Ox Year. The author, No-mon Han, must have been born in 1714/1715 and the Fire Ox Year must be 1757 (cf. Klafkowski, pp. 20 and 55). No-mon Han's work was recently published in a facsimile edition by Ngawang Gelek Demo.2
Klafkowski's work consists of three parts: a preliminary report on Dharmatăla's Chronicle, of which he has prepared a complete translation; an English translation of ff. 151b-162a of Dharmatāla's work containing the biography of the Sixth Dalai Lama; and a critical study of the truth of the story told by Dharmatāla and his source, No-mon Han's work. Klafkowski announces a romanized edition of No-mon Han's work together with a study of it. On p. 63 Klafkowski mentions that a detailed study of the same work by Yonten Gyatsho will also be published in the near future. It is to be hoped that these studies of No-mon Han's work will make it possible to evaluate critically the story of the secret life of the Sixth Dalai Lama. On pp. 60-63, Klafkowski quotes accounts of the death of the Sixth Dalai Lama by contemporary scholars. He does not refer to Yu Dawchyun's Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama (Peiping, 1930) which relates legends told by Tibetan lamas in Peking concerning the disappearance of the Sixth Dalai Lama and his life on the Wu-t'ai shan and in Alashan (pp. 34-35). Yu Dawchyun must have learned these legends in Peking in the nineteen-twenties. In his dPag-bsam ljon-bzan, Sum-pa mKhan-po writes that the Sixth Dalai Lama died in 1705 near Lake Kukunor. According to Klafkowski,