Book Reviews

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

Page 10

80
REVIEWS
on doctrinal matters in the Precious Garland of Tenets. Although the translators have added explanations, it is very unlikely that readers unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy will derive much profit from the study of this work. The Precious Garland summarizes in a highly condensed and systematic form the main philosophical tenets of non-Buddhist and Buddhist schools. These philosophical manuals (grub-mtha', Skt. siddhanta) were very popular in Tibet in the eighteenth century. From them one can learn which doctrines Tibetan scholars of the time considered to be the main ones of the four Buddhist schools distinguished by them (Vaibhāşika, Sautrāntika, Yogäcära and Madhyamika). As an introduction to Buddhist philosophy in India and Tibet the Precious Garland and other works of the same genre are certainly not very convenient, because they can only be properly understood by specialists who know the basic Indian texts and doctrines to which they refer.
The translation is accurate though not always easy to understand. The translators render all Tibetan terms quite literally, without taking into account the Sanskrit originals. As I remarked already apropos of the translation of the first chapter of the Srags-rim chen-mo by Jeffrey Hopkins (IIJ 22, pp. 261-262), without knowledge of the Indian background it is not possible to translate Tibetan Buddhist texts whose entire philosophical terminology is derived from Sanskrit sources.
Australian National University
J. W. DE JONG
NOTES
The dates 1782-1853 are given by Zuiho Yamaguchi in his description of the biography of the fourth Panchen Lama: Catalogue of the Toyo bunko collection of Tibetan works on history (Tokyo, 1970), p. 69. According to the translators he lived from 1781 to 1852/4. . 2 For bibliographical information see the studies mentioned by Mimaki, op. cit., p. 60, n. 1.