Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

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

Page 69

BUDDHIST STUDIES IN THE WEST
on many other aspects of Buddhist studies, for instance: Buddhism. Its Essence & Developments, Oxford, 1951; Buddhist Thought in India, London, 1962; Thirty Tears of Buddhist Studies, Oxford, 1967. It is to be hoped that soon a complete bibliography of his writings will be published.
The greatest work ever undertaken by a Buddhist scholar in the West is undoubtedly Lamotte's translation of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāšāstra or Prajñāpāramitopadeśa.42 The author of this work treats so many topics that it requires a scholar of great learning to do full justice to its richness. Nobody could have been more qualified than Lamotte. The notes, which take up much more space than the translation itself, constitute a treasure-house of learning in all things Buddhist unequalled in Western Buddhist studies. An extensive index becomes an ever more urgent desideratum with the publication of each new volume. The three volumes published so far bring the translation to the end of the 27th chüan. A further volume is required to complete the translation of the first parivarta (chüan 1-34), the most important part of the work. Let us hope that Lamotte will be able to publish a fourth volume and an index to the four volumes without being daunted by the immensity of his task.
Johannes Nobel continued his work on the Suvarņaprabhāsa, the Sanskrit text of which he had edited in 1937. In 1944 he published the Tibetan translation, in 1950 a Tibetan-German-Sanskrit dictionary, and in 1958 a translation of I-tsing's version and the Tibetan translation of that same version.43 Lamotte translated the Vimalakirtisūtra from the Tibetan and Hsüan-tsang's Chinese version, 44 and another important text, the Śūramgamasamādhisūtra.45
* Aştādaśasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramita. Ed. & Tr., Roma, 1962; Materials for a Dictionary of the Prajñāpāramitā Literature. Tokyo, 1967.
42 Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse, I, Louvain, 1944; II, 1949 (reviewed by P. Demiéville, JA,.1950, pp. 375-395=Choix d'études bouddhiques, Leiden, 1973, pp. 470-490); III, 1970 (reviewed by J. W. de Jong, Asia Major, XVII, 1971, pp. 105-112).
43 Suvarnaprabbāsottamasūtra. Die tibetischen Ubersetzungen. I. Die tibetischen Übersetzungen, Leiden, 1944; II. Wörterbuch Tibetisch-Deutsch-Sanskrit, Leiden, 1950; Suvarnaprabbāsottamasūtra. I-tsing's chinesische Version und ihre tibetische Übersetzung, 2 Bände, Leiden, 1958 (cf. E. Conze, Thirty Tears of Buddhist Studies, Oxford, 1967, p. 18).
44 L'enseignement de Vimalakirti, Louvain, 1962 (reviewed by R.H. Robinson, IIJ, IX, 1966, pp. 150-159)
45 La concentration de la marche héroique, Bruxelles, 1965 (reviewed by J.W. de Jong, OLZ, 65, 1970, cols. 72-83).