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सप्तमं परिशिष्टम् । The Choni version was printed at the Choni lamasery in Kansu province from wooden blocks believed to have been carved 500 years ago. This recension contains both the Kanjur and Tanjur, unlike certain of the others which consist frequently of merely one or the other of the two parts. It is also 5 the most easily legible of all the differing recensions, and is particularly to be treasured because the Choni monastery has since been burned to the ground by bandits and all the thousands of wooden blocks destroyed.
far fonfa Derge (Sde-dge ) #FETTFA FTEC EatETA - 10 “ The Tibetan Buddhist canons have been published at Peking, Snar-than, Sde-dge etc; and the Sde-dge edition is said to be the best with regard to the accuracy of text and beauty very long. A project has been initiated for the cataloging of this Library's copy of the Choni Tanjur in Germany from a 15 microfilm copy. The work is to be done by Dr. R. O. Meisezahl of Bonn.
You may be interested to know that during their transporation across the vast reaches of Western China the entire collection was very nearly irrevocably lost, for some of the crates containing 20 the texts were opened by bandits on the supposition that they were filled with treasures or valuables of some sort. Further in the course of transit one of the boxes fell into the Yangste River and although all the crates had been carefully lined with wax at Choni, sufficient water seeped into waterlog 25 volume 202 of the Tanjur. The text, however, was not seriously damaged due doubtlessly to the tough and durable character of the paper. The whole collection arrived in this library about two years after its purchase in far-off Choni.
Should you care to have additional details you might consult 30 the November, 1928 issue of the National Geographic Magazine (Vol. LIV) pp. 569-619, where Dr. Rock has given the entire story with photographs of the monastery and various stages of the procedure involved in printing the texts, packing and transporting them to Peking.
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