Teaching the living through the Tibetan Book of the Dead: exploration into the context and content of an 18th-century Mongolian block print

Journal article

This article discusses the following three motives, which were involved in the translation of the Bar do thos grol chen mo (BTG) into Mongolian. From a political view, texts (and rituals) can become symbols of power. Further, translations have devotional aspects, that is to say, they were done for the sake of merit production. Finally, a scholarly interest was taken in these texts, primarily due to the absence of a previous translation. Moreover, I argue that a fourth reason, viz. didactic purposes, was a fundamental motivation as well. Based on a textual analysis of the Mongolian BTG block print, the second part of this article aims to explore the translation techniques employed by the Mongolian translators for making this ritual text accessible to Mongolian readers, students and Buddhist adherents alike. Although previous scholarship has either stressed the political ramifications of Tibetan Buddhist patronage of the Mongolian groups or concluded that the Mongolian translations were not intended to be read, but rather served as vehicles of merit production and monuments of state power, the discussion below will highlight further levels of meaning involved in the production of this particular translation of the BTG.

Authors: Wojahn, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Journal: Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines
• Volume: 55
• Issue: Juillet 2020
• Pages: 522-553
• Publication date: 2020-07-31
• Acceptance date: 2020-04-09
• ISSN: 1768-2959
• Language: English
• Keywords: Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism; ritual text; Tibetan studies; Qing dynasty; Translation studies; FFR