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Doublethinking? Think Again.
Tibeto-logic, along with all of Blogspot, is inaccessible in the People’s Republic of China, that is, to the people there. That means if you’re there you can’t get here. Even Apple since last year has...
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Regalia Untranslatable - Part One
“Time is short, the aspects of learning so many, there is simply no telling how long life will last.So, like the duck extracting milk out of water,what you treasure most is the thing you must do.”**The...
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Regalia Untranslatable - Part Two
The Nine Royal Heirlooms, which is to say the Tibetan Imperial RegaliaBy way of introduction: In today’s blog, Part Two of a three-part series that began with Part One, I intend to relay a little bit...
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Regalia Untranslatable - Part Three
Look back at the frontispiece of Part Two, the first-listed of the nine regalia, the གསེར་ཁྲི་ཆུ་དར་ཅན་, “golden throne with/having chu-dar” — that term chu-dar that we will prefer to translate very...
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More Questions of Regalia
This list was already posted here. To start at the beginning, go here.Here we are, back with those nine regalia passed down in the Tibetan imperial line, couched in terms that are mostly very difficult...
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A Hard Concept
Tsongge José said, “Oh Dampa, Delusion must have a very good foundation stone. No sooner do you think it’s dissolved but it proves itself invincible.” Dampa was delighted to hear this, “Nothing could...
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The Emperor's Beer Jug
Quoted from the Dutch painter Jan Havickszoon Steen (1626-1679 CE)I just noticed an interesting thing in a drawing I had looked at very many times over the years. I was following up on a reference from...
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Turkish & Mongolian Loanwords
The Tibetan words here are, to transcribe them into Wylie, in order: sku-bde-rigs, gang-zag, chol-kha, 'jam, thu-lum, na-so, no-kar, pag-shi, beg-tse, sbe-ka, tshan, she-mong, hor-dud, and am-chi.Musk...
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Marvelous Man-Lifting Kites & Giants in Caves
Topkapi Palace, IstanbulSeveral years ago I joined a Yahoo discussion group devoted to the teachings of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa (1910‑1981). It was not just a whim, I was more than a little curious and...
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Newsweek’s Photo Fact-Check Fail
This is not, we repeat, NOT, His Holiness the 14th Dalai LamaDiscovering a major news magazine’s huge mistake ought to be an opportunity for gloating. In this case none of that gloating would be mine,...
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Sheep Year Happy Losar!
Although a special blog for the holiday was in the works, this auspicious picture is offered in its place. Have a great new year with good health, plentiful energy, enough wealth, much contentment and...
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Reading at a Slow Pace
Take it easy, partners, and slowly move your hand away from the holster. This is not supposed to be anything like a critical book review. I gave up doing those a long time ago. I just had the idea to...
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Finding Phadampa in Bhutan
I wouldn’t recommend that anyone go to Bhutan without first factoring it into their annual budget. It’s pricey to go under a tourist visa, and difficult to get any other kind. I would have gone there...
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The Birthday Party of the Year
For the video, look HERE."One day you will be dancing and singing in Tibet, your home country."— Archbishop Desmond Tutu, at a party honoring the 80th year of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The...
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Isolation, Retreat, Renunciation, Concentration.
Along the way to Zanabazar's retreat placeI just started reading a new volume that’s part of Halvor Eifring's bigger project to study meditation as a phenomenon in a broad spectrum of religious...
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More Questions of Regalia
This list was already posted here. To start at the beginning, go here.Here we are, back with those nine regalia passed down in the Tibetan imperial line, couched in terms that are mostly very difficult...
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Remarkable Re-Appearances of Vanished Books
In earlier days in Tibet there were and yes, in our day there still are, people called tertöns who bring to light texts that may have been hidden for many centuries. Long-hidden Tibetan texts are still...
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Has Always Been a Part of China, Huh?
The Smallpox Edict and its willow tree,Photo from the Pitts River collectionMichael Henss (b. 1941), the noted Swiss scholar of Tibetan art, has now at long last published the fruits of a lifetime of...
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Lexical Euphoria: Good News on Dictionaries
A lot is happening of late in Tibetan lexicography. It can be hard to keep your head above water, but there is much good news for dictionary lovers. On the one hand we have the electronic dictionaries...
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Homicide, Forced Suicide, Vengeance and the Ghost
Andrea Mantegna's St. Sebastian, c. 1455-60"It will have blood: they say blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.... ... ... I am in blood stepped in so far that,...
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