Ancient anatomical drawings preserved in Tibet / by L.A. Waddell.

  • Laurence Waddell
Date:
[1910]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ancient anatomical drawings preserved in Tibet / by L.A. Waddell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    possibly may be the Prince Punya-ba/a, who was apparently a contemporary of Buddha, and in regard to whom there is a tale (avadana) in the Buddhist canon. None of the names of the others, however, are recognizable as those of known personages ;* nor are any of those of the second group, which is entitled, “ The thread of the pure ones.” Among these latter the chief place is given to a monk, figured in the conventional attitude of Tsongka’pa, the founder of the yellow hat sect of lamas, and inscribed : “ Sarvajna, the lord of doctrinal teaching.” This latter list probably includes some Tibetan teachers. The date of introduction of these pictures into Tibet is not evident. According to the current tradition of the temple, as related to me by the high-priest, the original of these drawings was brought from India in the remote past; but he could point to no positive evidence in support. This particular temple, although rebuilt and extended by the regent Sangyas Gyamts’o about two hundred years ago, is said to have been founded many centuries before that. Possibly, it seems to me, the picture may have been brought to Tibet in the first half of the eighth century a.d. P'or we read in one of the best of the native historiesf that in the reign of K’ri-lde Tsug-rtan [a.d. 705-755], in addition to certain Buddhist scrip>tures which were translated by Indian monks from the Sanskrit into Tibetan, “ Pichi- (or Pochi-) Chandra Sri translated books on Medicine and Surgery, on Astrology, and suchlike subjects.”^ The Lhasa edict of this King's son, found by me,§ states that his father was the first to solidly advance the civilization of his people; ■* The names in this list are, as is usual with Indian names, mostly translated etymologically into Tibetan: (i) mK’an-ch’en Sakya dWang- P’ug; (2) mK’as-mch’og bSod-nams rGyal-po; {3) Rin-sding bLo-bzang rGya-n/ts’o, or “ The priceless fenuri^ Sumatisagara ” (?); (4) Drang- srong bsTan-’dsin rgyal-po, or “ The //jA/Sastra dhrita^ja ” (?); (5) gLing- stong bLo-bzang rGya-n^ts’o, or “The universal nihilistic {^unyata) Suma- tisagara ” (?). inGyal-rads, or “Chronicle of the Kings, dated about k.u. 1650. + Ibid., E. Schl^g(\itweils’ edition, p. 5-2. S Jour. Roy. As. Soc., 1909, pp. 923-52.
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