1. The Sutra of the Wise and the Fool: Another Look at the Plots (Evidence from the Oirat Manuscript Translation of The Sea of Parables by Thog-med bka’-bcu)
- Author
-
Deliash N. Muzraeva
- Subjects
буддизм ,каноническая литература ,«сутра о мудрости и глупости» ,сюжеты ,ойратский перевод ,«море притч» ,тугмюд-гавджи ,History (General) ,D1-2009 ,Oriental languages and literatures ,PJ - Abstract
The article examines an Oirat translation of The Sea of Parables (Oir. Oülgurin dalai) by Thog-med bka’-bcu (O.M. Dordzhiev). The literary text is a most interesting source of plots from the Tibetan Sutra of the Wise and the Fool representing realia of ancient India. The written source was complied in the early 1960s under the conditions of total state-imposed atheization and distortions of cultural and related confessional histories. It is unique for being one of the last known Oirat Buddhist translations performed by the Volga Kalmyks in the last third of the 20th century. This and similar compositions once included in the canonical Kangyur aimed to preserve, disseminate widely, and transmit the Buddhist teachings and Buddhist worldview to the contemporary Buddhist community comprising the laity, novices, and those interested in Buddhism. The literary text is virtually an anthology of diverse, separate legends, tales, fables, and stories, with both just one plot or containing two and even more chapters that, thus, comprise a respective number of separate stories (plots). At the same time, some plotlines are concise enough, without any details. The Buddha himself acts as the narrator of the successively connected stories where the characters come to see the Buddha, watch him, and share their impressions resulting from what they witnessed. Thus, on the one hand, the stories are shown as real life events, and, on the other hand, they depict phenomena where the founder of the religion manifests himself as a supernatural being. The paper deals with stories where characters describe the Buddha and their encounters with him (Chapter 41 About Householder Jami Shinjir, Chapter 39 About a Householder Named Yugbajan, Chapter 35 About King Migjid, etc.). It is especially noteworthy that the Sutra contains stories depicting episodes from lives of characters that resemble the story of Buddha’s life before he attained Enlightenment, i.e. when he was known as Prince Siddhārtha Gautama. This is especially topical in the context that - according to Tibetologist B. Kuznetsov - the Buddhist tradition had largely questioned the first stage of Buddha’s life namely. Stories of the kind are those described in Chapter 33 About Prince Gedun, Chapter 30 About Jimbi Chingbi Who Sailed Away (a Brahmin’s son). Plots and motifs of separate chapters of the Sutra display the interest of the Kalmyks towards the traditional Buddhist plots which can be traced up till nowadays. The translation of the Sutra of the Wise and the Fool by Thog-med bka’-bcu together with other survived old Buddhist translated texts once preserved by Kalmyk monks (Tib. dge-long) in the form of manuscripts testify of the uninterrupted literary tradition of the Kalmyk Buddhism up to the 21st century, and a significant interest towards Buddhist works among present-day Kalmyks.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF