Terjék József: Collection of Tibetan MSS and Xylographs of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös.
The History of the Collection
7 same size, written on similar (English or Indian) paper, and all appearing in booklet form, unlike the usual pothi form of Tibetan books. They must have been Csoma's note-books given to the Lamas by him on purpose. This supposition seems to be supported by the fact that another Csoma notebook, also to be found in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in which he discusses Sanskrit-Hungarian etymologies etc., is of the same form and binding. As for their contents the five books cannot be treated under the same heading. Each of Sans-rgyas phun-chogs' books is an extract and compendium of fundamental works: Rgyud-bzi's study of medicine (No. 6/a), Suresamatibhadra's study of astrology (No. 6/b) and Snan-nag's work on literary theory (No. 8). The two other Alexander-books are of higher quality, both being the product of genuine thinking. They are different from the "Lama's" books in that they are answers given to Csoma's questions by the two theologists. Kun-dga' Chos-legs gave a concise summary of Lamaist-Buddhist scholastics (cosmology, Buddha's life and teaching, the spread of the Buddhist order and Buddhist literature, the lam-rim and the pratimoksa j , while Chul-khrims rgya-mcho's syllabus deals with the so called secular sciences cultivated in Tibet, especially with logic. It is quite evident that these famous Lamas' syllabuses were prepared through the mediation of Sans-rgyas phun-chogs, and it is also certain that he himself was unwilling to write on those subjects, either because he had no confidence in his competence or he was too busy to deal with all the subjects by himself. As can be clearly established from Csoma's letters, "the Lama" was engaged in other schemes too; for example tie was preparing various word-lists for Csoma, which fact makes it possible that the Rcis-kyi snon'gro ner-'kho rnom-gsal manuscript (No. 32), although it has neither introduction nor colophon was also written by him; it is of the pothi type, characteristic of Tibetan books. What part do these Alexander-books play in Tibetan literature? The epistle (answers to questions, 'dri-lon) is a widely used form in Tibetan literature for religious disputes, written with the aim of teaching and dispelling doubts. Books of this kind are found in the Csoma-Colloction too (No. 25, No. 26, No. 27). Those epistles were then inserted in the collected works of authors, which shows that they were taken seriously.
