Terjék József: Collection of Tibetan MSS and Xylographs of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös.

Catalogue

28 Colophon (p. 189): de-ltar rgya-gar rum-yul-pa Sken-dhas dris lan-du Kun-dga' chos-legs rdo-rje Rjon-khul phug-mo íher bris-pa, dge'o | This is a so called AJexander-book that was written when Csoma was staying in the monastery of Zangla during his first study-trip (from June, 1823 to October, 1824). Its author is Kun-dga' £hos-legs whom Csoma presents (in his letter to Captain Kennedy of 5th May, 1825, published by T. Duka, Life and Works, p. 4G

) as follows: "a Lama of great reputation, a relative and friend of the Lama, whose pupil I was (= Sans-rgyas phun-chogs)". Kun-dga' £hos-legs was the head lama of the monastery of Rjon-khul which was affiliated to the Zangla monastery - both belonging to the Dge-lugs-pa school (A.M. Francke). In the invocation the Lama (being a celebrated theologian) makes excuses for dealing with such elementary knowledge and explains his reason for doing so. He points out to the wise men that this work of slight intellectual effort was not prepared to discuss questions of life and death and does not follow the usual arrangement and standards of a book, but, as he puts it, he wrote this syllabus because: Having arrived from Europe Sken-dhar Bhig begged mo to write This confused little study Which does not bring luck for wisdom. In the six numbered chapters of the syllabus Kun-dga' Shos-legs writes about the following subjects: Buddhist cosmology; the three precious stones (Buddha, his learning and his church); Buddha's life; how the sutras and tantras spread in India and Tibet; the essence of lam-rim; and the eight areas of prátimoksa. Among these the most detailed explication is given on the subject of by an£ hub lam-rim ("the graded way to enlightenment"). The latter subject must have particularly fascinated Csoma as he had collected quite a number of the most important lam-rim books (No. 14-19). As is shown in his invocation, the famous Lama felt a little un-