Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage:

Preliminary Research on the Wanli Bka gyur from Berlin

-

Agnieszka Helman-Wany
Cornell University

Abstract: Technical aspects of Bka gyur manuscriptology are discussed. The

results indicate the chronological as well as regional order of particular editions,
and show that all material features of books are potentially meaningful and
traceable.
This article traces the history and provenance of the missing volumes of the Berlin
Wanli Bka gyur, which was described by Helmut Eimer as lost during World
War II. Interdisciplinary research was involved in studying the physical corpus of
books, such as the fragments of Bka gyur editions from the Jagiellonian Library
(Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Jagielloskiego) in Cracow (Krakw), Poland (the lost
Wanli Bka gyur was recently re-discovered within the Pander collection), the
University of Michigan Library (Yongle Bka gyur), and the Harvard Yenching
Library (supplement to Wanli Bka gyur). This preliminary examination attempts
to authenticate the fragment of the Wanli Bka gyur in Cracow as the Berlin Wanli
Bka gyur on the basis of the history and physical features of the books, and has
allowed us to group particular Bka gyur volumes from the Pander collection in
sets.
-

Rediscovery of the Wanli Bka gyur from Berlin in Poland

This story begins in 2003 when the search for Tibetan books in Poland led me to
the Pander collection from the former Prussian State Library (Preuische
Staatsbibliothek). The history of this collection is fascinating at all stages it has
passed from Chinese and Tibetan, to German and Polish hands. Eugen Pander was
a German professor born in 1854 in Livonia1 as a Russian citizen, and was a
1
Livonia was inhabited by various Baltic and Finnish peoples, ruled by an upper class of Baltic
Germans. Over the course of time some nobles were Polonized into the Polish-Lithuanian nobility
(szlachta) or Russiied into the Russian nobility (dvoryanstvo). The Russian Empire conquered Swedish
Livonia during the course of the Great Northern War (1700-1721) and acquired the province at the
treaty of Nystad in 1721. Russia then annexed Polish Livonia (Inlanty) in 1772 during the partitions

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009): 1-27.
http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5691.
1550-6363/2009/5/T5691.
2009 by Agnieszka Helman-Wany, Tibetan and Himalayan Library, and International Association of Tibetan
Studies.
Distributed under the THL Digital Text License.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

nineteenth-century pioneer of Tibetan Buddhist studies, especially known for his

work in the ield of Tantric Iconography.2 His collection of Tibetan books purchased
during his stay in Peking is one of a few important early Western collections of
Tibetan literature.
The Pander collection contains Tibetan and Sino-Tibetan books, and is presently
deposited at the Jagiellonian University Library in Cracow, Poland. The collection
has been forgotten and is un-catalogued, thus constituting a lost heritage for world
scholarship. No proper catalogue of these works exists, and the entire collection
has probably been untouched for almost 120 years. Panders texts and letters give
some clues as to its contents.3 The original collection seems to have included,
among other items, portions of Bka gyur, works of Lcang skya ho thog thu rol
pai rdo rje (1717-1786), Tibetan-Mongolian dictionaries, and the Fifteenth century
founder of Dge lugs pa schools (Tsong kha pa, 1357-1419) works. The portions
of Bka gyur editions printed during the Ming Dynasty have been found among
Panders books, and the Berlin Wanli Bka gyur has been identiied among them.4
Early xylographic editions of the Tibetan Bka gyur were printed in Peking, China.
The irst was the Yongle edition printed in 1410 with red ink. As early as the
twelfth century, the printing technology irst invented by the Chinese, largely for
the purpose of propagating Buddhist literature, was adopted by the Tibetans, who
were to continue to use it up to the twentieth century.5 In Peking new impressions
continued to be taken from the Yongle blocks and in this way the Wanli edition
printed in black ink in 1606 was produced. When the blocks wore out, new blocks
were prepared and carved, using prints of old blocks as a master. These are
represented by the Qing dynasty re-edition and its reprints. The Yongle/Wanli
edition of the Tibetan Bka gyur (wooden blocks carved before 1410 in the Yongle
reign period of the Chinese Ming dynasty) is not only the irst printed edition of
the Tibetan Bka gyur, but also one of the irst printed Tibetan book collections
so far known. According to Jonathan A. Silk, the only conirmed copy of one folio
of Poland. In 1796 the Riga Governorate was renamed as the Governorate of Livonia (Russian:
/ Lilyandskaya Guberniya, Latvian: Vidzemes Gubera, Estonian: Liivimaa
Kubermang). Livonia remained within the Russian Empire until the end of World War I, when it was
split between the newly independent states of Latvia and Estonia. In 19181920 both Soviet troops
and German Freikorps fought against Latvian and Estonian troops for control over Livonia, but their
attempts were defeated (Livonia, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livonia, accessed March
20th, 2009).
2
Eugen Pander, Das Pantheon des Tschangtscha Hutuktu, ein Beitrag zur Iconographie des
Lamaismus; herausgegeben und mit Inhaltsverzeichnissen versehen von Albert Grnwedel (Berlin
1890); Sushama Lohia, Lalitavajras Manual of Buddhist Iconography (New Delhi 1994), 33-270.
3

Helmut Eimer, Spurensicherung: Das verschollene Berliner Fragment des Wanli-Kanjur,

Zentralasiatische Studien, no. 30 (2000): 27-51.
4
The Wanli Bka gyur has been identiied in Cracow during the project The Lost Fragment of
Wanli Kanjur Edition in the Jagiellonian Library? The Value of Authenticity of Tibetan Books from
Pander Collection in Poland initiated by the author of the present article and funded by Polish Ministry
of Science. The study was done together with Prof. Dr. Marek Mejor and Dr. Thupten Kunga Chashab
from the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw.
5
Paul Harrison, A Brief History of the Tibetan Kanjur, in Tibetan Literature. Studies in Genre,
eds. Jos Ignacio Cabezn, Roger R. Jackson (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion, 1996), 81.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

of Yongle has been identiied in the Special Collections Library at the University
of Michigan.6 According to Bruce C. Hall, Harvard-Yenching Library has what
purports to be an imperial postface to this Bka gyur (two incomplete volumes).7
This article traces the history and provenance of the missing volumes of the Berlin
Wanli Bka gyur, which was described by Helmut Eimer as lost during World
War II.8 Without the above-mentioned articles I would probably never have found
this previously lost collection. This article attempts to authenticate the fragment
of the Wanli Bka gyur in Cracow as the Berlin Wanli Bka gyur on the basis of
history and physical features of the books. I approach this task as a paper
conservator and manuscriptologist with an abiding interest in Tibetan primarily in
order to support linguists and historians with my practical skills on technological
and material aspects of Tibetan books.

The Origin and Provenance of the Berlin Wanli Bka gyur

Not much is known about the irst
stages of the Chinese-Tibetan history
of the Berlin Wanli Bka gyur
between 1606 when the collection was
printed and 1889 when Eugen Pander
brought the fragment of this edition to
Berlin. The place where Pander
obtained his collection is not clearly
mentioned by him; however, he relates
that he was very lucky in obtaining
Figure 1: A former library of Yonghegong ifty-nine volumes of the Yongle,
Monastery located in the quarter behind the Wanli, and Jiajing editions of the Bka
Yonghegong Monastery.
gyur in one of the Emperor
Monasteries in Peking.9 The Emperor monastery which Pander had a connection
with was a Yonghegong Monastery in Peking (Temple of Eternal Peace) and it
was probably the place where he obtained his books.10 In October 2007 I made an
attempt to ind more information about Eugen Pander and his acquisition in Peking,
but unfortunately all I discovered was a former library of Yonghegong Monastery
which has not functioned as a library since the Cultural Revolution in China (Fig.
1).
6
Jonathan A. Silk, Notes on the History of the Yongle Kanjur, in Suhrllekhah: Festgabe fr Helmut
Eimer (Indica et Tibetica 28). Monographien zu den Sprachen und Literaturen des indo-tibetischen
Kulturraumes, eds. Hahn Michael, Hartmann Jens-Uwe, and Steiner Roland (Swisttal-Odendorf 1996),
153-200.
7
Bruce Cameron Hall, A Dscriptive List of the Tibetan (Tib.) Collection in the Rare Books of the
Harvard-Yenching Library. Cambridge 1979. Unpublished typescript revised in 1980 as a PhD thesis
at the Sanskrit Department of Harvard University.
8

Helmut Eimer, Spurensicherung, 27-51.

Helmut Eimer, Spurensicherung, 29.

10

62.

Eugen Pander, Das Pantheon des Tschangtscha Hutuktu, 7; Sushama Lohia, Lalitavajras Manual,

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

Presently, this building located in the quarter behind the Yonghegong Monastery
is abandoned, and only traces of its previous greatness are noticeable.
How Pander transported his books
from Peking we do not know.
However, there are a few facts which
may shed a little light on this. I
assumed that he sent all his
acquisitions to Germany at once since
all of the volumes have the same
inventory marks. All together, the
Pander collection in the Jagiellonian
University Library includes 865
volumes within six portions which are Figure 2: The paper strips which bound volumes
described as Pander A, B, C, E, F, and within the Pander A catalog. These strips are sealed
with a black inked seal with Chinese characters on
Pantheon. Not all of the collection has it and additionally described in Tibetan with black
been identiied until now, but most of ink, and in English with a pencil. There is a shelf
the volumes within the Pander A mark of Museum fr Vlkerkunde written with green
catalog are bound tightly with Chinese pencil with a date of acquisition (1889) on it.
paper strips, sealed with a black inked seal with Chinese characters on it, and,
additionally, described in Tibetan with black ink and in English with a pencil (Fig.
2). Most of the volumes have shelf marks of the Ethnographic Museum written
with green pencil with the year of acquisition (1889) on the irst folios. The stamps
of the Prussian State Library were found on a very few volumes. When these strips
are taken off to see what is in the books, there is no way to put them on again in
the same way due to the paper leaves deformation over time. This suggests that
these books have not been opened before, since they were bound with paper strips
and sealed with Chinese seals before being packed and sent to Germany. The
existence of all those provenance marks is rather compatible with the Pander
collection history. Only the pencil descriptions in English cannot be explained,
since we do not have enough information at this moment. Additionally, the
European type of paper strips were attached to a few volumes and the watermark:
Note paper London is readable in this paper structure (Fig. 3). The origin of this
London paper and English handwriting can only suggest that some
English-speaking people had this collection in hand sometime.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

Figure 3: The European type of paper strip, which

was found attached to a few volumes, characterized
by the watermark: Note paper London.

bombing (Fig. 4).13

The German chapter of the Berlin

Wanli Bka gyur history (1889-1944)
began when the Pander collection was
irst donated to the Ethnographic
Museum in Berlin11 and then to
Knigliche Bibliothek.12 Further,
during the closing stages of World
War II, collections from the Prussian
State Library in Berlin were evacuated
to the Silesian Castle Frstenstein
(Ksi) and later to the Cistercian
Brothers
Monastery
Grssau
(Krzeszw) to protect them from allied

When Lower Silesia became Polish

territory after the war, the Polish state
claimed the collection as abandoned
property. Thus, the Polish part of the
Wanli Bka gyur history starts in
1946-47, when a group of researchers
led by Dr. Stanisaw Sierotwiski,
delegate of the Ministry of Education
from the Jagiellonian University
Library, transported, among others,
the Pander Collection to the main Figure 4: The Silesian Castle Frstenstein (Ksi),
library seat in Cracow.14 This where Pander books from the Prussian Library in
Berlin were hidden during the closing stages of
collection is still placed at this library World War II.
on the rights of deposit of the Polish
Government.15 The Polish government kept the Berlinkas existence a secret until
1977, when Polish First Secretary Edward Gierek gave East German leader Erich
11

Ethnographic Museum, Berlin was renamed for Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin from 1993.

12

Nowadays Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (formerly Preuische Staatsbibliothek).

13

The circumstances of the Berlinka collection acquisition, including the Pander Collection, by the
Jagiellonian University Library are described in: Zdzisaw Pietrzyk, Book Collections from the Former
Preussische Staatsbibliothek in the Jagiellonian Library, Polish Libraries Today: Foreign Collections
in Polish Libraries. A Historical Overview, vol. 6 (2005): 81-87; Werner Schochow, Bcherschicksale.
Die Verlagerungsgeschichte der Preuischen Staatsbibliothek. Auslagerung, Zerstrung, Entfremdung.
Rckfhrung XV (Berlin, New York: W. de Gruyter, 2003), 328.
14
Monika Jaglarz, Zbir rkopisw i drukw orientalnych z byej Pruskiej Biblioteki Pastwowej
w Berlinie przechowywanych w Bibliotece Jagielloskiej, eds. Jerzy Malinowski and Mirosawa
Wojtczak, Torun Studies on Oriental Art vol. 3 (2008): 49.
15
The status quo of Panders books: The part of the former Prussian State Library collection called
Berlinka in Poland is referred to as property of the Polish nation now. Poland claims that it should
retain ownership of the Berlinka as compensation for Polish historical collections destroyed or looted
by Germans during World War II. The German media refers to the Berlinka as the last German prisoner
of war, and claims that Poland is in violation of the Hague Convention of 1907. To this day, each side
claims this collection.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

Honecker seven pieces of music manuscripts from the Berlinka collection, including
Mozarts original manuscript of "Magic Flute" and Beethovens notes for his Ninth
Symphony, as a gift.16
Because ownership of this collection has been a point of dissension between
Poland and Germany, for many years the collection was untouched and no
conservation procedures were applied. For the same reason, access to this collection
was very limited and for many years, impossible. The positive side of this dificult
political situation is that nowadays, researchers of different disciplines can study
the books, and with the present methodology of research, we can obtain much
more information about the history of the Yongle and Wanli Bka gyur editions
than would be possible if the books had been restored in the past.17

Methods of Bka gyur Manuscriptology

The Tibetan Buddhist canon is contained in the Bka gyur edition, usually
consisting of about a hundred volumes, and the Bstan gyur, with most editions
containing some 225 volumes of commentaries. The available editions are of
different sizes, ranging from fragments to complete multi-volume collections. The
variations exhibited in the various versions of the collection with regard to their
differences in style, arrangement, formats, materials, and techniques used in their
creation were examined. Varieties in the style of books, their form, and materials
used were also connected to a very wide-ranging geographical area in which Tibetan
has served as a language of learning and medium of communication among Asian
Buddhists. Communities using the Tibetan language did not equally adapt uniform
methods of book production and did not use the same materials local book
culture was often preferable. That is why in this study, interdisciplinary research
was involved in studying the physical corpus of books from the Eugen Pander
collection in Cracow and other fragments of Bka gyur editions from the University
of Michigan Library and the Harvard Yenching Library collections as a reference
all produced in the Peking area.18 Elements of codicology, paleography, art
16
Zdzisaw Pietrzyk, Zbiory z byej Pruskiej Biblioteki Pastwowej w Bibliotece Jagielloskiej,
Alma Mater no. 100 (2008): 16.
17
Books after conservation treatment lose a part of information sealed in the materials which
compose a book. For example, results of paper components analyses (other than ibers) can be diluted
after introducing other substances during the conservation treatment. In the same way, it is not possible
to conduct pollen analyses after conservation, since there will not be much of the original dust to
analyze. However, I would like to stress that conservation procedures should never be avoided for the
sake of research simply that all possible analyses should be conducted before the conservation
procedures.
18

To identify the Yongle/Wanli edition of the Tibetan Bka gyur and especially to authenticate the
lost fragment of the Berlin Wanli Bka gyur printed in 1606 in the Eugen Pander collection now in
the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow, the other fragments were used as a reference:

one folio of Yongle has been identiied in the Special Collections Library at the University
of Michigan
two incomplete volumes at the Harvard-Yenching Library (purported to be an imperial
postface to this Bka gyur).

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

history, and material science were applied to examine the Bka gyur volumes in
order to identify their book format, bookbinding style, techniques of leaf
preparation, page outline, type of script, and character of decorations, such as
fore-edge paintings. Some aspects of Tibetan manuscript typology based on physical
features of books were also studied and discussed by Christina Scherrer-Schaub.19
Historic paper supports were also examined on the basis of visual observation and,
later, using microscopy (iber composition). In my study of paper I focused on the
optical characteristics of the material, including any features, such as wire marks
(chain and laid lines), that are visible against light in the paper structure, as well
as iber composition and the presence of other inishing substances in the paper.
In order to determine iber composition, paper samples were collected from chosen
volumes representative of different parts of a set (according to content and technical
differences). Light microscopy was used to analyze iber composition.20 Transmitted
light was most useful to observe color changes after staining, and polarized light
was used for studying the morphological features of ibers. It was rarely possible
to study morphological features, such as all shapes of the ibers, as well as lumen
and iber walls within all iber lengths. With magniication at 60x and greater, the
color of staining and iber placing were analyzed, and later under higher
magniication, morphology and anatomical features were studied. The historical
character of the samples made identiication of ibers much more dificult. The
main problems were connected with morphological changes in ibers caused by
technological processes during papermaking and the degree of iber deterioration
over time. However, all cells and particles present in the paper are signiicant
components which characterize the paper and allow for the identiication of the
same type of paper in different volumes.
Samples prepared directly from plants and presented on slides are very helpful
in understanding the nature of ibers and technological processing. However, they
cannot be directly used as patterns for identiication because paper manufacturing
technology inluences to a large degree the shape of the ibers, their size, and their
placement in the paper. Additionally, we have to take the inluence of degradation
on the shape of these same ibers in historic papers into consideration. It is important
to know the iber structure in all of these stages. Understanding the relationship
between plants, ibers, and the resulting paper helps us to understand the properties
of Asian papers and the differences in their visual appearance in works of art.
Comparing the composition of ibers in the paper with areas of the papermaking
plants regional distribution could yield information on the books origin.21 The
19
Christina A. Scherrer-Schaub and George Bonani, Establishing a Typology of the Old Tibetan
Manuscripts: A Multidisciplinary Approach, in Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, ed. Susan Whitield
(London: The British Library, 2002), 184-215.
20
Bertie Lee Browning, Analysis of Paper (New York & Basel 1977), 22; Marja-Sisko
Ilvessalo-Pffli, Fiber Atlas, Identiication of Papermaking Fibers (Berlin Heidelberg 1995:
Springer-Verlag).
21
Agnieszka Helman-Wany, Tibetan Manuscripts: Scientiic Examination and Conservation
Approaches, in Edinburgh Conference Papers 2006: Proceedings from the Fifth International
Conference of the Institute of Paper Conservation and First International Conference of the Institute

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

consistency of pigments and other media analyses can also help, if one traces this
historically and compares it with the dates when new methods were discovered in
the history of craftsmanship, such as papermaking and printing.22
The links made between individual volumes and the classiication of all volumes
in sets can also help in investigating economical and cultural aspects of the
production of the various versions/collections, and the circumstances in which
each of these collections was produced and given inal shape. An additional aspect
of this research is seeking the origin and date of particular sets by comparing all
results. The results of the studies described above allowed us to establish a typology
of techniques and materials used in Tibetan book production and to make links
between different sets of Bka gyur editions. This should be taken into
consideration when making judgments about the technical identity of a same-set
edition and also when identifying the relation between a master copy on which the
next edition of Bka gyur is modeled and this edition.

The Technical Identity of Berlin Wanli Bka gyur Volumes in

Cracow
The documentation and research carried out on particular volumes shows a variety
of techniques and materials used, with such pieces of information allowing us to
make links between volumes and to group them based on the technical identity of
the edition. How do we deine the style of a hundred-volume set? It should be
remembered that scribes, carvers, and artists who directly created particular volumes
had very strict standards for their work. Assuming that the expectations were met
and the rules were followed they should have been able to create uniied edition
of Bka gyur and accumulate spiritual merit for their work. The spiritual merit
grew larger in proportion to the level of effort, care, and quality of materials used.
This is why any individual elements in the creation of Bka gyur volumes were
reduced and differences as well as exceptions were rather associated with
imperfections in skills, not with aspirations for being an individual artist.

Figure 5: The Wanli Bka gyur volume 24 in the

pothi (dpe cha) format.

The general style of an edition

derives from wooden blocks; however,
different editions may be printed from
the same wooden blocks. In this case,
the types of materials and techniques
used for the books preparation deine
a set. However, classiication becomes
extremely complicated when we
consider many re-editions, reprints,
and only fragmentary copies made

of Conservation, Book and Paper Group, ed. Shulla Jaques (London 2007: Institute of Conservation),
247-256.
22
Dard Hunter, Papermaking, The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (New York: Dover
Publications 1978); on Tibetan printing, writing, and so forth, see pp. 111114, 170, 180, 240.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

from wooden blocks used sometimes for hundreds of years. Many aspects of this
problem can be resolved with the help of historical sources, but some can be
answered only by penetrating observation of every volume. What appears at irst
to our perception when looking at books are format and size.23 The format of Bka
gyur volumes is pothi (po ti), which is the most typical format of Tibetan books
(Fig. 5). The character of Tibetan books is unique, and is closely related to Tibetan
Buddhist culture and the history of books in Inner Asia (closely related to the
history of Tibetan language and literature inspired by late Indian Buddhist culture).
Tibetan traditional books are called with more than one term (dpe cha, glegs bam,
or deb thar) and should be considered to be a kind of homage paid by Tibetans to
their Indian masters and teachers, the content and form being directly inspired by
the traditional Indian palm-leaf books called grantha or later pustaka.24 Despite
the Indian origin of Tibetan books, they were written not on palm leaves as are the
Indian pustaka, but on birch bark and paper; and they were not joined with a string.
However, their page shape is similar to that of a palm leaf and so Tibetan books
made of loose leaves are also called pothi. Tibetan scribes did alter the size of the
page, largely because they were using materials different from palm leaves. It is
a little tricky to deine binding variants in the case of loose leaves books. However,
the term bookbinding is usually understood as the process of physically
assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other
material and relects a general qualiication for the variation, whether of book
structure, color, fabric, lettering, or decoration, between different copies of the
same edition of a book cased in publishers cloth.25 Tibetan pothi format elements
of binding include: leaves (one or a few layered papers), cloth (cotton, silk, and
possibly brocade) or fabric cover, labels (cloth and brocade), and covers (wood,
wood and metal itting, layered paper, and cloth). Even within the same pothi book
formats, various types of techniques and materials, such as one-layer or
multi-layered papers or different elements of binding style, were found. Since most
parts of this type of binding are separated and easy to replace, loose leaves
construction of a book can pose limitations to the uniication of the binding style.
In the case of the books preserved in Cracow, most volumes consist only of
leaves, and other parts of the binding have not been preserved, excepting the
wooden covers in the case of volume 58. The size of book leaves usually varied
so they can also be a distinctive feature of the technical identity of one edition.
The volumes from the Pander collections have two sizes: most of the leaves measure
23.8-24.5 centimeters in leaf height and 68.5 centimeters in leaf length (width)
23

The term format in the most general way is deined as the shape and size of a book. In a
bibliographical context it is used to indicate the structure of a volume in terms of the number of times
the original printed sheet has been folded to form its constituent leaves.
24
The text of Indian books was written with a wooden pen or drawn with a sharp stick on the surface
of the leaf; ink rubbed on the leaf remained in the scored depressions. The leaves were joined together
by a string loosely threaded through holes in the middle of the text, like beads, and put together into a
pile. In this form they were placed between two boards. The string was attached to the wooden boards.
25
John Carter and Nicolas Barker, ABC for Book Collectors (Oak Knoll Press and British Library
2004, Eighth Edition), 41.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

10

and nine volumes are slightly larger, with leaves 25-25.5 by 71 centimeters (vol.
29-37 & 58). The Yongle folio preserved in Michigan (pothi format) measures
24.2-24.5 by 68.7-69 centimeters, which is very close to most of the volumes from
the Pander collection (vol. 23-28, 38-57, and 59-60). The volumes from the Harvard
Yenching Library measure 24 by 68.5 centimeters. All volumes are very close in
size, but that is deinitely not enough to classify them as a set.

Figure 6: The page outline of Yongle folio 12,

recto side from Uiversity of Michigan Library.

Figure 7: The page outline of Wanli volume 26,

folio 2 preserved in Jagiellonian University
Library in Cracow.

The page outline is especially

important this relects the print
features readable from wooden blocks,
and allows for grouping and
identiication. This is why a precisely
measured page outline is vital. The
number of text lines on a page, size of
the frame outlining the text, distances
between text lines, type of script,
proportions of letters, and carving style Figure 8: The text fragment from volume 58 from
(tool traces) were examined. All the Pander Pantheon, characterized by the
rectangular shape of the upper part (line) of text.
studied volumes are written in Tibetan
printed letters (dbu can), but the proportions and carving style of letters differ in
particular volumes. The Yongle folio from Michigan and thirty-six volumes from
the Pander Pantheon collection (vol. 23-60) contain eight lines of text on a page,
and a printing area limited by two side margins in a distance 58-59 centimeters.
The volumes from the Harvard Yenching Library contain six lines of text on a
page within a printing area width of 58.5-59 centimeters. The only volume with a
full rectangular frame enclosing the text is volume 58 from the Pander Pantheon
in Cracow. The distance between upper lines of text in the Pander volumes and
the Michigan folio are the same: 1.5-1.7 centimeters, but the text lines distance in
the Yenching Library volumes is 2.1-2.3 centimeters. Tibetan foliation on the left
margins and Chinese pagination (on the recto and verso sides on the right margins)
appear in the Yongle folio and Pander volumes 23-60, but in the Yenching volumes
there is Tibetan and Chinese pagination on both recto and verso sides of the leaves.
In volume 37 from the Pander Pantheon the length (width) of a wooden block was
readable on a folio 12 up to 14 (64.5-65 centimeters) and this was repeated in
different volumes as well. The page outline of the Yongle folio from Michigan
and the Pander volumes 23-28, 38-57, and 59-60 from Cracow meet one set
requirements (Fig. 6 & 7). The letters proportions and characteristics conirm this

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

11

classiication by page outline. Regarding carving style and tool traces, I could
observe the slightly rounded parts of letters forming the upper part (line) of letters
an upper part closer to a triangle distinguishes the shape of the Wanli/Yongle
editions from the rectangular shape of later editions. This is due to the rounded-type
of chisel used. In fact, this feature appears in all studied volumes excepting volume
58 from the Pander Pantheon (Fig. 8). However, this kind of ingerprinting can
give information about the workshop and area in which the book was made rather
than about edition different editions could be printed in the same area or even
workshop and not be the same set.

Figure 9: The fragment of the Yongle folio

printed in red ink. The ink spreads out of the
letter outline printed in the paper visible on the
picture.

Figure 10: The fragment of text from volume 26

of the Pander Pantheon printed in black ink.
This ink is exactly within the outline of embossed
letters.

Also, one of the differences is the slightly thicker letters in the Yongle folio
when compared to the Wanli. This can be explained by considering the quality
and type of materials used. The Yongle folio is printed in red ink on more absorbent
paper than the Pander volumes, in which ink spreads out of the embossed letter
outline (Fig. 9). Additionally, the black ink has different properties, and that is
why this ink is exactly within the outline of embossed letters (Fig. 10). In fact, the
outline of the letters in Yongle (red) and Wanli (black) is very much the same.
Some tiny dimensional differences are not signiicant due to the essence of the
xylography type of printing. If we want to make links between letters in xylography
we have to remember that the essence of this technique is an overlap of the
handwriting style of the scribe and skills of the carver (including personal character
and type of tools used). In fact, xylography was never freely styled. In the irst
stage of work the text was carefully designed following calligraphy rules with
respect to the proportions of the letters. When the text was ready for the edition,
the scribes wrote it on thin paper and later transferred it to the surface of wooden
blocks with all text within an outline, such as frames. Some differences in the size
of the letters depend on the scribes decision about which part of the text should
it on one page.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

Figure 11: The fore-edges paintings (longer

edge) on volume 27 from the Pander Pantheon
are repeated in twenty-two volumes in Cracow
(vol. 23-28, vol. 38-46, vol. 48, 50-57, vol. 60).

12

Figure 12: The fore-edges paintings (shorter

edge) on volume 25 from the Pander Pantheon
are repeated in twenty-two volumes in Cracow
(vol. 23-28, vol. 38-46, vol. 48, 50-57, vol. 60).

The Yongle folio has traces of red

paint on the edges, but since there is
just one folio I do not have more
information about painting on edges.
Figure 13: The fore-edges paintings showing the The coloring of fore-painted edges in
krtimukha (the face of glory) ornament against a all other volumes is quite close to each
red background from volume 47. This type is also other in style. The shade of red in the
represented by two other volumes (49 and 59).
background and also particular
patterns and ornaments exist within all volumes; however, particular volume
paintings are deinitely not identical. The twenty-two volumes in Cracow (vol.
23-28, vol. 38-46, vol. 48, 50-57, and vol. 60) are painted on long side edges in
the same style with eleven lowers containing twelve blue petals and six green
leaves (resembling lotus lowers; Fig. 11). In the central part of the shorter side
edge there is a halo on the lotus lower petals with a Chinese inscription in gold.
The opposite shorter side edge contains the Chinese and Tibetan text completed
with a 2.5 centimeter column ornament along each corner (Fig. 12). The second
type of edge painting is represented by eight volumes (vol. 29-37) and contains a
lower ornament on the red background and a precious jewel in lames on the
shorter side edges. The third type represented by three volumes (vol. 47, 49, and
59) shows a krtimukha (the face of glory) ornament against the red background
(Fig. 13).26 And again, volume 58 (Size: 24.2 by 71.5 centimeters) from the Pander
Pantheon differs from others by type of ornament; however, the coloring is not
much different. The edges of the two Harvard volumes are painted exactly in the
same style as twenty-two other volumes from the Pander collection which
supposedly are the Wanli supplement (Pander Pantheon: volumes 1-22) with a
lower ornament painted on the edges resembling lotus lowers. There are three
of these lowers on both sides with four petals, and small auspicious symbols in
the central part between the lowers. The ornament on the corners (1.5-2
centimeters) is hardly visible; only its green color is noticeable. Chinese characters
(sketched in a stpa shape or as a Buddha halo on lotus lowers) on the side edges
26

Robert Beer, The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols (Boston 2003), 78-79.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

13

resemble those from the Pander volumes. The style of fore-edge paintings27 suggests
a Chinese origin; however, this is preliminary research, which will be continued.
The present results allow for the conclusion that the variations in those paintings
cannot identify the edition (set). Fore-edges painting seem to be rather more
connected to text content, and can differ between parts of Bka gyur volumes of
the same edition.

Paper
The common view about study of the paper type, size, and quality in Tibetan books
is that paper is not very useful as a source of information for identifying a book,
as is pointed out by Jonathan A. Silk: The quality and size of the paper, and even
the color of the ink used, tell us nothing; it is quite easy to change these while
printing from the same set of blocks, thus producing exactly the same contents.28
I understand that it is dificult to disagree with such a seemingly obvious truth, but
the beginning of consistent research on the paper supports a different view. One
of the reasons why this source of information has been underestimated is lack of
cooperation between disciplines (Tibetan studies are dificult to approach by paper
historians and other specialists without a background in Tibetan culture and
language) and also lack of clear terminology to describe the paper in works of art.
Without clear terminology the study of paper can feel irrelevant for those who are
not specialists. This is why before sharing my results I would like to say a few
words regarding a proposal for terminology. I have three levels of criteria for the
typology of paper in Tibetan books: raw material used, technology of papermaking
(type of papermaking mould), and preparation of leaves before writing or printing.
The irst mentioned criterion allows for distinguishing Tibetan type of paper by
examination of raw material used for paper production. In Tibet Thymelaeaceae
family plants were used for making paper.29 This makes Tibetan paper very
distinctive from Chinese one composed of varieties of plants, such as ramie, paper
mulberry, hemp, bamboo, straw, and many others.30 The second criterion allows
for typology regarding differences in technology here, handmade woven paper,
27

This refers to any decoration on the fore-edges of the leaves of a book.

28

Silk, Notes on the History, 153-200.

29

Hunter, Papermaking; Richard Othon Meisezahl, Bemerkungen zu Tibetischen Handschriften

des 17.-19. Jahrhunderts im Institut fr Cellulosechemie der Technischen Hochschule Darmstad,
Forschungsstelle Papier geschichte. Herausgegeben vom Verein der zellstoff- und Papier-Chemiker
und Ingenieure Jahrgang 8 no. 2 (1958): 17-28; Jasper Trier, Ancient Paper of Nepal. Result of
ethno-technological ield work on its manufacture, uses and history with technical analyses of bast,
paper and manuscripts (Copenhagen 1972: Jutland Archaeological Society Publications Volume X);
Elaine Koretsky, Papermaking Today in Tibet and China, Hand Papermaking no. 1 (1986); Agnieszka
Helman-Wany, Tibetan Historic Manuscripts as a Source of Information on Past Papermaking in
Inner Asia, In IPH Congress Book 2005, 27-37; Agnieszka Helman-Wany, Asian Paper in Works
of Art: a Comparative Fiber Analysis, Handmade Paper 21 no. 2 (2006): 3-9.
30
Dard Hunter, Old Papermaking in China and Japan (Ohio 1932); Hunter, Papermaking;
Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien, Raw Materials for Old Papermaking in China, in Journal of the American Oriental
Society 93, no. 4 (1973): 510-519; Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien, Paper and Printing. Science and Civilisation
in China, ed. Joseph Needham (Cambridge 1985); Floyd Alonzo McClure, Chinese Handmade Paper
with a preface by Elaine Koretsky (Newtown 1986).

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

14

handmade laid paper,31 and machine-made paper can be distinguished. Since we

generally know the area range of using the particular type of papermaking mould
and differences in papermaking technology (sheet formation), we can mark off the
region of a books origin on the basis of this identiication. It will still be quite a
wide region, but by comparing with the two other criteria we can be much more
precise. The third level of criteria regarding the preparation of leaves includes
construction of the leaf and visual properties of its surface, such as dying the paper
(or introducing insect-repellant substances, which also change the color of raw
paper), sizing the paper, gluing of layers (how many), and polishing of the surface.
This level of criteria especially shows the difference between paper prepared for
manuscripts and prints.

Figure 14: The ibers of paper mulberry

identiied in the Yongle folio under
magniication 150X.

Figure 15: The ibers of paper mulberry

identiied in the Yongle folio under
magniication 600X.

Figure 16: The ibers of paper mulberry

identiied in volume 23 from the Pander
Pantheon under magniication 150X.

Figure 17: The ibers of paper mulberry

identiied in volume 23 from the Pander
Pantheon under magniication 300X.

What is written above is only a brief introduction about paper used for the
Yongle folio from Michigan, the Wanli volumes at the Jagiellonian Library in
Cracow, and the Wanli supplement volumes at the Harvard Yenching Library. The
31
Mark van Staalduinen, Jan C.A. van der Lubbe, Eric Backer, Pavel Paclik, Paper Retrieval Based
on Speciic Paper Features: Chain and Laid Lines, in Multimedia Content Representation, Classiication
and Security, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, eds. Bilge Gunsel, et al. (Berlin Heidelberg 2006),
346-353.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

15

Yongle folio is written on very thin Chinese type paper with visible tiny laid lines
(nine or ten in one centimeter) composed of paper mulberry ibers (Fig. 14 & 15),
glued together in many layers (six or more), and made with a dipping technique
by using a paper-making mould with a movable type of sieve. Chain lines were
hardly visible due to the gluing of many layers of relatively soft and absorbent
paper together. The paper used for volumes of the Pander Pantheon from
Berlin/Cracow is very thin Chinese type paper with visible tiny laid lines (eight in
one centimeter and ive or six in one centimeter) glued together in many layers
(six or more) and composed of paper mulberry ibers (Fig. 16 & 17).32 The sheets
were done the same way as in the previous case with a dipping technique and by
using a paper-making mould with a movable type of sieve. Chain lines were hardly
visible due to the gluing of many layers of paper together, but were still possible
to observe. However, there are some differences between paper types in particular
volumes. Most of the volumes contain laid paper characterized by eight laid lines
in one centimeter. Only volumes from the Prajpramit section (vol. 29-37) are
written on paper characterized by ive or six laid lines in one centimeter. In volume
28 (eight laid lines in one centimeter) it was possible to measure the distances
between chain lines as follows: 3cm-2cm-3cm-2cm-2.5cm-2.5cm-2.5cm-2.5cm.

Figure 18: The ibers of paper mulberry

identiied in volume 60 (table of contents) from
the Pander Pantheon under magniication 150X.

Figure 19: The ibers of paper mulberry

identiied in volume 60 (table of contents) from
the Pander Pantheon under magniication 600X.

32
Fiber examinations were done by an author of this article at the Department of Plant Biology,
Cornell University.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

16

Results of this study show clearly

that the mould with a movable bamboo
sieve characterized by laid and chain
lines in a inger-print pattern as
described above was used to produce
paper for the Wanli Bka gyur. That
type of mould with such a ine laid
lines was not used in Tibet, which
conirms the Chinese origin of the
paper. The Chinese origin of the paper
is also conirmed by its iber Figure 20: The ibers of paper mulberry and straw
composition, the paper mulberry ibers identiied in volume 58 from the Pander Pantheon
which compose most of the volumes, visible under magniication 150X.
and the fact that bamboo and straw are typically Chinese components. I could
observe differences in the quality of paper (three grades), such as that the best
quality (longest) ibers were used for volume 60, the table of contents (dkar chag),
and the worst with small additions of other ibers for volumes 29-37, which contain
the Prajpramit texts (Fig. 18 & 19). The volumes of the Tantra (Rgyud) section
were made on medium quality paper. The exception is volume 58, in which the
structure is hardly visible, but I could identify the paper components as three types
of cells in its structure: paper mulberry iber cells (short cut), pitted wood/bamboo
trachaids or vessels stained by Herzberg stain with blue-gray, and narrow straw
ibers with pointed ends stained with olive-gray-yellow (Fig. 20). Harvard Yenching
Library volumes are written on paper made of paper mulberry, straw, and bamboo
(Fig. 21 & 22).

Figure 21: The ibers of paper mulberry and the

bamboo vessel identiied in a Harvard Yenching
Library volume are visible under magniication
600X.

Figure 22: The bamboo vessel identiied in a

Harvard Yenching Library volume is visible
under magniication 300X.

Production of the Wanli Bka gyur Volumes

The evidence of techniques and materials used within particular books allows us
to read the distinctive features which could be called a style or technical identity
of the edition. However, the main question to answer here is how similar particular
volumes should relate to each other to call them one set. It should be remembered

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

17

that the edition of the entire Bka gyur set, which is more than hundred volumes,
has always been a very large project and great challenge for all the craftsmen
involved.33 The printing of Bka gyur and Bstan gyur texts usually involved
numerous specialists of more than ten professions, such as: proof readers,
woodblock carvers, paper manufacturers, carpenters, Tibetan scroll (thang ka)
painters, blacksmiths, technical experts, and helpers. Also managers, secretaries,
and many apprentices were involved.34 There was often an insuficient number of
highly skilled personnel for enterprises of such a large scale, and the work itself
was very time-consuming. That is why one needed to recruit new apprentices for
each of the tasks involved so that they could learn the necessary skills during the
process; this way, one could avoid inancial losses. New technicians were
summoned at the time the printing was being organized in order to learn the actual
work. Once the technicians had obtained the required qualiication, they were
moved to the main workshop. A few months after beginning the printing work,
many of the apprentices were fully skilled and able to work as, for example,
woodblock carvers; the same approach was taken in the case of secretaries,
blacksmiths, carpenters, and proofreaders. This is why the printing project of Bka
gyur and Bstan gyur editions usually took years.35 The Yongle and Wanli Bka
gyur editions were sponsored by Emperors of China, and it may thus be assumed
that highly skilled craftsmen and artists were chosen for this project. The fact that
more technical information in the corpus of the manuscript is written in Chinese
than in Tibetan suggests that the books were printed in Peking in Chinese workshop
by mostly Chinese craftsmen. They were working often without prior knowledge
of Tibetan language and culture. Thus, they needed more instruction in Chinese
to conduct the printing project (for instance, to ensure the proper order of text).
There is a Tibetan foliation on the left side margin (only on the recto side of the
leaf)36 and Chinese pagination on the right side margin (on the recto and verso side

33
A very useful source of information about Tibetan editorial practice in the seventeenth century is
the following article: Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Printing the Words of the Master. Tibetan Editorial Practice
in the Collected Works of Jam dbyangs bzhad pai rdo rje I (1648-1721), Acta Orientalia 1990,
159-177.
34
Dung dkar blo bzang phrin las, Printing of Ancient Tibetan Text and Discussion of Some Related
Matters Regarding Wages and Rewards for Various Professions Connected with Printing, Tibetan
Studies 1 (1990); I read this article translated into English by Lobsang Thinlay.
35

Dung dkar blo bzang phrin las, Printing of Ancient Tibetan Text; For example, the eleventh
Dalai Lama, Tsangs dbyang rgya mtso, had also published a Bka gyur, concentrating mainly on
Prajpramit texts (Yum rgyas, Bring, Bsdus). He had managed, however, to print only twenty-eight
volumes in seven years. In those days highly skilled printers were able to make ive to six printing
plates a month, the less talented ones three to four plates, and the remaining vast majority only one to
two pieces per month or even a single plate in case of the poorest professionals. In the days of the Snar
thang Bka gyurs printing the situation had already changed and the fastest and most skilled printers
were able to make sixteen to twenty-three plates a month, the less talented ones ten to ifteen, some
could prepare eight to twelve plates, others ive to seven, but even the poorest were able to make at
least three printing plates a month. Those two mentioned printing projects, both in the eighteenth century
show that the speed of printing must have been increased signiicantly at that time.
36

Folio is a leaf numbered on the recto, or front; foliation is the numeral itself in a foliated book.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

18

of the leaf).37 Considering the fact that the double side-executed leaf was printed
from two wooden blocks or one double-side carved, in the case of the Tibetan style
of numbering the leaves (foliation) Chinese craftsmen would have a hard time
printing the pages in proper order.
The Yongle Bka gyur was the irst large printed edition in Tibetan. In the
ifteenth century, during the eighth year of the reign of the Yongle Emperor, a
ruler of the Ming Dynasty, in 1410 the year of the iron tiger the Bka gyur
was published in Beijing. It is not known how many copies were printed at that
time. However, on the basis of written sources we can assume that there were at
least four offered to the Mount Wutai monastery, Karma pa, Phag gru, and to
Tsong kha pa.38 Since these were the irst prints from a newly made printing block,
from then on printing skills began lourishing in Tibet. Later, literary works of
different scholars in various ields started being published. The next known edition
from the Tshal pa line is the Wanli Bka gyur printed in 1606, about which we
know mostly from written sources and brief reports of travelers from Tibet and
China, who had a chance to see it, but not enough time to study it carefully. Thus,
the Berlin fragment of the Wanli Bka gyur is the earliest large collection which
recently appeared in the West and is available to study. Results of this research
show that twenty-eight volumes (two volumes contain the same text) from the
Pander collection in Cracow have a page outline closely related to the folio from
the Yongle edition in Michigan, enough to classify those volumes as the Berlin
Wanli Bka gyur printed from the Yongle wooden blocks preserved probably in
Peking until the Wanli reign. The period of 196 years between the Yongle and
Wanli editions is not very long for preserving the wooden blocks.

Conclusions
The Pander collection, which is of immense value, has been rediscovered in Poland.
It contains Tibetan literary heritage formerly deemed to be lost. Thus, the most
important result of this research is conirmation that the Berlin Wanli Bka gyur
volumes are safely preserved in the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow.
Another important conclusion is the deinition of the concept of technical
identity, which is crucial for understanding the needs of manuscriptology and for
very careful examination of book production, from the material side of it.

37
Pagination is understood as a sequence of igures with which the pages of a book are numbered.
These are known individually as page-numerals, collectively as pagination.
38

Dung dkar blo bzang phrin las, Printing of Ancient Tibetan Text.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

19

Research conducted on technical

identity helped to group particular
Bka gyur volumes from the Pander
collection in sets, and I hope it will
make further research much easier.
Here the key question is, how many
volumes of the Berlin Wanli Bka
gyur are preserved in Cracow? This
opens wider discussion about printing
Figure 23: The fragment of folio 1 from volume 46 of the Yongle, Wanli, and Wanli
of the Pander Pantheon, a xylograph printed supplement Bka gyur and formal
representation of Rdo rje chang chen po (The Great differences between those sets.39
Vajradhra) described by Professor Pander as The
According to Pander he obtained
original in the Kanjur xylographed on Imperial
order in the 8th year of Yung-lo (1411) in China twenty-seven volumes of the Yongle
from his collection.
Bka gyur including twenty-four
volumes of Tantra and thirty-two other canonical volumes printed during the late
Ming Dynasty.40 By examining the Pander statement in The Lamaist Pantheon I
can explain that he identiied Wanli volumes as the Yongle edition. The captions
to his iconographical study show clearly that exactly the same pictures as those I
found in volume 46 are identiied by Eugen Pander as the Yongle Bka gyur (Fig.
23).41 According to Helmut Eimer, thirty-eight (37 +1) volumes of the Wanli Bka
gyur were lost during World War II. When comparing Panders idea about the
content of his acquisition and sixty volumes preserved until now in the Jagiellonian
Library in Cracow, a few preliminary facts should be pointed out. The volumes
are not clearly classiied within three sets as Pander informed us. For example,
within sixty volumes of the Pander Pantheon, there are no volumes from the Yongle
Bka gyur edition printed in red ink.42 My manuscriptological study accomplished
the classiication of the Pander Pantheon collection within sets. These are 1)
twenty-eight volumes of the Wanli Bka gyur (vol. 23-28, 38-57 and 59-60), 2)
twenty-two volumes of the Wanli Bka gyur supplement (vol. 1-22) technically
relected two volumes from Harvard-Yenching Library, and 3) ten volumes (vol.
29-37 & 58) that are a foreign body in this collection which was conirmed
by differences in page outline, size of printing area, letter proportions, and type of
paper used. However, volumes 29-37 are much more related to the Wanli Bka
gyur volumes, than volume 58 which was produced deinitely later without beeing
directly modeled on Yongle or Wanli editions.
Increasing the availability of the collection is the next task, and I hope this will
be of great signiicance for Tibetans and all scholars interested in Tibetan studies.
When we ind something lost for such a long time we immediately want to know
39

Silk, Notes on the History, 153-200.

40

Helmut Eimer, Spurensicherung, 27-51.

41

Sushama Lohia, Lalitavajras Manual, 33.

42

The only volume (58) printed in red ink has a text in full frame and that page outline suggests later
Ming Dynasty origin.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

20

what happened when we were not aware of its presence. In this case I would like
to conclude with a brief summary of the Berlin fragment of the Wanli Bka gyur
timeline:

Wooden blocks carved for Yongle Emperor before 1410 CE (the Yongle
Bka gyur printed with red ink in 1410 CE).
Second edition (reprint) of the Yongle Bka gyur printed with black ink
for Wanli Emperor in 1606 CE (called the Wanli Bka gyur).
1881-1889, Pander lived in Peking (Professor at Peking University) and
obtained his book collection.
1889, Pander donated his collection to the Ethnographic Museum in Berlin,
and later the collection was offered to Knigliche Bibliothek.
September 1, 1923, Another part of the Wanli Bka gyur reached Japan,
and was lost in the Great Tokyo Earthquake.
1941-44, Germans hide the collection to protect it from bombs.
1941-45, the books along with other Berlinka collections were hidden
in 505 boxes placed in the Silesian Castle Frstenstein (nowadays Ksi)
and later moved to Cistercian Brothers Monastery Grssau (nowadays
Krzeszw). According to the Potsdam Conference Lower Silesia became
part of Poland.
1946-7, the Pander books were found by Polish librarians and located in
the Jagiellonian University Library.
1947-1977, the Pander books were secretly stored in the Jagiellonian
Library storage area next to the manuscript of the Ninth Symphony of
Beethoven and German National Anthem, which were also part of the
Berlinka.
Since 1977, ownership of the Berlinka collection has been a point of
dissension between Poland and Germany.
2003, I found Pander books during the search for Tibetan books in Poland
while collecting material for my Ph.D. dissertation.
2007-2009, the project: The Lost Fragment of the Wanli Kanjur in the
Jagiellonian Library? The Value of Authenticity of Tibetan Books from
the Pander Collection in Poland was funded by the Polish Ministry of
Science, and thanks to this support, together with my colleagues from the
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw, Prof. Marek Mejor and
Dr. Thupten Kunga Chashab, we have a chance to continue working on
this valuable collection.

The Wanli Bka gyur from Berlin is an important part of the world heritage
and should not be subject to political machincations today, some seven decades
after the last World War.
Acknowledgements: I am very grateful to many institutions and people which
helped me during this research. First, my gratitude is directed to the Jagiellonian
University Library in Cracow, the Polish Ministry of Science, the University of
Michigan Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and Special Collections

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

21

Library in Ann Arbor, the Sanskrit and Indian Studies Department at Harvard
University, Harvard-Yenching Library in Cambridge, and the State Library in
Berlin. I would like to thank Mr. Burkhard Quessel (British Library) for his
encouragement of this very special approach to Bka gyur studies, and also
Prof. Dr. hab. Zdzislaw Pietrzyk (Jagiellonian University and Jagiellonian
University Library), Dr. Monika Jaglarz (Jagiellonian University Library), Prof.
Dr. hab. Marek Mejor (University of Warsaw), Dr. Thupten Kunga Chashab
(University of Warsaw), Prof. Dr. James Robson (Harvard University), Dr. Peggy
Daub (University of Michigan), Shanon Zachary (University of Michigan), Prof.
Dr. Leonard van der Kuijp (Harvard University), Dr. Orna Almogi (University of
Hamburg), Dr. Dorji Wangchuk (University of Hamburg), and Dr. Michael Balk
(Berlin State Library) for their kind help and constant support.

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

22

Glossary
Note: these glossary entries are organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. All entries
list the following information in this order: THL Extended Wylie transliteration
of the term, THL Phonetic rendering of the term, the English translation, the
Sanskrit equivalent, the Chinese equivalent, other equivalents such as Mongolian
or Latin, associated dates, and the type of term.
Ka
Wylie

Phonetics

karma pa

Karmapa

dkar chag

karchak

bka gyur

Kangyur

English

Other

Dates

Type
Person

table of contents,
catalogue

Term
Title collection

Ga
Wylie

Phonetics

English

glegs bam

lekbam

volume of scripture,
book, manuscript,
boards-what is
gathered

rgyud

gy

Other

Dates

Type
Term

San. tantra

Term

Ca
Wylie

Phonetics

English

Other

lcang skya ho thog thu Changkya Hotoktu

Rlp Dorj
rol pai rdo rje

Dates

Type

1717-1786 Person

Ta
Wylie

Phonetics

bstan gyur

Tengyur

English

Other

Dates

Type
Title collection

Tha
Wylie

Phonetics

English

thang ka

tangka

Tibetan scroll
painting

Wylie

Phonetics

English

deb thar

teptar

stiched book

bsdus

Other

Dates

Type
Term

Da
Other

Dates

Type
Term
Title collection

Na
Wylie

Phonetics

snar thang

Nartang

English

Other

Dates

Type
Place

Pa
Wylie

Phonetics

English

Other

po ti

poti

book format

San. pothi

dpe cha

pecha

volume,
Tibetan-style book

Dates

Type
Term
Term

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

23

Pha
Wylie

Phonetics

phag gru

Pakdru

English

Other

Dates

Type
Clan

phag mo gru

Pakmodru

Clan

Ba
Wylie

Phonetics

English

dbu can

uchen

printed letters,
headed letters, type
of Tibetan script

bring

Dring

Other

Dates

Type
Term

Title collection

Tsa
Wylie

Phonetics

English

tsong kha pa

Tsongkhapa

Fifteenth century
founder of Dge lugs
pa school

Wylie

Phonetics

English

tshal pa

Tselpa

Fragments, pieces,
native of tsal

Wylie

Phonetics

English

yum rgyas

Yumgy

Other

Dates

Type

1357-1419 Person

Tsha
Other

Dates

Type
Title collection

Ya
Other

Dates

Type
Title collection

Ra
Wylie

Phonetics

English

Other

ri bo rtse lnga

Riwots Nga

Five Plateau
Mountain, Wutai
Mountain

Chi. Wutai Shan

Dates

Type
Mountain

Sanskrit
Wylie

Phonetics

English

Sanskrit

book

grantha

face of glory
book, volume,
scriptures

Dates

Type
Term

krtimukha

Term

Prajpramit

Textual Group

pustaka

Term

stpa

Term

Chinese
Wylie

Phonetics

English

Chinese

Dates

Type

Jiajing

15221567

Person

Ming

Dynasty

Nanjing

Place

Qing

Dynasty

Wanli

Person

Yonghegong

Monastery

Yongle

Person

Helman-Wany: Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage

24

Other
Wylie

Phonetics

English

Other
Pol. Berlinka

Jagiellonian
Pol. Biblioteka
University Library Uniwersytetu
Jagielloskiego

Russian nobility

Polish Livonia

Cracow

Dates

Type
Book
collection
Organization

Ger. Cistercian
Brothers Monastery
Grssau

Monastery

Rus. dvoryanstvo

Term

Ger. Frher auch

Preuische
Staatsbibliothek

Organization

Pol. Inlanty

1660-1772 Place

Ger. Knigliche
Bibliothek

Organization

Pol. Krakw

Place

Pol. Krzeszw

Monastery

Pol. Ksi

Building

Governorate of
Livonia

Rus. 1796-1918 Organization

Ethnographic
Museum

Ger. Museum fr
Vlkerkunde

Organization

Prussian State
Library

Ger. Preuische
Staatsbibliothek

Organization

Ger. Silesian Castle

Frstenstein

Building

Ger.
Staatsbibliothek zu
Berlin

Organization

Pol. szlachta

Term

Lat. Thymelaeaceae

Scientiic
Name

Ger. Zauberlte

Text

Polish-Lithuanian
nobility

Magic Flute

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)

25

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