Mahāyāna sutra

This booklet is incomplete, missing six folios between folios 11 and 12. Five of these are to be found in the Pelliot collection. Thus, following folio 11 of our manuscript, there is a lacuna of one folio, followed by572, the folios of which should be rearranged in the following order: 1-5-4-3-2.

This is a translation of the chapter of theSaddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtraon the manifestations ofAvalokiteśvara. This is the 24th chapter of the Tibetan translation, but the 25th chapter of most Chinese translations. This chapter circulated as a separate text in China, and there are many Chinese manuscript versions of the text, most of them, like this manuscript, in booklet form. This version of the Tibetan is close to the canonical version but differs in several features. For example, the name of the deity is renderedSpyan ras gzigs dbang phyugin this manuscript, butSpyan ras gzigs dbang poin the canonical version.

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dharani

This is a complete copy of the thedhāraṇī. While it generally follows the canonical text204, it is a different version and a different translation. For some brief notes on these differences, see the catalogue entry toIOL Tib J 323/1.

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dharani

This text is one of the most popular tantric texts in the Tibetan Dunhuang collections. It belongs to a genre of texts invoking 108 epithets of a deity.IOL Tib J 426contains two other examples, addressed toMaitreyaandMañjuśrī. Such texts may have been popularized by theSarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha-tantra, which contains invocations of the 108 names of several deities, includingAvalokiteśvara(112: 91a.2-91b.7). However, the text under consideration here (theĀrya-avalokiteśvara-nāma-aṣṭaśaka) is not the same as, or even close to, the passage in the tantra.

This text is framed as a scriptural utterance, with the opening phrases and a scene-setting passage in whichAvalokiteśvarais surrounded by a vast entourage, who then utter the praises of his 108 epithets. There follows an enumeration of the benefits of reciting these 108 praises. This passage couches the text in aVajrayānacontext: the benefits of reciting are said to include "entry into all mandalas and mastery of all mantras" ( 28r.4dkyil 'khor thams cad du zhugs par 'gyur//sngags thams cad kyang grub 'gyur ).

The text in this manuscript is very similar to the canonical edition. In the last line, the scribe is identified asDge slong rdo rje, in a large, double-lined hand which is also found in the manuscriptsIOL Tib J 401and41.

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