On-the-Spot Record of the Rescuing of Ancient Books and Materials Unearthed at t

The Paingar Monastery is situated at the town of Jayul in Luntse County of Lhoka City. It was given the name because of a famous senior monk of the Kagyu Sect of Tibetan Buddhism， Drumpa Padmagyapo（1527-1596）， who cultivated himself at this monastery according to Tibetan Buddhist doctrines. It is unknown when the monastery was founded， but it is presently a typical Kagyu monastery.

In 2013， when the Cultural Relics Bureau of Lhoka City renovated the monastery， a bunch of ancient books and materials were discovered at the interspaces between two walls of the old chapel. In line with archeological excavation by the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Books and Materials of Tibet Autonomous Region and the Cultural Relics Bureau of Lhoka， a large amount of ancient Tibetan books and materials were unearthed which are temporarily kept inside 68 packages in largesized plastic bags.

In 2014， the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Books and Materials of TAR listed the unearthed ancient books and materials as its yearly key project. Through coordination with the Cultural Relics Bureau and the Cultural Bureau of Lhoka， on October 17th， 2014， under the leadership of the Center， the project invited Konchok Gyatso， a specialist of Kagyu literatures and member of the Experts Committee of Ancient Books and Materials of TAR， to work together with eight experts from both the Cultural Relics Bureau and Cultural Bureau of Lhoka as a team especially oriented toward the rescue of unearthed ancient books and materials. With the assistance from the Culture and Broadcasting Bureau and the Ministerial Administrative Committee of the Paingar Monastery， the project for rescuing all ancient books and materials， lasted a total of three weeks.

For the sake of putting the hesitations of both clerics and the local people at bay， the whole rescue process involved three local monks with full-scale subsidies provided to them. The purpose of including the local people is to allow them to have an awareness for preserving cultural relics as well as an understanding of what to do. In line with the monks of the monastery， two possibilities may have occurred in regard to these ancient books and materials. First， the main body of the Paingar Monastery was damaged in 1959 due to an earthquake； all those books and materials may have been buried. Second， there were also those books and materials that were buried during the Cultural Revolution. During excavation and sorting out， the experts found these books and materials were seriously damaged. For instance， they were not covered and protected by either cloths or wood plates， and various versions were mixed up and stuck together. Many of them seem to have been obliterated by the people. These materials， to some extent， have obviously already been damaged before burial. This most likely occurred during the Cultural Revolution. Of course， another possibility is that these were sutras that were forbidden by this monastery or that belonged to a diff erent Buddhist sect， possibly being coarse to the monastery’s original and currently applied form of Buddhism， and this sequentially led to them being buried underground. The findings are at a place where the length is less than a one-meter gap between two walls at the northeast corner of the big old chapel. If there had been no renovation of this chapel， it would not have been possible to find them. Besides， the team also found newspaper fragments from the People’s Daily issued on March 18th of 1959 together with those fi ndings， which verifi ed that these ancient books and materials were buried after this day. At the same place， a large number of Tsatsa was also discovered. In fact， during those days， burying sutra together with Tsatsa was common in monasteries. Often， these two were fi lled in together inside of pagodas， but this is the fi rst time the team has ever seen them being buried in a gap between walls. However， none of the sutra plates were found among these fi ndings of ancient books and materials. Clearly， no one really placed sutra plates together. This may be in connection with the cases during that special period， in which villagers grabbed sutra plates from the monastery to use as chopping boards. The exact history and dates of the buried ancient books and materials from the Paingar Monastery still need further study.

The fi rst thing for us was to dust off of all the 68 packages of ancient books and materials under a special working condition in order not to damage them further. This work consumed us for a couple of days. These damaged ancient papers were written in different fonts and were banded in various ways， and it was really a great mess for us to sort out. Upon opening one bag， one could often find twenty to thirty kinds of different ancient materials. The team was troubled with such unprofessional conditions in which to work for the preservation of these ancient artifacts. Nevertheless， the team had to be divided into two groups， one for sorting out manuscripts and the other for block printings. Apart from scores of pages of several ancient books sticking together， almost 90 percent of the pages were piled together without any order. The team members had to sort them out one by one， and the work involved with this was intense. Making sense of the order of each of these pages was extremely time consuming and also required team members to use boundless patience and professional knowledge.

Among the found ancient manuscripts and block printings unearthed at the Paingar Monastery， there are over twenty kinds of block printings accounted for. Some are long， with others short， around ten centimeters（3.93 inches） in length. They include collected works and biographies of diff erent Tibetan Buddhist sects， such as the Nyingma Sect， Sakya Sect， Kagyu Sect， and Gelug Sect， between the 14th and 19th centuries. Some precious block printings include collected materials from the early period such as Blue Annals （a short version）， Nedong block printings of the Kagyu Sect， the early block printings of works from Sakya Pandita， Tsonkhapa， and Goyisi. In addition， the block printings include those of the early collected materials of Drumpa Padmagyapo， Beijing-version block printings of the Jin Guang Min Sutra. The Blue Annals found in this monastery were Luntse block printings which have been verified as the earliest version according to historical record， a very precious fi nd！ There are also works concerning the science of logic， such as Pramanasamuccaya， and Pramanavarttika. The version of Pramanavarttika is quite similar to the one preserved in the Tibet Library， which is cherished as a state-level cultural relic.

For those collected manuscripts， there are a total of over fi fty kinds including long shaped and palm-sized Prajna-related sutras， the Ashtasahasrika prajna paramita sutra， Ratnakuta， and Kangyur-related loose manuscripts. All papers include indigo Tibetan and common papers， and texts are written in ink， gold，and silver and coral liquid. Paintings on title pages show various painting styles from different religious sects， and the figures on title pages are quite different from common figures， such as Padmasambhava wearing Pandita’s hat and Milarepa showing plump modeling. The content of the collected manuscripts covers various fields， including Buddhist doctrines， annals， religious rituals and rules， explanations and commentaries of classics， biographies， medicine and calculations， poems and songs of great masters， arts and technology， Sanskrit， legends， chant music， personal letters， and so on， ranging with material from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. Writing is in different fonts， including Tibetan cursive and semi-cursive scripts， with a complete set of Tibetan fonts. There are various kinds of manuscripts， such as Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra， The Law of the Appearance， Hevajra， Win Joy of Dharma， Sutralamkara， Blue Annals， and Four Tibetan Medical Tantras. In general， all unearthed ancient books and materials in the Paingar Monastery are rich in both their calendars， versions， and content， showing to be especially remarkable in the collections of Tibetan ancient books and materials in TAR. Just like what Konchok Gyatso， a well-known expert in the field of collection and preservation of Tibetan ancient books and materials of the Kagyu Sect， says，“Apart from the incompleteness and mess of all different texts， the richest level of the unearthed ancient books and materials could be enough to build a special museum. Such affl uent collections of ancient books and materials are rare， being only seen in the Drepung Monastery， the Sakya Monastery， and the Potala Palace.” In addition， the collection of the Paingar Monastery is rather diff erent from other collections from most organizations’ collections. The former includes not only religious classics， but also a big amount of annals， biographies， medicine and calculations， technology， Sanskrit， and poetry. On the other hand， the latter’s collection may be only rich in a single perspective of knowledge， such as religious classics. Moreover， the collection in the Paingar Monastery includes the Five Subjects and representative classics of the Tibetan Nyingma Sect， Sakya Sect， Kagyu Sect， and Gelug Sect. In particular， the discovery of literatures of the Bon Religion as well as King Gesar， including letters and calendars during that particular period adds brilliance to the collection’s present splendor.

Today’s Paingar Monastery is just one of the common monasteries of the Drumpa Kagyu Sect located in Jayul Township. Apart from the sutra chapel building on the way， there are mostly ruins， but the discovery of ancient books and materials makes us understand how important the location of the Paingar Monastery is for senior monks to achieve their religious ambitions. This discovery adds up the previously insufficient record of the Paingar Monastery in history books. The twenty-day-long period of rescue work has become so meaningful because of the remarkable collections.

In total， the entire project was completed in 23 days， covering over 200 segments of ancient books and materials. In view of the unfi nished construction of the main chapel of the Paingar Monastery， the team decided to leave the whole collection to the administrative committee of the Bankar Monastery， after briefing， sorting out， cataloging， filing， and covering it with cloth and finally moving it inside iron boxes. After these ancient books and materials have been kept underground for too long a time， the next major task of preservation is to repair those kept in bags which have been seriously damaged.