The Transmission Of Sanskrit Manuscripts 85
[a] It is said that the Omniscient Jonang [i.e. Tāranātha, 1575–1635] saw
many [manuscripts] below which the Jobo’s name is written, such
as Śāntipa’s commentary on the Dvikalpa (i.e. Hevajratantra) and
the Kṛṣṇayamāritantra; and that he effortlessly read the first two
folios. Therefore, if [the statement] is true, the manuscripts [una-
vailable for our inspection] must have been these very ones.
[b] However, [the number of the manuscripts] need not be large,
because it is said in his [i.e. Atiśa’s] hagiography that Drom[tön]
sent the manuscripts back to India after the Jobo’s passing.
[c] They [i.e. monks of the monastery] say that the bundle of Indic
manuscripts has become so small that one person can carry it. On
the other hand, many foolish people think that the ten- thousand-
bundles stored in a chapel (Tib. lha khang) are Indic manuscripts,
but they are only Tibetan manuscripts (Tib. bod dpe).7
7 dGe ’dun chos ’phel, mKhas dbang dge ’dun chos ’phel gyis mdzad pa’i gtam rgyud gser gyi
thang ma [Grains of Gold Composed by the Great Scholar Gendun chöpel], edited by Zam
gdong pa Blo bzang bstan ’dzin (Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1986),
10: rwa sgreng du shānti pa’i brtag gnyis kyi ’grel pa dang / dgra nag gi rgyud sogs jo bo’i mtshan
Figure 3.1 Retreng in 1950 photographed by Hugh Richardson. Richardson, Hugh. High Peaks,
Pure Earth (London: Serindia Publications, 1998), plate 56.
© British Museum.