104 Kano
were moved to the Potala palace and Norbulingka, and catalogued by Luo
Zhao in the 1980s.64
In Luo Zhao’s catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts preserved in the Potala
(compiled in July 1985), we find a reference to manuscript boxes (Chin. han
函) labelled ‘Retreng’ (Tib. Rwa sgreng). These indeed contain the manuscripts
in question. The catalogue lists two boxes with the labels: (A) Mahāyāna sūtras
and (B) Mahāyāna śāstras. They are currently not accessible, but we do learn
some important information about them from Luo Zhao’s descriptions in his
catalogues.
5.1 Paper Sanskrit Manuscripts of the Potala Originally from Retreng
(Box A)
According to Luo Zhao, box A contains 191 folios (8 lines per folio) from paper
manuscripts 68×8.4cm in size, written in ‘Gupta script’ (Chin. jiduo wenzi
笈多文字), and damaged by fire at their left edges (1/6 of the manuscript).
A white piece of cloth attached to the box’s surface bears the number ‘no. 91’
(Chin. 91 hao 号); a yellow wrapping cloth has the note “Here are Jo bo rje’s
monastic robe and book stand” (Tib. jo bo rje’i sku chos snam sbyar dang / shog
ka li bcas bzhugs //). A note on the box runs: nga / ’phags pa sprin chen po’i mdo
sogs / dha ri ka / rgyu ’brug shog (rwa sgreng). This means that the box is labelled
with the letter nga (i.e. the fourth box), it contains the Mahāmeghasūtra etc.,
the paper of the manuscripts in it is Bhutanese,65 and it was brought from
Retreng. The catalogue lists five texts in the box:
64 For the Luo Zhao Catalogue, see Luo Zhao, “The Cataloguing of Sanskrit Manuscripts Pre-
served in the TAR,” 225–233; Matsuda Kazunobu 松田和信, “Afuganistan shahon kara
mita daijō bukkyō: daijōbukkyō siryōron ni kaete アフガニスタン写本からみた大乗
仏教―大乗仏教資料論に代えて [Mahāyāna Buddhism as Seen on the Basis of Man-
uscripts from Afghanistan: In Lieu of Materials for Mahāyāna Studies],” Sirīzu daijōbukkyō
シリーズ大乗仏教 [Series Mahāyana Buddhism] 1 (2011): 151–184. Some 379 titles listed
were extracted from the unpublished catalogues by Luo Zhao for a list of Tibetan Sanskrit
manuscripts published in Dhīḥ, Journal of Rare Buddhist Texts (no reference to author),
“Tibbat meṃ upalabdha bauddha evaṃ bauddhetara saṃskṛta pāṇḍulipiyoṃ kī sūcī [A
List of Buddhist and Other Sanskrit MSS in Tibet],” Dhīḥ [ Journal of Rare Buddhist Texts]
41 (2006): 159–182 (along with 216 titles extracted from the following catalogue: Wang Seng
王森, Minzu tushuguan zang fanwen beiyejing mulu 民族図書館藏梵文贝叶经目录
[Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts Preserved in the China Ethnic Library] (no place,
1985), published as an appendix to Hu-von Hinüber 2006).
65 Bhutanese paper is made from daphne. Its use spread in Tibet as the writing base for
Buddhist scriptures from the Tibetan imperial period on.