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THREE YEARS IN TIBET.
Three Years
IN
Tibet
with the original Japanese illustrations
BY
THE SHRAMANA EKAI KAWAGUCHI
Late Rector of Gohyakurakan Monastery, Japan.
PUBLISHED BY
THE THEOSOPHIST OFFICE, ADYAR, MADRAS.
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, BENARES AND LONDON.
1909.
(Registered Copyright.)
PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AT THE VASANTA PRESS, ADYAR, MADRAS, S. INDIA.
PREFACE.
I was lately reading the Holy Text of the Saḍḍharma-Puṇdarīka(the Aphorisms of the White Lotus of theWonderful or True Law) in a Samskṛṭ manuscript undera Boḍhi-tree near Mṛga-Ḍāva (Sāranāṭh), Benares. Hereour Blessed Lord Buḍḍha Shākya-Muni taught His HolyḌharma just after the accomplishment of His Buḍḍhahoodat Buḍḍhagayā. Whilst doing so, I was remindedof the time, eighteen years ago, when I had read the sametext in Chinese at a great Monastery named Ohbakusangat Kyoto in Japan, a reading which determined me toundertake a visit to Tibet.
It was in March, 1891, that I gave up the Rectorship ofthe Monastery of Gohyakurakan in Tokyo, and left forKyoto, where I remained living as a hermit for about threeyears, totally absorbed in the study of a large collection ofBuḍḍhist books in the Chinese language. My objectin doing so was to fulfil a long-felt desire to translate thetexts into Japanese in an easy style from the difficult andunintelligible Chinese.
But I afterwards found that it was not a wise thingto rely upon the Chinese texts alone, without comparingthem with Tibetan translations as well as with the originalSamskṛṭ texts which are contained in Mahāyāna Buḍḍhism.The Buḍḍhist Samskṛṭ texts were to be found in Tibetand Nepāl. Of course, many of them had been discoveredby European Orientalists in Nepāl and a few in otherparts of India and Japan. But those texts had not yetbeen found which included the most important manuscriptsof which Buḍḍhist scholars were in great want.Then again, the Tibetan texts were famous for being[vi]more accurate translations than the Chinese. NowI do not say that the Tibetan translations are superiorto the Chinese. As literal translations, I think thatthey are superior; but, for their general meaning, theChinese are far better than the Tibetan. Anyhow, itwas my idea that I should study the Tibetan language andTibetan Buḍḍhism, and shoul