Tibetan Madhyamaka exegesis: later developments

Within the frame of a long-term research topic of the applicant and the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, viz. Tibetan Madhyamaka exegesis, this project aims at an investigation of this topic in its later developments on the basis of its latest formative period, represented by the rNying ma pa scholar `Ju Mi pham (1846-1912) and the controversy between his ris med- movement and - primarily - the dGe lugs pa School. With Madhyamaka being the most important philosophical system in Tibet, its central topics, the doctrine of the two realities (satyadvaya) and the related concept of emptiness (shunyata), have, throughout the centuries, been subject to heavy controversies among Tibetan scholars, and also the 19th century disputes between Mi pham and his opponents centred on these topics. Point of departure was Mi pham`s Nor bu ke ta ka (NK), an innovative commentary on the ninth chapter of Shantideva`s Bodhicaryavatara (BCA), one of the main Indian sources for the topics concerned. The controversies lasted over a period of twenty years and were conducted through an exchange of polemical pamphlets, so-called dgag lan-texts. Despite its important role for the history of Tibetan philosophy and religion, only some minor aspects of this dispute have been studied so far; the debate as such, as a dynamic exchange of arguments, remains unexplored. In examining these controversies, the project will have to focus on three aspects: A) Editing, translating and annotating the relevant text passages. Collecting and providing the relevant material and analysing the philosophical exchange and the respective positions of the debating parties will not only give an account of the Madhyamaka exegesis in the formative period of its more recent development, but will also throw light on the problems connected with the interpretation of Indian source texts by Tibetan scholars. B) Structural analysis of the dgag lan-debate, a topic widely neglected by scholarly research. C) The socio-political background of the controversies. The dispute took place on the background of the so-called ris med-movement, a religious movement that used its claim for religious plurality to establish itself as a counterbalance to the scholastic and political supremacy of the dGe lugs pa school. In this respect Mi pham is also to be seen as a political opponent of the dGe lugs pa, and the project aims to investigate to what extent this fact is reflected in the philosophical debate. Special emphasis is laid on a close cooperation with native scholars. Since a crucial part of the ongoing dispute as well as the commentarial tradition is transmitted only orally, the project will use the help of Tibetan scholars in the research process. A longer period of research will therefore be dedicated to studies in traditional Tibetan institutions in India. The project will be carried out at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. As stated above, it covers a part of a long-term research interest of the applicant. The proposed main executive researcher, Markus Viehbeck (M.A.), is well versed in the history of Madhyamaka philosophy and in the historical setting of the controversies, and also has rich experience in the cooperation with Tibetan scholars.

Continuing a long-term research interest of the project leader, this project investigated recent developments of Tibetan Madhyamaka exegesis, as they manifest in the extensive controversy between the rNying ma pa scholar `Ju Mi pham (1846-1912) and his opponents of the dGe lugs pa school in the late nineteenth and the beginning of twentieth century. Thereby, particular emphasis was laid on the textual exchange between Mi pham and dPa` ris Rab gsal (1866-1928). In the world of highly debate-oriented Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism, doctrinal innovations were generally framed in the form of commenting on established (Indian) works. In scriptural form, by the late nineteenth century these debates lead to the development of a distinctive genre of literature, called dgag lan ("answer to refutations/objections"). In terms of the number of texts exchanged as well as with regard to its philosophical content, the debate between Mi pham and Rab gsal turned out to provide an ideal starting point for a systematic study of dgag lan-debate in general, which was one focus of the project. The project succeeded in gathering at least two different versions of all necessary original sources. They were digitised and collated, and then analysed in close co-operation with Tibetan scholars in India and Nepal. This resulted in the second focus of the project, the production of translations of the relevant texts (partly still to be refined) and a detailed structural and contextual analysis of the debates. Significant findings of the project were already presented in a number of lectures and articles; the doctoral thesis of the project`s research fellow, Mag. Markus Viehbeck, which is thematically connected, is about to be finished. Most important from a philosophical point of view is the counterparties` controversial approach to the key concepts of Madhyamaka philosophy, the two truths/realities (satyadvaya) and emptiness (sunyata). Apart from theoretical divergences, Rab gsal stresses rational analysis, while Mi pham advocates a path of meditative experience and limits the scope of logical investigation. Further, the project could prepare a long-term co-operation with various leading Tibetan scholars from different institutions, most importantly, the monasteries Namdroling and Sera in South India. In addition, the material collected by the project provides the textual resource for any further research in this field. It will be further used by the main research fellow of the project, Mag. Viehbeck, in a follow-up project, "Reasoning in South Asian and Tibetan Buddhism - intellectual practices across the Indo-Tibetan transcultural sphere," conducted at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context", Heidelberg University.