Book Review

Michael Zrenner Expanded and lightly edited version of the original article accepted for publication in Religions of South Asia 8(2): 2014. Copyright: Religions of South Asia. The pagination of this article may differ from the pagination of the original publication. Michael Zrenner, Book Review, review of Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet, by Georgios T. Halkias, Religions of South Asia 8(2): 2014.

Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet, by Georgios T. Halkias. Pure Land Buddhist Studies Series. 2013. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. xxx + 335 pp. $49.00 (hb). ISBN 978-0-8248-3590-3 (hb)
Abstract Halkias work truly is a rich and well-rounded pioneer-study of a comparatively neglected field that introduces the pure-land traditions of India and Tibet with considerable analytical versatility and compelling intelligence. A decade of sustained research on Pure-Land traditions inside and outside Indo-Tibetan cultural areas enables Halkias to draw on considerable historical and doctrinal details which allows him to fully contextualize and deepen findings explored in a number of noteworthy articles (2004, 2006, 2009, 2013). Analysis It seems to the reviewer that Luminous Bliss is soon going to be a standard resource for university courses in Buddhist, Religious and Tibetan Studies. Firstly, since the study is based on a rich diversity of scholarly lensesincluding historical, text-based, archaeological, religio-philosophical, art-historical and anthropological approachesthe intermediate student of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism is readily equipped with a wealth of well-integrated and fittingly structured examples of scholarly synthesis that will support his or her entry to advanced levels of scholarship. A definite strong point of this study is Halkias successful attempt at presenting pure-land innovations both in contrast to, and on the basis of, Mahyna orthodoxy and orthopraxy, shedding a multiplicity of sectarian, popular and scholarly misperceptions in the process (see 2013: 1920.).

Secondly, the accessibly and elegantly transported content provides a well-balanced, dense cluster of factual knowledge pertinent to both Pure-Land Traditions and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism in general; a considerable amount of information is not readily available elsewhere. Well-conceived introductions to major and minoryet significantcanonical editions are given alongside related para-canonical textual collections. These are furnished with their respective transmission histories and prominent historical and geographical loci of textual transfer. In effect, Halkias discusses the Kanjurs two chief transmission lines, the tshal-pa and them-spangs-ma and its derivative editions, e.g. the (now unavailable) snar-thang paper collection, the sde-ge (1733 CE) and snar-thang (1730-1732 CE) Kanjurs, as well as independent or local Kanjurs discovered in Tibet and its Himalayan borders that do not exactly fit a twofold lineage schema, nor can be traced to the old snar-thang prototype (2013: 88). The author also provides an accessible and very useful synoptic overview over the Orgyan Goldmanuscript Kanjur as well as several related manuscripts: the Beijing Qiang-long edition, the sde-ge Kanjur, the lha-sa Kanjur, the snar-thang Kanjur, the phug-grag Manuscript Kanjur and the London Manuscript Kanjur (see Chapter 3). This broad, comparative, yet pithy overview to the transmission history of the arguably most significant sources in Tibetan Buddhist studiesthe Tibetan canonical corpusaptly contextualizes Halkias (2004) earlier publication. The latter comprises an in-depth, historical and text-based scrutiny of the [t]extual [a]rchaeology (2004: 54), taxonomy (2004: 65), dating inconsistencies and tabularly presented content of the Dkar-chag phang-thang ka-ma. That text, last in a tripartite series of regal decrees, lists 960 titles across twenty-seven main divisions (including the names of the individual translators and original authors) from the works available at the ninth century Tibetan royal court (2004: 65). Halkias shows how by [c]onsulting these registers, later Tibetan Buddhist scholars embraced Sukhvat doctrines as buddhavacana (the speech of the Buddha) and included the Sukhvatvyha stras in their canonical collections of the bka-gyur in a subsequent publication (2009: 261). Luminous Bliss, in contrast, presents a kaleidoscopic rendition of works in translated and summarized form, including cremation rites, post-mortuary rites, dream meditation manuals, longevity practices, aspiration-prayers, mind transfer rituals and others. These are embedded in a broadly framed historical account of the geo-political currents that influenced transmission processes, e.g. central Eurasian trade, Buddhist missionaries, and patronage (2013: 38), to name but a few.

Analytically, Halkias exhibits a context-sensitive ability to apply both western and autochthonous investigative methods depending on whichever stratagem serves the purpose at hand with greater utility. In this way, he is able to transcend limitations of conceptual rigidity without loss of argumentative coherence. Whilst on the one hand, his scrutiny of historical facts and philosophical texts very much follow the acumen of Western investigative tradition, he convincingly argues that in Buddhist traditions a detached reading of religious texts and sober analysis of doctrines are not valued as an end in themselves. This approach ultimately tallies with Buddhist practice as a cognitive process with psychological reverberations and physiological repercussions that supersede the literary and theological redaction of religion to a disembodied collection of texts and tenets (p. xxiii). This awareness of the didactic methods and inter-textual nuances in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism makes Halkias sensitive to metaphors [that] describe [and inform] both [the] physical and semantic space of Sukhavts blissful topography (2013: 190); he aptly crosses figurative bridges that lead from the abstract doctrine to practical aspects of religious enactment. Luminous Bliss comprises a diverse and original body of previously unstudied sources and provides a rich nexus of departure points for further researchers. Included is the first ever English translation of the (incomplete) Dunhuang Manuscript MS IOLJ 310.1207. Also featured is a revised English translation of the ryparimityur-jna-nma-mahyna-stra, which Halkias presents as pivotal text in the Indian, Chinese and Tibetan pure-land traditions (see Ch. 2). In chapter three, we find an English translation of the Derge edition of the small Sukhvatvyha-stra, accompanied by a diplomatic edition and [text-]critical analysis of the Orgyan-gling Gold bDe-mdo which draws on previously unconsidered sources (2013: 194). Since the transmission history of the Orgyan Ling Kanjur isas of yetfar from certain, this particular diplomatic edition might prove to be a first step towards a more substantiated account of the textual history of the Orgyan Ling Kanjur. Luminous Bliss substantiates an argument which Halkias had started investigating in his first contribution to the topic (2006: 108), namely that Tibet was not a passive recipient of textual cycles and their concomitant practices, but very much an active contributor to a growing wealth of Pure-Land practices, at times significantly reshuffling their soteriological contextualisation. This idea, supported by Gyatsos (1997: 96) findings1, is based on his
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Referenced in Halkias (2006: 108).

evaluation of autochthonous phowa texts, the jag-tshugs-ma (the standing Blade of Grass) and Dying without Regrets (da-ka chi-brod) (2013: 154), as well as later, visionary gnamchos sky-teachings, authored by Dol-po-pa shes-rab rgyal-mtshan (2009: 260) and Gnam-chos mi-gyur rdo-rjes seventeenth-century composition, also of indigenous, Tibetan descent (2013, 170; 2006: 103128). In the latter publication, (2006: 113), Halkias shows how two semiindependent strands of the Amitbha cult developed in India, and how this influenced transmission in Tibet. In an earlier review, Charles B. Jones (2014: 2) voiced organizational, theoretical and [] technical concerns which the current reviewer would like to investigate further . Joness concern with a lack of chronological ordering of the chapters and its subdivisions is not an entirely indisputable objection since Luminous Bliss features both diachronic and synchronic structural principles that direct the trajectory in a decidedly purposeful manner. Following chronological principles, the first Chapter of Part I explores the Indian antecedents whilst the second Chapter investigates the first transmission of Buddhism into Tibet (snga-dar). Part II (comprising chapters three and four) analyses the stra literature imported during the second transmission of Buddhism into Tibet (phyi dar), whilst the Tantrayna works are presented in Part III, constituting the final two chapters (five and six). Synchronic structuring principles become apparent as Halkias successfully integrates broad historical and doctrinal factors with more concrete archaeological, art-historical, philosophical and text-based evaluations of sources drawn from the works of polymaths whose doctrines flourished in various, distinct epochs. This approach suits the multiplicity of aims Halkias seeks to accomplish and results in a fluent rendition of translations, summaries or outlines of influential Tibetan Pure Land works by prominent Buddhist scholars of the Gelug, Kagy, Nyingma and Sakya schools of Buddhism, including Tsongkha-pa (1357-1419 CE), the first Panchen Lama (15671662 CE), Lcang-skya ngag-dbang (16421714 CE), Karma chags-med (16131678 CE), Glag-bla bsod-nams chos-grub (1862 1944 CE), Dpal-sprul o-rgyan jigs-med (18651926) and Jam -dbyangs mkhyen-brtse (1820 1892 CE). In moving the narrative from India to Tibet and from the Tibetan macrocosm to the individual practitioner Halkias shifts the focus from the historical to the doctrinal, from the textual to the commentarial and from the theoretical to the ritual aspects of the pureland traditions. Neverthelessand to Jones creditit might have been useful to explicitly state these ordering principles and the rationale behind these in the synoptic description of the books structural contents (pp. xxviii-xxx), since it is true that the amount of
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information conveyed is, at times, considerably large. Moreover, while the three main Parts of the book are clearly termed, the individual chapters are somewhat more flowery and atmospherically titled and might have benefited from an explanatory subtitle or a parenthesis in a few cases to aid conceptual navigation by the reader. Finallyand this is prone to contentionit might have been helpful to present the historical before the doctrinal background of the traditions, which would have resulted in an inversion of chapters one and two in part I of the study. The present reviewers technical concern is far less based on Jones criticism of the steady use of Wylie-transliterationwhich is a standard feature of scholarship in Tibetan (Buddhist) studies and moreover readily rendered in parenthesis throughout the work than with the fact that the work is slightly less rigorously referenced than Halkias earlier publications on the topic (though by no means to the degree that this would compromise scholarly standards). Likewise, the reader is not informed about the numerous textual sections where the Sanskrit, rendered in the Tibetan language, is corrupted in the process. These instances might have been highlighted and supported with a corrected rendition. The biographies of the individual Tibetan commentarial authors presented in Chapter four of Luminous Bliss do strike a healthy balance between brevity and detail, yet speaking from the purely personal point of the reviewera more elaborate introduction to each polymath (as in Halkias: 2009) would have been met with ready curiosity. This is just a minor point, however, since such details, are available from other sources. As regards translation strategies, the presentation of the Tathgatagarbhastra as the Buddha-matrix stra (p. xx) does not yield any readily perceptible advantage over established terminology and might also prevent the non-specialist reader from making the conceptual connection with what he or she has learned about the Buddha-nature or the Buddha-embryo, as the Tathgatagarbha is generally known. These small criticisms notwithstanding, Luminous Bliss is a thoroughly commendable book where polyvalent layers of discussion masterfully collect into a fluid and edifying reading experience. The authors preface (p. xxv), compelling in its clarity, insight and elegance is a direct attestation to the fact that Halkias excels at capturing the essential points of whatever historical event or philosophical theorem he has set out to scrutinize. This allows him to integrate an impressive array of historical, doctrinal and textual factors in his religious history of Indo-Tibetan, Pure-Land Buddhism without falling prey to conceptual
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fragmentation. In this vein, I believe it is a warranted decision to bolster Jones contention that any scholar who specializes in either Tibetan Buddhism or Pure-Land practices will need to clear some shelf space and make room for this book since it is going to be the foundational text in this area for many years to come (Jones: Feb. 2014, 1-2).

Bibliography

Gyatso, J. 1997. Genre, Authorship, and Transmission in Visionary Buddhism: The Literary Traditions of Thang-ston rGyal-po, in S. Goodman and R. Davidson (eds) Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 95106. Halkias, Georgios T. 2013. Luminous Bliss: A Rreligious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet. Pure Land Buddhist Studies Series. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. . 2009. Compassionate Aspirations and Their Fulfillment: Dol-po-pas A Prayer for Birth in Sukhvat,in Edward A. Arnold (ed.) As Long as Space EnduresEssays on the Klacakra Tantra in Honor of H. H. the Dalai Lama, pp. 259275. Ithaca: Snow Lion. . 2006. Pure-Lands and Other Visions in Seventeenth-Century Tibet: A Gnam-chos sdhana for the Pure-land Sukhvat Revealed in 1658 by Gnam -Chos Mi-gyur-rdo-rje (1645-1667), in Bryan J. Cuevas and Kurtis R. Schaeffer, eds., Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century, pp. 103128. Leiden: Brill. . 2004. Tibetan Buddhism registered: A Catalogue from the Imperial Court of 'Phang Thang in The Eastern Buddhist. Vol. XXXVI(1/2). Kyoto. pp. 46105. Jones, C. B. (Feb. 2014) Reaching the Pure Land of Amitbha from Tibet. Review of Halkias, Georgios T. (2013), Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet . HBuddhism, H-Net Reviews. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=40391 Zrenner, M. Book Review, review of Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet, by Georgios T. Halkias, Religions of South Asia 8(2): 2014. https://www.academia.edu/6577361/Extended_Book_Review_of_Luminous_Bliss_A_ Religious_History_of_Pure_Land_Literature_by_G._T._Halkias_Honolulu_UHP