Digital Tools and Philological Challenges in Working with Tibetan Canonical Literature (Seminar)

Dr Markus Viehbeck (University of Vienna)

Abstract

In the first part of this seminar we will discuss digital tools, textual repositories, etc. that are useful in working with Tibetan canonical literature. Specifically, I will outline the scope of the Tibetan Manuscript Project Vienna (TMPV), a research initiative at the University of Vienna, which aims to collect, preserve, and provide access to various (unstudied) Kanjurs and canonical collections in the Himalayan borderlands, and to promote digital tools for their investigation. Students will be provided with a hands-on introduction on how to use the different features of our database (Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies) in order to further their research. They are also encouraged to provide feedback for improving the database.
The second part of the seminar will focus on some of the philological challenges in working with canonical material, in particular with manuscripts. We will read a dedicatory preface to a canonical manuscript from Mustang and use this as a jumping-off point for discussing the conventions and linguistic peculiarities of such texts, as well as their potential and problems as historical sources. Students will be provided with the required reading material.

Bio

Markus Viehbeck works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna. In the past he has been employed as researcher and lecturer at the same institute and, between 2010 and 2018, has served as Assistant Professor at the Chair of Buddhist Studies, Cluster "Asia & Europe," University of Heidelberg. His research interests address diverse topics within Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan intellectual history, and the interlinkage of religious and social history, with a focus on working with textual sources. His publications include Polemics in Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism: A Late 19th-Century Debate between ‘Ju Mi pham and Dpa’ ris Rab gsal (Vienna, 2014) and Transcultural Encounters in the Himalayan Borderlands: Kalimpong as a “Contact Zone” (Heidelberg, 2017). In a new project he studies Tibetan canonical literature and contributes to building up a comprehensive database at Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies (rKTs).