Dharmabhāṇakas, Siddhas, Avatārakasiddhas, and gTer stons (Oxford Treasure Seminar Series)

Tibetan Graduate Studies Seminar

This lecture offers a new look at the origins of Gter ma literature in an intertextual framework. Academic authors on the origins of gter ma have generally agreed that the evolution of the gter ma traditions in Tibet must be seen as a confluence of both Indian and Tibetan influences. Yet surprisingly little effort has so far gone into researching the Indian influences. Drawing inter alia on Paul Harrison's work on the Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra and Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya, Ulrike Roesler's work on the early Bka' gdams pa tradition in Tibet, John Nemec's work on the avatārakasiddhas of Kashmir, and David Drewes' work on dharmabhāṇakas in Indian Mahāyāna, this talk is an offering towards setting out on that much-delayed task.