Page 9 - PIAC
P. 9
itavajra as a Promotor of Manchu and Mongol
Buddhist Literature
Hartmut Walravens
Independent Scholar, Germany
The paper deals with the coordinator in-chief of an imperial translation project
in Manchu China - the first version of the Kanjur in the Manchu language, a
truly national enterprise for the ruling (Manchu) imperial house, in 108 huge
volumes. The person entrusted with this important task was the 2nd lCang-skya
Qutugtu Lalitavajra (Rolpa’i rdo-rje), the highest Lamaist authority in Peking
and a close friend of the Qianlong emperor - they had grown up together, and
Lalitavajra not only served the emperor loyally as political emissary in Tibet
and advisor but he also initiated him into Lamaism.
A quadrilingual album of the incarnations of the lCangs-skya preserved in the
Berlin Museum of Ethnology ends with a portrait and a eulogy of Lalitavajra,
and as this document originated in the Peking Palace it is likely that the Qianlong
emperor commissioned this work in appreciation of his mentor.
Buddhist Literature
Hartmut Walravens
Independent Scholar, Germany
The paper deals with the coordinator in-chief of an imperial translation project
in Manchu China - the first version of the Kanjur in the Manchu language, a
truly national enterprise for the ruling (Manchu) imperial house, in 108 huge
volumes. The person entrusted with this important task was the 2nd lCang-skya
Qutugtu Lalitavajra (Rolpa’i rdo-rje), the highest Lamaist authority in Peking
and a close friend of the Qianlong emperor - they had grown up together, and
Lalitavajra not only served the emperor loyally as political emissary in Tibet
and advisor but he also initiated him into Lamaism.
A quadrilingual album of the incarnations of the lCangs-skya preserved in the
Berlin Museum of Ethnology ends with a portrait and a eulogy of Lalitavajra,
and as this document originated in the Peking Palace it is likely that the Qianlong
emperor commissioned this work in appreciation of his mentor.
