Dr Camillo Formigatti presentation @ British Library

Last February, 7-8 (2020)

@ the British Library conference on Buddhism:

Unlocking Buddhist Written Heritage

Dr Camillo Formigatti, 

John Clay Sanskrit Librarian 

@ Bodleian Libraries,

gave a presentation entitled

Translating Manuscripts from Sanskrit 
to Tibet and Vice-versa

The link below has his presentation as a video - 

the PowerPoint file synchronised with the sound recording:

Camillo Formigatti - British Library presentation

Abstract:

In the 13^th century, parallel to the emergence of Sa skya power in Tibet, the southern kingdom of Mang yul Gung thang witnessed a flourishing cultural activity. Particularly fruitful was the cultural exchange with Nepal under the aegis of Kublai Khan’s advisor’s ’Phags-pa Blo-gros-rgyal mtshan. The activity of two translators stands out for its huge cultural impact in pre-modern and modern Tibet. The Tibetan lo tsā ba Shong ston Rdo rje rgyal mtshan and the (probably) Nepalese paṇḍit Lakṣmīkara translated together several Sanskrit works into Tibetan, creating a new literary language. After a very brief introduction delineating the historical contours of Tibetan translations, the paper will focus on the context of translations from Sanskrit into Tibetan and the cultural exchange between Tibet and Nepal during this period.