Some Remarks on the Textual Transmission and Text of Bu ston

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Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines
[3] Ratna, the son of Sba Rma gzigs «also called
Khri bzher» — the son of Sba
Khri bzher is also called Sang shi ta,
[4] Lha bu, the son of Zhang Nya bzang,
[5] Lha bse btsan [also a son of Zhang Nya
bzang?], and
[6] Shud pu Khong sleb, etc.,
should study the language as well. A good number of
other sons of the ministers of the in-laws of the imperial
family (zhang blon) such as Mchims Legs bzang
etc., had not known the language. As Minister 'Gos
rgan 87 had said: "Since our senior ministers have no
leisure and no free time to study the language of the
master (a tsa ra), they ought to request religious teachings
for old men." The master knew the father and
mother tongues of the Tibetans and was pure in the
87
Only the cognate passage in MES, 234, gives "Khri bzang" as his name; a 'Bro
zhang Khri bzang is noted in one of the Dunhuang documents — see Thomas
(1951: 9, 11) — which might just indicate that "Khri bzang" was either a not altogether
uncommon name, or, not entirely unlikely, a title [?as well]. Insofar as he
is mentioned by this very same name elsewhere in the versions of the Sba bzhed
and MES itself, rgan must be taken adjectivally in the sense of "old" or "senior".
His full name appears to have been 'Gos [or: Mgos] Khri bzang yab lhag [or 'Gos
{or: Mgos} Khri bzang Yab lhag], which we find in SBb, 17 — this is missing in
the corresponding passage in SBp, 13 [SBch, 101, Tong-Huang 1990: 14] — in an
entry when Khri srong lde btsan had just become emperor at a very young age.
The addition of the epithet chen po, "great," to his title of "minister" might suggest
that he was already a senior minister at this time. It is also affixed to his basic title
in SBb, 35, again there is no corresponding passage in the other versions, in an
entry just prior to the narrative of the construction of Bsam yas. The Sba bzhed-s
first note him as one of the pro-Buddhist ministers, together with zhang Nya
bzang; see SBb, 16, and SBp, 13 [SBch, 101]. A similar passage is contained in
NYANG, 433 [NYANGb, 509, NYANGm, 468a]. He must be identical to "Mgos Khri
bzang yab [or: Yab] lag" of the listing of ministers in the Old Tibetan Chronicle in
Bacot-Thomas-Toussaint (1940-46: 102, 132) and Wang-Chen (1992: 40, 160). Furthermore,
Nyang ral includes him in what is, again, allegedly his gter mabiography
of Padmasambhava in a grouping of six ministers of Khri srong lde
btsan, and among those who petitioned Padmasambhava, just prior to his departure
from Central Tibet, for guidelines when performing their office; see the Slob
dpon padma'i rnam thar zangs gling ma (Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun
khang, 1989), 88-9, 151-2, and the translation in Erik Pema Kunzang, The Lotus-
Born. The Life Story of Padmasambhava, ed. M.B. Schmidt (Shambhala: Boston &
London, 1993), 100-1 and 158-9. With some interesting variants, these passages
are also reproduced in his chronicle in NYANG, 325-6 and 363-4 [NYANGa, 519-20
and 583-4, NYANGb, 378-9 and 427-8, NYANGm, 350b-1a and 389b-90a] where,
however, in the second of these passages, Khri bzang yab lhag's name does not
appear.