The Cult of Tara

xiv PREFACE
There seems to be little standardization in Tibetan bibliography.
In this paper I cite sources from the canonical Kajur and Tenjur
collections by their sequential numbers in the Catalogue and Index to
the Tibetan Tripitika, Peking Edition (Tokyo: Suzuki Research
Foundation, 1962), hereafter abbreviated as "P.," since the Japanese
photographic reproduction of this edition is available in many libraries
that could not ordinarily acquire an original Tibetan xylograph
edition of the canon. The citation consists of the author; the
Sanskrit title (where given); the catalogue number; the volume,
page, folio, and line of the photographic edition; and the section,
volume, folio, and side of the original block print (e.g., DipamkaraSrijiiana,
Arya-lara-stotra, P. 4511, vol. 81, 94.5.5-95.2.1, Rgyud-
'grel DU 425a-425b). The citation of noncanonical works should
be self-explanatory; and, with the expansion of the P.L. 480 program
to include Tibetan texts, even those works not published in
Western-style editions are becoming increasingly available in libraries.
Many of the noncanonical works were lent me by my
Tibetan friends or come from my own collection; but many Gelug
sources were obtained from the magnificent collection of Tohoku
University in Sendai, and I would like here to thank the members
of the Department of Buddhist Studies for helping me gain access
to the library.
There has as yet been very little agreement upon the phonemic
transcription of Tibetan, owing in part to the intransigency of scholars
and in part to the innate profligacy of the Tibetan, language in producing
dialects. Classical Tibetan texts, like those in Chinese or Mongolian,
are read with considerable regional variation in pronunciation;
but I use in the body of my text a much simplified transcription of
the central Tibetan koine, based in large measure upon Roy Andrew
Miller, "The Independent Status of the Lhasa Dialect within Central
Tibetan" (Orbis, 4 [1955,] 49-55), modified for the maximum possible
ease of pronunciation by non-Tibetologists. Scholars will find
the literary Tibetan spellings of these words in the index; the
footnotes use the standard classical orthography. The phonemic
transcription is as follows:
vowels: I ii u
e o o
a
consonants k
tr
k' g ng h
tr' dr r