ABSTRACT
Scholarship on Buddhist manuscripts written by Mongolian authors in the Mongolian andTibetan languages is relatively undeveloped despite the availability of abundant unexamined material. In terms of Mongolian Buddhist literature, with the exception of a few scholars,2 the Mongolists of the twentieth century chiefly engaged in cataloging the Mongolian Kanjur (Tib. bKa’ ‘gyur) and Tanjur (Tib. bsTan ‘gyur) and analyzing these two collections. Their efforts of editing, translating, and analyzing the Buddhist manuscripts were focused primarily on Buddhist historical and literary works composed in the Mongolian language. Reasons for the little progress in this area vary, ranging from the political and economic conditions in Mongolia, and scholars’ predominant interest in Mongolian Shamanic and folk religions, to their lack of interest in Mongolian Buddhist cultural heritage. Equating the essential character of Mongolian Buddhism with Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist scholars have had the tendency to overlook the cultural uniqueness of the Mongolian Buddhist tradition with its distinctivelyMongolian cultural elements that permeate its literary, artistic, and ritual traditions. Since the thirteenth century, the written word has had the power to linguistically unite the literate Mongols scattered throughout different Mongolian territories and speaking different Mongolian dialects.
