ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Tibetan reception of the Meghadūta. It does so through a careful analysis of several verses in the Sanskrit original and how they were translated into Tibetan. We find interesting shifts in semantics and connotation which suggest a keen interest in the intricacies of passion and imagination on the part of the translators, despite their status as Buddhist monks. This finding complicates previous claims that the Tibetan translators attempted to “Buddhicize” the poem and leads us to appreciate how deep were their literary commitments, quite beyond their Buddhist scholastic and soteriological concerns. The chapter also explores modern Tibetan commentaries on the poem as well as new translations and their role in a revitalization of literary endeavor tout court in Tibet in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. A final section of the chapter considers the figure of the messenger in larger Tibetan literary history outside of Indic influence, looking at some delightfully irreverent messenger birds in the adventuresome Gesar Epic (approximately twelfth century).
