Documents as artefacts

Functional and spiritually inspiring

Her intriguing use of the term ‘archaeology’ focuses on the fact that written documents can be read as artefacts, whose “physical properties can be studied using methods similar to those used to study sculpture, painting or common material objects.”(p.2) Using this as a basis for reading texts, Helman-Ważny reveals a new dimension of Tibetan scholarship, showing not only how evidence regarding paper and ink manufacture can assist in establishing the date and provenance of texts, but also how issues of tradition, climate and locale have affected the creation, design and preservation of these manuscripts.

In considering the trajectory of the book, I was taken by how the author moved from the biological structure of plant fibres to the myriad technical processes in the design and printing of texts, from the sourcing of inks (a particularly arresting chapter, on illuminated manuscripts, is entitled “Indigo, Gold and Human Blood”) to the detective work required in analysis of papers for the cataloguing of individual texts. The breadth of interdisciplinary scholarship represented here acts as an ideal vehicle to show how the relationship between artisans, scholars and plant scientists created texts which were durable and functional, as well as frequently attractive, desirable and spiritually inspiring.

More than book-making

Tibetan book culture has dealt almost exclusively with religious texts, and it is their ability to inspire devotion and to encourage deeper meditation practise which makes these books so much more than books, and this book in particular so much more than a work on book-making. In considering the materiality of these texts, we have to consider also their metaphysics. The sacred nature of the texts renders them, like statues, thangka, and offerings placed upon an altar, a medium which connects the practitioner with his or her Buddha-nature. When someone allows a text, or even a single page, to touch the ground, they raise it immediately to the crown of their head, an act of veneration and of blessing. The religious symbolism and cultural significance of books in Tibet makes the implications of Western intervention, and of analytical and conservation research such as Helman-Ważny’s, all the more complex; she argues persuasively for respecting Tibetan practices, in which texts are not conserved or restored but allowed to give themselves up to the elements, and writes that “[w]e would have to be able to point to great advances in knowledge to be gained by desecrating their sacred objects through conservation treatment in order to even begin to justify that practice.” (p.202) It is especially powerful that this should have been written by a specialist in paper and the book arts, and indicates the challenges posed to anthropologists, artists, scientists and cultural historians, both Tibetans and non-Tibetans, in determining the most suitable way to preserve the material artefacts of Tibetan book-production.

Tibetan orthography

This is a very fine book, and I can find very little about which to complein. However, given the importance of the written text in Tibetan culture, I would have appreciated more space being devoted to the carving of xylographs and to the scribal arts. While Bacot’s 1912 essay on dbu med script  remains one of a very few scholarly treatments of Tibetan orthography, it would have been valuable to have had a more extensive discussion here of the practise of carving, technical descriptions of the various different scripts employed, and perhaps even a brief foray into marginalia. The orthographic and design choices which we make when writing even the most trivial of texts – or even in preparing a text file on computer – make their own individual contributions to the final product, and I would welcome perhaps a follow-up paper analysing the physical construction of letters in order to better understand its role in the Tibetan book arts.

Book reviews don’t generally consider the book-as-artefact, but in reviewing this particular book, it would seem apposite to remark that, as always, Brill has produced a beautiful addition to its extensive Tibetan Studies Library. The quality of paper and the photographic reproductions are exemplary, and both the heft and character of the object are conducive to contemplating what, if produced with less concern for readability and aesthetics, might have become, given the nature of its technical and scientific content, a considerably less enjoyable read, at least for those not familiar with the arcane study of the book arts. 

Explorations of Tibetan book culture

In recent years, the invaluable work of Gene Smith and the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (www.tbrc.org) has made it possible for Tibetan texts to be reproduced digitally and reprinted endlessly on-demand. However, the TBRC’s work preserves the ideas held within a text and its literary style, and not the text itself. The engaging explorations of Tibetan book culture, however, as presented in The Archaeology of Tibetan Books, celebrate the tactile nature of these artefacts, the physical act of holding and turning the pages, an act that leaves over time the marks of many fingers, the extensive quality control issues in selecting fibres and writing materials for different types of text, the religious and cultural vitality of texts, and the devoted commitment to aesthetics and textual accuracy of the various scribes, wood-carvers, editors and printers. The decoding of these elements is a vital aspect of a deeper understanding of Tibetan culture, and Helman-Ważny’s research offers a most welcome contribution to this important work.

Simon Wickhamsmith, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (swickhamsmith@gmail.com)