Proposal Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Title: Dr

Forenames: Sam

Surname: Van Schaik

UK Employing British Library institution:

Proposal

Department: Scholarship and Collections

Project Title: Tibetan Zen

Created: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 15:54 [Awarded] Dr Sam Van Schaik BARDA 2nd Stage - BARDA 2nd Stage 2010

Primary Subjects: Subject Subject Group Asian Religions Religious Studies Secondary Subjects: Subject Subject Group Chinese language and literature Oriental and African Studies Central and South Asian languages and literature Oriental and African Studies Classifications

Time Periods: TimePeriod c.400-c.1000 Audiences: Audience Other funding bodies overseas (e.g. EU, NIH, foreign funding councils) Journalists, broadcasters and other media Charities in the UK Charities overseas General Public Regional Interests: Region Region Group Central Asia Asia East Asia Asia Applicant Personal Details

Title: Dr

Forenames: Sam

Surname: Van Schaik

Preferred Name:

Initials: S.J.

Fellow: No

Address: The British Library

96 Euston Rd

Town: London

Postcode: NW1 2DB

Email Address: [email protected]

Telephone (work): 02074127846

Co-Applicants:

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Applicant Career Summary

Statement of Qualification Date Qualifications and Ph.D. 2000 Career: Present appointment: Research Project Manager

Present employing The British Library institution: Present department: Scholarship and Collections

PhD confirmation: Yes

Publications: Monographs (selected): Tibet: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press. Forthcoming in Spring 2011. Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang: Rites and Teachings for this Life and Beyond (co-edited with Matthew Kapstein). Leiden: EJ Brill. 2010. Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library. (with Jacob Dalton). Leiden: EJ Brill, 2006. Articles (selected): “Fragments of the Testament of Ba from Dunhuang” (with Kazushi Iwao) in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 128.3 (2008): 477-488. “Beyond Anonymity: Palaeographic Analyses of the Dunhuang Manuscripts” (with Tom Davis and Jacob Dalton) in Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3 (2007). http://www.thlib.org?tid=T3106 “Where Chan and Tantra Meet: Buddhist Syncretism in Dunhuang” in Susan Whitfield (ed.), The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. London: British Library Press, 2004. Unpublished research: The following books and chapters result from a current research project on Tibetan and Chinese manuscript paleography, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (to conclude 31 July 2010): Monograph: Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim (with Imre Galambos). Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming in 2010. Articles: “The Origin of the Headless Style (dbu med) in Tibet.” Tibeto-Burmese Linguistics, edited by Nathan Hill. Leiden: EJ Brill. Forthcoming in 2010. “Towards a Tibetan Paleography: A Preliminary Typology of Writing Styles in Early Tibet.” Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa, vol.I, edited by Michael Friedrich, Jörg Quenzer, Matthew Driscoll and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming in 2010. “A New Look at the Invention of the Tibetan Script.” Old Tibetan Documents Monograph Series, vol.III, edited by Yoshiro Imaeda, Matthew Kapstein and Tsuguhito Takeuchi. Forthcoming in 2010.

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Personal Statement: The applicant's salary at the British Library has primarily been funded from external sources. These have included a three-year AHRC major research project (2002-2005) and a five-year project funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2005-2010). Typically 75% of the applicant's time has been devoted to these research projects, with 25% of his time spent on core activities for the International Dunhuang Project at the British Library. Next period of The British Library does not offer regular research leave. research leave: Dates of research n/a leave in last five years: Sabbatical The British Library does not offer sabbatical leave. arrangements: Where did you hear of From colleagues. this scheme?: Previous support No dates: Previous support n/a description (title of project): Previous support n/a description (amount awarded): Proposal

Subject: Religious Studies / Asian Religions

Title of project: Tibetan Zen

Abstract: Tibetan Zen is an important Buddhist tradition that was almost lost to us. It survives mainly in manuscripts that were sealed in the Dunhuang caves in Central Asia around AD 1000. The relevant manuscripts are now kept at the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale, but they have never been systematically catalogued or studied. Under the proposed project the applicant will (i) compile and publish the first complete catalogue of Tibetan Zen, (ii) undertake research in close consultation with academic specialists in Chinese and Japanese Zen; (iii) create transcriptions (with XML markup) of all the manuscripts and English translations of key texts; (iv) oversee the digitization of the manuscripts. Outcomes will include a catalogue, several journal articles, a book for non- specialists and a web resource. The project has been planned as a coherent approach to material that has not previously been studied as a whole, crossing language and departmental boundaries and making Tibetan Zen accessible to non-Tibetanists, so that it can take its place in the study of history of religions. Proposed programme: Censured in Tibet, forgotten in China, the Tibetan version of Zen was almost completely lost. Zen first came to Tibet in the 8th century, when Chinese teachers were invited there at the height of the Tibetan Empire. Acccording to traditional histories, doctrinal disagreements developed between Indian and Chinese Buddhists at the Tibetan court, and the Tibetan emperor called for the situation to be resolved in a formal debate. When the debate resulted in a decisive win by the Indian side, the Zen teachers were sent back to China. Though this narrative has been questioned, it is clear after the 11th century Tibetan Zen survived only as the object of polemics, its original texts all but forgotten. This changed at the beginning of the 20th century with the discovery of a sealed

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cave full of ancient manuscripts in Dunhuang (in Chinese Central Asia). The Tibetan manuscripts from the cave have been dated to the 9th and 10th centuries, making them the earliest known source materials for Tibetan Buddhism. Among them are 40 manuscripts containing the only surviving original Tibetan Zen texts, the primary source material for understanding Tibetan Zen. Since the manuscripts offer a snapshot of the early Zen tradition in the 8th–10th centuries, they are significant sources for the study of Chinese, Japanese and Korean Zen as well. Furthermore, Tibetan Zen appears to have developed into a distinct tradition, incorporating elements of tantric Buddhism, and this fascinating synthesis remains little understood. So far, work on the Tibetan Zen manuscripts has taken place in a piecemeal fashion, focusing on specific texts. Many manuscripts have not been studied at all, and no assessment of the manuscript group as a whole and its social and historical context has yet been attempted. Recent research in Tibetan palaeography now allows a much more precise dating of these manuscripts, and identifications of the scribes and patrons responsible for their creation. What is needed now in order to assess the importance of these manuscripts as a whole and to make this material more accessible is a coherent and focussed programme of research: (i) Cataloguing all the manuscripts, summarizing their contents and their links to known works in Chinese Zen (Chan). This will be carried out in the first year of the project, in collaboration with experts in Chan studies already known to the applicant. The results will be published as a monograph or in a peer-reviewed journal, and as an online catalogue on the IDP website. (ii) Research into (a) the relationship between Tibetan Zen and Zen traditions in other cultures, (b) local developments at Dunhuang combining Zen meditation with tantric techniques, and (c) evidence for the claim that Zen survived in modern Tibetan Buddhism through its influence on the systems known as the Great Perfection and the Great Seal. The applicant's previous experience with palaeographic and forensic analysis will be applied to determine the dates and authorship of the Zen manuscripts. Research results will be published in peer- reviewed journals. (iii) Transcribing all the manuscripts for a web resource (encoded with XML–TEI for intelligent searching). This will allow the academic community a much enhanced access to the source materials for Tibetan Zen. English translations of the manuscripts will also by published on the web resource. In addition, a monograph will be published aimed at non-specialists, including an introduction summarizing the research results of the project, and selected translations of the manuscripts. (iv) Digitizing the manuscripts. This will be accomplished over the first and second years of the project, using the digitization studio of IDP at the British Library. As all equipment and staff are already in place for this, excellent value for money will be achieved. The images will be maintained on the servers at the British Library and made freely accessible online via the web resource. The project is timed to coincide with the ‘Chan Database Project’, a major research project on Chinese, Japanese and Korean Zen. Through collaboration between the applicant and academic specialists in East Asian languages and cultures, both projects will inform and mutually benefit each other. This represents an unusual opportunity for cross-fertilization between research projects, crossing barriers between area- and language-specific academic disciplines. It is also envisiged that the project will make a significant impact beyond the academic sphere, engaging with general interest in Zen Buddhism, and with Zen

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communities in the UK and elsewhere. English translations, to be published both online and in a book, will make this material available to these audiences. Together with the catalogue and web resource, this will ensure that the project continues to generate interest and insights into the cross-cultural nature of Zen long after its completion. Planned research Printed publications: 1 descriptive catalogue (as monograph or journal article); 1 outputs: monograph; 3-5 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Online publications: online catalogue; online resource providing transcriptions, translations and digital images. The web resource will be developed in the framework of the IDP website (http://idp.bl.uk), supported by the British Library's servers, and developed with the help of the technical expertise of IDP. Plan of action: The project will take place over three years: Year 1 a) Identification of all Tibetan Zen texts in Dunhuang collections and elsewhere; this will serve as a basis for the catalogue. b) Composition of a descriptive catalogue of Tibetan Zen texts for publication, making the complete corpus available to scholars for the first time; palaeographical and forensic handwriting analysis will be applied at this stage. c) Transcription and translation of Tibetan Zen texts (I); this will begin the task of transcribing the texts for scholars in Tibetan Studies, marking them up using the Manuscript Description aspect of TEI (XML), and translating them into English for scholars in other fields and the general public. d) Conservation and digitization (I); this will begin the process of making the images of the manuscripts freely available on the IDP website. This aspect of the project will use the existing resources of the British Library and the International Dunhuang Project, and will not require British Academy funding. Year 2 a) Comparative research with visiting scholars (I); on the basis of the work completed in Year 1, the applicant will conduct comparative research program with specialists in Chinese Zen (Chan). b) General book on Tibetan Zen for non-specialists (I); drawing on the translation work and research output so far, towards a monograph making these available to non-specialist audiences. c) Transcription and translation of Tibetan Zen texts (II). d) Conservation and digitization (II); completion of this process, and uploading of all images on the website of the International Dunhuang Project. Year 3 a) Workshop on Tibetan Zen; this will bring together experts on Zen in various traditions from both academic and religious backgrounds, providing an opportunity to disseminate the results of the project. This will also encourage the continuation of the collaborative spirit of the project, exploring directions for future research. The expenses for the workshop will be funded from other sources. b) Comparative research with visiting scholars (II). c) General book on Tibetan Zen for non-specialists (II); preparation for submission of final draft for publication. d) Transcription and translation of Tibetan Zen texts (III); completion of the web resource.

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Plans for publication / 1) A catalogue of the Tibetan Zen manuscripts will published as monograph or dissemination: journal article. The applicant has previously published a well-received descriptive catalogue of the Tibetan tantric manuscripts from Dunhuang, and the present catalogue will be based on this model. It is likely the the publisher of the previous catalogue, E.J. Brill, will be interested in publishing the present catalogue. 2) 3-5 articles will be published in peer-reviewed journals, to disseminate the results of the research outlined above. Most of these will be collaborative, cross- disciplinary publications. The applicant will seek to publish in a range of journals specializing in religion and Asian history and culture. 3) A book will be published for non-specialists, with the English translations and conclusions of the above research. It is envisaged that this will reach a wide audience, and Yale University Press is a likely publisher. 4) A web resource will be developed in the framework of the IDP website (http://idp.bl.uk), supported by the British Library's servers. This will include images, transcriptions and translations of the Tibetan Zen corpus. 5) The applicant will lecture at academic conferences, and in Year 3 will organize a workshop to include the project's partners as well as Zen Buddhist teachers from the UK and abroad, to discuss and publicise the results of the project, and to plan further projects and meetings so that the project continues to bear fruit after its completion. Digital resource: Yes

Start Date: 01/08/2010

End Date: 31/07/2013

Overseas travel - country: Overseas travel - institution: Research Leave The applicant will not need to be absent from the British Library. Granted/Permission Obtained: Support of BA School or Institute Required/Granted: Language competence High competence in Old Tibetan and Literary Tibetan. Competence in Sanskrit. (if applicable): Basic competence in Classical Chinese. Summary of principal The applicant / principal investigator will be in full-time employment at the British investigator's time: Library: 1,512 hours /year. 50% of this time will be charged to the grant: 756 hours / year. The remaining 50% will be covered by the International Dunhuang Project. Note however that the applicant/PI will spend significantly more than 50% of his full-time hours on this project. In particular, his supervision of the conservation and digitization of the Tibetan Zen manuscripts at the British Library, the development of the project's online resource, further fundraising and the organization of the project workshop in Year 3 will not be included in the hours charged to the grant. This will amount to 75% of full-time hours: 1134 hours / year.

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Summary of co- investigator(s) time: CV/job description:

Other participants: Christoph Anderl (Associate Professor, University of Oslo, Norway) Jeffrey Broughton (Professor, Department of Religious Studies, State University of California, USA) Jacob Dalton (Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages & Cultures, UC Berkeley, USA) Thierry Delcourt (Director, Département des manuscrits, Bibliothèque national de France) Drikung Kyetsang Rinpoche (Director, Songtsen Library, Dehra Dun, India) David Germano (Associate Professor, Department of Religous Studies, University of Virginia, USA) Kazushi Iwao (Assistant Professor, Kobe University, Japan) John McRae (Professor, Komazawa University, Japan) Carmen Meinert (Research Fellow, Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, Germany) Charles Muller (Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan) Burkhard Quessel (Curator of Tibetan Collections, Department of Asian, Pacific and African Collections, British Library) Jan-Ulrich Sobisch (Associate Professor, Asian Studies Department, Copenhagen University, Denmark) Tsuguhito Takeuchi (Professor, Kobe University, Japan) Christian Wittern (Associate Professor, Kyoto University, Japan) Role of other Participants will have several levels of involvement in the project: participants: (i) Other scholars who have researched aspects of Tibetan Zen will be closely involved at the levels of cataloguing, translation and research. It is envisaged that some publications resulting from this project will be jointly authored with these scholars, who will include Jacob Dalton, Drikung Kyetsang, Carmen Meinert and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. (ii) Specialists in Chinese Zen (Chan) will be consulted at the levels of cataloguing and the identification of textual and thematic parallels in Tibetan and Chinese Chan. These include Christoph Anderl, Jeffrey Broughton and John McRae, who are all involved in the Chan Database Project (see Added value below). (iii) Experts in the palaeography of the Dunhuang manuscripts and forensic handwriting analysis will work with the applicant on issues of dating and authorship. These will include Jacob Dalton, Kazushi Iwao and Tsuguhito Takeuchi. (iv) Scholars who have developed web resources based on Chinese and Tibetan manuscript and canonical sources and combining marked-up text with digital images will be consulted when developing the web resource. These include David Germano, Charles Muller and Christian Wittern. (v) The applicant will work closely with the curators responsible for the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts in the British Library and Bibliothèque nationale de France: Burkhard Quessel and Thierry Delcourt respectively.

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Added value of The project is timely in that a major research project on the Chinese, Japanese collaboration: and Korean Zen source materials, The 'Chan Database Project' led by Professor John McRae, will coincide with this project, allowing a more intensive and rewarding level of collaboration than is usually possible with academic partners. The applicant will be in constant communication with members of the Chan Database Project, as well as attending annual meetings, to ensure that the research outputs of this project inform, and are informed by, the Chan Database Project. This will encourage a sustained and meaningful dialogue to develop across the usual boundaries of language and area-specific university departments. It is also timely in that Jacob Dalton (Asst Professor, UC Berkeley) will be in the UK to work with the applicant in the period of May to August 2010. The first handlist of the Tibetan Zen manuscripts was produced by the applicant in collaboration with Dalton, with the support of the British Academy, in 2003-4. Dalton's research visit to the UK will facilitate the revision of these materials towards the production of a catalogue, the first major outcome of the project in Year 1. The applicant has been engaged for the last five years in a project sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust on the emerging field of Tibetan paleography, and has developed a network of other scholars who have also worked in this area. This is the ideal time to apply these new approaches to a circumscribed group of manuscripts like the Tibetan Zen corpus.This will allow the testing and refinement new paleographical techniques, and at the same time lead to a more nuanced understanding of the dates, origins, and authorship of the Tibetan Zen manuscripts. In particular, the application of forensic handwriting techniques to the identification of scribes, a method already tested by the applicant in a collaborative pilot project (see http://www.thlib.org?tid=T3106), will play a significant role in the evaluation of the social context of the Tibetan Zen manuscripts. The Songtsen Library (Dehra Dun, India), has agreed to allocate a Tibetan member of staff to assist with the computer input of the Tibetan Zen manuscripts. The applicant will provide the Songtsen Library with high-quality photographs of the manuscript images as a basis for this work. The director of the Songtsen Library, who has a personal interest in the Tibetan Zen manuscript corpus, has agreed to provide this service free of charge, and has appointed another member of staff, Norbu Wangchuk, who will liaise with the applicant, to supervise the text input process. This obviates the need for a research assistant to deal with this aspect of the project, increasing the project's value for money. Finally, collaboration with colleagues in the British Library will ensure that the web resources -- catalogue, marked-up transcriptions and translations, and digitized manuscript images -- are presented in the most appropriate form for long-term availability, via the IDP website (http://idp.bl.uk) on the British Library servers. Consultation with other scholars in Asian studies who have developed enduring web resources will allow data sharing and the linking and embedding of this project's web outcomes in these well-established resources. Endangered or Asian studies has been recognised as an endangered area due to the scaling- Emerging Subject down or closure of university departments (such as the Department of East Asian Area: Studies at Durham). In addition, historical / cultural relationships between China and Tibet represents an important emerging area of study. Ethical approval no obtained: Ethical approval (more information):

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Evaluators: Name Email Dr Ulrich [email protected] Pagel c.uk Dr John John.Kiesch Kieschnick nick@bristol .ac.uk Professor buddhst@so Lewis crates.berke Lancaster ley.edu Professor dfg9w@virgi David nia.edu Germano Financial Details

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Financial details: Year Payment type Justification Amount Requested Year 1 Estate Costs 2,700.00 Year 1 Subsistence 200.00 Year 1 Travel Costs 1,000.00 Year 1 Accommodation 500.00 Year 1 Consumables 0.00 Year 1 Research/clerical 0.00 assistance Year 1 Indirect Costs 17,750.00 Year 1 Staff (Directly Incurred) 23,905.00 Year 1 Investigators (directly 0.00 allocated) Year 1 Other directly allocated 0.00 costs Year 2 Estate Costs 2,700.00 Year 2 Subsistence 200.00 Year 2 Travel Costs 1,000.00 Year 2 Accommodation 500.00 Year 2 Consumables 0.00 Year 2 Research/clerical 0.00 assistance Year 2 Indirect Costs 17,750.00 Year 2 Staff (Directly Incurred) 24,104.00 Year 2 Investigators (directly 0.00 allocated) Year 2 Other directly allocated 0.00 costs Year 3 Estate Costs 2,700.00 Year 3 Subsistence 200.00 Year 3 Travel Costs 1,000.00 Year 3 Accommodation 500.00 Year 3 Consumables 0.00 Year 3 Research/clerical 0.00 assistance Year 3 Indirect Costs 17,750.00 Year 3 Staff (Directly Incurred) 24,385.00 Year 3 Investigators (directly 0.00 allocated) Year 3 Other directly allocated 0.00 costs Total 138,844.00 Total grant requested: 138844.00

Start Date: 01/08/2010

Duration (Years): 3

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Justification: The British Academy BARDA scheme offers the ideal support at this time, as its flexibility allows for the applicant, who has particular expertise in the area, to be funded directly as Principal Investigator in order to undertake the major part of the research at the same time as coordinating the collaborative aspects of the project from the British Library. In addition, this project proposal builds on a pilot project funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant in 2003, for the compilation of a catalogue of the Tibetan Zen manuscripts. The applicant compiled a handlist of manuscripts in London and Paris and published an article based on this research, but it emerged that a complete catalogue, and the full exploitation of this unique material, would require a significantly larger research project. In the intervening years the applicant has been committed to other research projects but has continued to develop the original handlist and to cultivate a network of academic colleagues in Zen Studies. Therefore the current project will draw upon and significantly extend on the success of the initial British Academy-funded pilot project, another reason that this proposal is considered particularly suitable for the British Academy. Principal investigator Sam van Schaik is Grade A on the British Library salary scale. Projected salary at full time, including National Insurance and superannuation: Year 1 = £47,809; Year 2 = £48,287; Year 3 = £48,770. The British Library has dispensation from the Research Councils to calculate Estate Costs and Indirect Costs using Default Rates as follows: Indirect Costs = £35,500 per researcher / academic Full Time Equivalent on the project per annum. Estates Cost = £5,400 per researcher / academic Full Time Equivalent on the project per annum. The grant (at FEC) covers 50% of the full-time salary, indirect costs and estate costs. Note however, as mentioned in "Summary of principal investigator's time", that the applicant will actually spend 75% of full-time hours on this project. Travel, subsistence and accomodation costs are to allow the applicant to travel to meetings of the Chan Database Project (of approximately 7 days duration) in Years 1, 2 and 3. This is an important aspect of the project, ensuring that it is fully engaged with the simultaneous research and development of the Chinese Zen manuscript sources. The locations of these meetings are not yet fixed, so these amounts are necessarily approximations. Applications to other Certain aspects of the project -- specifically the workshop in Year 3, and support funding bodies: for visiting scholars working with the applicant -- will be funded from other sources. Funding from Zen organizations in Britain and Taiwan has been explored. The Western Chan Fellowship (UK) and Dharma Drum Foundation (Taiwan) have promised funding towards the workshop if the current funding application is successful. Funds for conservation and digitization of the manuscripts, and technical assistance will be provided by the International Dunhuang Project.

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