TIBETAN WRITTEN IMAGES A STUDY OF IMAGERY IN THE WRITINGS OF DHONDUP GYAL RIIKA J. VIRTANEN TIBETAN WRITTEN IMAGES A STUDY OF IMAGERY IN THE WRITINGS OF DHONDUP GYAL RIIKA J. VIRTANEN Studia Orientalia 115 TIBETAN WRITTEN IMAGES A STUDY OF IMAGERY IN THE WRITINGS OF DHONDUP GYAL RIIKA J. VIRTANEN Helsinki 2014 Tibetan Written Images: A Study of Imagery in the Writings of Dhondup Gyal Riika J. Virtanen Studia Orientalia, vol. 115, 2014 Copyright © 2014 by the Finnish Oriental Society Editor Lotta Aunio Co-editors Patricia Berg Sari Nieminen Advisory Editorial Board Axel Fleisch (African Studies) Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila (Arabic and Islamic Studies) Tapani Harviainen (Semitic Studies) Arvi Hurskainen (African Studies) Juha Janhunen (Altaic and East Asian Studies) Hannu Juusola (Middle Eastern and Semitic Studies) Klaus Karttunen (South Asian Studies) Kaj Öhrnberg (Arabic and Islamic Studies) Heikki Palva (Arabic Linguistics) Asko Parpola (South Asian Studies) Simo Parpola (Assyriology) Rein Raud (Japanese Studies) Saana Svärd (Assyriology) Jaana Toivari-Viitala (Egyptology) Typesetting Lotta Aunio Cover Photo Thupten K. Rikey: The Yellow River (rMa chu) with a Tibetan village in the background in Centsa (gCan tsha) in Qinghai ISSN 0039-3282 ISBN 978-951-9380-86-5 Picaset Oy Helsinki 2014 CONTENTS PREFACE ...........................................................................................................ix A Note on Tibetan spellings ............................................................................... xii 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Purpose of the study ..........................................................................................1 1.1.1 Research questions .............................................................................................4 1.2 Written images ..................................................................................................7 1.2.1 Types of images ............................................................................................... 15 2. DHONDUP GYAL AND TIBETAN LITERATURE .............................................. 25 2.1 Life and works of Dhondup Gyal, a Tibetan writer from Amdo ..................25 2.2 Placing Dhondup Gyal in the context of literary traditions and some remarks on traditional Tibetan literature ............................................39 2.3 Earlier research on Dhondup Gyal and modern Tibetan literature ............. 46 3. VEGETAL IMAGERY .......................................................................................53 3.1 Seasons and flowers: On the function of flower imagery in Dhondup Gyal’s novella “Sad kyis bcom pa'i me tog” .....................................54 3.2 On grassland, gardens, and other images of cultivation and growth ............ 70 4. ANIMAL IMAGERY ....................................................................................... 83 4.1 Images of birds ................................................................................................85 4.1.1 Mimetic and metaphoric cuckoos ...................................................................88 4.1.2 Dancing peacocks: Influences from Indian aesthetics ...................................96 4.2 Animals of the grassland and depicting characters ....................................... 99 4.3 Mythical animals and tradition .....................................................................120 vi 5. AQUATIC IMAGERY .....................................................................................127 5.1 Rivers and time..............................................................................................128 5.2 “The Waterfall of Youth”: Conceptual blending in free verse poetry ......... 135 5.3 Oceans, lakes, and waves ...............................................................................146 5.4 The image of the Blue Lake.......................................................................... 152 6. AERIAL AND CELESTIAL IMAGERY ..............................................................157 6.1 The Sun and the moon and images of light .................................................. 157 6.2 The Enigmatic cloud in the poem “sPrin dkar gyi 'dab ma”........................ 172 6.2.1 Two main levels of metaphoricity: Modifying the cloud ............................ 176 6.2.2 The Metaphoric cloud in the blended space ................................................180 6.3 Being in the mystic wind ..............................................................................186 7. TERRESTRIAL IMAGERY.............................................................................. 199 7.1 Images of mountains, rocks, and stones .......................................................199 7.2 Paths and journeys ....................................................................................... 203 8. CORPORAL IMAGERY ..................................................................................217 8.1 Being alive: Heart and its pulse ....................................................................218 8.2 Inner organs, human concerns, and emotion ...............................................225 8.3 The Beautiful woman of convention and other personifications ................229 9. MATERIAL IMAGERY ................................................................................. 239 9.1 Images of thread-like things: Expressing new and old motifs ................... 240 9.2 Arrows and other weapons ...........................................................................248 9.3 The True jewels of learning: Precious things and valuables ........................254 vii 10. CULTURAL IMAGERY ............................................................................... 263 10.1 Art, literature, and music ............................................................................263 10.2 Images from religio-mythical origins ......................................................... 271 10.2.1 Where are the paradises? Secularizing the heavenly realms ....................... 271 10.2.2 Remarks on the seven precious possessions of the universal monarch ..... 281 11. CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................... 291 11.1 Observations on images ...............................................................................292 11.2 General trends of imagery in Dhondup Gyal’s works ............................... 296 11.3 Structural features of imagery, genre, and style ......................................... 299 APPENDIX: List of Tibetan spellings .......................................................................307 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................313 PREFACE This book is an improved version of my dissertation, which was defended at the University of Helsinki in September 2011.1 At that time it appeared in the publication series of the Institute for Asian and African Studies and also in elec- tronic form in E-thesis web service of the University of Helsinki. I am glad that I received this opportunity to turn it into a book and correct some inaccuracies that were still found in the manuscript. It is hoped that the accuracy of the work has improved; however, I decided to leave the contents of the work basically the same as in the earlier dissertation version since the manuscript is essentially the outcome of the research work that I undertook during the years of my post- graduate studies at the University of Helsinki between 2003–2011. This work has long roots reaching back to the mid-1990s when I was living in Dharamsala among the Tibetan refugee community. It was at that time that I first became acquainted with the works of Dhondup Gyal and developed an interest in modern Tibetan literature, although I was not aware that a decade later I would write my doctoral dissertation on the topic. I would like to express my gratitude to the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives and its staff for providing a wonderful environment for my studies of Tibetan language and literature, which have acted as a basis for my recent research on Tibetan literature. I am especially grateful to Acarya Sangye Tandar Naga, who introduced to his students in the Tibetan intensive training course so many wonderful works of Tibetan litera- ture, including some works by Dhondup Gyal. My dissertation work led me to take my first research trip to Amdo and the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2005. It was very meaningful to me that I had a chance to meet and talk with some family members and relatives of Dhondup Gyal during that trip. My long email correspondence with Lobsang Choegyal, the younger brother of Dhondup Gyal, led to my visit at his home in Centsa (gCan tsha), where I met Dhondup Gyal’s mother Mingme (Mying med), step-father Gyatso (rGya mtsho), sister Tsering Kyi (Tshe ring skyid), brother Cagjam Gya (lCags byams rgya), other siblings and relatives, and also Wangpa (dBang bha) and his wife in Xining. During my stay in Xining, I had the special opportunity to hear about Dhondup Gyal from his wives from his first and second marriages, Rinchen Kyi (Rin chen skyid) and Yumkyi (Yum skyid). I am most grateful to 1 Dissertation published at <ethesis.helsinki.fi>, ISBN 978-952-10-7134-8. x Dhondup Gyal’s relatives and family members for agreeing to meet me and share their experiences. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity