The Schøyen Collection contains about 1500 Buddhist manuscripts from most Asian countries spanning nearly 2000 years. The Buddhist Scriptures collection starts with the foundation manuscripts of Mahayana Buddhism, and is represented here by 14 manuscripts. In addition, large parts of theChina collection and Pre-Gutenberg Printing collection are also examples of Buddhist literature.
Foremost is a collection of manuscripts found in caves in Bamiyan, in Afghanistan, in 1993-95. They comprise around 5,000 leaves and fragments, with around 7,000 micro-fragments, from a library of originally up to 1,000 manuscripts. These manuscripts, together with 60 in the British Library, have been called the "Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhism". They are the earliest Buddhist scriptures known, spanning the 2nd to 7th centuries AD, and are written on palm leaf, birch bark, vellum and copper.
This material largely avoided destruction during the recent civil war (between several local war lords and the Taliban) by being taken out of the war zone. However, significant parts that remained in Afghanistan when the Taliban took power in most of the country in 1996 were earmarked for destruction, together with other Buddhist objects and monuments. The Collection played a major role in rescuing these items for scholarship and for the common heritage of mankind. The first fragments were acquired by the Schøyen Collection in the summer of 1996 from the London bookseller Sam Fogg’s Cat 17 lot 39. The bulk of the material was acquired in London between 1997 and 2000.
At the time of acquisition, the material was increasingly in danger of being dispersed across a fast growing number of people spread over many countries. Many of the micro-fragments were either being discarded or used for as amulets. The greatest challenge of a rescue operation turned out to be getting the materials together again. For the greater part, this was achieved. As the last part of the rescue operation, the manuscripts will now be made available to everyone, and will be published by the world'sleading scholars.
Compliance with the law is a matter of great concern to the Schøyen Collection. When it was drawn to the attention of the Collection that some items might have arrived from Gilgit in Pakistan and been illegally exported, the Collection immediately returned these items to Pakistan through their Ambassador to Norway. The Pakistan Government was highly appreciative of this act of good faith to the country.
The right of title of the Schøyen Collection in law is unquestioned. Every item was acquired legally from London dealers before the accession of the UK, Norway or Afghanistan to the 1970 UNESCO Convention or the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention. It is important to understand that these items appeared on the antiquities market as refugee items from the Taliban and that the entire collection was in danger of being dispersed in a way that would almost certainly have meant a major loss to Buddhist scriptural scholarship.
The Buddhist manuscripts are the only section in the Collection that were specifically acquired to prevent destruction, after requests to do so were received from Buddhists and scholars. Should these MSS be returned to Afghanistan after they have been published – or at least as soon as peace, order, religious tolerance, and safe conditions can be reliably established in that country? Unfortunately, few commentators consider that those conditions now apply, regardless of specific claims in regard to the capital city, Kabul. Moreover, there are historical facts that bear on the question of whether the manuscripts should be returned to present-day Afghanistan.
The manuscripts were produced at the time of the Kushan Indo-Scythian Empire, later conquered by the Huns. Modern Afghanistan did not exist. The area has since changed religion from Buddhism to Islam, and its languages from Sanskrit and Gandhari to Arabic, Dari and Pashtu. Most of the cultural descendants of the original Buddhists now live outside Afghanistan. More than half of the manuscripts were actually written in what is now Pakistan and India.
More tragically, the Buddhist monasteries and their manuscripts were mostly destroyed in the 8th century by Muslim invaders. The remaining sites were, to a greater extent, destroyed by the Taliban very recently, including, most infamously, the two giant statues of the Buddha that were blown up in 2001. In the last 2000 years, the region that is now Afghanistan has been regularly conquered, and shaken apart by strong neighbours to the East, North, and West – and it has been frequently torn apart by civil wars. The region’s geopolitical and physical situation continues to be an intractable issue.
Despite the statements of current interested parties, there is still no evidence that full stability is likely or achievable in the next few years. Instability is also a concern in some of the bordering countries. For these reasons and in full awareness of its global heritage duties, the Schøyen Collection cannot consider Afghanistan a safe home for these manuscripts in the future. This policy position has been taken with full respect for the current Government of Afghanistan which is working hard to achieve peace and stability under very difficult circumstances.
The Collection feels a strong sense of responsibility for the safekeeping of the Buddhist manuscripts from Bamiyan that have survived over the centuries, and often against the odds, for some 1500 years. The Schøyen Collection’s duty of care fundamentally involves full and careful assessment of the risks of onward transmission of any of its acquisitions.
Even if a UNESCO convention dictated that such artefacts be returned to nation-states, this is an ideological determination. Any such determination says nothing about whether a particular nation-state is, in reality, in a position to safeguard precious and historically significant cultural objects which may have little to do with its current culture. The cultural property environment is riddled with politically motivated but badly thought out initiatives. While the Schøyen Collection will always comply with the law in every jurisdiction in which it operates, it will exercise its right to speak openly where it sees a wrong being perpetrated against the wider global public interest of preserving important examples of all the world’s cultures and religions, without fear or favour towards any particular culture, religion or ideology. The qualifications for stewardship of important cultural relics must include:
- social and political stability to ensure long-term safety of the artefacts
- technical ability to preserve and conserve
- access for study, research and appropriate public viewing for the international community
- commitment to preservation and access, regardless of nationality, race or religion
The Schøyen Collection is actively engaged in seeking the best means of ensuring a safe and secure home for the manuscripts and it recognizes the aspirations in this regard of the current legitimate Afghan Government as well as those of the global Buddhist community and of scholarship in general. It has maintained close and friendly contacts with the Afghan Embassies in Norway and France to this end.
In the same spirit, the Schøyen Collection transferred seven fragments that had already been published in 1932 and were part of the Hackin Collection, to the Afghan National Museum on September 5, 2005. These fragments were held by the Schøyen Collection on behalf of the Museum for security and preservation reasons only: they were never part of the Schøyen Collection itself. As an additional gesture of goodwill, the Collection also generously offered to present the Museum with a further 43 or 44 manuscript fragments of similar type as those that once were in the Hackin collection, but which were destroyed in the war. This will bring the Museum’s holdings back up to its pre-war level of around 50 fragments.
The Afghan authorities accepted the gift, and in accordance to the commitment of 2005 the actual presentation of a gift of 58 Buddhist fragments took place on 15 February 2008 to H.E. Jawed Ludin, ambassador at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Oslo, on behalf of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul. Afghanistan duly thanked The Schøyen Collection for its generous contribution to further enriching the valuable collections of the Museum, which is reviving after severe damage suffered during the War. The Schøyen Collection is honoured to have had the opportunity to restore the Museum's holding up to and even above its pre-war holdings. The Afghan authorities have expressed their appreciation both of the research that has been undertaken over many years and of the publication of the Buddhist manuscript fragments by Professor Jens Braarvig and an international group of scholars. Details of the donation and other announcements are available in the NEWS section.
In conclusion, the Schøyen Collection has a responsibility for the safekeeping of manuscripts that have survived up to 5000 years, and wishes these manuscripts at least an equally long life in the future, with full access for scholars and others with a valid interest in their study and preservation, irrespective of nationality, race or religion. Nation-states that come and go with the ebb and flow of history – and the organisations under the control of nation-states – are not the only qualified keepers of world heritage artifacts.
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22. Buddhism
22.1 Agama Sutras
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CAMGISUTRA OF THE MAHASAMGHIKA-LOKOTTARAVADINS
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MS in Sanskrit on palm-leaf, India, 4th c., 6 partial ff. and 20 fragments, originally ca. 5x40? cm, single column, (ca. 4x38? cm), 6 lines in an early western Gupta script with strong Kusana affiliations.
Binding:India, 4th c., Poti, no string hole present.
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Context: MSS 2179, 2372-2386 and 2416 come from a Library that must have been of considerable size originally, maybe 1400 MSS or more. It probably belonged to a Buddhist monastery of Mahasanghika which was in Bamiyan, according to the report of the Chinese monk, Xuan Zhang (604-662) who visited this monastery in the 7th c. A few fragments with Karosthi script from the same library are in a private collection in Japan. Further 60 birch bark scrolls and fragments in Karosthi script in British Library, which according to Prof. Richard Salomon are "The Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhism" (The Times, 26.06.1996). Similar fragments were in the Hackin collection in Kabul Museum, which was destroyed during the recent Afghan civil war. There are 725 leaves and fragments with similar scripts from this period found in Chinese Turkistan, now in Berlin. The original numbers of this MS was MSS 2376/1/6a, 2376/1/4a, 2376/1/1, 2376/1/3, 2376/1/2, 2376/1/5, 2376/1/6b, 2376/1/4b, 2376/1/13b, 2376/1/10a, 2376/1/9, 2376/1/14a, 2376/1/14b, 2376/1/16b, 2376/uf3/5e, 2376/uf4/4e, 2376/1/15, 2376/1/12a, 2376/1/10b, 2376/1/12b, 2376/1/11, 2376/1/13a, 2376/181a, 2375/32.
Provenance: 1. Buddhist monastery of Mahasanghika, Bamiyan, Afghanistan (-7th c.); 2. Cave in Hindu Kush, Bamiyan.
Commentary: Three version of the sutra are now available, and, exceptionally, all of them are preserved only in Indian languages. No translations into Chinese, Tibetan or any of the Central Asian languages formerly used for the transmission of Buddhist literature are known. Only the Pali version of the Theravada school, the Cankisutra of the Majjhimanikaya, is preserved in its entirety. In this MS the brahmin reads Cangi, but this version bears the title Kamathikasutra after the brahmin youth Kamathika. The hoard contains a great number of hitherto unknown Buddhist texts, as well as the oldest surviving MS testimony to some of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism. Among these are the by far oldest Prajnaparamita MSS known (2nd-3rd c.) This literature is the earliest scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism. The Mahasanghikas are regarded as the traditional Buddhist school, which first propagated Mahayana ideas. The present collection stands right at the roots of the formation of Mahayana Buddhism, and is its single most important source.
Published: Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection I, Jens Braarvig, Editor-in-chief: Buddhist manuscripts, vol. 1 and 2. Oslo 2000 and 2002.
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top22.2 Mahayana Prajnaparamita Sutras
See also MS 2169, Mahaprajnaparamita Upadesa, China, 620-756 | |
| PERFECTION OF WISDOM SUTRA; DAIHANNYAHARAMITA-KYO. VOL. 174. TRANSLATED FROM SANSKRIT BY XUAN ZANG | |
MS in Chinese on paper, Japan, 8th c., 1 scroll of 16 sheets (complete), 25x793 cm, 29-31 columns per sheet, 17 characters in Chinese script.
Binding: Japan, 20th c., wooden box.
Context: Other volumes in this set of 600 rolls are vols. 514 and 522, both in the Collection of the Kyoto National Museum (Registered Important Cultural Property). Vol. 244 is at Harvard University Art Museums (Arthur M. Sackler Museum).
Provenance: 1. Buddhist temple of Kofukuji, Nara (1232-); 2. Kunitama Shinto Shrine, Osaka; 3. Sam Fogg cat. 19(1998):153.
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Commentary: This collection of scriptures focuses on the doctrine of emptiness and the illusory nature of life. In Japan, from the Nara Period (710-794) onwards, this work, containing a total of 5 million Chinese characters, was read from beginning to end in Buddhist rituals as a prayer for abundant harvest and for the protection of the state from pestilence. Later priests sped up the reading process by only reading out the title or one section of each roll.
This 600-volume set was produced over a 15-year period beginning about 730, a time when Emperor Shomu (701-756), who had particular faith in this sutra, was promoting the ceremonial reading and copying of many sets. Each volume was commissioned by a member of a small group of court officials.
In 1232, this set was included in a large number of 8th and 9th c. transcriptions of the Greater Sutra of Perfection of Wisdom that were assembled in the monastery of Kofukuji in Nara, and carefully punctuated in red ink by the monk Eion (1167-after 1233), who was in charge of sutra storage. Later they were donated to the Kunitama Shrine near Osaka, the tutelary Shrine of the Kii family.
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top22.3 Mahayana Sutras
top| MS 2385 |  |
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MS in Sanskrit on birchbark, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 6th c., 46 ff., 6x18 cm, single column, (5x17 cm), 5-6 lines in Gilgit/Bamiyan ornate type book script.
Binding: Afghanistan, 6th c., Poti with 1 string hole, dividing the leaves 40 % - 60 %.
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 Context: MSS 2179, 2372-2386 and 2416 come from a Library that must have been of considerable size originally, maybe 1400 MSS or more. It probably belonged to a Buddhist monastery of Mahasanghika which was in Bamiyan, according to the report of the Chinese monk, Xuan Zhang (604-662) who visited this monastery in the 7th c. Ca. 60 birch bark scrolls and fragments in Karosthi script in British Library, which according to Prof. Richard Salomon are "The Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhism" (The Times, 26.06.1996). Similar fragments were in the Hackin collection in Kabul Museum, which was destroyed during the recent Afghan civil war. There are 725 leaves and fragments with similar scripts from this period found in Chinese Turkistan, now in Berlin.
Provenance: 1. Buddhist monastery of Mahasanghika, Bamiyan, Afghanistan (-6th c.); 2. Cave in Hindu Kush, Bamiyan; 3. Sam Fogg Rare Books Ltd., London.
Commentary: The hoard contains a great number of hitherto unknown Buddhist texts, as well as the oldest surviving MS testimony to some of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism. Among these are the by far oldest Prajnaparamita MSS known (2nd-3rd c.) This literature is the earliest scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism. The Mahasanghikas are regarded as the traditional Buddhist school, which first propagated Mahayana ideas. The present collection stands right at the roots of the formation of Mahayana Buddhism, and is its single most important source.
Published: To be published in: Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection I, Jens Braarvig, ed.: Buddhist manuscripts.
See also MS 2152, Mahaparinirvana, China, 625-650
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top| MS 2100 | |
| BOUNDLESS LIFE MAHAYANA SUTRA, TRANSLATION FROM SANSKRIT OF THE ARYA-APARIMITAYURJÑANA-NAMA-MAHAYANA-SUTRA | |
MS in Tibetan on paper, Tibet, early 8th c., 1 scroll (complete), 29x158 cm, 7 columns, (28x156 cm), 19 lines in Tibetan dbu can book script.
Context: The Dunhuang hoard consisted of about 13,500 MSS; with printing and fragments included, 19,200 items. It is the largest and most important group of oriental MSS ever found. The present distribution is as follows: London, British Library, Stein collection 8080; Bejing, National Library 8000; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Pelliot Collection ca. 3000; Shanghai Library 100; Shanghai Museum 4; Japan, museums and libraries 5; and The Schøyen Collection 4.
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Provenance: 1. Dunhuang cave no. 151, Gansu, China, (ca. 9th c. - ca. 1900); 2. Wang Yuanlu, Daoist priest and guardian, Dunhuang (ca. 1900); 3. Berthold Laufer, Tibetologist, U.S.A.; 4. Newberry Library, Chicago (-1994); 5. Sam Fogg cat. 17(1996):1.
Commentary: The importance of this scroll lies in its extremely early date of origin and its provenance. The text was composed in Sanskrit around 500 AD, and translated into Tibetan in the 7th c. This MS was written a few years after the beginning of Tibetan Buddhist literary production, and is one of the earliest witnesses to the text. It belongs to the Prajñaparamita literature, and was used in ritual context aimed at the prolongation of life.
The famous Mogao caves, over 1000 in number, located near the oasis town of Dunhuang on the Silk Road in Central Asia, were used as library repositories for a wide range of literary MSS for conservation purposes in the period ca. 500-1000 AD by the Tibetan and Chinese occupants of the town. The caves were sealed at the beginning of the 11th c., and left undisturbed for almost 900 years. The MSS preserved in the Dunhuang caves, are probably older than any surviving in Tibet itself.
Exhibited: 1. Cultural relics from Dunhuang and Turfan. Jointly presented by the Shanghai Museum & The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Art Gallery, 24 June - 2 Aug. 1987. 2. "Preservation for access: Originals and copies". On the occasion of the 1st International Memory of the World Conference, organized by the Norwegian Commission for UNESCO and the National Library of Norway, at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, 3 June - 14 July 1996.
See also MS 2414, Sutra, China, 9th-10th c.
See also MS 2153, Buddhanama sutra, China, ca. 920
See also MS 2457/1, Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, China, late 14th c.
See also MS 2457/2, Avalokitesvara sutra, China, 15th & 16th c.
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top22.4 Vinaya
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| KAMMAVACA; OFFICIAL ACT OF THE BUDDHIST ORDER | |
MS in Pali on copper gilt, Burma, 19th c., 16 ff. (complete), 11x54 cm, single column, (11x52 cm), 6 lines in Burmese square tamarind script in black lacquer, decorations in red around and between text, first and last opening with deities flanking the text.
Binding: Burma, 19th c., Poti with wooden covers with gold and red lacquer decoration, 1 binding -hole. Provenance: 1. Sam Fogg cat. 19(1998):115.
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Commentary: The Kammavaca is a collection of extracts from the Pali Vinaya-pitaka, the monastic code of discipline. It was usually commissioned by a Burmese family on the occasion of their son's entry tho the monkhood. Only in Burma these texts were produced as highly ornate and decorative manuscripts.
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top22.5 Abhidharma
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top22.6 Tantra
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