Die Statue und der Tempel des Arya Va-ti bzang-po

dpon 'Gyur med in the high mountain village of Sama Gaon during an expedition to Nubri in Nepal's Gorkha district (NGMPP reel nos. L 380/5 - 381/1, 56 fols.). Based on it and another version of this text from rDzong dkar chos sde monastery in South India, the present critical edition was prepared and the entire pilgrimage guide translated into German. Both the edition and the well-annotated translation are exemplary and reflect a high degree of philological skill.
The extensive introduction (pp. 57-150) consists of several long chapters on the traditions of the Avalokitesvara brothers (the number of brothers varying between three and five), the statue of Arya Va ti bzang po, the temple 'Phags pa lha khang housing it in sKyid grong, the biography of Brag dkar rta so sPrul sku Chos kyi dbang phyug, the religious geography of the Western Tibetan area of Mang yul Gung thang, related historical and geographical works, a description of the texts that deal with the statue of Arya Va ti bzang po, and finally the cult of Avalokitesvara in Mang yul. Each chapter bears testimony to Ehrhard's profound knowledge and expertise in the field of Tibetan and Nepalese religious history and geography. All his points are well documented, mainly on the basis of primary sources, some of which were discovered by the author himself during his time as the local director of the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) in Kathmandu.
The main part is followed by five interesting appendices. The first two are two additional Tibetan pilgrimage guides to the statue of Arya Va ti bzang po. The first guide, bearing the title Rang byon jo bo 'Phags pa va ti bzang po'i rnam thar nyi ma'i dkyil 'khor bzhugs so, in English: "A biography of the self-arisen lord Arya Va ti bzang po - The disk of the sun" (Appendix I), was microfilmed during my first expedition to Dolpo (north-west Nepal) in Shey (Sumdo) Gompa in August 1994. The guide edited in Appendix II (the 'Phags mchog spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug va ti bzang po'i rnam thar nam mkha'i nor bu ma rig mun sel, in English: "A biography of the most noble Avalokitesvara Va ti bzang po - The jewel of the sky which removes the darkness of ignorance") was discovered on my third Dolpo expedition in Lang Gompa near Bicher Gaon (Dolpo) in May 1996, but not microfilmed there (but in June in the microfilm station at Do Tarap). Appendix III contains an edition of a short sadhana of the five Avalokitesvara brothers from the National Archives in Kathmandu ('Phags pa rang byon mched lnga'i bsgrub thabs bskyed rdzogs zung 'brel du gdams pa bzhugs so, in English: "The sadhana of the five noble self-arisen brothers - Instructions for combining the generation and perfection [stages]"), and Appendix IV the edition of two short prayers to Arya Va ti bzang po from the Library of the Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala. Finally, Ehrhard presents in a fifth appendix the detailed contents of the ten volumes of Brag dkar rta so Chos kyi dbang phyug's Collected Works which he microfilmed in Sama Gaon (Nubri) in April 1992.
For the sake of completeness it may be mentioned that the expected new edition of the Collected Works of Chos kyi dbang phyug by lamas from Nubri (announced by Ehrhard on p. 535) will contain a number of important works which I microfilmed
during the NGMPP expeditions to Tsum (near Nubri in Gorkha district) in April 1994, Bridim (on the Nepalese side of the border opposite sKyid grong) in April 1995, and Nubri in October/November 2000. The NGMPP presented copies of these works to sLob dpon 'Gyur med and other Tibetan lamas from Kutang and Nubri. For a list of these works kindly consult the "Preliminary List of Manuscripts, Blockprints and Historical Documents Microfilmed by the NGMPP," distributed by the Tibetan department of the University of Hamburg (Asien-Afrika-Institut)."

In: Indo-Iranian Journal. 50 (2007). S. 259-261.