སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་རྣམས་གྲུབ་པའི་རྗེས་སུ་སྙེག མཁས་འདོད་རྣམས་ནི་མཁས་ལ་གཅིག་ཏུ་འདུན། །
བླུན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གྲགས་པ་ལ་འཆེལ་བས།། གཏམ་གྱི་སྦྱོར་བས་ཐམས་ཅད་འདྲིད་བྱེད་ཀྱང། །
Practitioners, who chase after accomplishments,
Those with scholarly ambitions, who are solely focused on learning,
Even fools who are obsessed with being famous.
Are all lured/pulled in[i] by artful stories.
རིན་ཆེན་རིན་ཐང་མེད་པའི་ཁ་བྱང་བཞིན། ། བདེན་གཏམ་དག་ཀྱང་གློ་བར་ཆུད་དཀའ་བས། །
ཐོས་པས་དོན་ལྡན་ངེས་པར་མི་བསླུ་བའི། ། དམ་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཤས་ཙམ་གླེང་བར་བྱ།
“Like a priceless treasure without a map/address,
True stories are also difficult to swallow.
Yet they are definitely meaningful and undeceiving to hear.
So, I will speak briefly of some sacred liberation-stories.” –8th Tai Situpa in Moonstone Mala: Karma Kagyu Golden Rosary life-stories (tr. Adele Tomlin)
“[Situ’s] historical writing is particularly significant, for in delineating the place of the Karma Kagyu in the Inner Asian world, he described a significant aspect of the relations that powerful rulers beyond Tibet’s borders entertained with important Tibetan Buddhist teachers and leaders. These relations were rooted in perceptions of power, political and esoteric. However, with the triumph of the Gelugpa sect its scholars created an historical tradition that let that story pass unmentioned. Situ, writing in a time of turbulence and Gelugpa ascendancy, stood against this politically inspired historical amnesia and helped preserve a crucial element of our understanding of Tibet’s past.” –Eliot Sperling (2013)
Introduction- seeking 8th Tai Situpa’s Collected Works at Palpung Sherab Ling, India (February- March 2026)
Recently, during my stay at Palpung Sherab Ling monastery, India during Losar and 12th Tai Situpa’s birthday, I became keen to see and read a copy of the Collected Works of the great 8th Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jungney. In particular, I wanted to read the outline of the contents (kar-chag).
I have translated outlines and done research on great master’s Collected Works before, including those of Je Gampopa, some of the Karmapas (see my new website on Karmapa’s Collected Works here) and created a whole new website, sponsored by a Jonang group in the USA, on Je Tāranatha’s Collected Works, see here. There is no electronic/digital contents outline of 8th Tai Situpa’s Works available, and the scans of the Collected Works on TBRC only contain the first few volumes.
After having a profound experience at the 8th Tai Situpa’s Golden Relic Stupa with a red-hatted White Tara at Palpung Monastery Sherab Ling, the main seat of Tai Situpa and Palpung in India, I wanted to read 8th Tai Situpa’s works too. However, I had no idea that finding a copy there would initially prove so difficult. This was nothing personal against me, but seemed to be just a general issue regarding the texts and their location, accessibility, preservation and location.
I was surprised there was no clear contents outline in Tibetan typed up to view as most of the other great Tibetan Buddhist masters like 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje’s Collected Works, or Je Gampopa are easily available to read online, often with a contents outline.
When I commenced my search, first, I discovered there is a small library above the main shrine room at Sherab Ling, which for a foreigner or tourist is not easy to find unless one walks around there, or asks. All the books/texts in there are Tibetan language. The first time I went there alone, there were no other people in the library, and I asked the librarian worker an elder monk from Kham, if I could read a copy of the Collected Works there, and if there was the outline I could read. He told me there was no contents outline (kar-chag). I asked him if I could take photos of the titles of the texts in the Collected Works for my own private research and used, but he seemed reluctant to let me do so, and told me he would have to ask permission. He also told me they had a copy of one of 8th Tai Situpa’s autobiographies (Stainless Mirror) in the book shop near the café.
I then also asked the General Secretary about reading the Collected Works, and he told me that the main worker in the library was Bhutanese but he was not there but would return after a few days. However, he did not return, so I was unable to speak to the Bhutanese librarian either.
I went to the bookshop and could not find that book, nor any contents or outline or books of the Collected Works. When I went back to the library the following day, and spoke to the same monk, again I was not able to see the Collected Works, and he told me to return at 2 pm. He told me the main librarian a man from Bhutan was not there, so he could not tell me if I could take photos of the content titles of the Collected Works or not. I explained to him (in my broken Tibetan have been out of practice the last couple of years!) that even if I could not take photos, I just wanted to see and read the Collected Works, but for some reason this was not possible. When I came back at 2pm the library door was locked and no-one was around.
On 3rd March 2026, the full moon and auspicious date of Chotrul Duchen and Marpa Lotsawa Day, I returned to the library in the morning, as I wanted to see the Collected Works. I am a big believer that Dharma texts are meant to be read and studied and not kept bound up unread in cupboards that no one can see etc.! At this point, I was feeling more and more frustrated and finding it difficult to understand how or why these texts were not easily available to look at and read for a visiting foreign scholar-translator. So, this time I was a little more persistent and told the monk lama that it seemed “odd” (khyentsar in Tibetan) that seeing and reading 8th Tai Situpa’s Collected Works in the Palpung Monastery in India was proving to be quite difficult. This time, however, the lama readily provided me with Volume Five (cha) and a table and chair to sit at, which cheered me up significantly. I then asked to see the Volumes 1 -4 but he told me these were in cupboards in front of which were some tables. I then persisted again and asked if he could move the tables so I could access the texts. Interestingly, and symbolically new books of the volumes of the 8th Karmapa’s texts were on the table (see photo).
The librarian worker then kindly moved the tables, and while he was doing that, I went to have a look in some of the other unobstructed cupboards he had pointed me towards containing the Collected Works. As I did that, he then told me he remembered that the Volumes 1-4 were in those cupboards!
So I was able to have a look at the first five volumes. The library worker then started to close the library as it was breaktime and he was leaving to get some food. After that, when I went back there the past few days, it was locked and no-one there.
So, I will try and see the remaining eight or ten volumes of the Collected Works, when and if the library opens. There were several prints of the published volumes in the cupboards. I am a big believer that Dharma texts are meant to be read and studied and not kept bound up unread in cupboards that no one can see etc.!
Two main Tibetan Sources about the Lives of Kagyu masters and the Karmapas by 8th Situ and ’Belo Tsewang Kunkhyab
On that same day, 3rd March 2026, the same Librarian worker at Palpung Sherab Ling kindly showed me a copy of their recently published (2023) autobiography of 8th Tai Situpa, Stainless Crystal Mirror, which I took a photo of the cover here. This is one of the main autobiographical works by 8th Tai Situpa.
There are two main sources on the life of Situ Paṇchen: firstly, his autobiography and diaries called Stainless Crystal Mirror (Ta’i si tur ’bod pa karma bstan pa’i nyin byed kyi rang tshul drangs por brjod dri bral shel gyi me long). This text is contained in the fourteenth and last volume of his collected works, and has 371 folios. The other main one is the Moonstone Jewel (or Crystal) Mala part written by the 8th Tai Situpa and completed by Belo Tsewang Kunkhyab. However, surprisingly, this was not available as a book to read at the Palpung Sherab Ling library.
Moonstone Jewel Mala (Dawa Chushel gi Norbu Trengwa) by 8th Tai Situpa and Belo Tsewang Kunkhyab
An important collection of autobiographical/historical texts on the Kagyu lineage and Karma Kagyu masters in particular, such as the Karmapas, contained in the 8th Tai Situpa’s Collected Works, which has been quoted by contemporary scholars, is the Moonstone Jewel Mala སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་ཀརྨ་ཀཾ་ཚང་བརྒྱུད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་རབ་འབྱམས་ནོར་བུ་ཟླ་བ་ཆུ་ཤེལ་གྱི་ཕྲེང་བ།. As Dell points out, it is sometimes referred to as the Golden Rosary of Karma Kagyu. The final part of which seems to have been compiled and written down by his faithful and diligent secretary and monk, Belo Tsewang Kunkhyab (more on him below).
I asked the Lama librarian worker if they had a copy of this other important biography, Moonstone Mala, and he told me they did not. He advised me to speak to the people whose job it is to type up these texts into the computer, but alas could not find those people either, as the General Secretary Office was closed and no one there could answer those questions. I went back a few times, but it was either closed, or Holi holiday or a monastery holiday.
In any case, I decided to do some independent research on this important work, as it seems that important information contained within these works, such as on the lives of the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje and 6th Gyaltsab Norbu Zangpo, have been redacted from some editions and not available for public view. This seems to be some act of censorship by the Gelugpa sectarian dominated Tibetan government. As we now know, they stole/confiscated hundreds of texts by other lineages such as Karma Kagyu, and kept them in Drepung monastery storehouse never to be printed, published or taught by those lineages again until recently.
In a helpful, yet relatively unknown academic paper in 2023 by western scholar,[ii] Dominik Dell, he provides one (if not the only) extensive analysis of the Moonstone Mala text, based on a particular edition of the text, which seems to exclude information about the 10th Karmapa, that other scholars refer to in this text. Dell (2023) explains that:
“Lokesh Chandra published an edition of this text in 1968, which included a foreword by Gene Smith. According to Smith, the “first part covers the period from his birth to his twenty fourth year (1723) and was written by himself [… It] can be considered an autobiography proper, for it was composed as a coherent work by Situ.” It is followed by diary entries that Si tu had made for the remainder of his life and that were edited by his student Belo Tsewang.
Secondly, the Moonstone Crystal Mala contains a life story of Situ Paṇchen that consists of ninety-five folios. It was written by Situ’s student ’Be lo Tshe dbang. According to Rémi Chaix “certain passages of the Autobiography and Diaries can in some cases be clarified by Situ Paṇchen’s biography in the Moonstone Crystal Mala (Zla ba chu shel gyi ’phreng ba) [… It] is not only an extensive and illuminating summary, but the selection of facts made by ’Be lo also reveals, in some instances, which facts have been considered too inappropriate to be mentioned in the official ‘Golden Rosary’ of the Karma Kagyu lineage.”
As Dell (2023) concludes in one of the few academic papers on this:
“To date, it seems that not much of this opus has been translated, and only parts have been researched to a certain extent. Hence, there is much work left for future research. A next useful step could be to compile a bibliography of research and translations based on the “Moonstone Water-Crystal Mālā.” There are a number of research papers on Si tu Paṇ chen’s life. However, the two very long sources about his life have not been analyzed—let alone translated—extensively.
As Elliot Sperling pointed out: “This is, as I have noted, essential history, produced by a scholar of wide reading and great learning.”72 I can only join in his words and hope that this paper helps to draw some, certainly deserved, attention to this important work and that, at the same time, I managed to provide some useful information to make it more accessible.”
Indeed. I hope too that my new article about this “magnum opus” (for a more general audience) will also do just that, and lead to the publication of a book format (with all the different editions) of the Moonstone Crystal Mala.
The other author: Belo Tsewang Kunkhyab (1718–1790), student and secretary of 8th Tai Situpa
Belo Tse-wang Kunkhyab (1718–1790) was a student of 8th Tai Situpa. Dell (2023) states he was unable to identify a separate substantial biography for Belo. Nevertheless, the sources about Situ’s life contain some information on him. There is also a very brief summary of his life, of about one page, by the Bokar monastery Khenpo Donyo Lodro.
“Apart from being the co-author of the Moonstone Mala and the editor of Situ’s diaries, Belo was also…. the author of several smaller texts such as commentaries on sādhanas. Paltseg Bo-yig Penying research centre (dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ’jug khang) took pains to collect his writings and compile them into a book of 633 pages.16 The content was summarized as “collection of author’s fragmented works; includes philosophical aspects of Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika doctrines, Mādhyamika and following Tibetan schools.”
English-language Research about 8th Tai Situpa and Belo historical life-stories: including the full text of the Ming Dynasty scroll given to the 5th Karmapa
Dell (2023) explains that there is no comprehensive translation of Situ’s diaries or the life story in the Moonstone Mala, but there are many articles touching on different aspects of his life based on both or either of these sources. [iii] Different scholars, like Karl Debreczeny and David Jackson, have analyzed and presented Situ as a painter and reviver of the Karma Gardri (Tib. karma sgar bris) painting style, as a student, practitioner and teacher of Tibetan medicine, as a Sanskritist and collector and translator of Sanskrit manuscripts, as a textual scholar, as editor of the Dege Kangyur, as the spiritual part in the chaplain–patron relationship (mchod yon) with the house of Dege.
There is also this article by scholar, Elliot Sperling (2013) called Si tu pan chen chos kyi ’byung gnas in History: A Brief Note, (Journal of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, no. 7, 2013, pp. 1–16). As well as the quote cited at the top of this article, Sperling states in his Introduction that:
“The portion completed by Situ, which is the greater part of the first volume, is singularly important and illustrative of some of what others present at the Rubin Museum have noted about Situ’s style: it is a model of clear exposition, elegant language, and keen research. Situ’s use of source materials is easily discerned from the text which incorporates important narratives derived from standard works, such as A Feast for the Learned (Khepé Gatön), the autobiographical writings of Karma Pakshi (1204-1283), and others. As an example of his appreciation of primary documents we must note that his history of the Karma Kagyupa includes the full text of the famous scroll presented to the Fifth Karmapa by the Ming (明) court.”
In addition, as I wrote about during my 2024 solo pilgrimage trip to the five main Karma Kagyu temples in Lijiang, Yunnan created or preserved by the 10th Karmapa and/or 8th Tai Situpa, the Moonstone Mala is a vital resource according to contemporary scholars and art historians on the social and political history during the 10th Karmapa’s and the 8th Tai Situpa’s artistic activities. But also what happened to the 10th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu monasteries and shedras at the hands of the violent, Gelug-Mongolian sectarian military forces, but also how that violent and discriminatory persecution and violence continued during 8th Tai Situpa’s time, which he writes about.
Contents outline and editions of the Moonstone Mala text
The main edition that scholars like Elliot Sperling (2013) refer to is one published in New Delhi in 1972, by D. Gyaltsan and Kesang Legshay. There are other later modern published editions, such as one in Yunnan (1998) . The other editions all seem to have come from the personal collections of Gene E Smith. I could not find an edition of this text at the Sherab Ling library, other than the one in the Collected Works.
There is a content outline scan of the Palpung edition of the Moonstone Mala on BDRC from the 1972 edition:
TIBETAN TO ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS FROM MOONSTONE MALA
8th Tai Situpa’s Introduction to the Main Text of Moonstone Mala
As Dell (2023) helpfully explains, 
སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་རྣམས་གྲུབ་པའི་རྗེས་སུ་སྙེག མཁས་འདོད་རྣམས་ནི་མཁས་ལ་གཅིག་ཏུ་འདུན། །
བླུན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གྲགས་པ་ལ་འཆེལ་བས།། གཏམ་གྱི་སྦྱོར་བས་ཐམས་ཅད་འདྲིད་བྱེད་ཀྱང། །
Practitioners, who chase after accomplishments,
Those with scholarly ambitions, who are solely focused on learning,
Even fools who are obsessed with being famous.
All are lured/pulled in[iv] by artful stories.
རིན་ཆེན་རིན་ཐང་མེད་པའི་ཁ་བྱང་བཞིན། ། བདེན་གཏམ་དག་ཀྱང་གློ་བར་ཆུད་དཀའ་བས། །
ཐོས་པས་དོན་ལྡན་ངེས་པར་མི་བསླུ་བའི། ། དམ་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཤས་ཙམ་གླེང་བར་བྱ།
“Like a priceless treasure without a map/address,
True stories are also difficult to swallow.
Yet they are definitely meaningful and undeceiving to hear.
So, I will speak briefly of some sacred liberation-stories.”
I have translated these verses here above with the original Tibetan. In his prose introduction, Situ first mentions the “Kagyu of Marpa and Milarepa and, in particular, the Kagyu of the Karmapa” and then makes clear that he will focus on the “liberation stories of the lamas of the practice lineage Karma Kaṃtshang” in his opus.
He points out that the sources of their lives are extensive, such as different historical sources (chos ’byungs and liberation-stories (rnam thars) and that they “might be somewhat stained, but since they were composed at the request of authentic lamas that embody the essence of compassion, those stories also carry this compassion, and the stains are less important.” The stains referred to here might refer to errors that 8th Tai Situpa may have made in their composition.
According to Belo’s colophon (see below) it was completed on the thirteenth day of the first month of the female wood-sheep year (1775).
8th Tai Situpa’s Epilogue to Moonstone Mala
Dell (2023:15) explains that:
“The part of the main text authored by Situ ends after Minyag Togden Lodro Rinchen (1386–1423), a disciple of the Fifth Karmapa, Dezhin Shegpa (1384–1415). From Situ’s introduction, it is reasonable to assume he envisaged the scope of this project as being to present the life stories of the transmission lineage from the First Karmapa up to his time. Obviously, he was not able to finish it before his demise. Nevertheless, he managed to write a short epilogue of two stanzas of four verse lines each.”
འདྲེན་པ་མཉམ་མེད་བུ་རམ་ཤིང་པ་ཡིས། །
འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་གྱི་འགྲོ་རྣམས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྒོ།།
གྲངས་མེད་བདུད་རྩིའི་དགའ་སྟོན་སྦྱིན་མཛད་ནས། །
ཐར་དང་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་ལམ་ལ་སྦྱོར།
The Unequaled Guide, the Sugar-Caner/Śākya[v],
via the doors of Dharma for beings of the three worlds,
Offered an immeasurable nectar feast ,
To engage in the path of liberation and omniscience!
དེར་བརྟེན་ཟབ་དང་གཡོ་བ་མེད་པའི་དཔལ། །
རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནས་ལས་འོངས་གངས་ཅན་གྱི། །
དགེ་ལེགས་ཀར་བརྒྱུད་ཡིད་བཞིན་དབང་གི་ཕྲེང། །
ཐུབ་བསྟན་གསལ་བའི་རྒྱན་དུ་འབར་གྱུར་ཅིག།
Based on that, may the fortune of the Land of Snow [Tibet]—
that came from the glorious Ratnasambhava [Rinchen Jungney] who is excellent and unwavering, and
The wish-fulfilling Karma Kagyu, garland of the Lords [of Conquerors]
Blaze as an ornament of the luminous teachings of the Wise Teacher [Buddha].
Belo Tsewang’s Epilogue to Moonstone Mala: Arousing joy like being in a white lotus grove
མཐོང་ན་དགའ་བསྐྱེད་པད་དཀར་ཚལ་ལ།
མྱོང་བས་བདེ་ཐོབ་བདུད་རྩིའི་རྒྱ་མཚོར་མཚུངས།
ཐོབ་རྣམས་རྣམ་དཀར་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ནོར་བུའི་སྤུན།
དམ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་བསྔགས་འོས་བསྔགས།
བདུད་རྩི་ཉིད་ཀྱང་གཏན་གྱི་བདེ་ཐོབ་ཅིག།
Seeing [them] arouses joy, like in a white lotus grove; and
Like attaining bliss when tasting an ocean of nectar.
The abundance [of] virtuous (white) attainments [is] the jewel’s offspring/siblings.
These liberation-stories of noble ones worthy of praise are praised.
May this nectar itself also bring the attainment of eternal bliss.
དཔག་བསམ་ཉིད་ཀྱང་མཆོག་གིའང་འབྲས་སྟེར་ཞིང༎ ཟླ་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱང་ནང་གིའང་མུན་སེལ་བའི༎ བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་རྣམ་ཐར་རབ་འབྱམས་འདི་སྒྲུབ་བྱས༎ བཙུན་པས་མ་བཅིངས་མཁས་པས་མ་དྲེགས་ཤིང༎ གྲུབ་ཀྱང་མ་འཆོལ་ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་བཤེས༎ སྨན་ཀྱང་རེ་མིན་འབར་ཡང་མི་བསྲེག་པའི༎ བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ཉིན་མོར་བྱེད་པའི་སྤུན་ཟླར་རྟོགས༎
Granting even the supreme fruit [[of] the wish-fulfilling [tree] itself and
Dispelling even the darkness inherent in the very night-time (lit. moon)
This all-encompassing [collection of] Kagyu liberation stories was accomplished.
[It] is not restricted by piety, neither is [it] puffed up by learnedness,
Nor crazed by accomplishment; [it] accords with the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings.
Likewise, [it] is not some kind of medicine. blazing forth without incinerating,
the Kagyu are perceived as the sun’s offspring.
དེ་ལྟར་བསྔགས་འོས་རྣམ་ཐར་ཡི་གེའི་གཟུགས༎ གླིང་བཞིའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་རྣམས་སུ་རབ་འཁོད་པ༎ ཀུན་ཏུ་ལྟ་ཕྱིར་སྣང་བྱེད་བདག་པོ་ཟུང༎ ཉིན་དང་མཚན་དུ་རེས་མོས་ཉུལ་མིན་ནམ༎ རྗེ་ཡི་ཞལ་ཆབ་ཟེགས་མའི་ཟེར༎ ཁོ་བོའི་སྙིང་ལ་འཕོས་པའི་མཚོས༎ ཆུ་གཏེར་རྣམ་བཞི་རྨིག་རྗེས་ཆུའི༎ གཅུང་དུ་བྱ་བྱེད་བྲལ་བས་བཀོད༎
In that way, [this work is] praiseworthy. The lettering style [of] the liberation stories
Is labeled “supreme” in the worlds of the four continents.
In order to read [it] entirely, follow the master[who is] the sun.
Does [it/he] not wander about alternating day and night?
[Through] the ray of droplets [of] the master’s spittle—
Through [this] lake, which was transferred into my heart—
The four great oceans fill the footsteps of a hoof-print with water, but are devoid of any action or doing.”
Belo Tshewang’s Colophon in Moonstone Mala
“The glorious great knowledge-holder (dpal rig pa ’dzin pa chen po) Tshe-wang Norbu encouraged [the composition of this work] by saying:
“A complete collection [of] the liberation stories of the succession [of] the Kamtsang Kagyu, the golden garland, together with the assembly of students needs to be composed.”
[Starting] from the master Dusum Khyenpa, the composition of the liberation stories before Mi nyag rTogs ldan Grags pa rinchen within [the section covering] the Fifth Karmapa, Dezhin Shegpa, and the assembly of [his] students was accomplished by [my] venerable teacher himself.
The remainder after Mase Togden (1386–1423) and [starting] from the Sixth [Karma pa]. Thongwa Donden, the liberation stories before [the section covering] Jamgon Tenpai Nyinje [8th Tai Situpa] and the assembly of [his] students, together with the liberation stories of the [holders of] the four transmissions, of the glorious Tilopa and Nāropa, as well as of Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa, also known as the “Moonstone Water-Crystal Mālā,” was completed by Tsewang Kunkhyab, the vagabond who touched the lotus feet of that very master.
[The time of completion was] in the daytime of the thirteenth day of the first month of the female wood-sheep year (1775) of the thirteenth sexagenary cycle, [while] the place [of completion was] near the Tuṣita lion-throne, in the interior of the [monastery] Thubten Chokhor Ling[in] Palpung east of Chopai Ganden (sPyod pa’i dga’ ldan(?)).
Through the excellent work done by the scribe who wrote [it] down, the principal attendant Karma Legshe, the intent of the supreme lama was completely perfected.
[May] the Buddhist doctrine in general and the precious teaching of the definitive meaning disseminate into all times and directions and flourish. May [this] become the cause of quickly attaining the state of the precious Kagyu [masters] [for] all sentient beings beyond limits and [for] myself, who have [all] existed for a long time.”
Endnotes
[i] འདྲིད་བྱེད་ This can mean pulled in, or drawn in, or seduced/lured.
[ii] “Moonstone Water-Crystal Mālā”: Structure and Textual Witnesses of the Golden Garland of the Karma bKa brgyud by the Eighth Si tu, Chos kyi ’byung gnas (1699/1700–1774), and ’Be lo Tshe dbang kun khyab (1718–1790) Dominik Dell (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, and International Institute for Tibetan and Asian Studies, Vélez-Málaga) Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 66, April 2023, pp. 5-67.
[iii] “Gene Smith provides a general overview of Si tu’s life based on his diaries in the foreword to the above-mentioned edition by Lokesh Chandra in 1968.18 In 2000 the journal Lungta dedicated an issue to Situ with some articles.19 Another great step forward in shedding light on different aspects of Situ’s life and works was made when in 2013 a special issue of the Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (JIATS 7) was issued about him based on a preceding symposium at the Rubin Museum in New York.20 However, there are also a number of papers beyond those two issues.” Dell (2023).
[iv] འདྲིད་བྱེད་ This can mean pulled in, or drawn in, or seduced/lured.
[v] Tib. bu ram shing pa means sugar-caner. It is a literal translation of śākya, the name of the Buddha’s clan, and hence an epithet of the Buddha (see Duff 2009, bu ram shing pa).
[vi] Dell (2023: 40-41).