Grains of Gold
Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler
In 1941, philosopher and poet Gendun Chopel (1903-1951) sent a large manuscript by ship, train, and yak across mountains and deserts to his homeland in the northeastern corner of Tibet. He would follow it five years later, returning to his native land after twelve years in India and Sri Lanka. But he did not receive the welcome he imagined: he was arrested by the government of the regent of the young Dalai Lama on trumped-up charges of treason. He emerged from prison three years later a broken man and died soon after.
Gendun Chopel was a prolific writer during his short life. Yet he considered that manuscript, which he titled "Grains of Gold", to be his life's work, one to delight his compatriots with tales of an ancient Indian and Tibetan past, while alerting them to the wonders and dangers of the strikingly modern land abutting Tibet's southern border, the British colony of India. Now available for the first time in English, "Grains of Gold" is a unique compendium of South Asian and Tibetan culture that combines travelogue, drawings, history, and ethnography. Gendun Chopel describes the world he discovered in South Asia, from the ruins of the sacred sites of Buddhism to the Sanskrit classics he learned to read in the original. He is also sharply, often humorously critical of the Tibetan love of the fantastic, bursting one myth after another and finding fault with the accounts of earlier Tibetan pilgrims. Exploring a wide range of cultures and religions central to the history of the region, Gendun Chopel is eager to describe all the new knowledge he gathered in his travels to his Buddhist audience in Tibet.
At once the account of the experiences of a tragic figure in Tibetan history and the work of an extraordinary scholar, "Grains of Gold" is an accessible, compelling work animated by a sense of discovery of both a distant past and a strange present.
Contents
Introduction by Thupten Jinpa and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
1. First, How I Set Out from Lhasa
2. General Formation of the Land of India and How It Acquired Its Name
3. How the Lands Were Given Their Names
4. The Snow Mountains of the North and Analysis of Related Issues
5. What the Famous Places of the Past Are Like
6. On Men, Women, Food, Drink, and Various Apparel
7. Identification of Various Species of Flowers and Trees and How to Recognize Them
8. Writing Systems of Various Regions of Past and Present
9. On the Linguistic Rules of the Tibetan Language
10. The Inscriptions of the Dharma King Asoka Carved on the Rock Face of Mount Girnar
11. The Gupta Dynasty
12. The Pala Dynasty
13. From 1,600 Years after the Passing of the Buddha to the Present
14. On the History of Singhala
15. On the Conditions and the Customs of the Tibetan People in Ancient Times
16. The Religion of the Tirthikas
17. Conclusion
Appendix A: Tibetan Transliteration
Appendix B: Glossary of Terms
Acknowledgments
NotesIndex
About the Author
Gendun Chopel (1903-1951) was born in northeast Tibet as British troops were preparing to invade his homeland. Identified at any early age as the incarnation of a famous lama, he became a Buddhist monk, excelling in the debating courtyards of the great monasteries of Tibet. At the age of thirty-one, he gave up his monk's vows and set off for India, where he would wander, often alone and impoverished, for over a decade. Returning to Tibet, he was arrested by the government of the young Dalai Lama on trumped-up charges of treason, emerging from prison three years later a broken man. He died in 1951 as troops of the People's Liberation Army marched into Lhasa.
Reviews
"Gendun Chopel's 'Grains of Gold' is the magnum opus of arguably the single most brilliant Tibetan scholar of the twentieth century, and the team of Donald S. Lopez Jr. and renowned translator Thupten Jinpa is the ideal combination of talents to expertly render it into faithful but accessible English. This excellent translation will be enthusiastically (and gratefully) welcomed by both scholars and general readers" – Lauran Hartley, Columbia University
"It is a delight to welcome the English translation of 'Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler', by Tibet's towering intellectual figure of the twentieth century, Gendun Chopel. He considered this among his best works, and it will remain a part of his rich contribution to the cultural and literary heritage of Tibet" – Kasur Tenzin N. Tethong, Director of Tibetan Service, Radio Free Asia
"An extraordinary travel journal / historical essay by Tibet's outstanding intellectual and artist of the twentieth century. Translated with grace and precision, 'Grains of Gold' gives us a rare glimpse of how Asian religion and life appeared from the perspective of the Tibetan plateau. We hear in this work a brilliant and entirely original voice, meditating on tradition and modernity and all that they mean on the eve of the end of the world as he knew it" – Janet Gyatso, Harvard University
"Gendun Chopel, scholar, monk and traveler, was one of the greatest Tibetan intellectual figures of the twentieth century. 'Grains of Gold' is one of his finest literary works dealing with his travels in India, a country central to the Tibetan Buddhist world. Thupten Jinpa and Donald S. Lopez Jr. have provided the first translation of his magnum opus, one that beautifully retains and invokes Gedun Chopel's sense of amusement and critical engagement with his surroundings. It serves as an indispensable source for students, scholars, and general readers of Tibetan literary history" – Tsering Shakya, President of the International Association for Tibetan Studies
