Sam Van Schaik
Biographic Data
| ID | 336421 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sam Van Schaik |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sam |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Schaik |
| SIGNATURE | VAN SCHAIK S |
| AFFILIATIONS | British Library |
| ORCID | 0009-0001-0901-0243 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Buddhist Magic and Vajrayāna
Key elements of the Vajrayāna, or tantric Buddhism, can be traced back to some of the earliest Buddhist scriptures, typically texts that give instructions for practices that culminate in worldly results, such as protection from supernatural beings, healing illness and curing poison, bringing rain, or ensuring the safe birth of children. These magical aspects of Buddhist practice include the recitation of spells (mantra and dhāraṇī), along with ot…
Sources of Tibetan Tradition and The Tibetan History Reader
Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Edited by Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Matthew T. Kapstein, and Gray Tuttle. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Pp. xxxvii + 810, 3 maps. $120 (cloth), $40 (paper). The Tibetan History Reader. Edited by Gray Tuttle and Kurtis R. Schaeffer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Pp. xxii + 720, 3 maps. $120 (cloth), $40 (paper
Fakes, Delusions, or the Real Thing: Albert Grünwedel’s Maps of Shambhala
The explorer Albert Grünwedel's Tibetan maps of Shambhala are a controversial and contested part of the history of the exploration of the Silk Routes. In the early 1900s Albert Grünwedel collected material related to archaeological sites at Kucha and Turfan including several Tibetan maps of the region, which he published in 1920 in the book Alt-Kutscha. Soon after publication, doubts were raised about the authenticity of the maps, which presented…
Dharma from the Sky: The Pangkong Prayer
The Gathering of Intentions: A History of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra , by Jacob P. Dalton
The Gathering of Intentions: A History of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, by Jacob P. Dalton. Columbia University Press, 2016. 272pp. Hb. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN-13: 9780231176002
Tibet
Situated north of the Himalayas, Tibet is famous for its unique culture and its controversial assimilation into modern China. Yet Tibet in the twenty-first century can only be properly understood in the context of its extraordinary history. Sam van Schaik brings the history of Tibet to life by telling the stories of the people involved, from the glory days of the Tibetan empire in the seventh century through to the present day. He explores the em…
Tibetan Buddhism in Central Asia: Geopolitics and Group Dynamics
Tibetan Buddhism has played an important role in Asian politics from the 8th century to the present day. It has provided an ideological underpinning and power status to a variety of Central Asian and Chinese empires, including the Mongol empires of inggiz Qan's (1162?-1227) heirs and the Manchu rulers of China's Qing Dynasty (1644-1912, ). While the geopolitical influence of Tibetan Buddhism during this time has waxed and waned over the centuries…
The Valley of Dantig and the myth of exile and return
The valley of Dantig in Amdo plays a central role in Tibetan Buddhist historical literature as the place where the monastic code was maintained during the tenth century after the dissolution of the monasteries in central Tibet. This article shows that a manuscript (now kept at the British Library) carried by a Chinese pilgrim monk through this region in the 960s, which mentions Dantig, is the only direct documentary evidence of Tibetan monastic c…
Writing, painting and sketching at Dunhuang: Assessing the materiality and function of early Tibetan manuscripts and ritual items
Married Monks: Buddhist Ideals and Practice in Kroraina
This article examines the documents recovered from the Central Asian kingdom of Kroraina (Chinese Shanshan 鄯鄯), from the third to fourth centuries, as rare records of the way Buddhism was adapted outside of India during the Gupta period. In particular, the evidence for the existence of married Buddhist monks (śramana) is examined, and the reasons why this situation might have developed are explored. The introduction examines in brief the evidence…
Witnesses for Tibetan Craftsmanship: Bringing Together Paper Analysis, Palaeography and Codicology in the Examination of the Earliest Tibetan Manuscripts
This study investigates the earliest surviving Tibetan paper, from the Dunhuang cave library, using paper fibre analysis combined with codicological, palaeographical and textual information. The hypotheses tested by this method concern the regional origins and production centres of early Tibetan paper and methods for dating this material. Using overlapping typologies, we classify a sample of manuscripts into coherent groups, relating them to part…
Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim
This study is based on a Sino-Tibetan manuscript from the late 960s, carried by a Chinese pilgrim through the Hexi corridor on his way from Wutaishan to India. Included is a series of Tibetan letters of introduction that functioned as a passport as the monk stopped in monasteries on his way. The manuscript is a unique contemporarytestimony of the large pilgrimage movement known from historical sources. It also provides evidence for the high degre…
The Stone Maitreya of Leh: The Rediscovery and Recovery of an Early Tibetan Monument
The rediscovery, conservation and repositioning of an ancient stone carved Buddha in Leh, Ladakh is one of the most important events in recent years for students of early Tibetan history and religion. Uncovering an inscription next to the carving has made it possible to date this artefact to the eleventh century or even earlier, while deciphering the inscription has confirmed that the figure should be identified as the Buddha Maitreya. This ident…
Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang: Rites and Teachings for This Life and Beyond
Esoteric Buddhism in late first millennium Tibet and China is nowhere in evidence so clearly as in materials from Dunhuang. In the original contributions presented here, Robert Mayer and Cathy Cantwell examine the consecrations of the wrathful divinity Vajrakīlaya, while Sam van Schaik considers approaches to the vows of tantric adepts. Philosophical interpretations of Mahāyoga inform Kammie Takahashi’s study of the ‘Questions of Vajrasattva’. Th…
Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang: Rites and Teachings for This Life and Beyond
"Esoteric Buddhism in late first millennium Tibet and China is nowhere in evidence so clearly as in materials from Dunhuang. In the original contributions presented here, Robert Mayer and Cathy Cantwell examine the consecrations of the wrathful divinity Vajrakilaya, while Sam van Schaik considers approaches to the vows of tantric adepts. Philosophical interpretations of Mahayoga inform Kammie Takahashi's study of the 'Questions of Vajrasattva'. T…
Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library
Approaching the great perfection: Simultaneous and gradual approaches to Dzogchen practice in Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtig
"Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is the highest meditative practice of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Approaching the Great Perfection looks at a seminal figure of this lineage, Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century scholar and meditation master whose cycle of teachings, the Longchen Nyingtig, has been handed down through generations as a complete path to enlightenment. Ten of Jigme Lingpa's texts are presented here, along with extensive a…
Great Perfection and the Chinese Monk: Rnying-Ma-Pa Defences of Hwa-Shang Mahayana in the Eighteenth Century
.
The Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts in China
Early in the twentieth century a hidden cache of manuscripts was discovered in the monastic cave complex of Dunhuang in Central Asia. The majority of the manuscripts, dating from the first millennium C.E., are in Chinese and Tibetan. The largest collections of Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang are in France and England. However, the fact that there are collections of almost equal size within China is hardly known outside of that country. In this …
Writing, painting and sketching at Dunhuang: Assessing the materiality and function of early Tibetan manuscripts and ritual items
The Valley of Dantig and the myth of exile and return
The valley of Dantig in Amdo plays a central role in Tibetan Buddhist historical literature as the place where the monastic code was maintained during the tenth century after the dissolution of the monasteries in central Tibet. This article shows that a manuscript (now kept at the British Library) carried by a Chinese pilgrim monk through this region in the 960s, which mentions Dantig, is the only direct documentary evidence of Tibetan monastic c…
The Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts in China
Early in the twentieth century a hidden cache of manuscripts was discovered in the monastic cave complex of Dunhuang in Central Asia. The majority of the manuscripts, dating from the first millennium C.E., are in Chinese and Tibetan. The largest collections of Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang are in France and England. However, the fact that there are collections of almost equal size within China is hardly known outside of that country. In this …
Great Perfection and the Chinese Monk: Rnying-Ma-Pa Defences of Hwa-Shang Mahayana in the Eighteenth Century
.
Approaching the great perfection: Simultaneous and gradual approaches to Dzogchen practice in Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtig
"Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is the highest meditative practice of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Approaching the Great Perfection looks at a seminal figure of this lineage, Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century scholar and meditation master whose cycle of teachings, the Longchen Nyingtig, has been handed down through generations as a complete path to enlightenment. Ten of Jigme Lingpa's texts are presented here, along with extensive a…
Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library
Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang: Rites and Teachings for This Life and Beyond
Esoteric Buddhism in late first millennium Tibet and China is nowhere in evidence so clearly as in materials from Dunhuang. In the original contributions presented here, Robert Mayer and Cathy Cantwell examine the consecrations of the wrathful divinity Vajrakīlaya, while Sam van Schaik considers approaches to the vows of tantric adepts. Philosophical interpretations of Mahāyoga inform Kammie Takahashi’s study of the ‘Questions of Vajrasattva’. Th…
Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang: Rites and Teachings for This Life and Beyond
"Esoteric Buddhism in late first millennium Tibet and China is nowhere in evidence so clearly as in materials from Dunhuang. In the original contributions presented here, Robert Mayer and Cathy Cantwell examine the consecrations of the wrathful divinity Vajrakilaya, while Sam van Schaik considers approaches to the vows of tantric adepts. Philosophical interpretations of Mahayoga inform Kammie Takahashi's study of the 'Questions of Vajrasattva'. T…
Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim
This study is based on a Sino-Tibetan manuscript from the late 960s, carried by a Chinese pilgrim through the Hexi corridor on his way from Wutaishan to India. Included is a series of Tibetan letters of introduction that functioned as a passport as the monk stopped in monasteries on his way. The manuscript is a unique contemporarytestimony of the large pilgrimage movement known from historical sources. It also provides evidence for the high degre…
The Stone Maitreya of Leh: The Rediscovery and Recovery of an Early Tibetan Monument
The rediscovery, conservation and repositioning of an ancient stone carved Buddha in Leh, Ladakh is one of the most important events in recent years for students of early Tibetan history and religion. Uncovering an inscription next to the carving has made it possible to date this artefact to the eleventh century or even earlier, while deciphering the inscription has confirmed that the figure should be identified as the Buddha Maitreya. This ident…
Witnesses for Tibetan Craftsmanship: Bringing Together Paper Analysis, Palaeography and Codicology in the Examination of the Earliest Tibetan Manuscripts
This study investigates the earliest surviving Tibetan paper, from the Dunhuang cave library, using paper fibre analysis combined with codicological, palaeographical and textual information. The hypotheses tested by this method concern the regional origins and production centres of early Tibetan paper and methods for dating this material. Using overlapping typologies, we classify a sample of manuscripts into coherent groups, relating them to part…
Writing, painting and sketching at Dunhuang: Assessing the materiality and function of early Tibetan manuscripts and ritual items
Married Monks: Buddhist Ideals and Practice in Kroraina
This article examines the documents recovered from the Central Asian kingdom of Kroraina (Chinese Shanshan 鄯鄯), from the third to fourth centuries, as rare records of the way Buddhism was adapted outside of India during the Gupta period. In particular, the evidence for the existence of married Buddhist monks (śramana) is examined, and the reasons why this situation might have developed are explored. The introduction examines in brief the evidence…
The Valley of Dantig and the myth of exile and return
The valley of Dantig in Amdo plays a central role in Tibetan Buddhist historical literature as the place where the monastic code was maintained during the tenth century after the dissolution of the monasteries in central Tibet. This article shows that a manuscript (now kept at the British Library) carried by a Chinese pilgrim monk through this region in the 960s, which mentions Dantig, is the only direct documentary evidence of Tibetan monastic c…
Tibetan Buddhism in Central Asia: Geopolitics and Group Dynamics
Tibetan Buddhism has played an important role in Asian politics from the 8th century to the present day. It has provided an ideological underpinning and power status to a variety of Central Asian and Chinese empires, including the Mongol empires of inggiz Qan's (1162?-1227) heirs and the Manchu rulers of China's Qing Dynasty (1644-1912, ). While the geopolitical influence of Tibetan Buddhism during this time has waxed and waned over the centuries…
Tibet
Situated north of the Himalayas, Tibet is famous for its unique culture and its controversial assimilation into modern China. Yet Tibet in the twenty-first century can only be properly understood in the context of its extraordinary history. Sam van Schaik brings the history of Tibet to life by telling the stories of the people involved, from the glory days of the Tibetan empire in the seventh century through to the present day. He explores the em…
Dharma from the Sky: The Pangkong Prayer
The Gathering of Intentions: A History of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra , by Jacob P. Dalton
The Gathering of Intentions: A History of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, by Jacob P. Dalton. Columbia University Press, 2016. 272pp. Hb. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN-13: 9780231176002
Sources of Tibetan Tradition and The Tibetan History Reader
Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Edited by Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Matthew T. Kapstein, and Gray Tuttle. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Pp. xxxvii + 810, 3 maps. $120 (cloth), $40 (paper). The Tibetan History Reader. Edited by Gray Tuttle and Kurtis R. Schaeffer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Pp. xxii + 720, 3 maps. $120 (cloth), $40 (paper
Fakes, Delusions, or the Real Thing: Albert Grünwedel’s Maps of Shambhala
The explorer Albert Grünwedel's Tibetan maps of Shambhala are a controversial and contested part of the history of the exploration of the Silk Routes. In the early 1900s Albert Grünwedel collected material related to archaeological sites at Kucha and Turfan including several Tibetan maps of the region, which he published in 1920 in the book Alt-Kutscha. Soon after publication, doubts were raised about the authenticity of the maps, which presented…
Buddhist Magic and Vajrayāna
Key elements of the Vajrayāna, or tantric Buddhism, can be traced back to some of the earliest Buddhist scriptures, typically texts that give instructions for practices that culminate in worldly results, such as protection from supernatural beings, healing illness and curing poison, bringing rain, or ensuring the safe birth of children. These magical aspects of Buddhist practice include the recitation of spells (mantra and dhāraṇī), along with ot…
History (17 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (15 works) · Ancient history (13 works) · Art (12 works) · Buddhism (12 works) · Archaeology (11 works) · Indian and Buddhist Studies (10 works) · Geography (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Eurasian Exchange Networks (6 works)