Intermediate Classical Literary Tibetan:
Readings from literary Tibetan
Intermediate Tibetan has three parts.
- expose students to progressively more complex Tibetan sentences;
- acquire vocabulary from the major areas of study; and
- gain a philosophical background to serve as a basis for further study.
As we start reading Tibetan books, we'll look at a wide range of topics. When
students have initially learned to read Tibetan through being exposed to many
topics, they are well prepared to study topics of interest in detail later.
Collected Topics
 For students interested in
reading philosophy in Tibetan, I begin reading with a well-known example of the
Collected Topics literature, The Explanation of "The Introductory Path of
Reasoning" in Pur-bu-jok Jam-ba-gya-tso's The Presentation of Collected
Topics Revealing the Meaning of the Texts on Valid Cognition, the Magical Key to
the Path of Reasoning. We will read selections from several chapters.
Minds and Awareness
Students then move on to an Awareness and Knowledge text, usually Jam-pel-sam-pel's
Presentation of Awareness and Knowledge, Composite of All the Important
Points, Opener of the Eye of New Intelligence. This text is about 25 sides
long. It is rich in the vocabulary of Buddhist epistemology.
Brief Exposition of Tenets
I encourage students then to read Gon-chok-jik-may-wang-bo's short book on
non-Buddhist and Buddhist tenets. This text takes a few months to read. It is a
wonderful source for the vocabulary on philosophical matters which will be
studied in depth later.
This initial phase usually takes about a year, depending on a student's
abilities and the time she has to devote to study.
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