The THESAURUS LITERATURAE BUDDHICAE (TLB) is a multilingual presentation of Buddhist literature sentence by sentence in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, English, etc.

 

 

The Thesaurus Literaturae Buddhicae is dedicated to the great scholar

 

Étienne Lamotte

 

on whom a whole generation of Buddhist scholars depends for his immense work on Buddhism.

 

 

 

 

Étienne Paul Marie Lamotte (1903-1983) was a Professor of Greek at the Catholic University of Louvain, but spent most of his time making the rich literature of Mahāyāna Buddhism available to the Western scholarly world, employing sources in Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan. The picture of Lamotte as reproduced here was taken by Professor Pierre Jodogne the 29th of August 1979 outside the family country house of Professor Lamotte in Ave-et-Auffe (Namur, Belgium). Upon being asked whether he believed in the Buddhist teachings he studied, Lamotte answered: “What Lamotte means is not important.” Indeed his legacy has enormous importance. Professor Jodogne kindly gave me this picture in 2009.

 

 

The texts of the TLB can be accessed:

 

The TLB is a cumulative work with its origin connected to the Norwegian Institute of Philology. The materials so far comprise:

 

-Sūtra (Individual texts):

-Sūtra Collections

Buddhāvataṃsaka (BA):

• 11: Proto-Buddhāvataṃsaka (Buddhanāmanirdeśa): Chi(2)/Tib/San(rec);
• 30: Daśabhūmikasūtra: San/Chi2/Tib/Eng/Vyā(chi)/Vyā(tib);
• 42-44: Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra: San/Chi/Tib.

Prajñāpāramitā (PP):

• Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā: San/Tib/Gān/Kuṣ/Chi(3)/Eng;
• Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya: San(4)/Chi(7)/Tib(2)/Eng(3);
• Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā: San/Chi/Tib/Eng;
• Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā: San/Chi(7)/Tib/Mon/Eng.

Ratnakūṭa/Mahāratnakūṭa (RK):

• 12: Bodhisatvapiṭaka: Tib/Chi/Eng;
• 12: Bodhisatvapiṭaka, BMSC IV, Tibetan: Tib;
• 31: Gaṅgottaraparipṛcchā: Tib/Chi/Eng;
• 43: Kāśyapaparivarta: San/Chi(4)/Tib.

-Vinaya (Discipline)

Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya (MSV):

• 1,00: Vinayavastūddāna: Tib;
• 1,01: Pravrajyāvastu: San, Tib;
• 1,02: Poṣadhavastu: San, Tib;
• 1,03: Pravāraṇāvastu: San, Tib, Chi;
• 1,04: Varṣāvastu: San, Tib, Chi;
• 1,05: Carmavastu: San, Tib, Chi;
• 1,06: Bhaiṣajyavastu: Tib;
• 1,07: Cīvaravastu: San/Tib;
• 1,08: Kaṭhinavastu: Tib;
• 1,09: Kośāmbakavastu: Tib;
• 1,10: Karmavastu: San/Tib/Eng;
• 1,11: Pāṇḍulohitakavastu: San/Tib/Comments;
• 1,12: Pudgalavastu: San/Tib/Eng;
• 1,13: Pārivāsikavastu: San/Tib/Eng;
• 1,14: Poṣadhasthāpanavastu: San/Tib;
• 1,15: Śayanāsanavastu: Tib;
• 1,16: Adhikaraṇavastu: Tib;
• 1,17: Saṃghabhedavastu: Tib;
• 2,0: Prātimokṣasūtra: San/Tib/Chi/Eng;
• 2,01: Vinayavibhaṅga: Tib;
• 3,0: Bhikṣuṇīprātimokṣa: San/Chi/Tib;
• 3,01: Bhikṣuṇīvibhaṅga: Tib;
• 4,00: Kṣudrakavastu: Tib;
• 5,00: Uttaragrantha 1: Tib;
• 6,00: Uttaragrantha 2: Tib;
• 6,01: Upāliparipṛcchā: Tib;
• 6,02: Vinīta: Tib;
• 6,03: Ekottara: Tib;
• 6,04: Pañcaka: Tib;
• 6,05: Ṣoḍaśaka: Tib;
• 6,06: Nidāna: Tib;
• 6,07: Muktaka: Tib;
• 6,08: Kathāvastu: Tib;
• 6,09: Māṇavika: San/Tib/Chi(2)/Eng;
• 6,10: Mātṛkā: Tib;
• 7,00: Conclusion: Tib;
• Saṅghabhedavastu: San/Chi/Tib.

-Abhidharma (Commentaries):

• Asaṅga/Maitreya: Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra: San/Chi/Tib/Fre;
• Asaṅga/Maitreya: Ratnagotravibhāga: San/Chi/Tib/Eng;
• Asaṅga: Abhidharmasamuccaya: San/Chi/Tib/Eng;
• Asaṅga: Triśatikāyāḥ Prajñāpāramitāyāḥ Kārikāsaptatiḥ: San/Chi(2)/Tib/Eng;
• Candrakīrti: Madhyamakāvatāra: San/Tib/Eng/Tib-ṭ;
• Nāgārjuna: Mūlamadhyamakakārikā: San/Chi/Tib/Eng(2)/commentaries(5);
• Nāgārjuna: Ratnāvalī: San/Chi/Tib/Eng/TibCom;
• Nāgārjuna: Vigrahavyāvartanīvṛtti: San/Chi/Tib/Eng;
• Śāntideva: Bodhicaryāvatāra: San/Chi/Tib(2)/Mon/Fre/Eng;
• Unknown: Dhammapada: Pāl/Gān/Pra/Chi/Lat/Eng;
• Unknown: Udānavarga: San/Chi/Tib/Eng;
• Vasubandhu: Abhidharmakośabhāṣya: San/Chi(2)/Tib/Eng (first and second chapter complete; beginning of third);
• Vasubandhu: Triṃśikāvijñapti: San/Chi/Tib/Eng
• Viśeṣamitra: Vinayasaṃgraha: San/Chi.

-Stotra (Praises):

-Miscellaneous:

• Schøyen Collection: Brāhmī
• Schøyen Collection: Brāhmī, published
• Schøyen Collection: Khāroṣṭhī

• Grammar of Buddhist Chinese
• Mahāvyutpatti with sGra sbyor bam po gñis pa: San/Chi/Tib/Eng.

 

Students and scholars are cordially invited to input their favourite Buddhist texts and to contribute any material to the project. At the University of Oslo, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental languages, seminars are conducted for students and scholars to study the necessary multilingual philology of Buddhism. Those who might wish to participate in the seminars or the TLB project, and those who would like to have more information on the TLB, may contact jens.braarvig@philology.no or fredrik.liland@philology.no. Any comments and corrections are also very much welcomed.

 

Relevant lexical resources: DDBC glossaries project; Digital Dictionary of Buddhism; Linguamongolia Dictionary; Monier Williams Sanskrit Dictionary; Thesaurus Linguae Sericae; THL Tibetan Dictionary.

 

Textual resources: ACIP; Buddhist Digital Resource Center; CBETA; GRETIL; Indoskript; Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies; SAT Daizōkyō Text Database; The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue; THL Kangyur.

 

The copyrights for all the texts in the Bibliotheca Polyglotta belong to Jens Braarvig and the Norwegian Institute of Philology. Any fair use of the texts is allowed under general Open Access conditions. 

The Bibliotheca Polyglotta application is Copyright 2007-2022 University of Oslo, Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology, Jens Braarvig, Asgeir Nesøen, and released under the GNU General Public License version 3.