Rondon Dorjee Zhuoga, the guardian of ancient Tibetan medicine books: The heart does not quit

Langdong Dorjee Zhuoga (left) briefs the leaders of the Tibetan University of Tibetan Medicine on the collation of ancient tibetan medicine books. Reporter Xiao Yong photographed

On the morning of November 21, 2021, the expert discussion meeting before the publication of the 61 to 70 volumes of the Rare Books of Chinese Tibetan Medicine was held at the Tibet University of Tibetan Medicine.

"According to the plan, the tasks for 2021 are completed and everything is proceeding in an orderly manner." Langdong Dorji Zhuoga, deputy editor-in-chief of the series of "Rare Books of Chinese Tibetan Medicine Photocopied Ancient Books" and the main person in charge of the project, said that in the process of sorting out and publishing this series of books, many difficulties and challenges were encountered, including the incomplete pages of some ancient books, the chronology and authors could not be verified. Therefore, with a rigorous academic attitude and realistic scientific methods, the research group has held expert demonstration meetings many times, especially before each publication, experts must be invited to review.

Just on November 12, 2021, a press conference held by the Information Office of the People's Government of the Autonomous Region was held in Lhasa: as of January 2021, after 11 years, the Rare Books of Chinese Tibetan Medicine Photocopy have been published and distributed in 60 volumes. This is one of the major scientific research achievements in the field of Tibetan medicine in the past ten years, which has effectively rescued and protected the ancient books and documents of Tibetan medicine.

In the long historical inheritance of Tibetan medicine, it has created ancient books with a large volume, a wide range of contents, and different shapes. At present, the total number of surviving Tibetan ancient books in the country is about one million letters, of which about two-thirds are collected in Tibet, but due to historical and other reasons, the existence of these ancient books is unclear, the task of protecting ancient books is arduous, and there is a lack of protection talents.

Since the establishment of the Tibet University of Tibetan Medicine, Langdong Dorji Zhuoga has served as a librarian in the library of the school, she has taken the collection and collation of ancient Tibetan medicine texts as a mission, under the deep concern of the party and the government, the full support of the leaders of successive schools, and the active help of all sectors of society, especially volunteers, and finally from the 8th century to the 20th century AD, involving Tibetan medicine, Tibetan medicine, astronomical almanac, Buddhism and many other disciplines covering different sects, different versions, different eras, Nearly 5,000 volumes of ancient books with different contents have been sorted and classified into seven major parts, such as famous anthologies, monographs, and comprehensive categories, and catalogs have been compiled.

This is the result of Langdong Dorji Droga's first intimate contact with ancient texts. Since then, she has devoted her mind to the collection and collation of ancient Tibetan medicine books, and has become the guardian of Tibet's veritable tibetan medicine ancient books.

She smiled and said, "I seem to have been born to live for the cause of collecting and sorting ancient books, and I have a strong interest in it, so I have no time to take care of other things." ”

During this period, she presided over the compilation of a detailed catalogue of 1 to 54 volumes and an abbreviation catalogue of 2 volumes, mainly "Kangyur" and "Tengyur", which is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference tool for reflecting Tibetan ancient books in the world's similar literature.

She was named the "Model Figure of Chinese Libraries" in 2013 for creating the unique Department of Special Collections of the Tibetan University of Tibetan Medicine. To this day, she is the only librarian in Tibet to receive this honor.

In December 2013, "Rare Books of Chinese Tibetan Medicine Photocopied Ancient Books" was published by the Tibet People's Publishing House in the form of luxury hardcover and ordinary hardcover editions in 1 to 30 volumes, funded by the State Publishing Fund. These 30 volumes have won a number of literature or scientific and technological awards at the national and autonomous region levels; in January 2021, with the special funding of the publication of ethnic characters, the Tibet People's Publishing House published 31-60 volumes in the form of ordinary hardcover copies. The 60 volumes published contain a total of 1,434 kinds of ancient books, more than 83,000 pages, and more than 45 million words. It covers three major categories, including ancient texts reflecting the Tubo period, the eight branches of the heart and its annotated documents after the 11th century, and the four medical classics and their annotated documents.

From the beginning of the establishment of the Tibetan Medicine and Astronomical Calendar Ancient Book Collation Research Group of the Tibet University of Tibetan Medicine, Langdong Dorji Zhuoga, who was nearly a flower armour at the time, served as the main person in charge of the project and served as the deputy editor of the series.

She said: "Since receiving the support of national publishing funds in 2013, one of the proposals I have always insisted on is that we must publish photocopied editions, maximize the original appearance of ancient books, retain the originality, authenticity and integrity of ancient books, and make 'orphan books' no longer unique." ”

For more than ten years, Langdong Dorjee Zhuoga and the members of the research group have carried the determination to "believe that they have no credibility than not to believe in it", traveled to most of the townships and villages in the 74 counties (districts) of the region, and also tried every means to search for ancient tibetan medicine books throughout the country, traveling more than 80,000 kilometers, collecting more than 10,000 kinds of ancient books and documents of more than 500,000 pages. Among them, there are many rare handwritten editions of orphans, rare books, and rare books.

Speaking of the process of searching for and collecting ancient books, Langdong Dorjee Zhuoga waved his hand and said, "The difficulties encountered are unimaginable to you. The distribution of ancient Tibetan medicine books is extremely scattered and difficult to accurately investigate; on the other hand, both units and individuals regard the ancient books they collect as treasures and refuse to show them easily. Some ancient books are still cultural relics, and they are even less easy to see. ”

Over the years, Langdong Dorjee Choga found that in Tibet, the personal collection of ancient Tibetan medicine texts is actually better preserved than in temples. Therefore, the research group generally first inquires about where there are ancient books through people they know, and does not give up "tracking" all the way as soon as they find "clues". After confirming through field research, she repeatedly communicated with the person or unit that collected the ancient books, and with consent, she carried out the preliminary work with people and photocopying equipment.

"The mood on the road to research often ranges from hope to excitement or disappointment," she said. No clue is part of the difficulty, and once the goal is determined, we have to rely on more tenacious perseverance to search for the required part of Tibetan medicine from thousands of pages of ancient books like a needle in a haystack. ”

Not long ago, Langdong Dorjee Zhuoga followed the clues provided by others and went to the countryside of Mozhu Gongka, Lin Zhou, Nimu, Nan mu lin and other counties to investigate. She said that these places will definitely have to go back a few times. "Generally after confirmation, it takes three or four trips to have substantial results." She explains.

In early 2017, 60-year-old Langdong Dorjee Droga was approved to stop holding a position at the Tibetan University of Tibetan Medicine after submitting his ninth retirement application. But her busy footsteps did not stop there. In order to collect and sort out ancient Tibetan medicine books, the 66-year-old is still running on the road of collecting, sorting, restoring, protecting, photocopying and publishing ancient Tibetan medicine books. She said: "We are confident that we will complete the collection and publication of 61 to 100 volumes in 5 years. ”

Speaking of the original intention, there is always a natural certainty in the tone of Langdong Dorji Zhuoga: "My original intention is to protect the ancient Tibetan medicine books and astronomical almanac documents left by the ancestors, and contribute to the inheritance development and research and utilization of the current and future generations." The ultimate goal is to carry forward the treasure of excellent traditional Chinese culture, and hope that Tibetan medicine will make more and greater contributions to human health. ”

Let the words written in the ancient books come alive. From searching and collecting to publishing and distribution, "Rare Books of Chinese Tibetan Medicine Photocopy" has undergone more than 30 processes such as scanning, restoration, color printing, proofreading, and typesetting. Langdong Dorjee Choga said that the protection of non-renewable ancient book resources is the primary issue. The research group has always adhered to the basic principle of "equal emphasis on protection and utilization", with the help of modern technical means, non-contact scanning, and repair by computer, effectively avoiding the secondary destruction of ancient books.

From 2020 onwards, Langdong Dorjee Zhuoga has completed the publication of a series of books on "Rare Books of Chinese Tibetan Medicine Photocopy", and has begun to compile a catalogue that combines the traditional Tibetan catalogue compilation method with the modern book catalogue theory. "This work has to be done closely after that," she says. From a library perspective, the preparation of a bibliographic catalogue is crucial and will be greatly accessible to readers and researchers. ”

At the same time, with the use of 1 million yuan in 5 years funded by the China Association for the Protection of Ancient Books, the research group is vigorously promoting the digitization of ancient Tibetan medicine materials, laying the foundation for the establishment of the world's largest Tibetan medicine astronomical calendar ancient book information center for Tibet University of Tibetan Medicine.

Langdong Dorjee Choga said: "One should believe that all the efforts in this life are worth it. She laughed again as she said this.

Source: China Tibet News Network