Fine Arts Doxcat

Tibetan Texts > Bstan ’gyur > Bstan ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Fine Arts

(3.7) Treatises on the Arts and Technologies (d.4341 - d.4355; 15 texts)

By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)

There are fifteen works in the Arts and Technologies (བཟོ་རིག་, bzo rig) section, arranged according to subject. This is a short section, amounting to only ninety-nine folios. The topics are varied, and include alchemy, iconometry, incense, astrology, and divination.

The Rasasiddhisāstra (D.4341) is a short work on quicksilver translated in the thirteenth century by Orgyenpa Rinchenpel (ཨོ་རྒྱན་པ་རིན་ཆེན་དཔལ་, o rgyan pa rin chen dpal, 1235-1280), while the next is an even shorter work on transmuting objects into gold (D.4342). Rinchenpel also translated a short work on alchemy (D.4346), which is placed several works apart from these two.

The next several works treat the iconometric proportions of Buddhas and other Indian holy figures in painting (D.4343-D.4345). Two works on the manufacture of incense follow (D.4347-D.4348). The final works of the section deal with divination of one sort or another (D.4349-D.4355). Most prominent here are the tantra on astrology, the Yuddajaya Tantra (D.4350), and associated works (D.4354 and D.4355).