Rahul Sankrityayan, Tsetan Phuntsog and Tibetan Textbooks for Ladakh in 1933

HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 39 Number 2 Article 11 March 2020 Rahul Sankrityayan, Tsetan Phuntsog and Tibetan Textbooks for Ladakh in 1933 John Bray International Association for Ladakh Studies, Martijn van Beek University of Aarhus, Tsering Gonkatsang University of Oxford Phuntsok Wangchuk Hong Kong University, Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Bray, John; van Beek, Martijn; Gonkatsang, Tsering; and Wangchuk, Phuntsok. 2020. Rahul Sankrityayan, Tsetan Phuntsog and Tibetan Textbooks for Ladakh in 1933. HIMALAYA 39(2). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss2/11 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Research Article is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact . Rahul Sankrityayan, Tsetan Phuntsog and Tibetan Textbooks for Ladakh in 1933 Acknowledgements The original stimulus for the research leading to this paper was the conference on “Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963): Maha Pandita in the Land of Snow” at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts “New Delhi” in March 2018. For help in tracking down sources, the authors are grateful to: Zhidey Kundan, Thsespal Kundan, Naomi Sonam, Sonam Phuntsog (Achinathang), Nawang Tsering Shakspo, Rigzin Chodon, Isrun Engelhardt, Bettina Zeisler, Diane Lange, Hartmut Walravens and the staffs of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Dharamsala), the University Library in Leipzig, and the State Library in Berlin. The authors thank Lorraine Parsons of Moravian Church House, London, for permission to publish the photographs of Joseph Gergan and Tsetan Phuntsog; and Jaya Sankrityayana for the photograph of her father in Figure 3. Finally, John Bray would like to express particular appreciation for the work of our coauthor Tsering Gonkatsang (1951-2018), who never lived to see the final version. In his combined role as a teacher and Tibetan linguist, Tsering approached the topic of this article with particular interest and enthusiasm. This research article is available in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss2/11 Rahul Sankrityayan, Tsetan Phuntsog, and Tibetan Textbooks for Ladakh in 1933 John Bray Martijn van Beek Tsering Gonkatsang† Phuntsok Wangchuk Historically, Ladakh has shared a common literary heritage with Tibet. The spoken language is closely related to Tibetan and in earlier times both Buddhist religious texts and administrative documents were writen in Tibetan script. However, the region has been politically aligned with South Asia since the mid-19th century. Nearly half its indigenous population are Muslims, and its inhabitants have been exposed to a range of other linguistic infuences, notably from Urdu, Hindi and English. Successive generations of local scholars have therefore struggled with the question how best to preserve and promote Ladakh’s literary connection with the wider Tibetan Buddhist cultural arena. In this essay we show how the Indian scholar and social activist Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963) sought to meet this challenge, working together with his Ladakhi colleague Tsetan Phuntsog (1907-1973). In 1933 the two men compiled a set of four readers and a grammar. The books were innovative in that—unlike traditional Tibetan educational materials—they were graded 74 | HIMALAYA Fall 2019 according to the levels of achievement of children studying in diferent classes. Moreover, they were printed by the Baptist Mission Press in Calcuta (Kolkata) using a font developed by a Christian missionary. The contents included original articles and poetry by Ladakhi authors, as well as selections from Aesop’s fables, local folksongs and extracts from the work of the Tibetan lama Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251). The language is literary Tibetan rather than Ladakhi colloquial. The essay is based on a close examination of the readers and the grammar, as well as associated archival materials. It begins with a review of earlier Western-style Tibetan-language textbooks before presenting a detailed analysis of the contents of the 1933 books. In conclusion, we review more recent linguistic developments in Ladakh. Ladakhi textbooks in Tibetan script are still aligned with literary Tibetan rather than the spoken language. Keywords: Ladakh, education, textbooks, modernization, Tibetan, language. Introduction In 1933 the Indian scholar and social activist Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963) compiled a set of four Tibetan-language readers and a grammar for use in Ladakhi schools, together with his Ladakhi colleague, Tsetan Phuntsog (Tshe brtan phun tshogs, 1908-1973). The readers contain a mix of material from Western, Indian, Ladakhi, and Tibetan sources. They include simple essays about ‘air’ and ‘water,’ selections from Aesop’s fables, Indian folk stories, biographies of famous people in Ladakhi and Tibetan history, poems by Ladakhi authors, and extracts from the Treasury of Elegant Sayings by the Tibetan lama Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (Sa skya paN+Di ta kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, 1182-1251). These books represent a distinctive literary and scholarly achievement that is representative of a particular period in the history of Ladakh. They also touch on a number of wider themes that are still highly topical. These include the relationship between religion and language: to what extent should written Tibetan be seen as a language for Buddhists rather than members of other communities? What is the most appropriate style of writing in a region like Ladakh, where the colloquial language differs markedly from literary Tibetan? How should this language be taught to school children? To set the books in their historical context, we begin this essay with a review of earlier Tibetan schoolbooks published in British India, and then discuss the circumstances that led to Sankrityayan’s involvement with the Ladakh textbooks. In the second part of the essay, we examine the contents of the readers and the grammar. Finally, we briefly review linguistic developments in Ladakh since their publication. Our overall argument is that the ‘hybrid’ quality of the textbooks represents a creative response to the cultural challenges of twentieth century modernization in Ladakh. However, even now, these challenges are at best only partly resolved. Earlier Publications by Moravian Missionaries To our knowledge, the first Western-style Tibetan textbooks for schoolchildren were prepared by German missionaries from the Moravian church, who (...truncated)