The present English translation of the Chinese text is a milestone in the understanding of this root-text of the carya-tantras. Prof. Yamamoto has widened the field of Tantric studies. He is fully conscious of its imperfections and presents it as a catalyst to fresh interpretation. It has to be followed by a critical translation based on the comparison of the Chinese and Tibetan versions, along with their commentaries.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chikyo Yamamoto
Prof. Chikyo Yamamoto is the doyen of Japanese scholars of Buddhist art. Born in 1910, he studied at the Koyasan University under one of the foremost art-historians of Japan Prof. Gemmyo Ono, a co-editor of the last twelve volumes 89-100 of the Taisho edition of the Chinese Tripitaka on Buddhist iconography. From 1936 to 1939 he studied Sanskrit and Gandharodyana Art with the leading Indologist Prof. Raghu Vira at Lahore and worked on the iconometry of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas for his Ph.D. For this he traveled to all the archaeological sites in India, and took over ten thousand photographs. He translated the :'Inde Classique into Japanese. Among his recent English works are Introduction to the Mandala (Kyoto, 1980), History of Mantrayana in Japan (New Delhi, 1987), Mahavairocana-Sutra (New Delhi, 1990) translated from Chinese into English, and the present book. He has completed a "History of Indian Art" in Japanese with 2,000 photographs, and is currently engaged in translating the works of Kobo Daishi at the age of eighty springs. Professor emeritus at the Koyasan University and formerly Director of the Reihokan Museum, Koyasan.
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