A revised version of this article by Tina Faulk and Andrew Gosling was published as Collecting Karma in National Library of Australia News, 9(7), April 1999, pp 3-7
Buddhism, which forms a major cultural link between the peoples of Asia from India to the Pacific, is well represented in the National Librarys Asian and English language collections. The historical Buddha, known as Sakyamuni, lived around 500 BC in northern India. He taught that to attain enlightenment all desire and attachment the root of illusion and suffering must be extinguished. Only then will one be able to attain the freedom called Nirvana. He rejected the extremes of hedonism and self-mortification, and preached the Middle Way of no suffering and no pleasure. He also stressed compassion towards other humans and all sentient beings.
His teachings spread widely across Asia over a period of centuries, absorbing many other beliefs along the way. The Buddhism of China, Japan and Korea, for example, differs considerably from that of Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, which remains closer to the early teachings.
Around the first century BC, Buddhism began to develop a sacred literature, originally written in two related Indo-European languages, Pali and Sanskrit. The Buddhist Scriptures are known as the Tripitaka (meaning literally three baskets) consisting of the disciplines for monastic life, the major teachings and scholars commentaries on the teachings.
The Khmer language Tripitaka is the rarest edition of the Buddhist Scriptures held by the Library. It is believed to be one of only a handful remaining after the wholesale destruction of books during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia (1975-79). The Librarys set had been purchased in 1970 as part of the Coedes collection on Indochina. Professor Georges Coedes was director of lEcole Francaise dExtreme Orient, and had collected widely during his long career in former French Indochina.
Another historic Buddhist treasure is preserved in the Librarys cold store. Its delicate pages are held together in the ancient Chinese manner with waxed orange thread, and enclosed between heavier waxed paper covers. This is the Korean Tripitaka, the Koryo Taejang Gyong, 1,340 volumes of a Korean edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon which, popular legend says, was brought to China from India by the monk, Tripitaka. Researchers who wish to view the Korean Tripitaka must give 24 hours notice to Asian Collections, but the extra preparation time is well worthwhile, to view the volumes, produced from woodblocks dated from 1251, blocks still used by the monks of the Haeinsa Temple in south eastern Korea. The Tripitaka contains 1,524 texts in 6,558 chapters and was first published in 1011AD.
The Librarys copy is one of only eight copies made from the original woodblocks and bound in the same size as the original. Both the woodblocks and the temple complex in which they are held are regarded by Koreans as among their countrys most precious cultural assets.
Probably the most beautifully produced Buddhist text is the Nyingma edition of the Tibetan Tripitaka. The Librarys set is from a limited edition of 100 numbered copies. These books with flame-orange bindings were produced by Tibetan Buddhist monks, exiled after the Chinese takeover of Tibet, who took refuge first in India and later in California.
In his preface, Abbot Tarthang Tulku explained, Soon after arriving in India in 1959, I began to explore ways of preserving the Tibetan heritage of sacred texts and teachings. In 1963, while teaching at the Sanskrit University in Varanasi [India], I was able to acquire a small printing press and with the help of others who shared the same concern, commenced the publication of the Dharma texts important to the Tibetan tradition. When I came to America in 1969, I continued with plans for producing a modern edition of the Canon that would preserve and honour the teachings and promote their study.
The Librarys materials relating to Buddhism range over many aspects including its social and political dimensions. From Thailand, an overwhelmingly Buddhist country, the Library has a major set of cremation volumes. These uniquely Thai publications are produced in limited numbers to honour a deceased person, and are distributed at his or her funeral. They contain a short biography, tributes from family and friends, and often extracts from the subjects own writings, a favourite piece of literature, or something concerning a topic which has been of special interest. Cremation volumes are particularly valuable as they often contain information about important people which is not found elsewhere, and for historians they provide a rare and personal insight into the subjects life and times.
The form of Buddhism which is perhaps best known in the West is Zen. This school arose in China but then flourished particularly in Japan. Zen, with its emphasis on meditation, has had a considerable influence in twentieth century Europe, North America and Australia. This was largely due to the Japanese scholar D.T. Suzuki, whose writings are strongly represented in the Librarys collections. The Asian and English language holdings cover many aspects of Zen from philosophy and psychology to literature, the arts, gardening and the Japanese tea ceremony.
One of the most eyecatching artefacts displayed in the National Library is a lifesized seated golden Buddha, characteristic of representations found in India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, a donation, along with a substantial collection of books, from the Australian Buddhist Library in 1987.
For several years the Liao family and other benefactors had been building up the Australian Buddhist Library housed in Sydneys Chinatown and open to the public. In order to give it a more secure future the collection was donated to the National Library. The move to Canberra involved careful packing of the 3000 books, which included editions of the scriptures in Chinese, English, Pali, Burmese and Thai and the bronze replica of a twelfth century Thai Buddha weighing 184 kilograms.
For the Liao family, the motivation for donating the collection to the Library rather than to a temple was that it would be more easily accessible to scholars and readers interested in Buddhist philosophy and religion. Books from the Australian Buddhist Library may be borrowed by inter-library loan. They are housed on the Third Floor adjacent to the Asian Collections Reading Room, and may be accessed from there. For the benefit of researchers, the Library offers a useful catalogue listing publications in the collection. This is available from Asian Collections.
The Burmese-Pali Tripitaka in the Australian Buddhist Library collection deserves special mention. Its original was taken from a series of marble engravings ordered in 1856 by King Mindon, founder of Burmas royal city of Mandalay and Governor of the Fifth Buddhist Synod. The Librarys copy was made by means of ink and stone rubbings, a lengthy and painstaking task, for the original engravings filled some 729 marble tablets which still occupy a 13 acre site in Mandalay.
The Australian Buddhist Library collection also includes editions of the well-loved Jataka Tales. These Buddhist folk stories have endured throughout the Buddhist countries of North and Southeast Asia for centuries. They are cautionary tales with a moral, such as The Dog Who Wanted To Be A Lion, The Greedy Crow, and The Tortoise Who Talked Too Much.
For art lovers, the Library holds Ten Lives of the Buddha Siamese Temple Paintings by Elizabeth Wray and Clare Rosenfield, a book of elegantly executed colour photographs of Thai temple paintings. These are in striking contrast to the Ghandara-style wall mural paintings and sandstone carvings of Northern India, as depicted in Auboyers Buddha - a Pictorial History of his Life and Legacy. Perhaps the Librarys most valuable edition of Buddhist paintings, the prized Klaus Wenk Mural Paintings in Thailand is held in the Rare Book Collection. The Asian Collections stacks also contain many lavishly illustrated publications on Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan and Southeast Asian Buddhist arts.
Also of interest to English-speakers are the Librarys collection of Australian and overseas Buddhist journals and newsletters, such as Bodhi Leaf, published by the Wat Buddha Dhamma at Wisemans Ferry, New South Wales; The Middle Way from the London Buddhist Society; and the Newsletter of the Tibetan Buddhist Society (Victoria). A detailed and frank account of the development of Buddhism in this country is to be found in Paul Crouchers History of Buddhism in Australia, 1848-1988.
For Australians unfamiliar with Buddhism, an interesting publication is Sir Edwin Arnolds epic The Light of Asia, which tells in verse the story of the Buddha, who as the idolised prince Siddartha Gautama forsakes his wife, family and kingdom to seek Enlightenment. In a poignant passage, he commands his charioteer Channa to saddle his horse Kantaka for the last time and says:
Then strode he forth into the gloom and cried,
Channa, awake
! and bring out Kantaka!
Slow-rising from his place beside the
gate-
To ride at night when all the ways are dark ?
Speak low, Siddartha said, and bring my horse,
For now
the hour is come when I should quit
This golden prison where my heart lives
caged
To find the truth, which henceforth I will seek,
For all
mens sake, until the truth be found.
This article is based in part on Andrew Gosling, A Journey to Asia, in The Peoples Treasures : Collections in the National Library of Australia, edited by John Thompson. Canberra : National Library of Australia, 1993, pp.56-63.
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