The Dharma's Gatekeepers offers an incisive analysis of one of the most important works in Tibetan Buddhist intellectual history: Sakya Pandita's Gateway to Learning (Mkhas pa 'jug pa'i sgo). Writing in a time when a distinctively Tibetan tradition of Buddhism was first emerging, Sakya Pandita wanted to present Tibetan intellectuals with what he took to be an authentically Indian (and therefore, authentically Buddhist) understanding of the nature and tasks of intellectual life with a view of how scholarship was understood and practiced in the great monastic colleges of India.

In The Dharma's Gatekeepers, we see Sakya Pandita building the intellectual foundation for Tibetan scholasticism through a series of subtle, brilliant, and quintessentially Buddhist arguments about the nature of learning itself, with his elaboration of a model of scholastic education skillfully drawing together ideas in Buddhist epistemology, philosophy of language, translation theory, hermeneutics, and literary theory. In this study of Sakya Pandita's remarkable work, Jonathan C. Gold shows that the Gateway to Learning addresses issues that remain of concern to contemporary intellectuals; this thirteenth-century work has much to contribute to our understanding of such issues as translation and translatability, theories of reading and authorship, the connections between religious values and academic institutions, and theories of language and literary aesthetics. The book includes a translation of significant parts of Sakya Pandita's text

Dharma's Gatekeepers, Jonathan C. Gold, SUNY Press, Paperback, 267 Pages, 2007, $21.95

Jonathan C. Gold is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Drew University.

Preface
Acknowledgments

1. The Lion’s Roar in the Assembly:  Sa-pan’s Scholarly Ideal

    Introduction
    The Gateway in the History of Tibetan Learning
    Śākyaśrībhadra and the Indianization of Tibet
    The Five Sciences and the Goal of Scholarly Perfection

2. Beware of the Dharma in Translation:  A Warning to Interpreters

    Introduction: Translation in Tibet and in the Gateway
    Obscure Vocabulary
    The Techniques of Translators
    Translation Mistakes
    Unintelligible Context
    Untranslatability Denied

3. The Dharma Is Only Words:  A Philosophical Authorization of the Linguist

    Introduction
    Skill in Means in the Gateway
    The “Term Generality” at the Foundation of Grammar
    The “Term Generality” in Sakyapa Epistemology
    Sa-pan and Saussure on the Conceptuality and Conventionality of Language
    Sa-pan and Sönam Tsemo on the Dharma as Language
    Linguistics as the Study of Convention: The “Speech Intention”

4. The Expert Knows the Context:  Sa-pan’s Appeals to Buddhist Hermeneutics

    Introduction: Sa-pan’s Contribution to Buddhist Hermeneutics
    Tantric Hermeneutics in the Background of the Gateway
    How Words Get Their Meaning
    Sa-pan’s Previous Position: Linguistic Analysis in the Treasury
    Sa-pan’s Predecessors on “Well Known in the World” and “Well Known in Treatises”
    Well-known Terminology and Linguistic Convention
    Sa-pan’s General Theory of the “Well Known”  and Tantric Hermeneutics
    Which Scholars Form the Community of Interpreters?
    Conclusion

5. The Message in the Medium:  Intellectual Norms and Protocols

    Introduction
    The Three Kinds of Meaning in a Good Verse of Reverence
    Introductory Verses and the Social Function of Rhetoric
    Synopsis as a Display of Mastery
    Ensuring Excellence by Declaring a Legitimate Purpose
    How to Make Meaning Evident
    Conclusion

6. Appealing to the Translocal:  Sanskrit Poetics for a Tibetan Buddhist Elite

    Introduction
    Sa-pan’s Buddhicization of the Rasas
    Applying the Rasas
    Poetics in Defense of the Dharma
    Introducing Poetics to Tibetans
    Conclusion: Who Benefits from Aesthetic Cultivation?

7. Conclusion: Thoughts on a Future Comparative Intellectual History

Appendixes:

    A: Outline
    B: The Gateway to Learning

Notes
Tibetan Orthographic Equivalents
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index