Eating manuscripts

Yesterday I received some distressing news regarding yet another detrimental factor for the survival of manuscripts. As if neglect, fire, water, white ants, and the lot were not enough, it seems that some (I hope: very few) contemporary Tibetans consume manuscripts bit by bit if they cannot read its contents or if they consider it unfit for any other purpose. The point seems to be to absorb directly the blessings embodied in such texts.

For a split second I did toy with the grotesque idea of a menu: I'll have some unknown Hevajra exegesis for starters, followed by the codex unicus of the Herukābhyudaya with shavings of rare yogatantra works. Desert? Oh, we'll decide that later.

Image from here.

Rats and luminaries

Here is a nice quote from Vijay Prakash, secretary of the Welfare Department in Bihar, on his new proposal to alleviate local food shortages:

We can save about half of our food-grain stocks by catching and eating rats. [They're] quite rich in nutrition.

[source: originally this week's Newsweek 'Perspectives', but I now also found it on BBC, the Telegraph, etc.]

New inroads into the study of Sanskrit

When my distinguished colleague, Naomi Appleton, is not busy with her research or organizing the Buddhist Studies Group seminars - that is all three and a half minutes per day -, she is establishing an exciting new inter-disciplinary subject: academic baking.

Besides the obvious advantages the process puts into practice a good number of the pāramitās: you need great effort (vīrya) and discipline (śīla) to bake these things with one-pointed concentration (dhyāna) and insight (prajñā) as concerning the ingredients. Finally, the products are distributed with great generosity (dāna) among sentient beings. I guess Naomi will have to find other ways to practice forbearance (kṣānti) as I still haven't met anyone so lacking taste-buds as to criticize her culinary talents. Indeed, there is nothing like having a piece of "Indo-European language family tree" on the steps of the Clarendon building.

It is hoped that this scholarly zeitschrift will thrive... sarvasattvānāṃ hitāya sarvasattvānāṃ sukhāya. Maṅgalam.