Shanshan Jia

The study of chapter 10, paratexts and organization of the Nepalese manuscripts of Laṅkavatātarasūtra in the 17th century. This study aims at a critical edition of chapter 10 of Laṅkavatātarasūtra, and focuses primarily on the paratexts (including the introductory matters, colophons, interlinear and marginal annotations, demarcation devices, numbering methods) and also on the organization (including the arrangement and re-arrangement of chapters, subsections within the chapters, the titles of the chapters, by which the understanding of the logical structures of different topics is conveyed, and information provided by the annotations about the structures) in Sanskrit manuscripts of the Laṅkavatātarasūtra. The Laṅkavatātarasūtra, considered to be composed in 4th century, is one of the nine central Mahāyāna texts in Nepalese Buddhism, which has been often transmitted, studied and cited. It has been transmitted not only in original Sanskrit, but also in three Chinese translations, two Tibetan translations and two Sanskrit commentaries which only exist in their Tibetan translations.