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BOOK BRIEFS | EASTERN HORIZON 61

BOOKS IN BRIEF

Beth Newman, The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom.
A Thousand Years of Sage Advice. Wisdom: USA. 2018. pp 523. US$59.95
www.wisdomexperience.org.

This is a translation of an anthology of Among the 11 collections in this
11 popular Tibetan collections of advice, anthology can be found some of the
fables, and aphorisms for the us to follow best-loved classics of Tibetan literature,
the way of the wise and to avoid the path such as Dromtonpa’s A Garland of
of the foolish. It is therefore aptly titled Essential Advice on Societal Values,
The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom: A Sakya Pandita’s Jewel Treasury of Wise
Thousand Years of Sage Advice. Sayings, Panchen Sönam Drakpa's Ganden
Wise Sayings, and Gungthang’s Treatise
What is presented in this anthology is a on Trees and Treatise on Water. The
genre of Tibetan works known as “wise final work is the intriguing Kaché
sayings” (lekshé). While most Tibetan Phalu's Advice. Ostensibly written by a
literature focuses on the Buddhist path, wise Tibetan Muslim, this versified text
wise sayings literature has traditionally enjoys great popularity within Tibetan-
been a centerpiece of secular education speaking communities, such that many
in Tibet and in the cultivation of social Tibetans are able to recite at least a few
mores and an honorable way of life. verses from memory.
Drawing inspiration from classical Indian
literature on human virtue and governance Besides a message from His Holiness the
(nitisastra), including the folktales in Dalai Lama, there is also an introduction
the Pañcatantra, the authors of these to the anthology by Dr Thupten Jinpa,
Tibetan works strove to educate young General Editor of the Library of Tibetan
minds in the ways of the civilized world, Classics. EH
especially by distinguishing the conduct of
the wise from that of the foolish.