The Blue Annals of Gö Lotsawa

Gö Lotsawa Zhönnu Pel (1392 to 1481) finished this history of Tibetan Buddhism in 1476 to 1478. He drew on earlier Tibetan records for the seventh to fifteenth centuries and on his own recollection for his own century. It includes the Sakya school's dealings with the Mongol khans and the Yuan court. The card lists a scan of the Kunde Ling block print from Lhasa, in Tibetan, and notes Roerich's English translation of 1949 to 1953. The atlas does not hold the text of this edition: the corpus lists it but stores no text of it, under its rights rule, so nothing from it was read for this guide.

How they knew

Compiled from others

Who “Tartar” means here

Not recorded. The card names the Mongols of the Yuan period, called Hor in Tibetan, as the people in view. The word Tartar is not expected in a Tibetan text.

Why read it

Its account of Mongol patronage of Tibetan schools is an independent check on Yuan period dates in Chinese and Mongolian records.

Watch out

The block print is undated, and the card recommends comparing Lokesh Chandra's 1974 reproduction and Roerich's translation.