更敦群培旅行文本再解读

A Reinterpretation of Gendun Chophel's Travel Notes

更敦群培1934年前往印度、尼泊尔、斯里兰卡等南亚国家游学深造,历时12年之久。在南亚期间,他以文化行者的身份和跨文化视角,撰写了《智游列国漫记——金色的疆域》《锡兰纪行》等极具特色的游记,开创了自成一体的旅行文本。历史上藏族学者对以印度、尼泊尔、斯里兰卡为代表的南亚文化的书写和表达多是对异国形象进行想象建构,而更敦群培的旅行文本则重新审视和考察地理接壤、文化互动地带的印度宗教、民俗文化,消解藏人先验印象中南亚形象的思维定势,重新发现本土文化价值,对根深蒂固的印度宗教文化中心主义发起挑战,反思各种文化偏见和历史成见,不断确立他人文主义思想和文化中立心态。隐匿在旅行文本背后的是人类学家的身份和另一种民族志书写范式。

Gendun Chophel(1903-1951)is praised as a legendary eminent monk,an academic master,a humanist and patriot.The humanism concept of history founded by Gendun Chophel not only had significant impact on the history of studies of Tibetan culture and thought,but also gave special benefits to Chinese culture and thought.Gendun Chophel studied Sanskrit and Paliin India and Sri Lanka at the invitation of Rahula,an Indian Pandita,and he made journeys to places of Buddhist interest.Gendun Chophel went back to Tibet in 1938 on a field trip in Tsang area with Rahula,and returned to India in the same year.Gendun Chophel took a one-year and four-months'study tour to Sri Lanka during the period 1943 to 1944,and went back to Tibet in 1945.During his 12-year-long stay in South Asia,Gendun Chophel made in-depth investigations in South Asian countries such as India and Sri Lanka by visiting relics and places of interest,investigating local special cultural and historical sites,experiencing local customs,and visiting museums,temples,monasteries and schools.Based on this he wrote journals represented by A Sapiential Journey around Countries and A Journey to Ceylon.As one of the most creative scholars of Tibetan academic history during 20 th century,Gendun Chophel's travel notes present a whole new style of journal.It is one which inherits tradition but,at the same time,creates a combination of nature,humanity and history.The reinterpretation of Gendun Chophel's expressions of South Asian culture based on an in-depth analysis of his journal provides a path to finding out how individuals can dispel the traditional image of South Asia held by Tibetan people by taking the practice of travel.One of the questions is,how did Gendun Chophel obtain a“hidden identity”of an anthropologist,and acquire the ability for cultural self-examination in his writings based on his experiment as a witness?Tibetan elites living before Gendun Chophel usually constructed their image of South Asia from traditional journals,which was known as“”(meaning road books or travel notes)in the Tibetan language.“Road”referred to a certain area where the traveller was travelling while books referred to their notes about what they saw and heard along the way.Such journals were usually a genre of diverse forms,written using both verse and prose,and whose contents included literature,geography,geomancy,religion and history.They were distinctly interdisciplinary,and most of them were also combined with religious history or the biographies of cultural elites.The writers of these texts were mainly intellectuals,and,as a result,the texts were often characterized by“cultural writing”.Their motivation emphasized the resources of knowledge,therefore,the image of South Asia and the passions of pilgrimage were magnified whereas the records of South Asian the culture of mortals was lacking.Gendun Chophel's journals not only present a South Asia in reality,but also showed a breakthrough in their cross-cultural comparison with Tibetan journal-writing.The analysis of the journal writing of Gendun Chophel which was“based in the present”provides us with a significant paradigm of ethnographic writings with which to study South Asian culture.Basing on his 12-year-long cultural journey in South Asia,Gendun Chophel re-examined the Indian religions and customs at the border areas,and dispelled the Tibetan people's mind set towards South Asia;he reviewed Tibetan local cultural values,and challenged the ingrained cultural Hindu-centrism.He provided insight on all kinds of cultural and historical prejudices,and constructed his concept of humanism and cultural neutralism.The value of Gendun Chopel's journals is the objective,rational and impartial academic research method he built based upon the ability of cultural introspection from in-depth field work on“the other”as a cross-cultural witness.Gendun Chopel's journal proved that he had already been present in South Asia's cultural scene before the appearance of anthropology into Tibetan areas.His carefully observed,as well as accurately described,the local cultures and his experiences in field work.In addition,his cross-cultural research methodology proved his being the founder of modern anthropology in Tibet and the field work research method.His journal shows that he became an anthropologist naturally.This paper first combs through how Tibetan people understood South Asia based on the natural environment and geography.The interflow between Tibet and South Asia of a lot of cultural customs derives from the communication and contacts around the Himalayas and Kailash Range.Texts written or interpreted by Tibetan intellectuals is another important carrier of the Tibetan people's understanding of South Asia as well as its culture.Journals written by elites not only highlighted the practice of travel for the purpose of“seeking the dharma”,but also further became a significant source for the Tibetan people's image of South Asia.The paper combs through three important historical periods of cultural communication between Tibetan elites and South Asia.History texts and biographies of elites are used as evidence,and the type of journal is expanded to that of the ballad based on physical expression from travel notes so as to prove that the geographical space of South Asia has been a space for muti-ethnic settlement and muti-cultural communication.The significant value of Gendun Chopel's journals is especially discussed.According the analysis,his journals differed from the traditional Tibetan journals because they are reinterpreted as journey of“wisdom”and experience which not only emphasize the observation,records,analysis and evidence during the journey,but also pay attention to the critical experience gained from the cultural scene.It could be regarded as a deconstruction and rebuilding of traditional Tibetan journals,a kind of conscious writing and a text which records the interaction between the subjects and objects in the place of travel.