འཁར་གསལ་འཆང་པའ་ཀན་ཏ་སྤྱད་པའ་ཆ་ག intro.7

intro.7

Indeed, a different perspective comes from an inventory of early translations compiled by the thirteenth century Tibetan scholar Chomden Rikpai Raltri (bcom ldan rig pa’i ral gri, 1227–1305), who lists the present text and Toh 335, which he calls “the longer and shorter ringing staff sūtras” (’khar sil gyi mdo che chung gnyis) among twenty-one canonical texts translated from Khotanese.¹² This seems to contradict the evidence from the Dunhuang colophon, and may possibly be a reference to alternative translations that have not been preserved. Whatever the case, the general notion that these texts may have evolved in Khotan from earlier material brought from India, before being transmitted to both China and Tibet, seems by no means unlikely.