ཧོར་ཀོང་། hor kong

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Description

The Tshig mdzod chen mo explains that the word hor kong is vernacular (yul skad) and that it means “sporadic gaps” (bar bar gi stong cha). It may be true that it is vernacular and in fact also in Tshangs-lha (Eastern Bhutanese), hor kong means a “gaping hole” and it may figuratively mean a “hollow/shallow person.” In the context of the Tibetan textual/manuscript/print/book culture/study, it means a “lacuna.” For instance, see Mi-pham’s dKa’ gnad ci rigs (p. 557.1). Nor-brang also states that Bu-ston “translated  many treatises that were previously not translated, filled in [many] lacunae, and edited those that were already translated” (sngar ma bsgyur ba’i btstan bcos mang po bsgyur ba dang | hor kong bsab pa dang | bsgyur zin la zhus dag). See the gSung rtsom phyogs btus (p. 614.5–7). dGe-chos spells hor khongs (dGe chos, vol. 3, p. 453.8). Often the verb hor kong bsab (“to fill a lacuna”) is used. See, for example, Bu-ston, bsTan dkar nor bu'i phreng ba (p. 106): … lha bla ye shes ’od kyis hor kong bsabs te yongs su rdzogs par bsgyur ba’o || ’di la rgya dpe rnyed na hor kong bsab dgos….

Sources for Term