Headword |
གླེགས་ཤིང་། glegs shing |
Translation |
(loose) wooden book-cover |
Description |
The Dag yig gsar bsgrigs (s.v. glegs) again explains the term glegs shing as follows: “A glegs shing is name for a slab of wood, and so on, used for pressing books” (glegs shing ni dpe cha ’tshir byed kyi shing leb sogs kyi ming). See the Dag yig gsar bsgrigs (s.v. glegs). Nor-brang, following an oral tradition, states that binding books within glegs shing was initially introduced (during the reported persecutation of Buddhism in Tibet by Glang-dar-ma) as a kind of prohibation or banning of books, that is, binding them and sealing them so as to make them inaccessible. See the Nor brang gsung rtsom (p.). 472). But dGe-’dun-chos-’phel also describes glegs shing for Sanskrit manuscripts (dGe chos gsung ’bum, vol. 1, p. 244) thereby indicating that it is also known in the Indic tradition. On the one hand, the account provided by the oral tradition seems implausible and glegs shing might have been introduced merely for practical reasons. On the other hand, images of banned books sealed in leather cases do make one wonder if binding books between two wooden bords had indeed been a measure to make books inaccessible. |
Sources for Term |
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