The Prophecy on Mount Goshringa

The Prophecy on Mount Goshringa (Skt. Gośṛṅgavyākaraṇa; Tib. གླང་རུ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།, Wyl. glang ru lung bstan pa) is an account of the Buddha Shakyamuni visiting the ancient Central Asian oasis state of Khotan, and prophesying its future as a Buddhist kingdom. It is one of a number of canonical texts in the form of prophecies that furnish Khotan with its Buddhist founding mythology. While other texts relate how the Buddha prophesied key figures in Khotan’s founding, rule, and protection, this sutra provides an account of how the Buddha also established and blessed the landscape itself and other physical features of the country.

Text

Apart from the Tibetan translation and its presumed Khotanese source text, now lost, the sutra is not known to exist in any other Asian language. It has no colophon to aid in determining who translated it and from what language. However, given both its content and Xuanzang’s testimony, it seems reasonable to assume that it came to Tibet from Khotan, and indeed Chomden Rigpé Raldri, the great thirteenth century scholar of Narthang who was instrumental in producing the first prototype Kangyur, includes it in a list of twenty canonical works that he believed (with doubt in a few cases) to have been translated into Tibetan from Khotanese.

Tibetan Translation

The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 357.

• English translations:
  • Dharmachakra Translation Committee, The Prophecy on Mount Gośṛṅga
  • Thomas, Frederick W. (1935). Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents Concerning Chinese Turkestan, Part I (London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1935)