BUDDHISM.

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Xian jie qian fo hao ("One Thousand Buddhas from the Bhadrakalpa Sutra"). First edition of this unusual quintilingual work exhibiting the artistic skill of Chinese woodblock carvers. Compiled by the personal Buddhist tutor to the Qianlong emperor - China's Louis XIV - it lists slightly over 1,000 buddhas destined to appear in the present Buddhist aeon. We have traced just three institutional copies.Print was a vital vehicle for spreading Buddhist thought throughout the multicultural Qing empire. This compilation, based on the Bhadrakalpa Sutra, served as an invaluable scholarly and devotional reference for practising and aspiring Buddhists, as well as for those charged with producing religious commentaries. It begins with Kakusandha, an esteemed buddha of antiquity, and lists four names per page, with the five different languages (Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Sanskrit phoneticized in Tibetan) arranged vertically. The compilation process was led by the senior court figure Changkya Rölpé Dorjé (1717-1786), Qianlong's principal Buddhist advisor, who also oversaw the translation of the Tibetan Buddhist canon into Mongolian and Manchu.The Bhadrakalpa Sutra is a key text in Mahayana Buddhism. Without it, the names of many buddhas would otherwise have been lost. The text was first translated into Chinese by Dharmaraska (c.233-310), one of the most significant scholarly influences on the growth of Buddhism in East Asia.China's Qing emperors presided over an ethnically het

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