Ornament of Abhidharma

Ornament of Abhidharma (T. mngon pa'i rgyan མངོན་པའི་རྒྱན་), A Commentary On the Verses On the Treasury of Abhidharma (T. chos mngon mdzod kyi tshig le'ur byas pa'i 'grel pa mngon pa'i rgyan ཆོས་མངོན་མཛོད་ཀྱི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་མངོན་པའི་རྒྱན་) — is a commentary on the Abhidharmakosa written by the Tibetan scholar Chim Jampaiyang. This text is commonly known in Tibet at the Chimzö (T. chims mdzod) or Great Chimzö.

Thupten Jinpa states:

Ornament of Abhidharma is undisputedly the most important Tibetan commentary on Vasubandhu’s (ca. fourth century) Abhidharmakośa (Treasury of Abhidharma), the latter being an authoritative primer on the doctrines of the influential Sarvāstivāda school of Abhidharma Buddhism. Our commentary’s author is Chim Jampaiyang, a noted thirteenth-century Tibetan scholar who once served as imperial priest at the court of Yuan-dynasty ruler Buyantu Khan. By our author’s time the systematic study of Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa had become well established in Tibet, with monastic students memorizing the root verses and receiving regular classes on the text, and at least two indigenous Tibetan expositions of the text are known to have existed. What distinguishes our commentary from the Tibetan commentaries that preceded it is the author’s exhaustive use of the well-known Indian commentaries. In addition to Vasubandhu’s own autocommentary, these include the commentaries of Yaśomitra, Pūrṇavardhana, and Sthiramati, and our author also draws frequent comparisons between the key positions of Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma as outlined in Vasubandhu’s text and those of Asaṅga’s Abhidharmasamuccaya. Chim offers his fellow Tibetans a truly comprehensive sourcebook on classical Indian Buddhist thought.

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In many ways, this work...is the Tibetan equivalent of the Path of Purification (Visudhimagga), the fifth-century Theravāda classic by the influential master Buddhaghosa. Take any topic of concern for classical Buddhist tradition, and you will find it addressed here...

Ian James Coghlan states:

Chim Jampaiyang’s work remains to this day arguably the definitive commentary on Vasubandhu’s Abhidharma classic in Tibetan and the touchstone for commentators from all schools. Speaking to this point, the preface to the 1989 edition published in Beijing notes, “This treatise is superior to others, and many scholars of the Sakya, Geluk, and Nyingma . . . as well as the ecumenical movement, regard this fine explanation to be the fundamental reference to the Abhidharmakośa and an important and celebrated compendium possessing rare textual transmissions. In particular it is an ocean-like cultural compendium referencing the ten traditional Tibetan sciences and required reading for all those who possess intelligence.” Such endorsements reinforce the conclusion that Jampaiyang’s seminal work marks the coming of age of Tibetan Abhidharma studies.

History

Ian James Coghlan states:

According to the earliest known woodblock edition of the Great Chimzö produced in Lhasa in the eighteenth century, a task undertaken on the instruction of the Seventh Dalai Lama, no earlier edition existed. Prior to this, the Great Chimzö may have circulated only in handwritten form. Its dissemination may have been quite limited, and the emergence of more accessible commentaries may have eclipsed the Great Chimzö. Later Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo (1820–92) had the woodblocks of Chim’s work prepared at Dergé, and a third woodblock edition was undertaken at the Jé Bum Lhakhang printery in Lhasa. The availability of such woodblock editions brought renewed interest in the Great Chimzö and the recognition of its value as a reference for metaphysical studies.

English translation

• Chim Jampaiyang, Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa, translated by Ian James Coghlan (Library of Tibetan Classics, 2019)

Sources

• Chim Jampaiyang (2019), Jinpa, Thupten, ed., Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa, translated by Coghlan, Ian James (Apple Books ed.), Library of Tibetan Classics