FOREWORD
On this occasion I have the good fortune to announce the publication of the “SanskritLotus Sutra Manuscripts from the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian
Academy of Sciences (SI P/5, etc.), Facsimile Edition” as number 13 in the Soka
Gakkai Lotus Sutra Manuscript Series. For this fact we have to thank the sincere effortsof Prof. Dr. Irina F. Popova, Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of theRussian Academy of Sciences (IOM RAS), Dr. Margarita I. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya,
and the other members of their institute. My heartfelt congratulations go out to them all.
I also wish to extend my most sincere thanks to Prof. emer. Dr. Oskar von Hinüberof the University of Freiburg for his fine introductory article, deep in understanding andforcibly written, regarding the colophons attached to SI P/5 (new call number: SI1925/1927), which is commonly called the Petrovsky Manuscript or the Kashgar
Manuscript.
Previous to this, in 1977 the Russian Academy of Sciences, then U.S.S.R.
Academy of Sciences, had kindly presented to us a photographic reproduction of two
folios containing a beginning portion of the “Bestowal of Prophecy” chapter (6thchapter) of the Petrovsky Manuscript, and in 1995, two folios from the chapter “TheLife Span of the Thus Come One (16th chapter) and “The Parable of the Phantom City”(7th chapter), as well as the earliest edition of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra, Bibliotheca
Buddhica 10: Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, commonly called the Kern-Nanjio edition(1908-1912), fascicle 4, St. Petersburg. All are treasures of humankind, and we keepthem with deep appreciation.
I visited the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, which was then called Leningrad, forthe first time on September 13th of 1974, when the Cold War between the West and theSoviet Bloc was still in force. As I walked along the Neva River, imagining what thecity must have been like in the fabled days of Peter the Great, the lively scenes thatappeared before my eyes even now remain vivid in my memory.
During the Second World War, the Nazi armies of Germany surrounded Leningrad
for a period of 900 days, cutting off supplies of food and fuel. It is said that with theintense bombardment, and the starvation and bitter cold that prevailed, as many as amillion persons lost their lives as a result.
Dr. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya spoke to me of the situation as we chatted when wemet in February of 1996. “During those 900 days,” she said, “two people―a man and awoman―guarded the manuscripts of our institute with all the might they could muster.
In order that no harm should come to the manuscripts, stored as they were in thebasement of our building, they from time to time opened the boxes and aired them, andlooked after them with infinite patience. The fact that these texts of the Lotus Sutra
remained unharmed was due mainly to the efforts of these two!”
On November 29th of 1996, when Prof. Dr. Yuri A. Petrosyan (1930-2011), thenDirector of the then St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of theRussian Academy of Sciences (IOS RAS), arrived in Tokyo, he said to me, “You mustarrange an exhibition on the Lotus Sutra in Tokyo! All our people have put themselvesto the limit to preserve these precious materials pertaining to the Lotus Sutra. You mustarrange for the members of the Soka Gakkai to have an opportunity to view them,cherishing as they do the spirit of the sutra in the practice of their daily lives. And you
must do it for all the other people of Japan as well!”With that thought in mind, the members of the St. Petersburg Branch, and those of
us in Japan who are associated with the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, joined inefforts to plan for an exhibition to be entitled “The Lotus Sutra and Its World: Buddhist
Manuscripts of the Great Silk Road.” After two years of preparation, in November of1998, the exhibition opened in Tokyo, containing a vast collection of rare examples,including 47 items of precious copies of Buddhist materials and block prints.
In an interview at the opening ceremony, Dr. Hirofumi Toda (1936-2003), aworld-renowned authority on Sanskrit Lotus Sutra manuscripts, remarked as he viewed
the actual copy of the Petrovsky Manuscript, “How lucky I am to have lived to see thisday! This manuscript, the envy of the scholars of the world,―for a period of 90 years it
has been preserved in the archives of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian
Academy of Sciences (IOS RAS), never once leaving its portals!”
On the day before the opening of the exhibition, I, along with the St. Petersburg
IOS RAS Director, Prof. Dr. Evgeny I. Kychanov, who had come to Japan, the former
director, Professor Petrosyan and Dr. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, gathered to watch as
the Petrovsky Manuscript and other materials were for the first time revealed to the eyesof the waiting and expectant world. On a time span of a thousand years, a living artifactthat had defied the threats of the Nazi troopers, saved through the care and dedication ofthese persons and others like them, this priceless treasure was unfolded to the world―I
was stirred to the depths of my being.
This same exhibition, “The Lotus Sutra and Its World: Buddhist Manuscripts of theGreat Silk Road,” in 2000 opened in Vienna, Austria, and Wolfenbüttel, Germany,receiving an enthusiastic reception. And then, under a new name, “The Lotus Sutra―A
Message of Peace and Harmonious Coexistence,” in an even more impressive content,went on to open first in Hong Kong and then in Macao, India, Spain, Nepal, Brazil, SriLanka, England, Japan, and Taiwan, a total of 10 countries and territories in all.
This, the Petrovsky Manuscript, being as it is of such superior worth, had been ofuse in collating the Kern-Nanjio edition of the Lotus Sutra, and has been reproduced ina color facsimile edition that is as fine in quality as is the original, an event that isgreatly to be applauded. I know now that the study of the Lotus Sutra will surely
advance in ways we can hardly imagine.
Daisaku Ikeda
President of the Soka Gakkai International andFounder of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy
January 26, 2013