Foreword

Daisaku Ikeda

O

N this occasion I have the good fortune to announce the publication of the “Sanskrit Lotus Sutra Manuscripts from the Institute ofOriental 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 efforts ofProf. Dr. Irina F. Popova, Director of the Institute of Oriental
Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOM RAS), Dr.
Margarita I. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, and the other members of theirinstitute. My heartfelt congratulations go out to them all.
I also wish to extend my most sincere thanks to Prof. emer. Dr. Oskar
von Hinüber of the University of Freiburg for his fine introductoryarticle, deep in understanding and forcibly written, regarding thecolophons attached to SI P/5 (new call number: SI 1925/1927), which iscommonly called the Petrovsky Manuscript or the Kashgar Manuscript.
Previous to this, in 1977 the Russian Academy of Sciences, thenU.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 (6th chapter) of the Petrovsky Manuscript, and in 1995, two folios from the chapter “The Life Span of theThus 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: Saddharmapuˆ∂ar¥ka, commonly called theKern-Nanjio edition (1908–1912), fascicle 4, St. Petersburg. All aretreasures of humankind, and we keep them with deep appreciation.
I visited the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, which was then called
Leningrad, for the first time on September 13th of 1974, when the Cold
War between the West and the Soviet Bloc was still in force. As I
walked along the Neva River, imagining what the city must have been
like in the fabled days of Peter the Great, the lively scenes that appeared
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 food114

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and fuel. It is said that with the intense bombardment, and the starvation
and bitter cold that prevailed, as many as a million persons lost theirlives as a result.
Dr. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya spoke to me of the situation as wechatted when we met in February of 1996. “During those 900 days,” shesaid, “two people—a man and a woman—guarded the manuscripts of
our institute with all the might they could muster. In order that no harmshould come to the manuscripts, stored as they were in the basement ofour building, they from time to time opened the boxes and aired them,and looked after them with infinite patience. The fact that these texts ofthe Lotus Sutra remained unharmed was due mainly to the efforts ofthese two!”
On November 29th of 1996, when Prof. Dr. Yuri A. Petrosyan (1930–2011), then Director of the then St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute ofOriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOS RAS),
arrived in Tokyo, he said to me, “You must arrange an exhibition on theLotus Sutra in Tokyo! All our people have put themselves to the limit topreserve these precious materials pertaining to the Lotus Sutra. Youmust arrange for the members of the Soka Gakkai to have an opportunity to view them, cherishing as they do the spirit of the sutra in thepractice of their daily lives. And you must do it for all the other peopleof 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 in efforts to plan for an exhibition to be entitled “TheLotus Sutra and Its World: Buddhist Manuscripts of the Great SilkRoad.” After two years of preparation, in November of 1998, 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), a world-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 this day! This manuscript, the envyof the scholars of the world,—for a period of 90 years it has beenpreserved in the archives of the Institute of Oriental Studies of theRussian 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.

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Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, gathered to watch as the Petrovsky
Manuscript and other materials were for the first time revealed to theeyes of the waiting and expectant world. On a time span of a thousand
years, a living artifact that had defied the threats of the Nazi troopers,
saved through the care and dedication of these persons and others likethem, this priceless treasure was unfolded to the world—I was stirred tothe depths of my being.
This same exhibition, “The Lotus Sutra and Its World: Buddhist
Manuscripts of the Great 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 andHarmonious 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 countriesand territories in all.
This, the Petrovsky Manuscript, being as it is of such superior worth,
had been of use in collating the Kern-Nanjio edition of the Lotus Sutra,
and has been reproduced in a color facsimile edition that is as fine inquality as is the original, an event that is greatly to be applauded. I know
now that the study of the Lotus Sutra will surely advance in ways we
can hardly imagine.

—January 26, 2013