The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the English translation of the Tibetan texts known as bar-do thos-grol (Bardo Thodol) – “Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State” – and serves as a guide for the soul of the deceased after it has left the body and before it is reborn.
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Definition
Timeline
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742 - c. 797Tibetan Book of the Dead composed during the reign of emperor Trhi Songdetsen.
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1326 - 1386Life of the "Revealer" Karma Lingpa who discovered the Tibetan Book of the Dead texts.
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c. 1400 - c. 1700The Tibetan Book of the Dead is used in funerary rituals.
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c. 1700Tibetan Book of the Dead is printed using block-printing technique and widely dispersed.
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1919Tibetan Book of the Dead is found by English officer and given to anthropologist W. Evans-Wentz.
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1919 - 1922The scholar Dawa Samdup translates Tibetan Book of the Dead into English with W. Evans-Wentz.
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1927W. Evans-Wentz publishes the first edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead in English.
