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PRELIMINARY NOTES ON TIBETAN AFTER-DEATH RITES AND THEIR TEXTS IN MONGOLIAN BUDDHIST PRACTICE Zsuzsa Majer Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies, Budapest This article is one of my first publications in the topic of Tibetan after-death rituals as practiced in Mongolia, for the study of which I gained a three-years postdoctoral fellowship (1* of October 2015 — 30 September 2018) and research fund from NKFIH (National Research, Development and Innovation Office) under the title “Tibetan After-Death Rites in Mongolian Buddhist Practice: Ceremonial System, Text Typology and Analysis”.' This article is the written form of my presentation made under the title “Preliminary Notes on Tibetan After-Death Rites in Mongolian Buddhist Practice” in the workshop ,,Mongolian Buddhism — Past, Present and Future” held on April 16-17, 2015 in Budapest organized by Eôtvôs Loränd University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Mongol and Inner Asian Studies — Research Centre for Mongol Studies — Budapest Centre for Buddhist Studies; Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Ethnology and Embassy of Mongolia in Hungary. This preliminary article giving an overview of the connected text types will be followed by others on the topic, while at the end of the research a monograph is planned. This, all required measures taken and ceremonies performed upon someone’s death — with the aim of ensuring the best possible rebirth for the deceased, including rites performed for guiding the ‘consciousness’ of the deaceased after death, rites needed preparing for funeral, funeral rites, rites after the burial and commemoration of the dead — is called buyani ajil in Mongolian (‘work of making merit’). Actually all Mongolian lamas meet and fulfil this duty necessary after-death rites can be performed by any lama or group of lamas — but there are still specialized lamas, mainly specialized astrologer lamas trained in the science of Altan saw, ‘The Golden Vessel’ (Tib. gser gyi sgrom bu), the special burial manual, though only for, based upon calculations (Altan saw néx, Tib. gser gyi sgrom bu ‘bye, ‘Opening the golden vessel’ or Sinjé nex, ‘Opening / Analyzing the signs’) from birth and death dates, settling all details of the measures that have to be taken, texts to be recited and all details of the burial (mode, time, direction, etc.). ' The current article was written in the framework of a research project funded by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal) — NKFIH, with the contract number PD 116108. 348
