On a Day of a Month of the Fire Bird Year- Festschrift for Peter Shwieger on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday

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If you have picked up this book in the hope of finding a volume that looks back on Peter Schwinger’s academic career and its findings, I am afraid you have picked up the wrong book altogether. This Festschrift is rather a book contributed by his friends and colleagues dedicated to celebrating his upcoming Unruhestand, in which he will finally have more time for further writing, for supervision of PhD theses and for the enjoyment of other pleasures such as the joy of bird-watching, hiking and travelling and working in his garden in Konigswinter. As such, this volume should only be seen as some interim considerations', while we eagerly anticipate Peter Schwinger’s next book.

Introducing this Festschrift dedicated to Peter Schwinger’s academic accomplishments is not an easy task. An introduction usually is supposed to pick up the reader, give a first glimpse of what is to come-which methods and theories were used, and which results reached. Of, course any of these can only be the tip of an iceberg, as more research needs to be done-always. Writing an introduction to a collective volume needs to take into account the red thread that connects the individual contributions. The volume at hand is hard to sum up, the topics and areas covered are too various to pretend that all of them have something in common academically. Personally, however, what they have in common is Peter Schwinger-an exceptional scholar of Tibet logy. This Festschrift has secretly been in the making for the two years prior to .Peter Schwinger’s 65th birthday. Peter Schwinger’s career as a Tibetologist, however. has been in the making for the past four decades and is far from reaching its end. He has significantly influenced and shaped many fields of study within Tibetology.

Peter Schwinger’s approach to scholarship and his way of being an academic are best summed up by an anecdote: it was just recently, in a library full of books and dust, that a group of professors met to discuss application procedures for a collaborate vet research project. Among them was Peter Schwinger who---despite being close to retirement-was planning to engage in further research. As is usual among professors, a discussion arose. It was about research foci and the necessity for having subjects and corresponding professorships for specific periods in history, such as Antiquity, Premodernity or Medieval studies. And as usual, there were more opinions than people in the room. However, there was a clear argumentative tendency that European history as a "big subject" was in need of very specifically differentiated subjects, periods and professorships that should stick to their respective fields. Peter Schwieger argued that, in his opinion, the whole discussion about "small "and "big subjects" missed the point-and quite frankly was wrong. Taking Tibetology as an example of such an Orchideenfach, he couldn't agree less with such an analysis. He made a point that it is the so called small subjects that are, in fact, big subjects, too. Normally they are concerned with vast areas that are being researched over an extended period of time. Tibetology subsumes studies about Tibet's entire history, various languages and diverse culture. Whoever becomes a professional Tibetologist has-to a certain extent-to be able to cover all these topics and not just the 25th edition of a text from 10th century Europe. When looking at Peter Schwinger’s publications and research interests, it is obvious that he is a researcher who is able to bridge the gaps between various fields of study: linguistics, diplomatic, social and political history, and religious studies.

The topics of the contributions to this volume reflect the broadness of Peter Schwinger’s scholarly work, There are articles from different disciplines on a variety of topics such as Kingship, Imperial Tibet, Grammar, the Relationship between Tibet and Mongolia, China, India, Great Britain, Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist Art, the History of the University of Bonn, and last, but not least, the necessity of Tibetan Yoga as an exercise for Tibetologists.

In parallel, this volume emphasizes his international network-not only academically but on a personal. level. Peter Schwinger’s career as a Tibetologist has brought him into contact not only with many fields of study but also with many, researchers and colleagues. Some of them have known him since his study days in Bonn, some he met on the rooftop of the Jokhang 30 years ago. Some are his students, and some his colleagues from the Institute of Oriental and Asian studies. When we sent out the call for submissions for this Festschrift we were surprised by the many voices that expressed their great willingness to contribute. In fact, if we were not forced to set a deadline we could have gathered many more contributions. Between these covers there are now articles from scholars from France, Germany, Tibet, India, China, USA, Italy, Switzerland, Nepal and the Netherlands. All of them have accompanied Peter Schwieger on the academic path that led him to his current position as Professor of Tibetology at the University of Bonn.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages