Tanner D. McAlister

This dissertation is a study of the “Five-Fold Testament” (Bka’ thang sde lnga) attributed to the Treasure Revealer Orgyen Lingpa (gter ston O rgyan gling pa; b. 1323). The Testament is an exemplar of the “mythopoetic” treasure literature, which offers a unique conception of Buddhist history applied to narrating the rise and fall of the Tibetan empire, that makes civilization-building the telos of the Buddhist tradition writ large. This dissertation seeks to situate the Testament’s conception of history among the other major exemplars of this genre—as well as Buddhist history and the philosophy of history more generally—and within its distinctive historical context and political agenda as a critique of the Mongol Yüan alliance with the Tibetan Sakya clan.