UW Scholar Wrapped Up In Ancient Scrolls

Richard Salomon sits amid the orderly chaos of a university professor’s office, with its packed bookshelves and papers stacked in various piles.

But it is what is inside the Ziploc baggies on his desk that has brought a media blitz of attention to this scholar in a highly obscure field.

The bags contain black-and-white photos - reprints of ancient Buddhist scrolls that Salomon will be deciphering for the British Library.

The scrolls, brought to the library by a dealer 18 months ago but only now being read for analysis, are considered the Buddhist equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls. How they were originally acquired by the dealer remains uncertain, except that they were probably found in earthen jars.

What they contain could shed greater light on the teachings of Buddha and the spread of Buddhism.

And Salomon, an Asian languages and literature professor at the University of Washington, knows that deciphering them is likely to be a personal turning point.

“It looks like it’s going to determine a large part, or perhaps, the rest of my career,” he says with barely restrained glee.

Salomon will be head researcher on the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project, a joint effort of the UW and the British Library. For the rest of his life, his name will be associated with this piece of Buddhist text.

Even before the deciphering formally begins, he has been interviewed for local and national TV shows in Canada and the United States, and the calls keep coming.

Salomon, 47, is one of a handful of scholars in the world who interpret ancient Sanskrit languages. But he never expected to be in the limelight considering his obscure forte, Kharoshthi languages, which form the base of most Eastern languages and the main text on the Buddhist scrolls.

Although exposed at an early age to his father’s passion for Latin and Greek, Salomon did not develop a similar attraction until he discovered Sanskrit languages in college. He still finds it “slightly amazing” that he followed his father’s interest.

He received a bachelor’s degree in Oriental studies from Columbia University in 1970 and a doctorate in 1975 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Before the manuscripts project, he had been involved in numerous scholarly and art-based deciphering projects. He joined the UW’s staff in 1981 and in 1992 became a full professor.

The manuscripts project is planned as a three-year, half-million-dollar joint effort. The British Library will contribute the bulk of the expenses, with the UW making a significant contribution and Salomon taking a leave from his teaching during the project.

Beginning in September, Salomon, UW Associate Professor Collett Cox and a graduate assistant will officially begin deciphering, interpreting and identifying the 20 different texts, on 60 fragments, found on the 13 scrolls.

“At the moment, it’s a big challenge,” Salomon said. “It’s also very intimidating and distressing at times.”

The scrolls date to the second century, making them roughly three centuries older than previously discovered Buddhist documents.

The material includes Buddhist sermons, poems and treatises on the psychology of perception.

They are believed to be part of the canon of the Sarvastivadin sect, which dominated Gandhara - modern north Pakistan and east Afghanistan - and helped to spread Buddhism into central and east Asia.

Deciphering them will shed light on the origin of Buddha’s teachings.

“This is not going to discredit modern Buddhism, but it will clarify the background of later forms of Buddhism,” Salomon said.

He theorizes that monks were in charge of the upkeep of holy scrolls. As the originals started to wear away, they were buried after being copied.

Whatever natural force accounted for these texts being preserved, Salomon is pleased.

As his college-age son, Jesse, put it: Salomon locked himself in a little room 20 years ago - and now he is famous.