| A Note on Pronunciation | | xv | |
| A Brief Chronology of Tibetan Buddhism | | xvii | |
| Introduction: Death, Literacy, and Tibet's Buddhist Elite | | | 3 | (20) |
| The Uncertain Fate of the Dead | | | 5 | (5) |
| Literacy and Learning in a Dark Age | | | 10 | (7) |
| Elite Buddhism and the Expression of Authority | | | 17 | (6) |
| PART I: CONVERSION AND NARRATIVE | |
| The Chinese Mother of Tibet's Dharma-King: The Testament of Ba and the Beginnings of Tibetan Buddhist Historiography | | | 23 | (15) |
| | | 23 | (3) |
| | | 26 | (2) |
| | | 28 | (2) |
| | | 30 | (2) |
| The Religious Transformation of History | | | 32 | (4) |
| | | 36 | (2) |
| The Mark of Vermilion: Rebirth and Resurrection in an Early Medieval Tale | | | 38 | (13) |
| | | 38 | (4) |
| Cosmology, Karma, and Conversion | | | 42 | (4) |
| From Rebirth to Resurrection | | | 46 | (5) |
| Plague, Power, and Reason: The Royal Conversion to Buddhism Reconsidered | | | 51 | (18) |
| The Puzzle of the Tibetan Conversion | | | 51 | (2) |
| | | 53 | (1) |
| | | 54 | (2) |
| | | 56 | (2) |
| | | 58 | (7) |
| Converting the Conversion | | | 65 | (4) |
| PART II: SOURCES OF CONTESTATION | |
| From Korea to Tibet: Action at a Distance in the Early Medieval World System | | | 69 | (16) |
| An Island in the Eastern Sea | | | 70 | (1) |
| | | 71 | (4) |
| Chan Traces in Later Traditions | | | 75 | (3) |
| The Vicissitudes of the Great Chinese Commentary | | | 78 | (4) |
| Korea, Tibet, and the Early Medieval World System | | | 82 | (3) |
| What is "Tibetan Scholasticism"? Three Ways of Thought | | | 85 | (36) |
| | | 89 | (8) |
| | | 97 | (9) |
| Dolpopa on the Age of Perfection | | | 106 | (13) |
| Contestation and Self-representation | | | 119 | (2) |
| The Purificatory Gem and Its Cleansing: A Late Polemical Discussion of Apocryphal Texts | | | 121 | (20) |
| Our Notions of Buddhist Canon and Apocrypha | | | 121 | (2) |
| Realism, Idealism, and Scriptural Authenticity | | | 123 | (3) |
| The Purificatory Gem and Its Cleansing: Historical Background | | | 126 | (2) |
| The Texts and Why They Were Written | | | 128 | (3) |
| The Question of Spiritual Treasures | | | 131 | (10) |
| PART III: MYTH, MEMORY, REVELATION | |
| The Imaginal Persistence of the Empire | | | 141 | (22) |
| | | 141 | (3) |
| The Most Compassionate King | | | 144 | (11) |
| The Advent of the Lotus Guru | | | 155 | (5) |
| Hierarchy and Universality | | | 160 | (3) |
| Samantabhadra and Rudra: Myths of Innate Enlightenment and Radical Evil | | | 163 | (15) |
| Fragments from a Myth of Tibet | | | 163 | (4) |
| The Myth of Samantabhadra | | | 167 | (3) |
| | | 170 | (6) |
| Must the Message Be Mythic? | | | 176 | (2) |
| The Amnesic Monarch and the Five Mnemic Men: "Memory" in the Great Perfection Tradition | | | 178 | (19) |
| | | 178 | (2) |
| Mnemic Engagement in the Wide-Open Tantra of Universal Liberation | | | 180 | (7) |
| An Allegorical Re-presentation | | | 187 | (6) |
| Mnemic Engagement in the Practice of Prayer | | | 193 | (1) |
| | | 194 | (3) |
| Appendix: The Prayer of Great Power | | 197 | (6) |
| Notes | | 203 | (70) |
| Chinese Glossary | | 273 | (2) |
| Bibliography | | 275 | (30) |
| | | 275 | (8) |
| | | 283 | (1) |
| | | 283 | (1) |
| Western Language References | | | 284 | (21) |
| Index | | 305 | |
