The Asha Archives (Asha Saphu Kuthi) in Nepal has a collection of Sanskrit and Newari manuscripts about 5,300 in number. In this collection, according to the colophons, I discovered 37 mss. commissioned by Newari traders or artisans who had lived in Tibet (Yoshizaki, “The Modern Newari Buddhist Manuscripts copied in Tibet-from the Collection of Asha Saphu Kuthi, Kathmandu, Nepal,” forthcoming). Of these mss., 6 or 7 mss. were copied by Ratnamuni Vajracarya in Lhasa. In the first half of his life he was a priest of Sikhamu Baha (Tarumula Mahavihara) of Kathmandu, and he copied 2 mss. dated Newari Samvat 983 and 991. But in his later life, between Newari Samvat 991 and 1001, he proceeded to Lhasa to engage in the business of trade with Tibet. And at least for 12 years he stayed in Lhasa, keeping his habit of copying Buddhist mss. as in the Kathmandu days. Then it seems that later in Lhasa he changed his position from businessman to priest for the Newari merchants in Lhasa (Yoshizaki, “The Vajracaryas in the Newari Merchant Associations in Tibet [Palas],” forthcoming). He was one of the typical men who intended to maintain the Newari culture in Tibet.
