Geography Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the part of the atlas the question sits in. Start here if you know the territory better than the technique.
Filter By Specialty 99 fields, 1 selected
Showing 4 of 608 questions, filtered to 1 specialty.
Sacred Objects, Dress & Symbols 2
Sacred Tooth Relic of Kandy
Is the tooth enshrined at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy an authentic physical tooth of Gautama Buddha?
Open Sacred Tooth Relic of Kandy
Why It Is Open No independent scientific examination of the relic has ever been permitted. Its identification rests entirely on transmitted religious tradition, not on physical testing.
What Would Settle It Non-destructive material analysis, such as micro-CT or isotopic testing, of the relic, if Sri Dalada Maligawa ever permitted an outside examination.
Expertise Needed Archaeometry, Buddhist studies
Question posed in
Sri Dalada Maligawa, The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (official site), Sri Dalada Maligawa.
Tooth Relic of Lingguang Temple
Is the tooth relic enshrined at the Lingguang Temple stupa in Beijing an authentic physical tooth of Gautama Buddha?
Sacred Places 1
Sri Dalada Maligawa
Is the tooth relic held by Sri Dalada Maligawa an authentic physical tooth of Gautama Buddha?
Open Sri Dalada Maligawa
Why It Is Open The temple permits only devotional access. No independent scientific examination of the relic has ever been permitted, so authenticity rests on transmitted tradition alone.
What Would Settle It Non-destructive material analysis of the relic, such as micro-CT or isotopic testing, if the temple ever permitted an outside examination.
Expertise Needed Archaeometry, Buddhist studies
Question posed in
Sri Dalada Maligawa (institutional record).
Traditions & Paths 1
Dzogchen
Does Dzogchen's early transmission in Tibet draw on early Chan Buddhist teaching, or did it develop independently?
Open Dzogchen
Why It Is Open The Nyingma tradition attributes Dzogchen's transmission to Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra in the eighth century CE, but the earliest securely datable Dzogchen texts are placed later by scholars, and the surviving Dunhuang manuscripts leave the relationship between early Dzogchen and Chan Buddhist teaching in Tibet unresolved.
What Would Settle It Further codicological dating and textual comparison of the Dunhuang Dzogchen and Chan manuscripts against securely dated Chan sources, by scholars working directly with the manuscript corpus.
Expertise Needed Tibetology; Buddhist studies; manuscript studies
Question posed in
Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, John Powers.