The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a defined collection of sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism,comprising the Kangyur and the Tengyur. The Kangyur or Kanjur is Buddha's recorded teachings (or the 'Translation of the Word'),and the Tengyur or Tanjur is the commentaries by great masters on Buddha's teachings (or the 'Translation of Treatises').
In addition to earlier foundational Buddhist texts from early Buddhist schools, mostly the Sarvastivada and Mahayana texts, the Tibetan canon includes Tantric texts. The last category is not always sharply distinguished from the others: the Tantra division sometimes includes material usually not thought of as Tantric in other traditions, such as the Heart Sutra[1] and even versions of material found in the Pali Canon.[2]
The Tibetans did not have a formally arranged Mahayana canon, and so devised their own scheme with two broad categories: the "Words of the Buddha" and later the commentaries; the Kangyur and Tengyur respectively. The Tengyur underwent a final compilation in the 14th century by Bu-ston (1290–1364). There is no proof that Bu-ston also took part in the collection and edition of the Tsal pa Kangyur, although he consecrated a copy of this Kangyur 1351 when he visited Tshal Gung-thang[de] (Eimer 1992:178).[3]
According to sakya mchog ldan (1428-1507), Bu-soon edited a Kanjur; however, it is not known which one. "The Kangyur usually takes up a hundred or a hundred and eight volumes, the Tengyur two hundred and twenty-five, and the two together contain 4,569 works."[4]
Kangyur or "Translated Words" consists of works in about 108 volumes supposed to have been spoken by the Buddha himself. All texts presumably once had a Sanskrit original, although in many cases the Tibetan text was translated from Chinese or some other language.
Tengyur or "Translated Treatises" contains commentaries, treatises and abhidharma works (both Mahayana and non-Mahayana), in all, around 3,626 texts in 224 volumes.
When the term Kangyur was first used is unknown. Collections of canonical Buddhist texts existed already in the time of Trisong Detsen, the sixth king of Tibet, who ruled from 755 until 797 CE, in Spiti.
The exact number of texts in the Kangyur is not fixed. Each editor takes responsibility for removing texts they consider spurious, and adding new translations. Currently there are about 12 available versions of the Kangyur. These include the Derge, Lhasa, Narthang, Cone, Peking, Urga, Phudrak, and Stog Palace versions, each named for the physical location where it was printed. In addition, some canonical texts have been found in Tabo Monastery and Dunhuang which provide earlier exemplars of texts found in the Kangyur. All extant Kangyur appear to stem from the Old Narthang Monastery Kangyur. The stemma of the Kangyur have been well researched, by Helmut Eimer in particular.
Bön Kangyur
The Tibetan Bön religion also has its canon literature divided into two sections called the Kangyur and Tengyur, said to have been translated from foreign languages, but the number and contents of the collection are not yet fully known.[by whom?][clarification needed] Apparently, Bön began to take on a literary form about the time Buddhism entered Tibet. The Bön Kangyur contains the revelations of Tonpa Shenrab (Wylie: gShen rab), the traditional founder of Bön.[7][8] A version was published in 1993-1997.[9] The Bon traditions of the Tibetan part of the Chinese tripitaka Zhonghua da zang jing (中華大藏經) has also been published in 2022.[10]
↑ Peter Skilling, Mahasutras, volume I, 1994, Pali Text Society, Lancaster, page xxiv
↑ Eimer, Helmut. Ein Jahrzehnt Studien Zur Überlieferung Des Tibetischen Kanjur. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 1992.
↑ Stein, R. A. Tibetan Civilization. (1962). First English edition - translated by J. E. Stapleton Driver (1972). Reprint (1972): Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. ISBN0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN0-8047-0901-7 (paper)
↑ Tucci, Giuseppe. The Religions of Tibet. (1970). First English edition, translated by Geoffrey Samuel (1980). Reprint: (1988), University of California Press, p. 259, n. 10. ISBN0-520-03856-8 (cloth); ISBN0-520-06348-1 (pbk).
↑ Humphries, Christmas. A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 104. (1962) Arco Publications, London.
↑ Tucci, Giuseppe. The Religions of Tibet. (1970). First English edition, translated by Geoffrey Samuel (1980). Reprint: (1988), University of California Press, p. 213. ISBN0-520-03856-8 (cloth); ISBN0-520-06348-1 (pbk).
↑ Stein, R. A. Tibetan Civilization. (1962). First English edition - translated by J. E. Stapleton Driver (1972). Reprint (1972): Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, pp. 241, 251. ISBN0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN0-8047-0901-7 (paper)
Eimer, Helmut; Germano, David, eds. (2002). The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism:Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000. International Association for Tibetan Studies. Tibetan Studies Series. Vol.2/10. Leiden: Brill. ISBN978-90-04-12595-7.
Harrison, Paul (1994), "In Search of the Source of the Tibetan bKa' 'gyur: A Reconnaissance Report", in Kværne, Per (ed.), Tibetan Studies. Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Fagernes 1992, vol.1, Oslo: The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, pp.295–317
Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as in Nepal. Smaller groups of practitioners can be found in Central Asia, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and some regions of Russia, such as Tuva, Buryatia, and Kalmykia.
Vajrayāna, also known as Mantrayāna, Mantranāya, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Buddhist tradition of tantric practice that developed in Medieval India and spread to Tibet, Nepal, other Himalayan states, East Asia, parts of Southeast Asia and Mongolia.
Bon or Bön, also known as Yungdrung Bon, is the indigenous Tibetan religion which shares many similarities and influences with Tibetan Buddhism. It initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries but retains elements from earlier Tibetan religious traditions. Bon is a significant minority religion in Tibet, especially in the east, as well as in the surrounding Himalayan regions.
The Mahāyāna sūtras are a broad genre of Buddhist scripture (sūtra) that are accepted as canonical and as buddhavacana in certain communities of Mahāyāna Buddhism. They are largely preserved in Sanskrit manuscripts, and translations in the Tibetan Buddhist canon and Chinese Buddhist canon. Several hundred Mahāyāna sūtras survive in Sanskrit, or in Chinese and Tibetan translations. They are also sometimes called Vaipulya ("extensive") sūtras by earlier sources. The Buddhist scholar Asaṅga classified the Mahāyāna sūtras as part of the Bodhisattva Piṭaka, a collection of texts meant for bodhisattvas.
The Heart Sūtra is a popular sutra in Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the title Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya translates as "The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom".
The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a defined list of sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Canon includes the Kangyur, which is the Buddha's recorded teachings, and the Tengyur, which is commentaries by great masters on the Buddha's recorded teachings. The first translation into Tibetan of these manuscripts occurred in the 8th century and is referred to as the Ancient Translation School of the Nyingmas.
Buddhist texts are religious texts that belong to, or are associated with, Buddhism and its traditions. There is no single textual collection for all of Buddhism. Instead, there are three main Buddhist Canons: the Pāli Canon of the Theravāda tradition, the Chinese Buddhist Canon used in East Asian Buddhist tradition, and the Tibetan Buddhist Canon used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism.
The schools of Buddhism are the various institutional and doctrinal divisions of Buddhism that have existed from ancient times up to the present. The classification and nature of various doctrinal, philosophical or cultural facets of the schools of Buddhism is vague and has been interpreted in many different ways, often due to the sheer number of different sects, subsects, movements, etc. that have made up or currently make up the whole of Buddhist traditions. The sectarian and conceptual divisions of Buddhist thought are part of the modern framework of Buddhist studies, as well as comparative religion in Asia.
Thonmi Sambhota (Thönmi Sambhoṭa, is the Tibetan minister who according to legends created the first Tibetan script, base on the Gupta alphabet after being sent by King Songsten Gampo to study in India. He was sent to India with 16 other Tibetan students to study Buddhism, Sanskrit, and the Art of Writing. He is also credited with escorting two princesses into Tibet from their countries of Nepal and China respectively, before they married and became Songsten Gampo's queens.
Mahayana canon is the canon of scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism.
The Tengyur or Tanjur or Bstan-’gyur is the collected commentaries by great buddhist masters on Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings. The Tengyur is included in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, which consists of all of Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings together with the commentaries on the Buddha's teachings. The Canon also includes the Kangyur, which is repository of the Buddha's recorded teachings, placed before the Tengyur in the Canon.
Abhayākaragupta was a Buddhist monk, scholar and tantric master (vajracarya) and the abbot of Vikramasila monastery in modern-day, Bihar in India. He was born in somewhere in Eastern India, and is thought to have flourished in the late 11th-early 12th century CE, and died in 1125 CE.
Manjushrikirti or Manjughoshikirti is the 8th King of Shambhala, and a precursor in the lineage of the Panchen Lamas of Tibet. It is also a name which refers to two different figures in Indian Buddhism.
Luminous mind is a Buddhist term which appears only rarely in the Pali Canon, but is common in the Mahayana sūtras and central to the Buddhist tantras. It is variously translated as "brightly shining mind", or "mind of clear light" while the related term luminosity is also translated as "clear light" or "luminosity" in Tibetan Buddhist contexts or, "purity" in East Asian contexts.
Kamalaśīla was an Indian Buddhist monk of Nalanda Mahavihara who accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at the request of Trisong Detsen. He is considered one of the most important Madhyamaka authors of late Indian Buddhism although little is known about his life aside from details left in Tibetan sources.
Tipiṭaka or Tripiṭaka, meaning "Triple Basket", is the traditional term for ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures. The Tripiṭaka is composed of three main categories of texts that collectively constitute the Buddhist canon: the Vinaya Piṭaka, the Sutta Piṭaka, and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka.
The Abhidharma-samuccaya is a Buddhist text composed by Asaṅga. The Abhidharma-samuccaya is a systematic account of Abhidharma. According to J. W. de Jong it is also "one of the most important texts of the Yogācāra school." According to Frauwallner, this text is based on the Abhidharma of the Mahīśāsaka tradition.
Chinese Esoteric Buddhism refers to traditions of Tantra and Esoteric Buddhism that have flourished among the Chinese people. The Tantric masters Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra, established the Esoteric Buddhist Zhenyan tradition from 716 to 720 during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. It employed mandalas, mantras, mudras, abhiṣekas, and deity yoga. The Zhenyan tradition was transported to Japan as Shingon Buddhism by Kūkai as well as influencing Korean Buddhism and Vietnamese Buddhism. The Song dynasty (960–1279) saw a second diffusion of Esoteric texts. Esoteric Buddhist practices continued to have an influence into the late imperial period and Tibetan Buddhism was also influential during the Yuan dynasty period and beyond. In the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) through to the modern period, esoteric practices and teachings became absorbed and merged with the other Chinese Buddhist traditions to a large extent.
Sanskrit Buddhist literature refers to Buddhist texts composed either in classical Sanskrit, in a register that has been called "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit", or a mixture of these two. Several non-Mahāyāna Nikāyas appear to have kept their canons in Sanskrit, the most prominent being the Sarvāstivāda school. Many Mahāyāna Sūtras and śāstras also survive in Buddhistic Sanskrit or in standard Sanskrit.
The Bön Kangyur and Tengyur are collections of canonical texts of the Tibetan Bön religion. Like the Tibetan Buddhist canon, the Bönpo canon consists of two complementary collections: the Kangyur or translated word, consisting of 179 large volumes containing teachings attributed to Tonpa Shenrab, the legendary founder of the Bön religion; and the Tengyur containing commentaries on those teachings, as well as cycles of additional instructions, biographies, and rituals. These canonical texts were supposedly translated from original texts in the Zhang-Zhung language.
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