Kangyur

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A statue of Buddha Shakyamuni in Tibet. The Kangyur contains the teachings of the Buddha.

Kangyur (T. bka' 'gyur བཀའ་འགྱུར་) literally "translated words", is one of the two main collections within the Tibetan Buddhist Canon.

According to tradition, the Kangyur contains the "words of the Buddha", referring to the sutras and tantras. The commentaries to these texts are collected into the Tengyur, which is the other main collection of the Tibetan canon.

Multiple versions of the Kangyur existed in Tibet. Among which the most notable editions are those from Dergé, Lhasa, Narthang, Choné, Peking, Urga, Phudrak, and Tok Palace.

Though these collections aimed at exhaustiveness, most of the Nyingma tantras were left out of the Kangyur by their Sarma compilers. This lead to the creation of the Nyingma Gyübum that brings together the Nyingma tantras.

Divisions

The divisions of the Kangyur (according to the Degé edition) are:

• Vinaya
  • Works focusing primarily on the monastic rules and their origins, but also containing a wealth of historical, biographical, and cultural material.
  • Discipline, 84000 Collection
• Sutra
  • The main body of the Buddha’s discourses, ranging from lengthy and detailed presentations of doctrine to brief summaries of particular points.
  • Discourses, 84000 Collection
    • Prajnaparamita
      • Perfection of Wisdom, 84000 Collection
    • Buddhāvataṃsaka (aka Avataṃsaka Sūtra)
      • The Sūtra of the Ornament of the Buddhas, 84000 Collection
    • Ratnakūṭa
      • Heap of Jewels, 84000 Collection
    • General Sutra Section
      • General Sutra Section, 84000 Collection
    • Thirteen late translated sutras
      • Thirteen late translated sutras, 84000 Collection
• Tantra
  • a collection of Buddhist tantras organized into three divisions (see Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism)
  • Tantra, 84000 Collection
    • Tantra (a collection of 468 tantras, mainly from the "later translation period")
      • Tantra collection, 84000 Collection
    • Nyingma Tantra (seventeen tantras from the "early translation period")
      • Old Tantras, 84000 Collection
    • Kalacakra (tantras belonging to the “Wheel of Time” class)
      • Wheel of Time Commentary, 84000 Collection
• Dhāraṇī
  • a collection of dhāraṇīs - short texts based on formulae for recitation
  • Dhāraṇī, 84000 Collection

Tibetan texts

Online libraries containing the Tibetan texts of the Kangyur and Tengyur:

• Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies, University of Vienna
• The Buddhist Canons Research Database, AIBS
• Home page, The Buddhist Digital Archives (BUDA)

Editions of the Kangyur:

• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼སྡེ་དགེ༽
• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼ཅོ་ནེ༽
• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼སྣར་ཐང་༽
• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼ལྷ་ས༽

English language translations

As of Jan 2026, about 40% of the texts from the Kangyur have been translated. Available translations can be found at these websites:

• The Kangyur, 84000 Collection
• Words of the Buddha, Lotsawa House

Further reading

Web publications:

• Facts and Figures about Kangyur and Tengyur, 84000 Collection

Print publications:

• Paul Harrison, 'A Brief History of the Tibetan bKa' 'gyur' in Cabezón and Jackson, ed., Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, Snow Lion, 1996
• Peter Skilling, Translating the Buddha's Words: Some Notes on the Kanjur Translation Project, Nonthaburi, March 11, 2009
• Peter Skilling, 'Kanjur Titles and Colophons' in Tibetan Studies, vol. 2. Oslo, 1994, pp.768-780