Tengyur

Buddha Shakyamuni surrounded by the Seventeen Nalanda Masters. The treatises of these Indian masters are included in the Tengyur.

Tengyur (T. bstan 'gyur བསྟན་འགྱུར་), literally "translated treatises", is one of the two main collections within the Tibetan Buddhist Canon.

The Tengyur contains Tibetan translations of works written by Indian Buddhist masters that explain and elaborate on the words of the Buddha. The Tengyur also contains texts on the Abhidharma, stories of the Buddha's previous lives, and other types of texts.

The other main collection of the Tibetan canon is the Kangyur, which contains works that are regarded as "the word of the Buddha" within the Tibetan tradition, namely sutras and tantras.

Divisions

Main categories

Generally, the main categories of the Tengyur are:

• Praises
• Tantra (Vajrayana treatises)
• Sutra commentary and philosophy
  • Prajñaparamita (treatises on the “transcendent perfection of wisdom”)
  • Madhyamaka (treatises based on Nagarjuna’s “middle way” philosophy)
  • Sutra-commentary (general treatises on sutra topics)
  • Cittamatra (treatises related to the “mind-only” views or to some of Asanga’s works)
• Abhidharma (summaries and systematic compilations of doctrine)
• Vinaya (treatises dealing mainly with monastic discipline)
• Jataka (the stories of the Buddha’s previous lives as a bodhisattva)
• Epistles
• Logic
• Language
• Medicine
• Crafts
• Mundane Treatises

AIBS catalog

The American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS) provides a visual breakdown of the Tengyur catalog.

• American Institute of Buddhist Studies - Tengyur Collection

Degé edition

The Degé edition of the Tengyur has the following divisions:

• Eulogy (Stotras)
  • Works praising buddhas, bodhisattvas, or points of doctrine.
  • Eulogy, 84000 Collection

• Tantra treatises
  • Commentaries, instructions, and liturgical works on the tantras (Toh 1180-3785)
  • Tantra, 84000 Collection

• Sūtra commentary and philosophy
  • Commentaries and philosophical works based on the sūtras and their interpretation, including the traditional Tengyur section divisions of Perfection of Wisdom, Middle Way, Sūtra Commentary, and Mind Only (Toh 3786-4085)
  • Sūtra commentary and philosophy , 84000 Collection

• Abhidharma treatises
  • Formal, scholastic treatises including part of the early Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma canon and later commentaries (Toh 4086-4103)
  • Abhidharma, 84000 Collection

• Vinaya treatises
  • Commentaries and treatises on the canonical Vinaya texts (Toh 4104-4149)
  • Discipline, 84000 Collection

• Jataka
  • The literature recounting stories of the Buddha’s previous lives (Toh 4150-4157)
  • The Buddha's previous lives, 84000 Collection

• Epistles
  • Advice from the great Indian Buddhist masters in the form of letters written to rulers and others
  • Epistles, 84000 Collection

• Epistemology and logic
  • The texts on Indian Buddhist epistemology, logic, and reasoning by Dignāga, Dharmakīrti, and others (Toh 4203-4268)
  • Epistemology and logic, 84000 Collection

• Traditional sciences and arts
  • Works on linguistics, medicine, technology, secular politics and ethics, etc. (Toh 4269-4464)
  • Traditional sciences and arts, 84000 Collection

• Tengyur catalogue (བསྟན་འགྱུར་དཀར་ཆག། · bstan 'gyur dkar chag)
  • Historical and descriptive catalogue of the Degé Tengyur by its 18th century editor Zhuchen Tsültrim Rinchen (Toh 4569).
  • Tengyur catalogue, 84000 Collection

Beijing edition

The Beijing Tengyur has the following divisions:

• Stotras ("Hymns of Praise"): 1 Volume; 64 texts.
• Commentaries on the Tantras: 86 Volumes; 3055 texts.
• Commentaries on Sutras; 137 Volumes; 567 texts.

1. Prajnaparamita Commentaries, 16 Volumes.
2. Madhyamika Treatises, 29 Volumes.
3. Yogacara Treatises, 29 Volumes.
4. Abhidharma, 8 Volumes.
5. Miscellaneous Texts, 4 Volumes.
6. Vinaya Commentaries, 16 Volumes.
7. Tales and Dramas, 4 Volumes.
8. Technical Treatises, 43 Volumes.

Major editions

Young monks printing scriptures in Sera Monastery, Tibet

Phillip Stanley (2014) identifies five extant Tengyurs, all of which descend from Bu ston’s 1334 Zhwa lu Tengyur (no longer extant). Stanley divides these Tengyurs into two groups:

Group A:

This group stems from a mid-seventeenth century ‘Phying ba stag rtse Tengyur that is not extant:

• Peking Tengyur (pe cin)
• Golden Tengyur (gser bris ma)
• Narthang Tengyur (snar thang)

Group B:

• Dergé Tengyur (sde dge)
• Choné Tengyur (co ne) (descended from the Dergé Tengyur)

In addition, there is the Pedurma (dpe bsdur ma) edition, which is a comparative edition, recently created, based the Dergé collection.

Translations into English

Most of the texts of the Tengyur have not been translated into English. A large-scale effort is currently underway by the 84000 Translation Group to systematically translate all of the works from the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur. Their website contains a list of all the sections and titles from the canon, their current translation status, and the translated texts where available. For the Tengyur collection, see:

• The Tengyur, 84000 Collection

Authors represented in the Tengyur

The Tengyur contains the writings of the great Indian Buddhist scholars, many of whom were associated with the great monastic universities of India, such as Nalanda.

Some of the most notable scholars are included in the following groups:

• the Six Ornaments and Two Supreme Ones, or
• the Seventeen Nalanda Masters

Sources

• Stanley, Phillip (2014), "The Tibetan Buddhist Canon", The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 383–407 . PDF version

Further reading

• Facts and Figures about Kangyur and Tengyur, 84000 Collection
• English Catalogue of the Dergé Tengyur, 84000 Collection
• Tengyur, Wikipedia
• Tengyur, Rigpa Shedra Wiki