The Tengyur or ''Tanjur'' or ''Bstan-’gyur'' (Tibetan: "Translation of Teachings") is the collected commentaries by great buddhist masters on Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings. The Tengyur is included in the

Tibetan Buddhist Canon The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a compilation of the Buddhist 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 gr ...

, which consists of all of Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings together with the commentaries on the Buddha's teachings. The Canon also includes the

Kangyur 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 ...

, which is repository of the Buddha's recorded teachings, placed before the Tengyur in the Canon.

The Buddhist Canon

To the Tengyur were assigned commentaries to both

Sutra ''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...

s and

Tantra Tantra (; ) is an esoteric yogic tradition that developed on the India, Indian subcontinent beginning in the middle of the 1st millennium CE, first within Shaivism and later in Buddhism. The term ''tantra'', in the Greater India, Indian tr ...

s, treatises and

abhidharma The Abhidharma are a collection of Buddhist texts dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. It also refers t ...

works (both

Mahayana Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...

and non-Mahayana). Together with the 108-volume

(the Collection of the Words of the Buddha), these form the basis of the

Tibetan Buddhist canon The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a compilation of the Buddhist 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 gr ...

. "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." As example, the content of the Beijing Tengyur: *

Stotra ''Stotra'' (Sanskrit: स्तोत्र) is a Sanskrit word that means "ode, eulogy or a hymn of praise."Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on 'Stotra'' It is a literary genre of In ...

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

Prajnaparamita file:Medicine Buddha painted mandala with goddess Prajnaparamita in center, 19th century, Rubin.jpg, A Tibetan painting with a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra at the center of the mandala Prajñāpāramitā means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Trans ...

Commentaries, 16 Volumes. # Madhyamika Treatises, 29 Volumes. #

Yogacara Yogachara (, IAST: ') is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation, as well as philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā). ...

Treatises, 29 Volumes. #

Abhidharma The Abhidharma are a collection of Buddhist texts dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. It also refers t ...

, 8 Volumes. # Miscellaneous Texts, 4 Volumes. #

Vinaya The Vinaya (Pali and Sanskrit: विनय) refers to numerous monastic rules and ethical precepts for fully ordained monks and nuns of Buddhist Sanghas (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). These sets of ethical rules and guidelines devel ...

Commentaries, 16 Volumes. # Tales and Dramas, 4 Volumes. # Technical Treatises, 43 Volumes.

The Bön Tengyur

The Tibetan

Bön Bon or Bön (), also known as Yungdrung Bon (, ), is the indigenous Tibetan religion which shares many similarities and influences with Tibetan Buddhism.Samuel 2012, pp. 220–221. It initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries but ...

religion, under the influence of Buddhism, also has its canon literature divided into two sections called the Kangyur and Tengyur but the number and contents of the collection are not yet fully known. Apparently, Bön began to take on a more literary form about the time Buddhism began to enter Tibet,Stein, R. A. (1962) pp. 241, 251. although it could have had some written records some time before that.

Footnotes

References

* Schlagintweit, Emil (2006) ''Buddhism in Tibet: Illustrated by Literary Documents and Objects Of Religious Worship With An Account Of The Buddhist Systems Preceding It In India'' * Stein, R. A. (1962) ''Tibetan Civilization''. First English edition - translated by J. E. Stapleton Driver (1972). Reprint (1972): Stanford University Press, Stanford, California (cloth); * Tucci, Giuseppe. ''The Religions of Tibet''. (1970). First English edition, translated by Geoffrey Samuel (1980). Reprint: (1988), University of California Press (cloth); (paperback)

External links

AIBS' Tengyur translation initiative

Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies
~ Universität Wien
ACIP's Derge Tengyur etext

TBRC's Tengyur scansTranslation of texts
{{Buddhism topics Tibetan Buddhist treatises Tripiṭaka

The Buddhist Canon

The Bön Tengyur

See also

Footnotes

References

External links