Kangyur & Tengyur
Canonical collection
The Kangyur contains translated scriptures. The Tengyur contains Indian treatises and commentaries.
Kangyur · selected scriptures
Indian teaching works
Translations & sourcesEditions & translators
Browse translations from the Tibetan Buddhist canon, alongside introductions, notes and glossaries. The collection continues to grow.
Edition & attribution
This is a brief introduction to these texts, not a translation.
Introductions, reflection questions and added section headings are editorial material, separate from the attributed translation.
The linked publisher provides the text and its usage terms.
Connections
Guru Viking2
- Ep276: Canadian Tulku Translator - Tulku Sherab Dorje
Reference checked in a machine transcript of the official podcast audio.
Source
- Ep260: Boudhanath Kora with Lama Glenn Mullin
Reference in the official chapter notes.
Source
People & teachers2
- Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna
Indian master whose path teachings shaped Tibetan study and practice.
Source
- Śāntideva
Indian author whose bodhisattva teaching is widely studied in Tibet.
Source
Traditions & history14
- Early transmission to Tibet
Early Tibetan transmission: a background to the later canonical collections.
Source
- Tibetan traditions
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Tibetan traditions.
- Nyingma
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Nyingma.
- Kagyu
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Kagyu.
- Karma Kagyu
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Karma Kagyu.
- Drukpa Kagyu
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Drukpa Kagyu.
- Drikung Kagyu
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Drikung Kagyu.
- Shangpa Kagyu
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Shangpa Kagyu.
- Sakya
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Sakya.
- Gelug
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Gelug.
- Jonang
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Jonang.
- Vajrayāna · esoteric traditions
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Vajrayāna · esoteric traditions.
- Mūlasarvāstivāda
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Mūlasarvāstivāda.
- Rimé
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Rimé.
Books1
- Approaching the Buddhist Path
Contemporary orientation to Buddhist history and the Tibetan presentation of the path.
Source
Make yourself comfortable
About this textContext & reading guide
The Kangyur collects translated works accepted as Buddha-word: sūtras, monastic discipline and tantric scriptures. The Tengyur gathers Indian treatises and commentaries.
These categories distinguish scripture from the literature that interprets and systematizes it. Editions vary. Tibetan authors’ own works constitute additional bodies of teaching literature.
Tibetan schools share this broad inheritance while emphasizing different instructions, commentaries and practice transmissions.
Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug draw on shared canonical collections alongside their distinctive lineage writings.