Classical Literature
Presenting more than 8200 books and texts on life in Tibet and the Himalayas
Explore Classical Literature
Classical Literature provides rich deeply annotated catalogs, scans and searchable electronic editions, powerful scholarly tools, and reference resources for scholars and translators to explore and analyze classical Tibetan literature.
Featured Classical Literature
The Kangyur
Literally The Translations of the Buddha’s Words, the Kangyur is one of the most important canons of religious literature in the world. These texts, written in India, Central Asia, China, and elsewhere between the second century BCE and the seventeenth century CE and translated into Tibetan between the eighth and seventeenth centuries, cover an astonishing variety of subjects and have served as the basis for 1300 years of indigenous Tibetan literary activity that extensively cites and analyzes them.
The Nyingma Gyübum
Literally The Collected Tantras of the Ancients, the Nyingma Gyübum represents a collection of largely Buddha-voiced esoteric scriptures revered by the Nyingma or “Ancient” school of Tibetan Buddhism. Largely excluded from the Kangyur scriptural canon, these works represent unique exemplars of scriptures translated from Indian or Central Asian languages, as well as highly innovative Tibetan indigenous scriptures belonging to the tantric traditions of Buddhism.
The Collected Works of Longchenpa
The fourteenth-century master Longchenpa was one of Tibetan Buddhism’s greatest poets and philosophers, renowned for his eloquent and subtle compositions on the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) tradition, as well as work that ranges across a wide spectrum of Buddhist philosophies and practices.
The Tengyur
Literally The Translations of Treatises, the Tengyur is a canonical companion to the Kangyur. This group of texts is a collection of commentaries, treatises, practice and ritual texts on the teachings of the Buddhas, language arts, medical arts, arts and crafts, and more, written by Buddhist masters, the vast majority of whom were Indian.
