Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Editions of the Kangyur

The Kangyur and Tengyur are commonly referred to as the canon of Tibetan Buddhism. They consists of over 5,250 texts translated from other Asian languages into Tibetan, primarily from Sanskrit and related Indian languages. A small number of texts were translated from Chinese and from various languages of Central Asia. The term “Kangyur” means “translations of the pronouncements [of the Buddha]” and thus consists of the texts that are attributed to the Buddha. The term “Tengyur” means “translations of treatises [on the pronouncements of the Buddha]” and consists of texts attributed to subsequent learned and realized masters of Buddhism.

The Old Narthang (sṇar thang) Kangyur and Tengyur are traditionally viewed as the root source of all subsequent Kangyurs and Tengyurs and Western scholarship held this view until recently. At this point it is apparent that the Kangyur tradition in particular was diverse and fluid. Two main lines of Kangyurs have been identified, the Tshal pa and Them spangs ma lines. Previously, scholars presumed that both of these lines stemmed from the Old Narthang Kangyur but this assumption has been abandoned with mounting evidence that the differences between the two lines make the assumption of a single source untenable. In addition, there are a number of independent Kangyurs that stand aside from the two lines just noted. They often preserve alternate textual traditions and distinctive arrangements of the texts. It has also become clear that over time subsequent copies of these various different Kangyurs began influencing or “contaminating” each other. The resutling picture of the history of the Kangyurs that is emerging is one of complexity and a certain fluidity.

The Kangyur has pride of place in Tibetan Buddhism. Many versions of the Kangyur collection were created in regions of Tibet. Royal families often viewed the publishing of a Kangyur as a meritorious activity that would bring benefit to their regions. At this point there are known to be at least ten hand-written manuscript versions of the Kangyur in existence:

1. Four Independent Kangyur Manuscripts: Newark, O rgyan gling (or Tawang), Phug Brag, and Gondhla.
2. One Tshal pa Kangyur Manuscripts: Berlin.
3. Four Them spangs ma Kangyur Manuscripts: Ulan Bator, London, sTog Palace, and Tokyo.
4. One Translation of the Tibetan Kangyur in Manucsript form: Petersburg manuscript of the Mongolian Kangyur.

There are also at least eleven printed xylograph versions of the Kangyur known to be in existence, if the many reprints of the Derge Kangyur--there are at least 8 of them with their varying changes--are not counted separately:

• Four major xylograph Kangyurs of the Peking sub-group in the Tshal pa line: Yongle, Wanli, Kangzi, and Qianlong (plus their various reprintings).
• Two xylograph Kangyurs of the ’Phying ba stag rtse sub-group in the Tshal pa line: Lithang (Li thang) or ’Jang sa tham and Cone (Co ne).
• Three main mixed xylograph Kangyurs: Narthang, Derge (sde dge), and Lhasa (ḷha sa), plus the numerous reprints of the Derge Kangyur: in addition to the original as represented by a par phud or “first fruits” copy, there is the retouched version of the par phud printing created under H.H. the 16th Karmapa known as the mTshal par “red print” version along with its Chendgu and Taipei reprints, the expanded Tohoku version of Derge and its reprinting in the Nyingma Edition of Dharma Publishing, plus the reprints of Urga, Ra rgya, and Wara. There are varying amounts of editing and insertion of additional texts in such reprints so there are variations between these reprints.
• Two xylograph translations of the Tibetan Kangyur: the Mongolian xylograph and Manchu xylograph Kangyurs are translations from Tibetan Kangyurs. There is also a Tangut lanauge canonical collection for which many of its texts were translated from Tibetan, though it is not itself specifically a translation of Tibetan Kangyur.

It is hoped that additional versions of the Kangyur will come to light, especially manuscript versions. In the Combined Kangyur created by the database work that is the basis of the Tibetan Buddhist Canonical Collections Project, 1,169 Kangyur texts with 70,000 pages of text have been identified. No single version of the Kangyur includes all these texts. While there is substantial overlap between the verisions there is no single version that established a norm for the Kangyur and the field of Kangyur studies generally does not view these collections as different editions of a putative root collection. The collections are rather fluid with respect to what texts they include but they are intended to include only translations of Buddhist texts brought to Tibet. There is a complex history of lineages of Kangyur copies and cross-influences between such lineages. The discovery of new Kangyurs may help shed light on this history. The power of databases to faciliate new types of detailed analysis of the different versions of the Kangyur promises to shed new light on the history of these texts and collections.

Descriptions of Kangyur Editions

The Kangyurs will be divided into five sections:

1. Independent Kangyurs: These do not belong to the two main lines of Kangyurs
2. Tshal pa (“Eastern Group”) Kangyurs: Peking Sub-Line
3. Tshal pa (“Eastern Group”) Kangyurs: ’Phying ba stag rtse Sub-Line
4. Them spang ma (“Western Group”) Kangyurs
5. Mixed Kangyurs
6. Canonical Translations From Tibetan Into Other Languages

Within these categories, individual Kangyurs are generally arranged chronologically based on their dates of completion, if known. The sigla for each Kangyur will be given first, followed by a description of the collection in question. The sigla for each Kangyur will be given first, followed by a description of the collection in question. The sigla used for the different Kangyur editions in the Tibetan Buddhist Canonical Collections will follow the proposal set forth in Paul Harrison and Helmut Eimer’s “Kangyur and Tengyur Sigla: A Proposal for Standardization.” In addition, as there will be recurring references to the The Nyingma Edition of the Derge Kangyur and Tengyur and this collection was not included in the standardized sigla list, the project will utilize the sigla “NE” for it. Note that in the list that follows, the symbol “#” indicates that the University of Virginia and/or Naropa University have the texts of these Kangyurs.

a. Independent Kangyurs

A: Tabo manuscript fragments. An independent proto-Kangyur and Tengyur body of texts from the Tabo Monastery in western Tibet. Pre-13th century? There is also a body of texts from the Dunhuang caves toward the Chinese end of the Silk route that include Kangyur and Tengyur texts. The Tibetans controlled the Dunhuang region from 777 or 787 to 848.

E: Newark manuscript Kangyur, from Batang/Bathang in Khams, E. Tibet, from the 15th to 16th centuries. 23 volumes only. An independent Kangyur.

O: O rgyan gling or Tawang manuscript Kangyur from Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India. Two copies are located at Tawang, one in gold and silver (which is incomplete) and one in black ink, the later apparently being a copy of the former. The black ink copy was completed in 1699-1700, so the gold and silver original precedes this date. Though it may be related to the Them spangs ma line, this is an independent Kangyur, e.g., it has an usually large number of Nyingma tantra texts, 60 compared to the 18 or 19 in the later versions of the Tshal pa Kangyurs.

F #: Phug brag manuscript Kangyur. An independent Kangyur from W. Tibet. c. 1696-1706. Its texts are is sometimes related to the Tshal pa line and sometimes to the Them spangs ma line. Located at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, Dharamsala, India.

--: Gondhlla manuscript Kangyur. This Kangyur has been tentatively dated to the late 13th/early 14th centuries but this needs confirmation. It is in a private collection in Gondhla, Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh, India. It consists of 35 volumes of Mdo texts but with no Sher phyin texts and only a few Rgyud texts. It is said that other volumes of the collection are located in an unknown place in the Western Himalayas. Its relationship to other Kangyurs is currently unknown, but like the Tawang manuscript it includes Nyingma tantras not present in other collections, which suggests it is an independent Kangyur. No sigla has been assigned to this Kangyur.

b. Tshal pa (“Eastern Group”) Kangyurs: Peking Sub-Line

Y *: Xylograph edition of Kangyur prepared under the Yongle emperor. Dated 1410. 105 + 1 volumes. Begins the Peking sub-line of the Tshal pa Kangyur line and is the first xylograph edition. Two almost complete editions exist in Lhasa. One was known to exist on Wutai-shan in China c. 1940 but its present status is unknown.

W *: Edition of Kangyur and Tengyur Supplement prepared under the Wanli emperor. Dated 1605. 105 + 1 volumes and 42 + 1 supplementary volumes. This is a reprint utilizing the blocks of the Yongle Kangyur.

B: Berlin manuscript Kangyur. This is a 1680 Kangyur based on the 1605 Peking xylograph Kangyur. Belongs to the Peking sub-line of the Tshal pa Kangyur line. There is another manuscript Kangyur based on the 1605 Peking Kangyur at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan that has not been given a sigla.

K: Peking edition of the Kangyur prepared in 1684-92 under the Kangxi emperor. Belongs to the Peking sub-line of the Tshal pa Kangyur line. 105 + 1 volumes. This edition used new blocks created with a technique that produced virtual duplicates of the original Yongle blocks. There were subsequent reprintings of these blocks to which some changes were made over time that were apparently based on the Lithang Kangyur. Reprintings occurred in 1700 (106 + 1 volumes), 1717-1720 (106 + 1 volumes). A hand-emended version of the Kangyur is at the Harvard-Yenching Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts. A 1692 Kangyur is held at the Sung chu ssu in Peking. A 1700 Kangyur is held at the Pei-ching kuo-li t’u-shu-kuan (National Library) and at the Yung ho kung in Peking. A 1717-1720 Kangyur is held at Ōtani University in Kyōto. (The Kangzi Tengyur is dated 1724 with 225 + 1 volumes.)

Q #: Peking xylograph impression of the Kangyur prepared in 1737 under the Qianlong emperor. 107 + 1 volumes. The Kangyur belongs to the Peking sub-line of the Tshal pa Kangyur line. The Qianlong Kangyur is a reprint from the Kangzi blocks. A 1737 Kangyur is held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The modern photographic Otani reprint of both the Kangyur and Tengyur form 1955-58 is somewhat widely available. Its Kangyur is based on a combination of the 1717-20 and 1737 Kangyurs. There was another reprint after 1763, perhaps in 1765, but there is no sign yet of am extant copy. A copy of the Otani Kangyur and Tengyur are held by the University of Virginia.

c. Tshal pa (“Eastern Group”) Kangyurs: ’Phying ba stag rtse Sub-Line

J: Lithang or ’Jang sa tham xylograph Kangyur. Belongs to the ’Phying ba stag rtse sub-line the Tshal pa Kangyur line. Dated 1609-1614. 108 volumes. A copy that is missing four volumes is located at the Nyingma monastery in Orissa, India. It has been mircrofilmed by the Naritasan Shishojin Temple of Japan in 1984 and by the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project.

C #: Cone xylograph Kangyur (and Tengyur). The Cone Kangyur is a “straight copy” of the LIthang Kangyur and thus belongs to the ’Phying ba stag rtse sub-line of the Tshal pa Kangyur line. Dated 1721-1731. 108 volumes. The Cone Kangyur and Tengyur are relatively rare. Copies of the Kangyur are at the Ōtani University in Kyōto, at the Tōyō Library in Tōkyō, at the Institut narodov Azii in Leningrad, and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (University of Virginia has the texts for the Tengyur only.)

D#: The Derge Kangyur, along with its many derivatives, is a mixed Kangyur that is described in detail below but it is mentioned briefly here because it is based primarily on the Lithang Kangyur of the Tshal pa line.

d. Them spangs ma (“Western Group”) Kangyurs

U #: Ulan Bator manuscript Kangyur of the Them spangs ma Kangyur line c. 1671. (There is also an ancient Them spangs ma manuscript Kangyur in Gyantse (Rgyal rtse) of Central Tibet, but it has not been given a sigla. Also note that “U” is used as the sigla for the Urga Kangyur that is of mixed lineage.)

L: London manuscript Kangyur. Copy of the Kangyur from the Shel dkar monastery of S. Tibet, 1712. Belongs to the Them spangs ma Kangyur line.

S #: Stog Palace manuscript Kangyur. From Ladakh in northwest India. Belongs to the Them spangs ma Kangyur line. Modern reprint from 1975-1980 of the sTog Palace manuscript still located at sTog that was made c. 1729 from a Bhutanese original. 109 volumes.

T: Tokyo or Kawaguchi manuscript Kangyur. Belongs to the Them spangs ma Kangyur line. 1858-78.

e. Mixed Kangyurs

N #: Narthang xylograph Kangyur (and Tengyur). A mixed Kangyur: some of its volumes are from the ’Phying ba stag rtse manuscript (not extant, also the source of Lithang) of the Tshal pa line and some are from the Shel dkar rdzong manuscript (not extant, also the source of the London manuscript) of the Them spangs ma line. Dated 1730-32 with 100 + 1 volumes. The Narthang Kangyur and Tengyur are widely available.

D #: Derge xylograph Kangyur (and Tengyur). Kangyur has a mixed lineage but is based primarily on the Lithang Kangyur of the Tshal pa line, with some emendations from the Lho rdzong Kangyur (not extant) of the Them spangs ma line. The Derge Kangyur was completed in 1733 with 102 + 1 volumes. It is available in an original print at the Oriental Institute, Prague, and a 1976-1979 reprint by H.H. the 16th Karmapa in 103 volumes known as the mtshal par or “red printing” that was based on one of the first original copies--a par phud or “first fruits printing”--that had been given to H.H. the 13th Karmapa. This reprint was in turn the basis for three more reprintings: the Dharma Publishing reprint (Berkeley CA, c. 1982), a recent Chengdu reprint in China, and a recent Taipei reprint in Taiwan. The Karmapa reprint included touch-ups to the original which, however, introduced additional errors. There is also a Ra rgya/skya xylograph Kangyur copy of the Derge from the Amdo region of northwest Tibet, dated 1814-1820 with 103 volumes, and a Wara xylograph Kangyur copy of the Derge from East Tibet circa 1930 in 206 volumes. The Derge Tengyur is from 1737-1744 with 212 + 1 volumes. Derge Kangyurs are widely available.

U #: Urga xylograph Kangyur from 1908-1910 with 104 + 1 volumes is a copy of the Derge Kangyur (and is thus of the Tshal pa Kangyur line with some emendations from the Them spangs ma line) with several extra texts added in and some corrections based on Peking. (There is also an ancient Them spangs ma manuscript Kangyur in Gyantse of Central Tibet, but it has not been given a sigla. Also note that “U” is used as the sigla for the Ulan Bator manuscript Kangyur of the Them spangs ma Kangyur line of c. 1671.)

H #: Lhasa xylograph Kangyur. Based on Narthang, with some readings from Derge so a mixed Kangyur. Dated 1934 with 99 + 1 volumes. It is widely available.

NE #: Dharma Publishing’s Nyingma Edition of the Derge xylograph bKa’-’gyur and bsTan-’gyur with texts of the Peking and Lhasa collections added that do not appear in the Derge. (Not part of Harrison & Eimer’s sigla list. See comments above.) 108 sets of this edition were made. It has 120 volumes of Kangyur and Tengyur texts plus some additional Chinese language texts. There is an eight volume catalog and a two volume guide. It was produced 1977-1983.

f. Canonical Translations From Tibetan Into Other Languages

P: Petersburg manuscript of the Mongolian Kangyur. Once thought to be the Kangyur created in 1628-1629 with 113 volumes by order of the last Great Qaɣan of Mongolia, it now seems that it is possibly a draft to the final 1628-1629 Kangyur. Apparently both the preliminary and final drafts used translations from an earlier Kangyur of 108 volumes produced in 1602-1607 under Namudai sečen qaɣan, which is no longer extant. It is unclear what Tibetan Kangyur these manuscript Kangyurs were based on, if any, due to the unusual arrangement and large number of duplicate texts in the surviving manuscript.

M: Peking edition of the Mongolian xylograph Kangyur under the Kangxi emperor. Created 1718-20 in Peking in 108 volumes, based on the translations of the manuscript Mongolian Kangyur of 1628-29 but rearranged according to the 1684-92 Peking Tibetan Kangyur of the Kangxi emperor.

--: There is also a Manchu translation of the Tibetan Kangyur. This xylograph Kangyur was completed in 1794 and contains 108 volumes. The translations for this Kangyur were begun in 1773. A copy was recently found in the Potala in Lhasa and some of the printing blocks have been discovered in Peking. No sigla has been assigned to this Kangyur.

--: Tangut (or Hsi-hsia) xylograph canon was published after 1280 by Yuan authorities, perhaps c. 1330. Many of the Tangut translations were from Tibetan texts. A modern printing in nine volumes was done in India in 1971 from a copy in India. No sigla has been assigned to this canon.