An Early Tibetan Survey of Buddhist Literature

This volume is a study and edition of Bcom Idan ral gri’s (1227–1305) Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi ’od. Likely composed in the last decades of the thirteenth century, this systematic list of Buddhist Sutras, Tantras, Shastras, and related genres translated primarily from Sanskrit and other Indic languages holds an important place in the history of Buddhist literature in Tibet. It affords a glimpse of one Tibetan scholar’s efforts to classify more than two thousand titles of Buddhist literature in the decades before the canonical collections known as the Bka’ ’gyur and the Bstan ’gyur achieved a relatively stable form. Tibetan historiography traces the origin of the Bka’ ’gyur and Bstan ’gyur to Bcom ldan ral gri’s efforts, though the unique structure of the Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi ’od, which differs greatly from available Bka’ ’gyur and Bstan ’gyur catalogs, shows that the situation is more complex.

Known to contemporary scholars of Tibetan literature for some time through mention in other works, Bcom ldan ral gri’s survey has recently become available for the first time in two manuscripts. The present work contains a detailed historical introduction, an annotated edition of the two manuscripts, as well as concordances and appendices intended to aid the comparative study of early Tibetan collections of Indic Buddhist literature.