Kangyur

Kangyur (T. bka' 'gyur བཀའ་འགྱུར་) literally "translated words", is one of the two branches of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon.

Traditionally speaking, the Kangyur contains the "words of the Buddha", referring to the sutras and tantras. The commentaries to these texts are collected into the Tengyur, which is the second branch of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon.

The compilation of the first version of the Kangyur was completed by the Tibetan scholar Butön Rinchen Drup in the 1300s. Several versions of the compilation existed in Tibet, among which the most notable are those from Dergé, Lhasa, Narthang, Choné, Peking, Urga, Phudrak, and Tok Palace.

Though these collections aimed at exhaustiveness, most of the Nyingma tantras were left out of the Kangyur by their Sarma compilers. This lead to the creation of the Nyingma Gyübum that brings together the Nyingma tantras.

Divisions

The divisions of the Kangyur (according to the Degé edition) are:

Vinaya (འདུལ་བ་, 'dul ba)

• Vinaya texts (Tibetan Canon)
• Discipline

Sutra (མདོ་, mdo)

• Discourses
  • Prajnaparamita (ཤེར་ཕྱིན་, sher phyin)
    • Prajnaparamita sutras in the Tibetan canon
    • Perfection of Wisdom
  • Buddhāvataṃsaka (ཕལ་ཆེན་, phal chen)
    • Buddhāvataṃsaka (aka Avataṃsaka Sūtra)
    • The Sūtra of the Ornament of the Buddhas
  • Ratnakūṭa (དཀོན་བརྩེགས་, dkon brtsegs)
    • Ratnakūṭa
    • Heap of Jewels
  • Sutra (མདོ་སྡེ།, mdo sde)
    • General Sutra Section
    • General Sutra Section
  • Thirteen late translated sutras (གསར་འགྱུར།, gsar 'gyur)
    • Thirteen late translated sutras
    • Thirteen late translated sutras

Tantra (རྒྱུད་, rgyud)

• a collection of Buddhist tantras organized into three divisions (see Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism)
• Tantra
  • Tantra (a collection of 468 tantras, mainly from the "later translation period")
    • Tantra collection
  • Nyingma Tantra (seventeen tantras from the "early translation period")
    • Old Tantras
  • Kalacakra (tantras belonging to the “Wheel of Time” class)
    • Wheel of Time Commentary

Dharani

• a collection of dharanis - short texts based on formulae for recitation
• Incantations

Kangyur collections (Tibetan language)

• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼ཅོ་ནེ༽
• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼སྡེ་དགེ༽
• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼སྣར་ཐང་༽
• བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼ལྷ་ས༽
• Asian Classics Input Project (Tibetan texts)
• Online Kangyur and Tengyur (University of Vienna)

English language translations

The majority of the texts of the Kangyur have not been translated into English. However, many texts have been translated. Available translations can be found at the following websites:

• The Kangyur (online library of translated texts)
• Words of the Buddha, Lotsawa House

Further Reading

• Facts and Figures about Kangyur and Tengyur
• Tibetan Buddhist Canon - The Kangyur, by D. Phillip Stanley
• Paul Harrison, 'A Brief History of the Tibetan bKa' 'gyur' in Cabezón and Jackson, ed., Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, Snow Lion, 1996
• Peter Skilling, Translating the Buddha's Words: Some Notes on the Kanjur Translation Project, Nonthaburi, March 11, 2009
• Peter Skilling, 'Kanjur Titles and Colophons' in Tibetan Studies, vol. 2. Oslo, 1994, pp.768-780