Thirteen great texts

Thirteen great texts (T. gzhung chen bcu gsum གཞུང་ཆེན་བཅུ་གསུམ་) - a set of thirteen classical Indian Buddhist texts which are studied in Tibetan Buddhist monastic curriculums.

The Rangjung Yeshe Dharma Dictionary states:

Since the early 20th century they have become the core sutra curriculum of the traditional monastic education in the Nyingma and Sakya lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. They were made famous through the efforts of the renowned Khenpo Shenga who composed a series of annotated commentaries on these thirteen great scriptures ... using strictly Indian materials.

The thirteen texts are:

1. Pratimoksha Sutra by Shakyamuni Buddha
2. Vinayasutra by Gunaprabha
3. Abhidharma-samuccaya by Asanga
4. Abhidharmakosha by Vasubandhu
5. Mulamadhyamaka-karika by Nagarjuna
6. Madhyamakavatara by Chandrakirti
7. Catuḥśataka by Aryadeva
8. Bodhicharyavatara by Shantideva
9. Abhisamayalankara by Asanga
10. Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra by Asanga
11. Madhyāntavibhāga by Asanga
12. Dharmadharmatāvibhāga by Asanga
13. Uttaratantra Shastra by Asanga

Further Reading

• Dreyfus, Georges. “Where Do Commentarial Schools Come From? Reflections on the History of Tibetan Scholasticism” in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (Vol. 28, No. 2), 2005, pp. 273 – 297

External Links

• གཞུང་ཆེན་བཅུ་གསུམ་, gzhung chen bcu gsum
• Thirteen great texts, Rigpa Shedra Wiki