Tengyur

The Tengyur, meaning "translated treatises," is the second major part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. It gathers a vast body of scholarly texts—commentaries, treatises, and technical works—translated from Indian and other sources into Tibetan. Together with the Kangyur, which contains the translated discourses of the Buddha, the Tengyur provides the scholastic foundation of Tibetan Buddhism.

Contents: The Tengyur includes philosophical treatises on logic, epistemology, Abhidharma, and the major schools such as Madhyamaka and Yogacara, as well as commentaries on sutras, monastic discipline (Vinaya), ritual manuals, and, in many lineages, tantric treatises. It also contains writings by later Tibetan authors. The collection comprises thousands of texts and remains central to Tibetan scholastic study.

History: Translations into Tibetan began in the early medieval period and continued for several centuries. Tibetan scholars later organized and annotated the material, and standard editions and catalogs were produced by monasteries to support consistent study.

Editions: The Tengyur survives in several traditional editions, with widely used printings that organize texts by subject and provide scholarly indices.

Significance: The Tengyur complements the Kangyur by supplying the interpretive and analytic material that underpins Tibetan philosophy, ethics, and practice. It embodies the transmission of Indian Buddhist thought and its development within Tibetan intellectual life.