Toh 4568-2Chapter 2: Overview of How Those Teachings Were Preserved in This World
Pāli / Sanskrit:gnyis pa/ bstan pa de dzam+bu'i gling du ji ltar bskyangs pa'i tshul rags pa tsam zhig bshad pa'i yal 'dab/
Summary Toh 4568 ch. 1-5: More than a mere table of contents, the Degé Kangyur Catalogue is a detailed introduction to the Kangyur as a whole and this particular edition itself. It constitutes the entirety of the 103rd and final volume of the Kangyur and was written by the 8th Tai Situ, Chökyi Jungné (1700-1774 CE), who presided over the publication of the Degé Kangyur as its chief editor. The first three chapters of the catalog give a detailed history of Indian Buddhism and its arrival in Tibet while the final two give an account of all the texts included in the canon and an explanation of the merits of producing a Kangyur edition.
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Exposition of Chapter 2: Overview of How the Teachings Were Preserved in the World
Context
This chapter is part of the Kangyur Catalog of the Northern Canon, compiled by the Eighth Tai Situ, Chökyi Jungné (1700-1774), when he presided over the publication of the great Degé Kangyur. This is not a mere catalog, but a profound scholastic work, occupying the entire 103rd and final volume of the Kangyur, the Sutra section of the Tibetan Buddhist canon.
The Kangyur is honored as a collection of scriptures taught by Buddha Shakyamuni and other Buddhas, translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan in different periods. This Catalog was composed in the context of completing a great editorial undertaking, intended to preserve and disseminate Buddhist teachings in Tibet, where the Northern Tibetan transmission, Vajrayana, was systematized and strongly developed.
Main Content
Chapter 2, entitled "Overview of How Those Teachings Were Preserved in This World," focuses on a key issue: how the scriptures taught by the Buddha were preserved, transmitted, and spread through the generations, from India to Tibet.
The content records the global process of the transmission of the Dharma (saddharma-anugrahaṇa), a central concept in the Northern Tibetan transmission. In the first three chapters of the Catalog, the author Tai Situ Chökyi Jungné presented a detailed history of ancient Indian Buddhism, the development of the schools, and the global process by which the teachings were transmitted through conditions to Tibet. This includes the contributions of outstanding translator-monks (lotsāwa) such as Kumarajiva and Xuanzang in the Chinese tradition, and the Indian masters who came to Tibet, such as Śāntarakṣita, Padmasambhava, and Atīśa.
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