Toh 4569Tengyur Catalogue
Pāli / Sanskrit:Tengyur Catalogue
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An Exposition of the Tengyur Catalogue (Toh 4569)
Background
The Tengyur Catalogue is not an independent collection of scripture in the ordinary sense, but a catalogue classifying the entire Tengyur (གཏེང་ཡུར་)—that is, the “Translated Treatises” (bhāṣya) within the Tripiṭaka of the Northern Buddhist Canon. The Tengyur is the largest collection in the treasury of Tibetan Buddhism and contains treatises, commentaries, and supplementary expositions by eminent Indian masters on every field of Buddhist learning.
This catalogue was compiled to help practitioners locate, search for, and clearly understand the logical structure of the Tengyur. It is a tool for organizing knowledge of the Buddha’s Dharma according to a systematic analytical method, reflecting the Northern Buddhist scholastic tradition in which study, debate, and explanation are the three principal pillars (སྤྱི་གདུང་རྒྱས་པའི་སྐོལ།).
Main Content
The Tengyur Catalogue organizes thousands of exegetical works into major sections. Most are bhāṣyas (detailed commentaries) and ṭīkās (supplementary expositions) on the Vinayapiṭaka, Sūtrapiṭaka, and especially on Prajñāpāramitā (the perfection of wisdom), yogi tantras (the kings of tantra), and treatises on skillful means and wisdom (upāyakauśalya).
The catalogue is arranged according to the major scholastic traditions: the treatises of revered teachers such as Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Candrakīrti, and Tsongkhapa are classified in detail. Each work is recorded together with information about its original author, when known, its Tibetan translator, and its location within the Tengyur.
The catalogue also includes works on Abhidharma, logic, and epistemology (pramāṇa—proof), fields accorded the highest importance in the Northern tradition. This reflects the Northern Mahāyāna view that wisdom must be established upon a foundation of rigorous logic.
Practical Significance
For modern practitioners, the Tengyur Catalogue is not merely an academic reference tool but a map for exploring the Buddha’s Dharma in depth.
🌏 The Buddhist canon is vast — some sūtras (such as comparative Vinaya across schools, or untranslated Tibetan-canon texts) have to this day NEVER been translated into Vietnamese or English by anyone, scholars included. Rather than leave it blank, Inti AI offers a FAITHFUL summary grounded in the tradition — from the sūtra's title, origin and essence — so you can still reach this rare part of the treasury. Whenever an original translation exists, the app shows the original first.
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