Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Ancient Tantras

(2.6) Ancient Tantras

This section contains nineteen works (D.834-D.852) that the Degé Kangyur labels as “Ancient Tantras” (རྙིང་རྒྱུད་, rnying rgyud). The section contains tantras that are of major importance to the Nyingma (རྙིང་མ་, rnying ma) tradition in Tibet; many of them also appear in their tantric canon The Collected Tantras of the Ancients (རྙིང་མ་རྒྱུད་འབུམ་, rnying ma rgyud 'bum). Note that the Ancient Tantras section does not appear in Situ’s catalog of the Degé Kangyur, suggesting how their inclusion in the Kangyur is contested.

The section contains the Tantra of the All-Creating King (ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཀུན་བྱེད་པ་རྒྱལ་པོ།, chos thams cad rdzogs pa chen po byang chub kyi sems kun byed pa rgyal po/, Sarvadharma-mahāsaṃdhi-bodhicitta-kularāja, D.834), one of the foundational texts for the Great Perfection (རྫོགས་ཆེན་, rdzogs chen) movement. Also included here are texts related to the Nucleus of Mystery (གསང་བ་སྙིང་པོ་, gsang ba snying po, guhyagarbha) corpus, including the root tantra in 22 chapters (D.838), and a larger version in 80 chapters (D.840).

Literature:

The Ancient Tantras in the Kangyur

• Dorje, Gyurme. “Compilation of the bKa’-’gyur rNying-rgyud and the rNying-ma rGyud-’bum.” In “The Guhyagarbhatantra and Its XIVth Century Tibetan Commentary, Phyogs Bcu Mun Sel,” pp. 27-32. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1987.

The All Creating King

• Lipman, Kennard, and Merrill Peterson, trans. You Are the Eyes of the World / Longchenpa. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.
• Norbu, Namkhai and Adriano Clemente, trans. The Supreme Source. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications: 1999.

The Nucleus of Mystery

• Dorje, Gyurme. "The Guhyagarbhatantra and Its XIVth Century Tibetan Commentary, Phyogs Bcu Mun Sel." Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1987.
• Garson, Nathaniel DeWitt. "Penetrating the Secret Essence Tantra: Context and Philosophy in the Mahāyoga System of Rnying-Ma Tantra." Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 2004.
• Jamgön Mipham. Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra. Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2009.
• Martin, Daniel. "Illusion Web: Locating the Guhyagarbha Tantra in Buddhist Intellectual History." In Silver on Lapis: Tibetan Literary Culture and History, edited by C.I. Beckwith, 175-220. Bloomington: Tibet Society, 1987.
• Wangchuk, Dorji. "An Eleventh-Century Defence of the Authenticity of the Guhyagarbha Tantra." In The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism, edited by Helmut Eimer and David Germano, 265-92. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002.