By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)
Following the Tantra section, the remaining 132 volumes of the Tengyur are made up of exoteric treatises. Whereas the fabricators of the Kangyur had only to create a scheme for the works attributed to the Buddha, those who worked with Buddhist treatises were faced with the much more difficult task of developing a classificatory architecture able to hold a far greater variety of works, and it is in the exoteric sections that this may be discerned most clearly. This large section of “Philosophical Treatises” (མཚན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བསྟན་བཅོས་, mtshan nyid kyi bstan bcos) contains the major Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna treatises, alongside works on the Jātaka tales, logic, medicine, and the arts.