by Chris Hatchell
Appended to the Degé edition of the Kangyur is one final text, composed by Situ Panchen (སི་ཏུ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འབྱུང་གནས་, si tu chos kyi ’byung gnas, 1699/1700-1774 CE), which discusses the Kangyur in general and contains a detailed topical outline (དཀར་ཆག, dkar chag) of its contents. Titled New Vine of Moonlight (ཟླ་འོད་གཞོན་ནུའི་འཁྲི་ཤིང་།, zla 'od gzhon nu'i 'khri shing /), the text contains a brief summation and history of the Buddha's teaching (chapter 1), a short history of how the Buddha's teachings of sutra and tantra came to flourish in India (chapter 2), a discussion of how the Doctrine spread to Tibet, including historical materials on Degé and the Degé edition of the Kangyur (chapter 3), a topical outline of the Degé Kangyur itself (chapter 4), and a description of the benefits and purpose of the construction of the Degé Kangyur, along with some concluding prayers (chapter 5).
The topical outline from chapter 4 (see Kangyur vol. lak+Sh+mI, p. 113a) has been used as the basis of the THL catalog, where each of Situ’s topic headings are reproduced in our Catalog Index.
Literature on Situ Panchen: