Tibetan Texts > Specific Tibetan Text Studies > Deb Ther Sngon Po (Blue Annals) > Introduction
Introduction to The Blue Annals
By David Germano and Kurtis Schaeffer (last updated January 18, 2007)
The Blue Annals (deb ther sngon po) is among the most comprehensive and famous of histories of Buddhism in Tibet. Completed in 1478 by the great scholar, The Translator of Gö Zhönnupel (‘gos lo tsa’a ba gzhon nu dpal, 1392-1481) and block-printed shortly thereafter, it has maintained an important place in the development of Tibetan historical writing due to both its comprehensive scope and its ecumenical orientation. Gö Lotsawa’s history has been well-known to readers outside Tibet since the early 1950s, when the Russian scholar/explorer George Roerich translated the entire work with the aid of Gendun Chöpel (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1948-1953. 2 volumes, xxi, 1275 pages).
The Blue Annals is comprised of fifteen major sections (dum bu), and one-hundred and two chapters within those sections. While each chapter is at least nominally dedicated to a particular topic, there is so much in the way of incidental information on every page that the work becomes a veritable encyclopedia of Tibetan Buddhist culture in the centuries leading up to Gö Lotsawa’s time. An outline of the major sections provides a clear sense of its contents:
- Early Indian history, Indian and Tibetan Imperial Lines, and the Early Spread of the Buddhist Teachings in Tibet: 9 chapters.
- The Later Spread (spyi dar) of the Buddhist Teachings in Tibet: 9 chapters.
- The Early Translations of the Secret Mantra: 6 chapters.
- The New Secret Mantra Traditions including the Path and its Results (lam ‘bras) Tradition: 3 chapters.
- Atiśa and the Kadampa Traditions Descending from Him: 11 chapters.
- The Translator Ngok Loden Sherap and the Philosophical Traditions Descending from Him: 5 chapters.
- Exegetical Traditions of Various Tantric Systems: 6 chapters.
- The Dakpo Kagyüpa Traditions Descending from Marpa: 23 chapters.
- The Contemplative Traditions of Kodrakpa and Niguma: 2 chapters.
- The Wheel of Time Tantra (Skt. Kālacakra): no separate chapters.
- The Great Seal (Skt. Mahāmudrā) Traditions: 6 chapters.
- The Peace-Making Lineages: 8 chapters.
- The Cutting (gcod) Traditions and the Tradition of Kharakpa: 3 chapters.
- The Great Compassion cycle, Adamantine Garland Tradition, and Other Minor Traditions: 12 chapters.
- Various Monastic Traditions, Questions Concerning the Blue Annals, and the Printing of the Blue Annals: 5 chapters.
Each of these sections has a topical foci which relates to a specific sect, deity cult, periods, traditions, figures or group of affiliated lineages. The following summarizes these topical foci (some chapters have been classified in 2 different ways)
- Time Periods (2): 1. The Early Spread of the Teachings, 2. The Later Spread of the Teachings,
- Sectarian (4): 3. Nyingma, 4. Sakya/Lam ‘bras (verify this is a Sakya chapter), 5. Atisha/Kadampa, 8. Kagyü
- Traditions (6): 4. Sakya/Lam ‘bras (verify this is a Sakya chapter), 6. Exoteric Philosophical traditions (dbu tshad byams chos sogs), 10. Kalacakra (sic), 11. Mahāmudrā, 12. Zhi byed, 13. gCod yul/kha rag pa
- Deities (1): 14. Avalokiteśvara/rdo rje phreng ba etc.
- Figures:
Like no other work before it and few after, the Blue Annals illustrates the rich complex of Buddhist traditions that had grown in Tibet up through the fifteenth century. Gö Lotsawa’s historical writing is remarkable for its evenhanded and ecumenical approach to the diversity of practices, lineages, philosophical standpoints, and institutional allegiances found in his day. We might thing of the work as a historically oriented analogue of the "tenet system" (grub mtha’) genre of literature, which arranges philosophical positions hierarchically. Yet unlike these works, the Blue Annals presents each tradition on its own terms with few critical remarks and at times will provide defenses of sectarian traditions other than his own, such as in the discussion of the Nyingma. There is no hierarchy of traditions implied by the organization of the work, even if the great length of the section on the Kagyüpa (more than three times longer than any other section) betrays something of the author’s partisanship. Likewise, the significant omission of any section devoted to the Bön tradition indicates sectarian bias. It should be noted that while exoteric traditions are covered, the primary focus is on tantric Buddhism.
Gö Lotsawa drew liberally from other biographical and historical sources, in some cases incorporating entire passages into his own work, while elsewhere editing other works for a particular rhetorical effect or summarizing them for the sake of brevity. He often pleads ignorance of previous literature, preferring not to write about topics for which he has no written source. In all cases we witness the craft of a careful historian, a writer who has produced a work of lasting significance both in Tibet and elsewhere.
The author composed this work in only a few years, completing it at age 84 in 1476. Two early biographies of him are still extant. At present, there are thought to be two block print editions of the Blue Annals. The first of these was produced the year that Gö passed away at Yangpajen (yangs pa can) monastery in central Tibet. In the late eighteenth century the blocks were moved to Kundeling (kun bde gling) monastery in Lhasa. This is the edition translated by Roerich. The second known block print edition of the Blue Annals was carved at Ganden Chökor Ling in Amdo. Moreover, a manuscript of the text – possibly incomplete - has very recently come to light.
See Dan Martin, Tibetan Histories: A Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Historical Works (London: 1997), entry 141, for references to secondary literature.
