Tibetan Texts > Bstan ’gyur > Bstan ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Individual Teachings (Sūtra Commentaries)

(3.1.3.1) Commentaries on the Intentions of Individual Teachings (d.4009 - d.4048; 39 texts)

By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)

This is the main sūtra-commentary section of the Tengyur. A total of thirty-four sūtras receive commentaries in the Dege Tengyur. Nine of these sūtras are classified as Prajñāparamitā, and are thus found in the Perfection of Wisdom commentary section above. The sūtra commentary section here contains forty commentaries (D.4009-D.4048) on twenty-five sūtras, and fills sixteen volumes.

Some of the most famous of all Buddhist scriptures receive commentaries here, including the Saṁdhinirmocana (D.0107), the Lotus Sūtra (D.0114), and the Laṅkāvatāra (D.0108). Major commentaries on these three scriptures were all translated from Chinese, though one was by composed by a Korean scholar (D.4045) and one by a Sinhalese scholar (D.4046).

Other types of scriptural literature are also subject to commentary here, such as the Prayer for Universal Good Conduct (Samantabhadracarapraṇidhāna), a famous prayer embedded within the Avataṁsaka Sūtra (D.0045); the Prayer also circulated widely as an independent work, and receives no fewer than five commentaries (D.4040-D.4044).

Most of the sūtra commentaries are in prose, though a few are entirely in verse (for example, D.4013). In addition to moving through sūtras chapter-by-chapter, the commentaries often make use of the four- or five-fold organizational scheme that Tibetan scholars refer to as “the purpose-connection” (དགོས་འབྲེལ་, dgos ’brel), which describes (1) the purpose (དགོས་པ་, dgos pa), (2) text (རྗོད་པ་, rjod pa), (3) subject (བརྗོད་པར་བྱ་བ་, brjod par bya ba), (4) relevance (འབྲེལ་པ་, ’brel ba), and (5) ultimate purpose (དགོས་པའི་དགོས་པ་, dgos pa’i dgos pa) of the work.

Literature: Jeffrey D. Schoening, “Sūtra Commentaries in Tibetan Translation,” in Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, ed. José Ignacio Cabezón and Roger R. Jackson (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1995): 111-124 http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/genres/genres-book.php#book=/studies-in-genres/b5/.