THL Toolbox > Tibetan Texts > Cataloging a Tibetan Text > Reference Lists For Cataloging > Section Names

Section Names

Contributor(s): David Germano, Than Grove, Zenkar Rinpoche, Kurtis Schaeffer, Steven Weinberger, Khenpo Ngawang Dorjee

NOTE: this documentation is also in the Divisions of a Tibetan Text knowledge map of subjects

“Sections” here refers to those building blocks of a text. The major division of a text is into Front, Body, and Back. Within each of these are sub-sections that are technically called “Chapter Level Elements” (CLEs), because although they are not always Body chapters, they are parallel subsections in the Front or Back that are akin to chapters. The following sequence of nested lists shows the different chapter-level elements and their Tibetan designations. The translations were provided by Zenkar Rinpoche.

Front (ཀླད་ or ཀླད་​​ཀྱི་​​དོན་)

• Title page མཚན་​​བྱང་།: this applies if there is a separate page with a title enclosed in a box.
• Title line མཚན། (སྐད་​​གཉིས་​​ཤན་​​སྦྱར་​​གྱི་​​མཚན།): this applies if there are opening lines giving the title in Tibetan or various other languages.
• Translator’s homage འགྱུར་ཕྱག: this is a short statement consisting of the object of homage (a Buddha, Bodhisattva, teacher, or whomever is held in high religious esteem) followed by ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།. This is usually a brief homage in prose (not verse), with just the object of homage followed by ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།. Example: འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
• Author’s homage རྩོམ་པ་པོའི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བ།: this is a short statement consisting of the object of homage (a Buddha, Bodhisattva, teacher, or whomever is held in high religious esteem) followed by ཕྱག་འཚལ་. This is usually in verse, of two or three lines. The object of homage (usually a deity or lama, but it can also be སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་, ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་, etc.) is identified as the object itself without any adjectives that may modify it. Example: after the title, a text continues: སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་དང་ཐམས་ཅད་དགའ། །སྐྱེ་འགྲོ་ཀུན་གྱི་བླ་མ་ནི། །དངོས་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས། །ཉུང་དུ་བསྡུས་ཏེ་ཡང་དག་དགྲོལ།. The Translator’s homage is: སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།. The Author’s homage is ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་དང་ཐམས་ཅད་དགའ། །སྐྱེ་འགྲོ་ཀུན་གྱི་བླ་མ་ནི། །དངོས་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ།.
• Expression of worship མཆོད་​​བརྗོད།: this follows the homage. It is an expression of worship to a Buddha, Bodhisattva, teacher, or whomever is held in high religious esteem. Can be prose or verse (it is frequently verse). Generally ends with ཕྱག་འཚལ་ or གུས་ or འདུད་ or བསྟོད་ and it often connects to the Statement of Intent (also in verse) through a ནས་ following འཚལ་ or འདུད་ etc.
• Invocation གནང་​​བ་​​ཞུས་​​པ། (གནང་​​བ་= permission; ཞུས = request) or བྱིན་​​རླབས་​​ཞུས་​​པ། or གསོལ་​​བ་​​འདེབས་​​པ།: this is a prayer or supplication to a Buddha, Bodhisattva, teacher, or whomever is held in high religious esteem. Can be prose or verse. Example (this follows the homage): དགའ་མ་དགའ་བའི་ཟོལ་ལས་སྐྱེས་པའི་སྤུ་ལངས་དག་གིས་བསྒྲིབས་པའི་ལུས་འཛིན་ཅིང་། །འཛུམ་དང་ལྡན་པས་རྒྱལ་བའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་དག་ལ་བཀོད་པ་མེ་ཏོག་སྙིམ་པ་ནི། །གཤོག་རྩ་ལ་རབ་བསྐྱོད་སྒྲ་སྒྲོགས་སྦྲང་རྩི་བྱད་རྣམས་སྦྲང་རྩི་རེ་བས་བསྟེན་ཅིང་དེའི། །རྐང་པས་བསྣུན་པས་ཁ་ཟུམ་ཚོགས་ཕེ་གེ་སར་གསར་པར་གྱུར་བ་ཁྱེད་ལ་སྲུངས།
• Request to listen ཉན་པར་བསྐུལ་བ།
• Praise བསྟོད་པ།
• Summary བསྡུས་དོན།: this is a summary of the contents of the text. If it is a separate chapter-level element in the front section, then catalog it as such. If it is just part of the first chapter of the body section, then do not catalog it as a separate chapter-level element.
• Presentation of the Topic/Subject ལུས་རྣམ་པར་གཞག་པ། and དངོས་པོའི་ངེས་བསྟན།. Khenpo Ngawang Dorjee said this a front section in which the topic/subject བརྗོད་བྱ་ of the text is set forth.
• Statement of intent རྩོམ་​​པར་​​དམ་​​བཅའ་​​བ།: lit. “promise to compose,” this is a verse stating the author’s intention in composing this work.
• Untitled introduction སྤྱིའི་​​གླེང་​​གཞི། ??Check—is this really “untitled” versus?? བྱེ་​​བྲག་​​གི་​​གླེང་​​གཞི་: this encompasses any material that follows the preceding and which clearly are not included within the first chapter of the text.
• Ordinary introductory scene ཐུན་​​མོང་​​གླེང་​​གཞི།: this type of section is typically found in sūtras and tantras. They describe the narrative context occasioning the verbal lectures and/or dialogues between the Buddha(s) and retinue which constitute the bulk of the text.
• Extraordinary introductory scene ཐུན་​​མོང་​​མ་​​ཡིན་​​པའི་​​གླེང་​​གཞི། (used for similar introductions in sūtra and vinaya): tantras transmitted by the Rnying ma tradition in Tibet often are characterized by dual introductory scene, one termed “ordinary”, and one “extraordinary”
• Purpose and so forth དགོས་སོགས་ཆོས་བཞི།: This refers to the four interpretive parts of an Indian commentary or Tibetan text: the topic (བརྗོད་བྱ།), purpose (དགོས་པ།), final purpose (སྙིང་དགོས། or དགོས་པའི་དགོས་པ།), and relationships between them (འབྲེལ་བ།). If these occur as a separate chapter-level element in the front section, then enter them as such in the catalog record; however, if they are part of the first chapter, then do not enter them as a separate section. Example: for the text Abhisamayālaṁkara (མངོན་རྟོགས་རྒྱན།), the topic is the 8 categories (དངོས་པོ་བརྒྱད); the purpose is obtaining the four preparations/applications in dependence upon studying the eight categories (དངོས་པོ་བརྒྱད་ལ་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་པ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་སྦྱོར་བ་བཞི་ཐོབ་པ); the final purpose is attaining the state of a Buddha (མཐར་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་གོ་འཕང་ཐོབ་པ); the relationships are these: by studying the topic (the eight categories), one attains the four preparations/applications (this is the purpose), and attainment of the four preparations/applications is necessary for the attainment of Buddhahood (the final purpose).
• Outline (ས་​​བཅད།: like dividing the floorspace ས་ of a building into rooms): some texts have an initial section which provides a detailed outline of the entire text. If, however, the outline is part of chapter one, then it is a subdivision of the chapter division of the body.

Body (གཞུང། or གཞུང་​​གི་​​དོན།)

• Section divisions (སྐབས། or ཆིངས། or གནས།): some texts have overarching divisions which then each consist of one or more sub-divisions.
• Chapters (ལེའུ།): this usually consists of the individual chapters. If there are no individual chapters, then the whole body of the text is considered a single chapter-level element.
  • Chapter title (ལེའུའི་​​མཚན།): the digital reproduction of each chapter is framed in the beginning by its title (bold face, large font size, centered), which is generally only specified at the end of the chapter in the actual text.
  • Chapter homage (ལེའུའི་​​མགོའི་​​མཆོད་​​བརྗོད།): Deprecated name: ལེའུ་​​རེ་​​རེའི་​​མགོའི་​​མཆོད་​​བརྗོད།
  • Chapter colophon (ལེའུའི་​​མཇུག་​​བྱང་།): Each chapter usually ends with a “colophon,” i.e., a reiteration of the text title, and then the name of the chapter and its enumeration (e.g., the 5th chapter, etc.). Deprecated name: ལེའུ་​​རེ་​​རེའི་​​མཇུག་​​གི་​​སྨོན་​​ལམ།
• Interstitial Chapters (unnumbered sections between sequentially numbered chapters) བར་​​སྐབས་​​ཀྱི་​​ཚིག་​​སུ་​​བཅད་​​པ། or སྐབས་​​ཀྱི་​​ཚིག་​​བཅད།

Back (མཇུག)

A Colophon is traditionally defined as: The inscription or device formerly placed at the end of a book or manuscript and containing the title, the scribe or printer’s name, date and place of printing, etc. (In early times, the colophon gave the information now given on the title page). For analytical clarity, we have separated out a number of different types of sections that we refer to as “colophons” of various types, as well as a few additional sections found at the end of texts which we have labeled appropriately:

• Closing section (མཇུག་​​གི་​​དོན།): this comprises everything from the end of the final chapter through to and including the title followed by rdzogs so. This is often labeled a “colophon,” but we have chosen to separate it out as a “closing section” since it is distinct from the following sections and at times contains considerably more information than merely the title. For Tengyur texts this often includes a statement indicating who wrote the text. Example: སུམ་ཅུ་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དབྱིག་གཉིེན་གྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།། Note: the closing section will often include data about who wrote the text. This is not an author's colophon unless it says something like "I, so-and-so, wrote this at such-and-such place, at such-and-such time, at the request of so-and-so" etc. The presence of any such parts of the statement identify the section as an author's colophon. More Issues Related to Closing Sections
• Author’s colophon (མཛད་​​པ་​​པོའི་​​བྱང་།): sometimes, after the རྫོགས་སོ།, there is a short colophon by the author. This reads something like "I, so-and-so, wrote this at such-and-such place, at such-and-such time, at the request of so-and-so" etc. The presence of any such parts of the statement identify the section as an author’s colophon. Often, the statement of authorship is found in the Closing section (see above). Such closing info usually uses the same formulaic grammar and sometimes the different Kangyurs or Tengyurs name different authors, which, moreover, can differ from the author attributions in the Chinese collections as well. It may be that most of such author colophons are often just traditional attributions rather than having actually been written by the authors. XML Markup: as with all chapter-level elements, an author’s colophon is marked by <div2> tags. They are distinguished by their type attributes. Thus, the author’s colophon is marked by <div2 type= "author's colophon"> tags.
• Redactor’s colophon (སྡུད་​​པ་​​པོའི་​​བྱང་།):
• Translator’s colophon (འགྱུར་​​བྱང་།): identifies the translator(s) of the text. The name for the entire section on who translated and revised the text is called: འགྱུར་​​བྱང་།; this would include translator information and reviser information. More Issues Related to Translator's Colophon
• Lineage transmission (ལུང་​​གི་​​བརྒྱུད་​​པ།)
• Reviser’s colophon (འགྱུར་​​བཅོས།)
• Editorial colophon (སྒྲིག་​​པ་​​པོའི་​​གཏམ། or སྒྲིག་​​པ་​​པོའི་​​ཚིག or མཆན།)
• Scribal colophon (བྲི་​​བ་​​པོའི་​​བྱང་།)
• Instructional colophon (གདམས་​​གཏད།): an appended set of instructions on performing offerings or other rituals in relation to the text.
• Undetermined colophon (མཛད་​​བྱང་​​མ་​​ངེས་​​པ།): this is for situations were a precise determination of the type of colophon cannot be made by the editor but requires further scholarly research and discussion.
• Treasure colophon (གཏེར་​​བྱང་།)
• Printing colophon (པར་​​བྱང་།) – this is the carver’s colophon. who gave the money to carve the block print, who carved it, and dedication of merit (the next one).
• Concluding prayer (མཇུག་གི་​​སྨོན་​​ལམ།): There is a great deal of variability from text to text concerning the number of concluding prayers and where they typically fall in the sequence of “Back” textual sections.
• Printing prayer པར་བྱང་གི་​​སྨོན་​​ལམ།:
• Closing invocation (ཤིས་​​བརྗོད། = བཀྲ་​​ཤིས་​​པའི་​​ཚིག་​​བརྗོད་​​པ།): this consists of final mantric particles or invocations like rgya rgya rgya, sarva mangalam, ithi, dge'o/_/dge'o/_/dge'o/ etc. A closing invocation section can come in many places among the back sections. That is, the order of the back sections varies.

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