The Goodman Lectures 25: Notes on the Earliest Tibetan Buddhist Canons

By Prof. Georgios T. Halkias of The University of Hong Kong
February 24, 2024

"During the times of the Tibetan empire, the earliest records that cataloged Buddhist scriptures, predominantly translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan, played a crucial role in preserving and classifying many of the texts currently found in the Tibetan Buddhist canons. The empire’s adoption of Buddhism was inseparable from the project of religious conversion and the bureaucratic mechanisms that were established to monitor the registration, classification, and standardization of Buddhist texts, doctrines, and practices. This talk will draw from the contents of the last imperial catalog of Buddhist works in Tibetan translation, the Karchag Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma), to shed light on the formation and contents of the earliest Tibetan canons, as well as their role in facilitating the transmission and dissemination of Buddhist teachings across the Tibetan empire."

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Khyentse Foundation Goodman Lectures | A series of online lectures by leading Buddhist studies scholars.

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