Bon Kanjur Titles

A title leaf from the collection of Bon scriptures
(click on the page to expand)

Just last night I put up a listing of titles from the most recent and most recommended published edition of the Bon collection of scriptures. The collection is often called the “Bon Kanjur” or (I’d say even less correctly) “Bonpo Kanjur.” The title listing is something I typed up long ago. However, I have only just now added the Tibetan in unicode letters for the convenience of Tibetans who will more likely surf that way. Most of the details about it are there, so I'll send you over to Tibetological website without much more fuss and bother. There have by now been three publications of the Bon Kanjur, in 154, 192 and 178 volumes. This listing is of the main titles from the 3rd edition in 178 (or 179) volumes. I have added other Bon-related pages at Tibetological without any announcement, like “Bon History Index” and “Transmission Document of Bon.”  These things are bound to be of rather restricted interest, so I’d advise you that, unless you are Tibeto-literate, there isn’t much reason for you to look into them any further. If you are just looking for something to read in English, French, German or Italian about the Bon religion, look here and find something nice.

Here is the page: “Bon Kanjur 3rd Edition.”

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A note on the frontispiece:  If you need a quick review of your cursive Tibetan reading skills, you may appreciate an old Tibeto-logic blog page called “Take the Cursive Test.”  The test this time is to read this cursive title, locate it in the title listing, locate the text itself within the collection, and finally, if you still have time and are ready to discover it for yourself, read this Dzogchen classic excavated by Shenchen Luga (གཤེན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དགའ་) in the Fire Snake year of 1017 CE.

Shang Bell - གཤང་།

Note: I have a general policy not to allow commercial advertising on this blog, but in the case of books, books as unusual as these, books not findable in your local bookstore or online book supplier, or most especially books done by a charitable organization that will use the profits to support the Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Centre in Himachal Pradesh, India, I will make another exception and send you to the Bon Foundation’s website shop (their link is no longer working). I notice with much interest that they now offer a set of four DVDs containing the complete Bon commentarial collection, the Katen (བཀའ་བརྟེན་).

Note: I should have mentioned that there is another listing of titles available for free on line.  Here are the details:  Kurt Keutzer & Kevin O’Neill, A Handlist of the Bonpo Kangyur and Tengyur. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, vol. 17 (October 2009), pp. 63-128. This contains a basic listing of the general contents of each volume of both [1] the 3rd edition of the Bon Kanjur in 178 numbered volumes, plus one unnumbered volume and [2] two variant published editions of the Bon Tanjur. There are problems comparing the different systems of volume numbers of the two Tanjur publications that seem to be solved here.  To download it, go here.

Note: Links updated in 2023!