Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies: Introduction and Review

The Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies (rKTs) is an open-access digital platform that is currently the largest database of Tibetan canonical literature. Developed by the Tibetan Manuscript Project Vienna (TMPV), a long-term research initiative based at the University of Vienna’s Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, rKTs offers a range of advanced tools to support the study and analysis of Tibetan sources.

I first came across rKTs during a 2023 presentation by Markus Viehbeck, the current project director of TMPV, and later attended a workshop where he discussed the platform’s recent makeover and gave a hands-on demonstration of how to get the most from its features. Since then, I have regularly returned to rKTs for my own work.

Tibetan Canonical Database

At the core of rKTs is its extensive database, encompassing over 100 collections, categorised into three main groups:

• Kanjur
• Tanjur
• Old Tantra

Users can access a full list of these collections through ‘The Collections’ section on the website.

rKTs’s list of available collections

Each collection entry provides basic metadata such as date and place of production (if known), number of volumes, a short description, and available digital sets.

The catalogue entry for the Dodedrak Kanjur (Dd) བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼མདོ་སྡེ་བྲག་བྲིས་མ༽

Selecting ‘Display outline’ at the bottom of the entry opens a handlist, which catalogues all the works contained within the collection. These handlists are currently only available in Romanised Wylie transliteration. Each work has a unique identifier indicating its volume and position within that volume. For example, in the Dodedrak Kanjur (Dd) བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼མདོ་སྡེ་བྲག་བྲིས་མ༽, “Dd025-002” is the second work in the twenty-fifth volume. These identifiers make navigating through large collections much easier.

The handlist for the Dodedrak Kanjur (Dd) བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼མདོ་སྡེ་བྲག་བྲིས་མ༽

Each work is linked to a catalogue entry that provides:

• The rKTs ID number
• Titles in multiple languages (Unicode and transliteration)
• Alternative renderings of the titles as found in other textual witnesses
• Details of the work in other textual witnesses
• Persons linked to the text (translator and/or reviewer); unfortunately it only provides a lists of names but not their specific roles. However, if you open the database entry for the person, their specific contributions are listed
• Links to other databases, such as BDRC and 84000

The catalogue entry for The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ)

Information about the work in other textual witnesses can be found under ‘Details’, including:

• Titles in Tibetan and Sanskrit (Unicode and transliteration)
• A full e-text (Tibetan Unicode and Wylie transliteration)
• An outline of the work’s structure
• The location of the work
• The colophon

At present, not all of those listed above are provided for each textual witness.

Details of other collections on rKTs containing Preeminent Account of Discipline (འདུལ་བའི་གཞུང་དམ་པ)

Authors and Translators Identification Initiative

An important aspect of the platform is its participation in the Authors and Translators Identification Initiative (ATII), a collaborative effort launched from Hamburg University involving key partners such as BuddhaNexus and BDRC. This initiative aims to create a comprehensive, open-source database of authors and translators who were involved in the creation of Indic Buddhist literature, addressing some of the complexities of historical identification.

For example, authors are often recorded under multiple names or with varying spellings, while similar names may refer to entirely different individuals. To navigate this, the ATII replaces traditional name-based records with person-based records, consolidating all known details about an individual across collections and avoiding the conflation of distinct individuals. As a result, it provides a clearer picture of textual authorship, intellectual networks, knowledge transmission, and so on.

Structural Analysis Tool

For those interested in comparing the content of collections, the ‘Structual Analysis’ tool (found under ‘Analytical Tools’ on the home page) provides a useful visualisation. The tool was developed by Bruno Lainé, TMPV member and developer of the rKTs platform. It allows users to generate correlation diagrams that compare up to four different collections simultaneously, providing insights into structural relationships between different collections. For those unfamiliar with correlation diagrams, interpreting the results can be overwhelming. Lainé (2009) provides a grounding in the development and potential of these diagrams (see also Viehbeck 2020 for an example of how the tool can be used).

A correlation diagram comparing the structure of the Dodedrak Kanjur (Dd) བཀའ་འགྱུར། ༼མདོ་སྡེ་བྲག་བྲིས་མ༽ and the Derge Kanjur (D) བཀའ་འགྱུར ༼སྡེ་དགེ་པར་ཕུད༽

Advanced Search Capabilities

The rKTs platform offers sophisticated search functionality across multiple parameters:

• Search by ID number
• Title search (with exact and approximate matching)
• Chapter search
• Quotation search (with exact and approximate matching)

Searches can be made in Tibetan Unicode or Wylie transliteration. Since rKTs preserves all variations of titles and spellings from the source texts, searching for short phrases often yields better results than using full titles.

For works with available e-texts, users can search within the text itself using CTRL+F (or Command+F). Additional features include toggling line and page breaks and navigating to specific folio images in the ‘Images Viewer’ by selecting their line or page numbers.

For more on navigating the database and search functionality, I recommend watching the 10-minute how-to video on the website.

Translation Functionalities

A hidden gem on the platform can be found within the ‘E-text viewer’ on the home page: users not only have access to image scans and Wylie transcriptions, but can also leverage supplementary translation tools. These are currently only available for a handful of canonical collections.

The e-text viewer displaying a page from the Derge Kanjur (D) བཀའ་འགྱུར ༼སྡེ་དགེ་པར་ཕུད༽ along with its transcription in Wylie

Once the set, volume, and page number are selected, a menu on the left side appears with ‘Text with dictionary entries.’ Selecting this opens the e-text in a new tab, this time with most words highlighted in blue. Clicking on these highlighted words opens the relevant entry in Steinert’s Dictionary application, providing instant vocabulary/terminology support.

An e-text along with Steinert’s Dictionary app

rKTs has also integrated translations from 84000 – currently only available for the Derge Kanjur (D) བཀའ་འགྱུར ༼སྡེ་དགེ་པར་ཕུད༽ collection. By selecting ‘Text with 84000 Translation memory’ from the left side menu, users can view the Tibetan e-text (in Unicode) alongside its corresponding English translation. This allows for seamless cross-referencing between the Tibetan and its English rendering.

An e-text along with an English translation provided by 84000 Translation memory

Other Tools

The ‘Tibetan Abbreviations’ tool, accessible under ‘Other Tools’ on the home page, is one I frequently use. Drawing from a range of sources, it contains over 6,000 entries at the time of writing. It allows users to:

• Search Tibetan abbreviations using consonants only (e.g. thd). At the moment, searches can only be made in Wylie transliteration
• Browse through a list of corresponding abbreviation expansions
• Access source references for abbreviations, if available

By enabling consonant-based searches, it quickly generates potential matches and alternative forms, making it invaluable for deciphering unfamiliar or variably abbreviated terms.

The results of a search for ‘thd’ using the Tibetan Abbreviations tool

The ‘Lexicographical resources for the Mongolian Language’, also under ‘Other Tools’, simplifies the process of searching Mongolian vocabulary. It offers:

• Search options in Mongolian Unicode, Latin transliteration, and Cyrillic
• Integration of multiple dictionaries (e.g, Kowalewski, Lessing)
• Direct links to original dictionary entries

The results of a search for ‘nom’ using the ‘Lexicographical resources for the Mongolian Language’ tool

Conclusion

The rKTs platform is more than just a database—it is a versatile tool that opens up new avenues for research into Tibetan canonical literature. While parts are still in development, what it already offers is impressive. Through its interlinking with other platforms, it is becoming part of a growing hub of digital resources for Tibetan and related studies. I look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve and contribute to the field.

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References

Bruno Lainé, “Canonical Literature in Western Tibet and the Structural Analysis of Canonical Collections,” JIATS 5 (2009): 1-27.

Markus Viehbeck, “From Sūtra Collections to Kanjurs: Tracing a Network of Buddhist Canonical Literature across the Western and Central Himalayas,” RET 54 (2020): 241-260.