Compendium of Tantras

Jamyang Loter Wangpo, courtesy of Shechen Monastery

The Compendium of Tantras (Tib. Gyüde Kuntü; Tib. རྒྱུད་སྡེ་ཀུན་བཏུས་, Wyl. rgyud sde kun btus) is a vast collection of teachings and lineages from the whole range of the historic schools of Tibetan Buddhism, which was compiled by Jamyang Loter Wangpo.

There are 315 empowerments and 25 commentaries within the Compendium which include rare teachings from the Sakya, Gelug, Kagyu, Nyingma, Bodong, Dolpa, Jonang, Shyijé, Orgyen Nyengyü, and Kalachakra traditions. In the case of the Bodong, Dolpa, and Ogyen Nyengyü, in particular, were it not for their preservation in the Compendium of Tantras, these teachings and practices might have otherwise become extinct.

The famed Ngor collection of the 139 mandalas of the Compendium of Tantras was saved by Thartse Khen Rinpoche (1930-1988), who took them with him into exile from Tibet in 1958 and subsequently wrote the definitive work on them, which included an analysis of the text and commentary on the Sanskrit root texts.

Further Reading

• Jamgön Kongtrul, The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul: A Gem of Many Colors, translated by Richard Barron, Snow Lion, 2003, pp.544-549
• bSod nams rgya mtsho (Thartse Khen Rinpoche), The Ngor Mandalas of Tibet, listings of the Mandala deities, Ed. rev. by Musashi Tachikawa, Shunzo Onoda, Keiya Noguchi and Kimiaki Tanaka, Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1991.