Mahaparinirvana Sutra: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:39, 2 September 2025

Mahaparinirvana Sutra (Skt. Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra; Tib. ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, Wyl. yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo), The Sutra of the Great Parinirvana — a large Mahayana sutra which recounts the last year of the Buddha's life and addresses the key topics of buddha nature and summarises all the methods which lead to enlightenment.

Two shorter versions of this sutra exist:

the mahāparinirvāṇamahāyānasūtra in 13 fascicles
the mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, a 16 verse fragment, translated from the Sanskrit during the later translation period by the Indian Pandit Kamalagupta and Rinchen Zangpo.

Text

The original Sanskrit text is not extant except for a small number of fragments, but it survives in Chinese and Tibetan translation. It was translated into Chinese twice from two apparently substantially different source texts.

It was translated in Tibetan at the beginning of the 9th cent. by Jinamitra, Jñanagarbha and Devachandra. The text can be found in the:

Derge Kangyur, General Sutra section, Toh 119

English Translations of the Chinese Text

Yamamoto, Kosho, trans. (1973-1975). The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, 3 Volumes, Karinbunko, Ube City, Japan.
Blum, Mark, trans. (2013). The Nirvana Sutra: Volume 1 (of a projected 4), Berkeley, Calif. : BDK America (distr.: Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press), Available online
Kato, Yasunari, trans. (2014). Daihatsunehankyou Vol.2: Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra Vol.2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Yamamoto & Page, Dr. Tony, trans. (2015). Nirvana Sutra: A Translation of Dharmakshema's Northern version, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Available online

English Translations of the Tibetan Text

Mahaparinirvana Sutra translated from Tibetan by Stephen Hodge

Internal Links

Ten sutras that teach the sugatagarbha

External Links

Nirvana Sutra Net - Appreciation of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Mahaparinirvana Sutra''' (Skt. ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''; Tib. ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, [[Wyl.]] ''yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo''), ''The Sutra of the Great [[Parinirvana]]'' — a large [[Mahayana]] [[sutra]] which recounts the last year of the [[Buddha]]'s life and addresses the key topics of [[buddha nature]] and summarises the all the methods which lead to [[enlightenment]].
+'''Mahaparinirvana Sutra''' (Skt. ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''; Tib. ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, [[Wyl.]] ''yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo''), ''The Sutra of the Great [[Parinirvana]]'' — a large [[Mahayana]] [[sutra]] which recounts the last year of the [[Buddha]]'s life and addresses the key topics of [[buddha nature]] and summarises all the methods which lead to [[enlightenment]].
 Two shorter versions of this sutra exist:
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 ===English Translations of the Chinese Text===
 *Yamamoto, Kosho, trans. (1973-1975). The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, 3 Volumes, Karinbunko, Ube City, Japan.
-*Blum, Mark, trans. (2013). The Nirvana Sutra: Volume 1 (of a projected 4), Berkeley, Calif. : BDK America (distr.: Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press)
+*Blum, Mark, trans. (2013). The Nirvana Sutra: Volume 1 (of a projected 4), Berkeley, Calif. : BDK America (distr.: Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press), Available [https://www.bdkamerica.org/product/the-nirvana-sutra-vol-i/ online]
 *Kato, Yasunari, trans. (2014). Daihatsunehankyou Vol.2: Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra Vol.2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
 *Yamamoto & Page, Dr. Tony, trans. (2015). Nirvana Sutra: A Translation of Dharmakshema's Northern version, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Available [http://www.shabkar.org/download/pdf/Mahaparinirvana_Sutra_Yamamoto_Page_2007.pdf online]
+===English Translations of the Tibetan Text===
+*[https://nirvanasutranet.com/the-tibetan-nirvana-sutra/ Mahaparinirvana Sutra] translated from Tibetan by Stephen Hodge
 ==Internal Links==