The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteshvara

There are two short texts with the same title, The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteshvara, (Skt. Āryāvalokiteśvarasyanāmāṣṭaśatakam; Tib. སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་མཚན་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་པ།, Wyl. spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gi mtshan brgya rtsa brgyad pa) each of which enumerates the hundred and eight “names” of Avalokiteshvara, which are more like descriptive epithets. The first part of the text describes his many excellent qualities. The second part of the text describes the benefits that result from praising Avalokiteshvara with these names.

Toh 705/900 and Toh 706 are similar enough to be considered different versions of the “same” text. However, the differences between them are significant enough that the editors of the Dergé Kangyur elected to include both works, side-by-side. 84000 have likewise elected to translate them separately. These two works share a very large percentage of their content, especially in the introductory and concluding narrative sections. The structure of the praise by way of the hundred and eight names, however, is distinct in the two works. In Toh 705, the praise has been rendered into Tibetan in verse, while in Toh 706 the praise is rendered in prose. There are also additional differences in some of the content in the praise section, suggesting that the two versions likely represent translations of different Sanskrit recensions of the work. The close relationship between Toh 705 and Toh 706 is further highlighted by the fact that the final colophons at the end of both versions append the additional title “The Receptacle of the Precious Relics of all Victors,” with the only difference being that the attribute “precious” is not contained in Toh 706.

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The Tibetan translations can be found in the Tantra section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 705 & 706

• English translation: Toh 705 The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara

Toh 706 The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara