Tibetan Section

Section also has a good collection of collected works. Kagyur or Buddha’s teachings, consists of 108 volumes containing 115 texts. Tangyur or the treatises and commentaries of later Indian masters on Buddha’s teachings (Kagyur) consist of 224 volumes containing 3387 texts. These texts of the Kagyur and the Tangyur were translated mainly from Sanskrit Buddhist texts and Pali over the several centuries by a number of Indian Pandits and the Tibetan lo tsa bas.

In addition to the above listed major editions of Kagyur & Tangyur, the holdings of the section includes xylographs and handwritten canonical documents, books, illustrated manuscripts, Arts and thangka paintings, journals and Sung bums or collected works of the teachers of four Buddhist traditions of Tibet, viz. the Nyingma, the Kagyud, the Sakya and the Gelug, as well as those belonging to the indigenous Bon tradition.

There are approximately 70,000 texts in the section. Section also manages some manuscripts, which are more than a century old and have archival value. Most of these valuable materials are reproduced in microfilms and other contemporary electronic formats so as to preserve them for future generations. A list of some important collected works (gsung bums) of four traditional Schools as well as the Bon tradition is as follows: