Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship (KC-TBTS)

On ’dom(s) na and ma ’dom(s) na

On July 13, 2021, I posted a piece on under the title “Apropos the Tibetan Expression ’dom na.” Today (May 17, 2026), I am revisiting it and trying to refine it. I am not providing any source references here. In the Mahāvyutpatti and Madhyavyutpatti, one often comes across brief remarks slipped in between the Tibetan renderings of Sanskrit words, such as…...

On ’dom(s) na and ma ’dom(s) na On July 13, 2021, I posted a piece on under the title “Apropos the Tibetan Expression ’dom na.” Today (May 17, 2026), I am revisiting it and trying to refine it. I am not providing any source refer…

On rNam ’dor

In our ITLR ( I added the following note on rNam ’dor: In the Tibetan translation of Śāntarakṣita’s Madhyamakālaṃkāravṛtti (Ichigō 1985: 306), three Brahmanical deities are mentioned by name: rNam ’dor, Khyab ’jug, and Mig mi bzang. Kamalaśīla, in his Madhyamakālaṃkārapañjikā (Ichigō 1985: 307), identifies the first as Tshangs pa and the third as dBang phyug, evidently considering Khyab ’jug to require no explanation....

On rNam ’dor In our ITLR ( I added the following note on rNam ’dor:In the Tibetan translation of Śāntarakṣita’s Madhyamakālaṃkāravṛtti (Ichigō 1985: 306), three Brahmanical deities are mentioned by name: rNam ’…

Tibetan Translations of Kāśyapa

This is the third attempt at speculating about the Tibetan translation of Kāśyapa. The first was on November 18, 2012; the second on August 5, 2014; and the third is today, March 25, 2026. The first two were published in my blog Philologia Tibetica ( I have now deleted those entries. To be sure, we are not concerned here with the Tibetan translation of Kāśyapa as ’Od-srung, ’Od -bsrung, ’Od-bsrungs, or ’Od-srungs, nor with combinations such as ’Od-srung-gi-bu and the like....

Tibetan Translations of Kāśyapa This is the third attempt at speculating about the Tibetan translation of Kāśyapa. The first was on November 18, 2012; the second on August 5, 2014; and the third is today, March 25, 2026. The firs…

World Made Admanantine

The sGom sde tshig mdzod provides some useful information regarding the Buddhist idea of the “adamantine seat” (vajrāsana: rdo rje’i gdan = rdo rje gdan). My concern here, however, is somewhat different. I am merely taking note of an idea I happen to have come across in the Tibetan translation of the Sarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhisūtra, cited by dPal-brtsegs in his…...

World Made Admanantine The sGom sde tshig mdzod provides some useful information regarding the Buddhist idea of the “adamantine seat” (vajrāsana: rdo rje’i gdan = rdo rje gdan). My concern here, however, is somewhat diff…

The Ketaka Conundrum

When scanning Indian works in Tibetan translation, we can clearly identify the botanical (organic) ketaka when it appears alongside other flowers, such as the campaka, or when accompanied by specific identifiers: me tog ke ta ka (ketaka flower), ke ta ka’i shing (ketaka tree), ke ta ka’i ’bras bu (ketaka fruit), ke ta ka ltar dri zhim (fragrant like the ketaka), or…...

The Ketaka Conundrum When scanning Indian works in Tibetan translation, we can clearly identify the botanical (organic) ketaka when it appears alongside other flowers, such as the campaka, or when accompanied by specif…

If we follow the easily accessible Tibetan texts (via BDRC, rKTS, Adarsha), we find at least ten different orthographies: (1) ta na ga na, (2) ta na ga ṇa, (3) ta ṇa ga ṇa, (4) tan gan, (5) sta na ga ṇa, (6) sta na ga na, (7) sta na gha ṇa, (8) …...

*Stanaghana? A Code for sbyor sgrol If we follow the easily accessible Tibetan texts (via BDRC, rKTS, Adarsha), we find at least ten different orthographies: (1) ta na ga na, (2) ta na ga ṇa, (3) ta ṇa ga ṇa, (4) tan gan, (5) sta na …

I became caught up with a Tibetan expression used in some subtitles in the Mahāvyutpatti. Tibetan compilers seem to have created this without a Sanskrit correspondence. I am referring to skad go ’dun, as in, for example, skad go ’dun gyi ming (Mvy. 1, no. 6262; Mvy. 2, no. 6240). To be sure, we are concerned here with a noun....

Apropos: skad go mthun/’dun/bdun I became caught up with a Tibetan expression used in some subtitles in the Mahāvyutpatti. Tibetan compilers seem to have created this without a Sanskrit correspondence. I am referring to skad go ’d…

The Tibetan language contains several disyllabic words with lo as the second syllable, including abbreviations such as lo ma (“leaf”) → shing lo, lo tsā ba (“translator”) → ’Gos-lo, and words for “year” such as stag lo and col lo (perhaps a form of reduplication). What interests me particularly is the lo in words such as ’...

On the Etymology of ’khor lo and ’phang lo The Tibetan language contains several disyllabic words with lo as the second syllable, including abbreviations such as lo ma (“leaf”) → shing lo, lo tsā ba (“translator”) → ’Gos-lo, and words for “…

In 2002, I cited a passage from Rong-zom-pa’s dKon mchog ’grel (Wangchuk 2002: 282–283), which contained the following (dKon mchog ’grel, p. 83.18–23): bzhin bshegs pa rnams kyi byin gyis brlabs gdul bya rnams kyi rgyud la snang ste | phan pa dang chos nyid ston pa na | gzugs kyi sku khyad par can snang ba ’ba’ zhig tu ris su chad pa med de | ’di ltar du thun mong dang khyad par du snang yang rung | dman pa dang dam par yang rung | tha na bdud bzhi po dag dang nyon mongs pa stong phrag brgyad cu po dag gis sems can rnams nyon mongs par byed pa dag gis sangs rgyas rnams sangs rgyas kyi mdzad pa mi byed pa gang yang med do ||...

Rong-zom-pa on Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra §10.10 In 2002, I cited a passage from Rong-zom-pa’s dKon mchog ’grel (Wangchuk 2002: 282–283), which contained the following (dKon mchog ’grel, p. 83.18–23): bzhin bshegs pa rnams kyi byin gyis brlabs gd…

Am I already getting tüdelig? I knew I had once written a note on the sNang-Sog-Gong-gSum or sNang-Sog-Gong-Triad. It must have been in a blog post. I tried googling it—no hits! I then tried searching for it in my blog “Philologia Tibetica,” which, I must confess, is no longer active. And there it was! But why didn’t I find it in the Google search?...

On the sNang-Sog-Gong-Triad Am I already getting tüdelig? I knew I had once written a note on the sNang-Sog-Gong-gSum or sNang-Sog-Gong-Triad. It must have been in a blog post. I tried googling it—no hits! I then tried search…