The collection and publication of the Mongolian edition of Kagyur and Tangyur of the Tibetan Tripitaka, the Tibetan word for Buddha, were launched recently as part of moves by north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to protect the cultural relics of the Mongolian nationality.

"Now there is only one Mongolian edition of Tangyur in the world with only three sets in China and Mongolia," said Jin Feng, director of the Mongolian history research institute and the religious history research institute of Inner Mongolia Normal University.

As one of nine major cultural projects to develop ethnic culture characteristics in the region, the collection and publication of the two scriptures was listed as one of the major book publication projects during the Tenth Five Year Plan at the end of 2003.

As the bible of Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan Tripitaka, which has been translated into Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and the Manchu tongue, is regarded as an important historical document for research of Buddhism and a variety of fields in ancient China.

The Tibetan Tripitaka comprises two parts, namely Kagyur and Tangyur. Kagyur is taken as the orthodox bible of Tibetan Buddhism since it records the sayings of the Buddha, while Tangyur is the translated version of the commentary of the sutra.

As the documents of the largest volume of the Mongolian nationality, the Mongolian edition of the two sutras is made up of over 300,000 pages and nearly 100 million words.

The translation of Kagyur into Mongolian began in the 13th century and was completed in 1629. During the reign of the emperor Kangxi (1662-1723) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the edition was reexamined and published. During the reign of the emperor Qianlong (1736-1796), Tangyur was translated into Mongolian and published, which is considered to be a landmark of Mongolian cultural history.

According to Jin, led by the Inner Mongolia international cultural communication center, experts from around the country joined in the collection and publication of the sutras, and the whole work is planned for completion in 4 to 5 years with an annual publication of 40 volumes.

Source: china.org.cn