The Bönpo Translations of the Commentarial Treatises

The Bön religion of Tibet, like its Buddhist counterpart, maintains a collection, or a canon, of sacred scriptures. Like the Buddhists, the Bönpos have organized their canon into two main divisions. The first division contains the teachings, or words, of the ancient master and founder of Bön, Tönpa Shenrap (ston pa gshen rab) and other divine teachers. The other division contains treatises by later Bönpo masters. While it is common to borrow the Buddhist terms Kangyur (bka' 'gyur) and Tengyur (brten 'gyur) to refer to these canonical collections of sacred Bönpo scriptures, followers of Bön call their collections Ka (bka') and Katen (bka' brten), meaning "the Word" and "[treatises] relying on the Word."