“All forms of Buddhism can welcome historical study as relevant and useful. Buddhist teachings have always told us that impermanence is a great, unalterable fact of our experience and that it is crucial for us to become comfortable with that fact. History is simply the study of how things change and develop, which is to say that history studies changing institutions and ideas. History studies impermanence, including the impermanent characteristic of Buddhist institutions, practices, philosophical systems, and sacred narratives.” –Rita Gross, ‘Why We Need to Know Our Buddhist History’ (Lion’s Roar)

History of Buddhism in India and Tibet

 
JABL Subject Headings   |   Related Subject Guides   |   General Buddhism  |   History of Buddhism in India  |   History of Buddhism in Tibet   |  Traditional Tibetan Histories 

JABL Subject Headings

Related Subject Guides

General Buddhism

  • Gombrich, Richard Francis. 1997. How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings. Munshiram Manoharlal. JABL
  • Skilton, Andrew. 1997. Concise History of Buddhism. Windhorse Publications. JABL
  • Strong, John. 2002. The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations. Wadsworth Publishing. JABL
  • Williams, Paul. 1991. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. Routledge. JABL
  • Williams Paul and Anthony Tribe. 2000. Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition. JABL

History of Buddhism in India

  • Burnouf, Eugène. 2010. Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism. University of Chicago Press.
  • Davidson, Ronald M. 2002. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. Columbia University Press. JABL
  • Lopez, Donald S., ed. 1995. Religions of India in Practice. Princeton University Press. JABL
  • Schopen, Gregory. 1997. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. University of Hawaii Press. JABL
  • Snellgrove, David. 1987. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors. Shambhala Publications. JABL

History of Buddhism in Tibet

Modern Works

  • Cabezón, José Ignacio, and Roger R. Jackson. 1996. Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre. Snow Lion. JABL
  • Davidson, Ronald M. 2008. Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL
  • Goldstein, Melvyn, and Matthew Kapstein. 1998. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. University of California Press. JABL
  • Goodman, Steven D, and Ronald M Davidson. 1992. Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation. SUNY Press. JABL
  • Kapstein, Matthew, Gray Tuttle, and Kurtis Schaeffer. 2013. Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Columbia University Press. JABL
  • Kapstein, Matthew. 2000. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. Oxford University Press. JABL
  • Kapstein, Matthew. 2014. Tibetan Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. JABL
  • Karmay, Samten G. 1998. The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet. Vol. 1. The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet. Mandala Book Point.
  • Powers, John. 2007. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Snow Lion. JABL
  • Samuel, G. 1993. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press. JABL
  • Smith, E. Gene, and Kurtis R Schaeffer. 2001. Among Tibetan Texts: History and Literature of the Himalayan Plateau. Wisdom. JABL
  • Stein, Rolf A. Tibetan Civilization. Translated by J. E. Stapleton Driver. Stanford University Press, 1972. JABL
  • Schaik, Sam van. 2011. Tibet: A History. Yale University Press. JABL

Traditional Tibetan Histories

Chos ‘byung (ཆོས་འབྱུང་): a religious history or Dharma history (lit. “Source of the Dharma”); a book on the history and origins of religion, particularly Buddhism.

Important Tibetan authors of Chos ‘byung:
  • Buton Rinchen Drub (1290-1364)
    བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ་ (Bu ston rin chen grub)
  • Go Lotsāwa Zhonnu Pel (1392–1481)
    འགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ། (‘Gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal)
  • Tāranātha (1575-1634)
    ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
Translations
  • Bu-ston Rin-chen-grub, and Eugéne Obermiller (trans.). 1932. History of Buddhism (Chos-Ḥbyung). Materialien Zur Kunde Des Buddhismus; Hft. 18, 19. In kommission bei O. Harrassowitz. JABL
  • Gzhon-nu-dpal, Gos lo-tsa-ba, and George N. Roerich. 1976. The Blue Annals. Translated by George N. Roerich. 2 vols. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL
  • Taranatha Jonang-pa and Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya. 1970. Taranatha’s History of Buddhism in India. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL (archive.org)

 

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