282 CHAPTER ELEVENaccepted by Tibetan officialdom. Hwa-shang, the Chinese representative at
the debate, came to be depicted as a buffoon in the dances staged by the state
to celebrate the Tibetan New Year, although this development was as much
due to Tibetan nationalism as it was to historical beliefs. Nevertheless, the
Nyingmas continued to uphold their version of the debate, and the matter
was left at an impasse.
11.3.2 Texts
Scholars worked throughout the thirteenth century to gather, standardize, and
collate the various texts that had been brought over from India and translated
into Tibetan during the previous centuries. The connection between this
process and that ofhistorical research is demonstrated by the collation's having
been completed in the beginning of the fourteenth century by Buton, the au-
thor of the definitive history of Buddhism mentioned previously. Buton's
canon consisted of two parts: the Kanjur (bKa' -' gyur), which contained the
word ofSakyamuni and other Buddhas; and the Tenjur (bsTan'gyur), which
consisted of later treatises not only on Buddhist doctrine, but also on other
subjects-such as medicine, astrology, and grammar-that had been taught in
the great Buddhist universities during the period when Tibetans were gather-
ing texts there. The Kanjur fell into four parts: the Mfilasarviistivadin Vinaya,
the Perfection of Wisdom Sfitras, other Siitras, and Tantras. Very few Hinayana
Siitras made their way into the collection. The first printed Kanjur was com-
pleted in Peking in 1411, and the first complete printings of the canon in
Tibet were carried out at N arthang in 17 4?, utilizing 108 volumes for the
Kanjur and 225 for the Tenjur.
Buton did not include Nyingma Tantras in his compilation of the canon,
so in the fifteenth century a Nyingma scholar, Ratna Lingpa (Ratna gLing-pa;
1403-78), collected the Nyingma texts then available in a work called the
Nyingma Gyudbum (rNying rna rgyud 'bum), or One Hundred Thousand Ny-
ingma Tantras.
11.3.3 Doctrinal Systems
The compilation of a standardized canon was only the first step toward resolv-
ing the most bewildering problem facing Tibetan Buddhists during this pe-
riod-that of finding order in the welter of conflicting doctrines and practices
contained in the legacy of Siitras, Tantras, and treatises they had inherited
from the past. Many monks of high intellectual caliber tackled the problem,
out only two provided syntheses that were to prove enduring, forming the
two basic approaches to doctrine and practice that have continued to charac-
terize Tibetan Buddhism up through the present.
The first of the two syntheses was provided by the great Nyingma scholar
Longch'en Rabjam (Klong-ch'en rab-'byams; 1308-63), who produced a se-
ries of texts called the Seven Treasuries, formulating the Nyingma path of
practice in such a way as to make Dzogchen respectable in terms of Indian
Buddhist doctrines. Longch' en Rabjam was less interested in systematizing