The
Ratnagotravibhāga, commonly known as the
Uttaratantra, or
Gyu Lama in Tibetan, is one of the main Indian scriptural sources for buddha-nature theory. It was likely composed during the fifth century, by whom we do not know. Comprised of verses interspersed with prose commentary, it systematizes the buddha-nature teachings that were circulating in multiple sūtras such as the
Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, the
Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, and the
Śrīmaladevisūtra. The Tibetan tradition attributes the verses to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and the commentary to
Asaṅga, and treats the two as separate texts, although this division is not attested to in surviving Indian versions. The Chinese tradition attributes the text to *Sāramati (娑囉末底), but the translation itself does not include the name of the author, and the matter remains unsettled. It was translated into Chinese in the early sixth century by
Ratnamati and first translated into Tibetan by
Atiśa, although this text is not known to survive.
Ngok Loden Sherab translated it a second time based on teachings from the Kashmiri Pandita
Sajjana, and theirs remains the standard translation. It has been translated into English several times, and recently
into French. See the
Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, read more
about the Ratnagotravibhāga, or take a look at the most complete English translation in
When the Clouds Part by
Karl Brunnholzl.
Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;byams chos sde lnga;Uttaratantra; Sajjana;ས་ཛ་ན་;sa dza na;paN+Di ta sa dza na;sa dzdza na;པཎྜི་ཏ་ས་ཛ་ན་;ས་ཛཛ་ན་;Ratnamati;Rin chen blo gros;རིན་ཆེན་བློ་གྲོས;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;究竟一乘寶性論;रत्नगोत्रविभाग महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्र;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།