The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History

Record summary

Dudjom Rinpoche’s history of the Nyingma school discusses revealed treasures, visionary transmission, protectors, deities, and other nonhuman intermediaries within Tibetan Buddhist institutional history. The work is relevant because it shows how accounts of encounters with beings can function as authorization narratives for texts and lineages rather than as isolated modern reports. Its traditional claims should be distinguished from academic historical reconstruction, and the English edition reflects translation and editorial mediation. Researchers can compare its categories with watcher, angel, and messenger traditions without equating them.