Toh 1168 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Praise in Adoration of the Stupas of the Eight Great Sites

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1168
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,531 Tibetan characters · 402 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

This text, titled Praise of Homage to the Stūpas of the Eight Great Sites, is a devotional composition designed to facilitate the ritual veneration of sacred monuments. The work begins with an invocation to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta and focuses on the act of paying homage to the stūpas associated with the primary locations of the Buddha's life. The text extends its scope beyond these specific sites to encompass all caityas and Buddha images regardless of their material composition—such as jewels, snow, or silver—or their cosmological location, including subterranean, terrestrial, and celestial realms. By prescribing a universal application of homage, the text commits the reader to a practice of comprehensive devotion that transcends physical and spatial boundaries, aiming to accumulate merit through the recognition of the Buddha's presence in diverse forms and realms.

Provenance

About this text

A praise of homage to the stūpas of the eight great sites, the Aṣṭamahāsthānacaityavandanāstava is a work of the classical Tibetan tradition. It is attributed to the Indian author Harṣadeva. The text was translated into Tibetan by Jñānamitra and lo tsa ba khe’u brgad yon tan dpal, and it is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཀ, where it is situated within the Eulogy collection and spans two pages. The work enacts a practice of comprehensive devotion, beginning with an invocation to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta and directing the practitioner to pay homage with the crown of the head to the stūpas of the primary locations of the Buddha's life. This ritual focus extends to all caityas and Buddha images, regardless of whether they are composed of jewels, snow, or silver, or whether they reside in subterranean, terrestrial, or celestial realms. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine a devotional composition that prescribes a universal application of homage, aiming to transcend physical and spatial boundaries through the recognition of the Buddha's presence in diverse forms and realms.

Sanskrit title: Aṣṭamahāsthānacaityavandanāstava
Indian author: Harṣadeva
Tibetan translators: Jñānamitra, lo tsa ba khe’u brgad yon tan dpal
Canonical collection: Eulogy
Genre: Eulogy
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཀ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Praise in Adoration of the Stupas of the Eight Great Sites” (Toh 1168), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1168

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its illustration of the Tibetan Buddhist practice of visualizing and venerating the Eight Great Sites, which serves to collapse geographical distance between the practitioner and the historical sites of India. It reflects the tradition's emphasis on the efficacy of homage to material representations of the Buddha as a means of spiritual progress.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation and Initial Homage	Invocation to Mañjuśrī and the beginning of praise directed toward the birth site and the turning of the wheel of dharma.
2	Universal Homage	An expansion of the practice of homage to include all Buddha images and caityas across the various cosmological realms.

Themes

Veneration of Stūpas and Caityas (1-2)
Cosmological Ubiquity of the Buddha (2)
Ritual Homage (1-2)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaPraise in Adoration of the Stupas of the Eight Great Sites·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཥྚ་མ་ཧཱ་སྠཱ་ན་ཙཻ་ཏ་བན་ང་ནཱ་མ་སྟ་བཿ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། གནས་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་རྟེན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བའི་བསྟོད་པ། འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བལྟམས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཉམ་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་དགེ་བ་བསྐོར། ། མཆོད་རྟེན་ཐོག་མར་འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་ མཆོད་དང་ལྡན་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་། ། གངས་རིའི་ཁ་དོག་ལྟར་གསལ་ལྷ་ལས་བབས་པའི་གནས་འདི་དང་། ། གང་དུ་བདེ་གཤེགས་མྱ་ངན་འདས་པ་དེ་ལ་སྤྱི་བོས་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཡངས་ཅན་ཝཱ་རཱ་ཎ་སཱི་བྱིས་པ་གསོད་རི་འཇིགས་རུངས་བཅིངས་འགྲམ་དང་། ། མཉན་ཡོད་དང་ནི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཤིང་ དྲུང་ཀུ་ཤའི་གྲོང་མཆོག་སེར་སྐྱ་ལུམྦི་ནཱི། ། ཀཽ་ཤམྤི་དང་མཛོད་མཐུག་མཉམ་པའི་གྲོང་མཆོག་དཔའ་སྐྱོང་ཡུལ་འཁོར་དང་། ། སྟོབས་བཅུ་ལྡན་པའི་མཆོད་རྟེན་གཞན་གང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ལའང་སྤྱིས་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཁ་ཆེ་དང་ནི་རྒྱ་ཡུལ་ཁ་བ་ཡ་མུན་ཞེས་པ་དང་། ། སིངྒ་ལ་ དང་ཨོ་ཊེ་སིནྡྷུ་ཤིང་འཕེལ་བ་ག་མང་བ་ཁ་ཀོ་ལ། ། བལ་ཡུལ་ཀཱ་མ་རཱུ་དང་བུམ་པའི་ཀློང་མཆོག་ཀཱཉྩི་བཟང་པོའི་ཡུལ། ། སྟོབས་བཅུ་ལྡན་པའི་གདུང་བཅས་གཞན་གང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ལའང་སྤྱིས་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཏི་སེ་གངས་རི་གངས་ཅན་ལ་གནས་མནྡཱ་ར་དང་རི་རབ་རྩེ། ། ཀླུ་གནས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ ནོར་སྦྱིན་གནས་དང་རིག་འཛིན་གྲུབ་པའི་གནས། ། ཚངས་དང་ཁྱབ་འཇུག་གནས་དང་ཕྱུགས་བདག་ཉི་མ་ཟླ་བའི་གནས། ། སྟོབས་བཅུ་ལྡན་པའི་མཆོད་རྟེན་གཞན་གང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ལའང་སྤྱིས་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། སྟོབས་བཅུ་ལས་བྱུང་རིན་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཅན་མཆོད་རྟེན་བརྒྱད་པོ་གདུང་བཅས་ བུམ་ལས་གྲུབ། །

In the language of India: Aṣṭamahāsthānacaityavandanā-nāma-stava. In the language of Tibet: Gnas chen po brgyad kyi mchod rten la phyag 'tshal ba'i bstod pa (Praise of Homage to the Stūpas of the Eight Great Sites). Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta! To the place of birth and the peerless turning of the wheel of the sublime Dharma, To the stūpa first honored by the three worlds, To the site of the Great Miracles, And to the place where the Sugata descended from the gods, as radiant as the color of a snow mountain—to these I bow my head. To Vaiśālī, Vārāṇasī, the terrifying Hill of the Child-Slayer, and the banks of the Bindu; To Śrāvastī and the foot of the Bodhi tree, To the supreme village of Kuśinagara, Kapilavastu, and Lumbinī; To Kauśāmbī, the city of Sthūlakoṣṭhaka, and the supreme city of Vīrakṣitaviṣaya—to all these stūpas of the One Endowed with the Ten Powers, I bow my head. To Kashmir, China, and the snowy region of Yamun; To Siṃhala, Oḍḍiyāna, Sindhu, and the land of increasing trees, Kāmarūpa; To Nepal, Kāmarūpa, the supreme expanse of the Vase, and the excellent land of Kāñcī—to all these stūpas of the One Endowed with the Ten Powers, together with their relics, I bow my head. To Mount Ti-se, the snowy range, the abode of Mandāra, and the peak of Mount Meru; To the abode of the Nāgas, the Victorious One, the abode of the Giver of Wealth, and the abodes of the Vidyādharas and Siddhas; To the abodes of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Maheśvara, and the abodes of the Sun and Moon—to all these stūpas of the One Endowed with the Ten Powers, I bow my head. To these eight stūpas, born of the Ten Powers, possessing the essence of jewels, and formed from the relics of the Vase.

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

definitionམཆོད་རྟེན “caitya” — The Tibetan translates both stūpa and caitya with the same word, mchod rten , meaning “basis” or “recipient” of “offerings” or “veneration.” Pali: cetiya . A caitya, although often synonymous with stūpa , can also refer

definitionབསྟོད་པ “praise” — An encomium or hymn of praise.

definitionའཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ “Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta” — Evolved from the gandharva Pañcaśikha in early Buddhism, which remains one of Mañjuśrī ’s alternate names. Pañcaśikha was a gandharva who lived on a five-peaked mountain, and who brought the Buddha information on what wa

definitionབྱང་ཆུབ “awakening” — I.e., awakening to the reality of phenomena (inner and outer) as they actually are.

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

definitionའཁོར་ལོ “cakra” — Literally “wheel,” cakra is an energy center in the subtle body where subtle channels converge. In tantric Buddhism there are either four or five main cakras. The Hevajra Tantra teaches four cakras, namely the cakras of

periodལྷ → “god”. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

homonymལྷ is rendered “god” here; the glossary also records deva, divine being, God for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ “god” — In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine ‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who atten

terminologyལས → “action”. 84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

homonymལས is rendered “action” here; the glossary also records act, Action, activity for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

termམཆོད་རྟེན → caitya

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termའཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ → Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta

termབྱང་ཆུབ → awakening

termཆོས → dharma

སོལ་བ་དེ་བཞིན་རིན་ཆེན་མཆོད་རྟེན་གངས་དང་དངུལ་འདྲ་རབ་མཛེས་པ། ། ས་འོག་ས་སྟེངས་ལྷ་ཡུལ་རྩེར་བཞུགས་མཆོད་རྟེན་ཇི་སྙེད་མ་ལུས་དང་། ། སངས་རྒྱས་སྐུ་གཟུགས་གང་བཞུགས་དེ་ལ་ཉིན་རེ་བཞིན་དུ་སྤྱི་བོས་ཕྱག་བྱའོ། ། གནས་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་ རྟེན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཁ་ཆེའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཤྲཱི་ཧ་རི་ཤ་དེ་བས་ཡུམ་གྱི་ཆེད་དུ་མཛད་པ་རྗོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་རཱ་ཛ་ཤྲཱི་ཛྙཱ་ན་མི་ཏྲ་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཁེའུ་བརྒད་ཡོན་ཏན་དཔལ་གྱིས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

Just as that charcoal, so too, to all the most beautiful caityas made of jewels, snow, or silver, whether they abide in the subterranean realms, upon the earth, or at the peak of the celestial realms—without exception—and to whatever images of the Buddha are present, one should pay homage with the crown of the head every single day. This concludes the Praise of Homage to the Caityas of the Eight Great Sacred Sites, composed by the Kashmiri King Śrī Harṣadeva for the sake of his mother. It was translated by the Indian abbot Rājaśrījñānamitra and the translator Khu-brgad Yon-tan-dpal.

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

definitionགཟུགས “form” — The first of the five aggregates ; but also, in this sūtra, “inner form ” within consciousness (see 1.38 ).

terminologyམཁན་པོ → “abbot”. In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colophons.

homonymམཁན་པོ is rendered “abbot” here; the glossary also records upādhyāya, Preceptor for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམཁན་པོ “abbot” — A person’s particular preceptor within the monastic tradition. They must have at least ten years of standing in the saṅgha, and their role is to confer ordination, to tend to the student, and to provide all the necessary

termམཆོད་རྟེན → caitya

termལྷ → god

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termགཟུགས → form

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

Terminology used in this text (20)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
མཆོད་རྟེན	caitya	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
ལྷ	god	2	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ	Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta	1
བྱང་ཆུབ	awakening	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
འཁོར་ལོ	cakra	1
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
བདག	self	1
མཉན་ཡོད	Śrāvastī	1
སྟོབས་བཅུ	ten powers	1
ས་བཅུ	the ten grounds	1	The bodhisattva levels. The single syllable ས is also the word for 'earth' and must not be pinned as 'ground' on its own
རི་རབ	Mount Meru	1
ཀླུ	nāga	1	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.
ཉི་མ	Āditya	1
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
གཟུགས	form	1
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	1
མཁན་པོ	abbot	1	In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colop

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

Translation status: 84000 catalogue + registry; grade no-translation-known; checked 2026-11-10.

Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.

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