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China Tripitaka appears in many editions in the Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and Manchurian languages. In June 1986, the China National Center for Tibetan Studies submitted a report for the collation and publication of the Tibetan part of the China Tripitaka to the Central Government. As a result, the project was listed in the Seventh Five-Year Plan (1986-1990) as a major State project. According to experts, efforts would be made to work on Dangyur first and then Gangyur, with the Dege edition of 1730 as the base and the existing Beijing, Natang and Zholny editions as references for the collation work.
In May 1987, the China National Center for Tibetan Studies set up its Tripitaka Collation Office in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. Staffed with a group of accomplished scholars, it published the first volume of China Tripitaka-Dangyur (Tibetan) in early 1995.
Thus far, the China National Center for Tibetan Studies has published Tripitaka in three languages—Chinese, Tibetan and Manchurian.
In December 2003, the State Department of News and Publications listed the Mongolian edition of Gangyur and Dangur in its publication plan for the 10th Five-Year Plan. Inner Mongolia has decided to undertake it as a major cultural project in the years to come. For this purpose, the autonomous region has organized the Mongolian Classics Compilation Committee in Hohhot to direct the work. Publication of Dangyur and Gangyur in Mongolian has won State approval.
China Tripitaka in Mongolian is composed of Gangyur and Dangyur, with 334 volumes (some 300,000 pages and close to 100 million words). The Mongolian Dangyur has only one edition and only three sets exist in the world today, with two sets in China and the other in Mongolia. All the three are incomplete, with some pages bearing illegible words. The situation is the same with Gangyur. Work on the two works began in 2005 and in the years ahead, it is expected to publish 40 volumes on a yearly basis. By 2006, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Mongolia state, all of the 170 volumes will be published.
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