Textual and philosophical problems in the translation and transmission of tathagatagarbha texts: sanskrit avinirmuktaklesakosa, amuktajña/amuktajñaana and tathagatagarbhasunyatarthanaya and their Tibetan translations in the bKa' 'gyur and bstan 'gyur

This article examines philological problems relating to descriptions defining the tathagatagarbha, or 'buddha-nature', in Sanskrit sutras and exegetical literature, together with the variant Tibetan translations of these descriptions in the bKa' 'gyur and bsTan 'gyur. Attention is called also to some possible philosophical implications of these variant descriptions. Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press. An electronic version of this article can be accessed via the internet at http://journals.cambridge.org