by Vasubandhu
The Triratna-stotra ("Praise of the Three Jewels") is among the shortest texts in the entire Tengyur — three verses of four lines each, plus a salutation. Attributed to Vasubandhu (c. 4th–5th century), the great Yogācāra philosopher, this tiny hymn distills the entirety of Buddhist devotion into its simplest form.
Each verse praises one of the Three Jewels through three aspects: the Buddha through his three bodies (Dharmakāya, Saṃbhogakāya, Nirmāṇakāya); the Dharma through its three dimensions (the dharmadhātu, the Noble Eightfold Path, the scriptural tradition); and the Sangha through its three types (bodhisattvas, arhats, pratyekabuddhas). Three jewels, three verses, three aspects — the structure is itself a teaching in the perfection of form.
The text survives in the Tibetan Buddhist canon as Tohoku 1146 in the Degé Tengyur, Volume 1 (Collected Praises, bsTod tshogs), folio 110a. The Sanskrit original is lost. No previous English translation is known to exist. This is the first.
Homage to the Three Jewels.
To the Dharmakāya beyond reference,
To the Body of Complete Enjoyment,
To the Emanation Body manifesting as anything —
With devotion I bow.
To the perfectly pure dharma-realm,
To the Noble Eightfold Path of practice,
To the scriptural tradition of the teachings —
With devotion I bow.
To the bodhisattvas,
To the arhats and the rest,
To the pratyekabuddhas —
With devotion I bow.
Colophon
Good Works Translation from Classical Tibetan. Translated by Rinchen (Tibetan Translator, Life 240) of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, April 2026. The Tibetan source text was accessed from the Esukhia Digital Degé Tengyur (CC0, GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur), file 001 (bsTod tshogs), folio 110a.
The colophon of the Tibetan identifies the author as Ācārya Vasubandhu (སློབ་དཔོན་དབྱིག་གཉེན). No translator colophon survives — the Tibetan translation is anonymous.
This is the first known English translation of this text.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
Companion text. Mātṛceṭa's Praise of the Three Jewels (D1144) — the same title, the same three verses praising the Three Jewels, but by a different author two centuries earlier. Where Vasubandhu structures his praise through the three aspects of each Jewel, Mātṛceṭa gives each Jewel a single devotional image.
Other works by Vasubandhu in the Good Work Library: A Collection of Verses from Treatises · Advice on Ethics · Advice Universally Proclaiming the Seven Good Qualities · Concise Meaning of the Verses from Treatises · Discourse on Moral Discipline · Discourse on the Accumulations · Discourse on the Seven Qualities · Explanation of a Single Verse · Explanation of the Dharanī of the Six Gates · Extensive Commentary on the Recollection of the Buddha · On the Dangers of the Five Sense Pleasures
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Source Text: དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ
Classical Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Digital Degé Tengyur (CC0), file 001 (bsTod tshogs, Collected Praises), folio 110a. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཏྲི་རཏྣ་སྟོ་ཏྲཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
དམིགས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ། །
ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ། །
ཅིར་ཡང་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ལ། །
གུས་པས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
རྣམ་དག་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས། །
སྒྲུབ་པའི་འཕགས་ལམ་བརྒྱད། །
བསྟན་པའི་གསུང་རབ་ལ། །
གུས་པས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་རྣམས་དང་། །
དགྲ་བཅོམ་དག་ལ་སོགས། །
རང་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ལ། །
གུས་པས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ་སློབ་དཔོན་དབྱིག་གཉེན་གྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།
Source Colophon
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Digital Degé Tengyur, file 001 (བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ), folio 110a. Licensed CC0 (public domain). The Degé Tengyur was carved into woodblocks at Degé Printing House, Kham, eastern Tibet, completed in 1744.
Tohoku Catalogue number: D1146. The text occupies approximately half a folio — it is among the shortest texts in the entire Tengyur.
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