འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆབ་སམས་དཔའ་བྱམས་པ་དགའ་ལྡན་གནམ་ད་སྐྱ་བ་བླངས་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

The sūtra translated here, Maitreya’s Birth in the Heaven of Joy, is part of this larger tradition. It is one of the many sūtras in the Kangyur to have been translated into Tibetan from Chinese.¹ This is immediately clear from the original title of the text, which is transcribed from Chinese rather than Sanskrit, and from the colophon, which indicates that the translation was produced based on a Chinese manuscript.² The Tibetan translation corresponds to a sūtra in the Chinese canon titled (Fo shuo guan mile pusa shang sheng doushuaitian jing 佛說觀彌勒菩薩上生兜率天經, Taishō 452). Of the six sūtras in the Chinese canon that center on Maitreya (Taishō 452–57), this is the only one to focus on his “ascendant” rebirth in the Heaven of Joy, whereas the others are primarily concerned with his future descent to be reborn in Jambudvīpa.³