Hidden Teachings of Tibet: An Explanation of the Terma Tradition

Tulku Thondup's Hidden Teachings of Tibet, published by Wisdom Publications in 1986, is a practitioner-scholar's account of the terma tradition, the Tibetan Buddhist practice of revealed treasure teachings, setting out its categories of earth and mind treasure and the criteria by which authenticity is traditionally judged. As a tradition-internal exposition by a recognized Nyingma scholar it is the correct source for how the terma system understands itself, in terms close to its own practitioners'. Its limit is that it presents the tradition's own account of authenticity rather than an outside historical assessment of any specific terma's claimed origin, so a claim treating a particular terma's authenticity as independently verified needs a source outside the tradition's own criteria.