The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the English translation of the Tibetan texts known as bar-do thos-grol (Bardo Thodol) – “Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State” – and serves as a guide for the soul of the deceased after it has left the body and before it is reborn.
More about: Tibetan Book of the Dead9 days left
Server Costs Fundraiser 2026
It costs $20,000 a year to run our servers, and we need your help to pay for them!
$11032 / $20000
Definition
Timeline
-
742 - c. 797Tibetan Book of the Dead composed during the reign of emperor Trhi Songdetsen.
-
1326 - 1386Life of the "Revealer" Karma Lingpa who discovered the Tibetan Book of the Dead texts.
-
c. 1400 - c. 1700The Tibetan Book of the Dead is used in funerary rituals.
-
c. 1700Tibetan Book of the Dead is printed using block-printing technique and widely dispersed.
-
1919Tibetan Book of the Dead is found by English officer and given to anthropologist W. Evans-Wentz.
-
1919 - 1922The scholar Dawa Samdup translates Tibetan Book of the Dead into English with W. Evans-Wentz.
-
1927W. Evans-Wentz publishes the first edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead in English.
