Different kinds of composition/compilation within the Dudjom Revelatory tradition

Robert Mayer (this volume) has introduced the research project which we have been conducting since 2010, and commented on the main theoretical issues we have been considering. The project focuses on the works on the tantric deity, Vajrakīlaya, of the twentieth century prolific scholar and visionary revealer, Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (bdud­’joms­’jigs­bral­ye­śes­rdo­rje, 1904–1987), henceforth, simply Dudjom Rinpoche. I have been working through the textual materials in collaboration with our Tibetan lama consultant, Lopon P. Ogyan Tanzin, and in this paper, I review some of the key findings from the first three years of the project. The issues to be considered here are what we can tell from an analysis of the textual content of a Revelation production; how exactly a revelatory cycle may develop and expand over the following generations; and what we can conclude from the specific types of textual production and re-workings which are witnessed in this case study