Although sūtras are at the core of the scriptural dimension of Chinese Buddhism, this is not the case in Tibetan Buddhism. First, by far the greatest amount of literature is on the tantras. Secondly, the literature that is not explicitly tantric is not principally an attempt to explicate the sūtras per se, but rather their Indian exegeses (which are included among the śāstras; see Schoening, in this volume). Thus, instead of writing commentaries on the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras themselves, in most cases Tibetan expositions of the path to awakening as seen in these sūtras (an area called by the name "Perfection of Wisdom"—phar phyin [prajñāpāramitā]) are commentaries on Maitreyanātha's Abhisamayālaṃkāra which is itself a commentary on the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. One can thus argue that a typical Tibetan commentarial treatise is actually a sub-commentary, or even a commentary on a sub-commentary.

A look at the Collected Works (gsung 'bum) of 'Jam dbyangs bzhad pa (1648-1721) is instructive in this regard. There are many commentaries on tantras, none on sūtras, and about half of the total number of pages are on non-tantric philosophical subjects, including free-standing works on individual issues and on tenets, and commentaries on Indian śāstras. 'Jam dbyangs bzhad pa is a scholar known for his extremely complex Grub mtha' chen mo (or "Great Exposition of Tenets")—in which he attempts to avoid the over-generalization characteristic of the tenets (grub mtha') literature through carefully examining his Indian sources book-by-book (instead of school-by-school) and in some cases in terms of the development of an author's thinking from youth through maturity (see Hopkins, in this volume). An examination of his collected works yields the following breakdown. Of a total of 143 separately titled works, 50 are on śāstras or tenets, with the remainder covering monastic discipline and monastery regulations, practice of the path to enlightenment, prayers, rituals, liturgies, meditation on the guru as Buddha (guru yoga), poetry, lexicography, grammar, history, visionary experience, and biography. There are 26 separately titled commentaries on the tantras of Guhyasamāja, Cakrasaṃvara, and Vajrabhairava, not including his two-part, 400-folio commentary on Vajrabhairava. Of a total of 6,343 folios, only about half are found in non-tantric commentaries on Indian texts. His śāstra commentaries include major analyses of Dharmakīrti's[page 129] Pramāṇavārttika, the Abhisamayālaṃkāra (attributed to Maitreyanātha), Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, and Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra. Additionally, he wrote a major commentary on meditation theory (the dhyānas and samāpattis), a work on the four truths, a work on interdependent arising (pratītyasamutpāda)—all part of the perfection of wisdom curriculum—as well as books on hermeneutics and a number of introductory textbooks on philosophy, logic, and allied subjects.