Enjoy popular Tibetan collections of advice, fables, and aphorisms for following the way of the wise and avoiding the path of fools. 

The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom: A Thousand Years of Sage Advice presents a genre of Tibetan works known as “wise sayings” (lekshé). While most Tibetan literature focuses on the Buddhist path, wise sayings literature has traditionally been a centerpiece of secular education in Tibet and in the cultivation of social mores and an honorable way of life. Drawing inspiration from classical Indian literature on human virtue and governance (nitisastra), including the folktales in the Pañcatantra, the authors of these Tibetan works strove to educate young minds in the ways of the civilized world, especially by distinguishing the conduct of the wise from that of the foolish.

This anthology includes some of the best-loved classics of Tibetan literature, such as Sakya Pandita’s Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings, Panchen Sönam Drakpa’s Ganden Wise Sayings, and Gungthang’s Treatise on Trees and Treatise on Water. The final work is the intriguing Kaché Phalu’s Advice. Ostensibly written by a wise Tibetan Muslim, this versified text enjoys great popularity within Tibetan-speaking communities, such that many Tibetans are able to recite at least a few verses from memory.

Beth Newman is a retired professor of Tibetan language and culture and translator of The Tale of the Incomparable Prince. 

Thupten Jinpa is founder of the Institute of Tibetan Classics. Trained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, he went on to get a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University. He is the primary English-language translator for the Dalai Lama and the author and translator of numerous books, including A Fearless Heart. He currently chairs the Mind and Life Institute and the Compassion Institute.