The Kangyur is the collection of the scriptures considered to be the words of the Buddha that were so carefully and thoroughly introduced to Tibet and translated into Tibetan, starting from the seventh century onward. The Kangyur’s sources were mostly texts in Sanskrit and other Indic languages—but also some in Chinese and the languages of Central Asia. In many cases these texts no longer exist in their original languages and the Tibetan translation is the only record to have survived. The Kangyur, along with its counterpart collection, the Tengyur (the translated commentaries, treatises, and manuals written by the great Indian Buddhist masters), is the canonical foundation of Tibetan Buddhism, and has been carefully preserved and venerated in Tibet down the centuries.. 

John Canti is a founding member of the Padmakara Translation Group, a Tsadra Foundation Fellow from 2001-2012, and was awarded the 2016 Khyentse Foundation Fellowship. In 2009, when 84000 first started, he was appointed editorial chair of the new organization. In 2023, he become senior editor. John's interest in the Kangyur and Tengyur has continued to grow as the project has taken shape. He feels more and more fascinated by their origins and history, their range of content, and above all, by the significance of the extraordinary body of literature the two collections have preserved..