Within the Drukpa Kagyu, the sense of what is “foundational” rests on a layered inheritance: shared Indian Buddhist sources, the classical Kagyu Mahāmudrā and Six Yogas transmissions, and the distinctive writings of Drukpa masters themselves. At the broadest level, the tradition stands upon key Indian tantras such as the Hevajra, Chakrasamvara, and Guhyasamaja tantras, together with the Prajñāpāramitā literature and Madhyamaka and Yogācāra treatises. These provide the doctrinal and contemplative framework within which Drukpa practice is interpreted. In particular, the Six Yogas of Nāropa and the Mahāmudrā instructions transmitted through the early Kagyu lineage are consistently treated as central pillars of advanced training.

From within the Kagyu heritage, certain Mahāmudrā and lamrim works serve as crucial bridges into the Drukpa ethos. Tilopa’s Mahāmudrā instructions and Nāropa’s teachings, together with Gampopa’s writings such as the Jewel Ornament of Liberation and the Precious Garland of the Supreme Path, articulate the path structure and view that Drukpa masters later adopt and elaborate. These texts shape the way the Drukpa lineage understands the union of śamatha and vipaśyanā, the nature of mind, and the integration of sūtra and tantra. They also undergird the Drukpa approach to the Six Yogas, which are preserved through classical root texts and then read through a specifically Drukpa lens.

What gives the lineage its distinctive voice, however, are the works of its own founding and systematizing masters. The writings of Lingje Repa and especially the collected works of Tsangpa Gyare, including teachings sometimes grouped as the “Seven Dharmas of Tsangpa Gyare,” form an early Drukpa corpus of instruction and realization. These texts transmit the flavor of the lineage’s contemplative experience and its particular style of Mahāmudrā guidance. They are complemented and greatly expanded by the works of Pema Karpo, who is regarded as the principal classical commentator of the tradition.

Pema Karpo’s extensive commentaries on Mahāmudrā and tantra, together with his broader scholastic writings, systematize much of the earlier oral and textual transmission into a coherent doctrinal body. Within Drukpa monasteries, these works function as a primary lens through which Indian tantras, Mahāmudrā instructions, and the Six Yogas are studied and practiced. Alongside these, traditional Drukpa liturgical collections—sādhanas for tutelary deities, lineage prayers, and guru yoga practices—embody the living ritual heart of the lineage. Taken together, these layers of scripture, commentary, and liturgy form an integrated mandala of study and practice that defines the Drukpa Kagyu identity.