Tantric Buddhism emerged in India and was spread in China, Japan, Korea and Nepal, and was further developed in some countries. The spread of Tantra in the East Asian countries was influenced by the time and place and by the people, with different circumstances and characteristics. In Japan, there are numerous relics of Tantric scriptures and sutra pillars, and Japanese monks have compiled catalogues of Tantric texts; in Korea, Tantrism is mainly popular in the form of relics, which are closely linked to the lives of the people. In Nepal, Tantra was more often passed down in the form of handwritten sutras, which have been compiled by the contemporary European and American scholars. This article reviews and evaluates contemporary scholarly catalogues of Japanese Tantric texts, studies of Korean Tantric history, and studies of Nepali scripture writing, pointing out the achievements and shortcomings of each.
