The Lankavatara Sutra is a Mahāyāna scripture that arose in India, composed in Sanskrit within a North Indian milieu, and associated especially with the Yogācāra (Cittamātra) current of thought together with early Tathāgatagarbha (Buddha‑nature) ideas. Scholarly consensus places its composition in the broad span between the 3rd and 5th centuries of the common era, with the likelihood that a core text was later expanded and redacted over time. Its narrative frame situates the Buddha on the island of Laṅkā (Sri Lanka), teaching on a sacred mountain to figures such as the demon king Rāvaṇa, yet this setting is generally understood as symbolic or mythic rather than a literal historical report. The sutra reflects an Indian scholastic environment in which Yogācāra analyses of “mind‑only” (citta‑mātra, vijñapti‑mātra) and the store‑consciousness (ālaya‑vijñāna) were taking shape, while earlier Tathāgatagarbha teachings were being integrated into a more systematic vision.

Historically, the text stands at a crossroads where reflections on emptiness and the nature of consciousness were being refined. It presupposes the development of Yogācāra philosophy and shows the influence of earlier Mahāyāna currents, functioning as a bridge between detailed analyses of consciousness and affirmations of Buddha‑nature. Many scholars regard it as composite, with an earlier stratum focused on consciousness and practice, to which later materials on Buddha‑nature, faith, and doctrinal controversies were added. In this way, it bears witness to a living tradition in motion, rather than a single, fixed doctrinal statement.

The transmission history of the Lankavatara Sutra further illuminates its place in the Buddhist world. Chinese translators rendered it several times: an early version is attributed to Dharmarakṣa, followed by the first extant translation by Guṇabhadra in four fascicles, then a more expansive ten‑fascicle version by Bodhiruci, and later another influential translation by Śikṣānanda. The differences in length and arrangement among these Chinese recensions support the view that the text developed over time. A Tibetan translation preserved in the Tengyur, together with Sanskrit fragments and manuscripts from Central Asia, confirms its Indian origin and its spread across the wider Buddhist ecumene.

Over the centuries, the Lankavatara Sutra became especially significant in East Asian traditions. In China and Japan, it was highly esteemed in certain circles, particularly within early Chan/Zen, where it was regarded as a key scripture for articulating the primacy of mind, the transformation of consciousness (āśraya‑parāvṛtti), and the intimate link between “mind‑only” and Buddha‑nature. Although its prominence later declined relative to other great Mahāyāna sutras such as the Lotus or Avataṃsaka, it remained a principal source for the Yogācāra theory of consciousness and for attempts to harmonize analyses of mind with the affirmation that all beings possess the potential for awakening. In this sense, its historical background is inseparable from its spiritual function: a text born from the effort to understand how the depths of consciousness and the presence of Buddha‑nature can be realized in lived practice.