Within the Buddhist tradition, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is not regarded as the work of a single human author, but as a sacred discourse of the Buddha. It presents itself as the teaching of Śākyamuni Buddha, delivered on Laṅkā Island to the bodhisattva Mahāmati and others, and is thus framed as a direct expression of awakened wisdom rather than an authored treatise. In this way, the text invites readers to encounter it less as a product of individual creativity and more as a revelation of the Dharma spoken from the standpoint of enlightenment.

From a historical and scholarly perspective, however, no single composer or compiler can be identified. The sutra is generally understood as an anonymous Mahāyāna work that took shape over time, likely through multiple stages of development. Rather than emerging from one hand or one moment, it appears as a gradual compilation of teachings, woven together by unknown contributors within the evolving Mahāyāna milieu. Traditional canons and modern academic studies alike do not preserve the name of any specific individual responsible for its final form.

This dual perspective—traditional attribution to the Buddha and scholarly recognition of anonymous, gradual composition—can itself be read as a teaching. The absence of a named author subtly reflects the Mahāyāna emphasis on selflessness and the non-ownership of wisdom: the Dharma is not the possession of any single person. At the same time, the sutra’s setting on Laṅkā and its dialogue with Mahāmati function as a literary vehicle, allowing profound reflections on consciousness and Buddha-nature to be voiced as a living conversation rather than a fixed doctrinal manual.