Creator's Description: The present article seeks to place the famous Deb ther sngon po in the context of fifteenth-century Tibetan intellectual history and the life of 'Gos lo tsā ba to whom it is attributed. The text as we have it was certainly not completed by the time the latter passed away. The article discusses some of its noteworthy curiosities, including its chronologies and the place of the colophons, and also gently suggests that it was likely compiled by 'Gos lo tsā ba's disciples, albeit with some oversight by their master.