Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Introduction
In February 2014, coinciding with the Tibetan New Year, the 84000-Translating the Words of
the Buddha published online the Mahyna kagarbha Stra (phags pa nam mkhai snying
po zhes bya ba theg pa chen poi mdo) as part of their ongoing translation project of translating
the entire Tibetan Canon within one hundred years. The Sakya Pandita Translation Group who
accomplished this translation has worked with the 84000 from the initial stages of its online
publications, providing the first pilot translations for the website. The purpose of my presentation
is to provide some background information on the translation work of the Sakya Paita
Translation Group within the larger context of the 84000, drawing on our most recent experience
with the kagarbha Stra. In the first part of my presentation, I wish to give the necessary
background information to our translation work, and to discuss the main features of the editorial
policy of the 84000 which served as our guideline. The second part will focus on specific details
of our translation process. I will discuss some of the challenges that we faced in translating the
kagarbha Stra, and explain the various solutions we found.
I.
History
A translation conference at Deer Park Institute in Bir, India, in 2009, was the first step of an
initiative that culminated in the founding of the 84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha.
At this conference, more than fifty senior translators of Tibetan scriptures, headed by the Tibetan
teacher Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, discussed the importance of translating the Tibetan
Buddhist Canons. They recognized the importance of international cooperation. Translating
Tibetan scriptures had been largely left up to individual translators and translation groups, who
often had to struggle to find the financial and material support for their work. The conference in
Bir resulted first of all in founding the Buddhist Literary Heritage Project which was later, in
25 years
10 years
5 years
http://84000.co/about/origin/
Translators, accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/about/translators/.
3
Vision, accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/about/vision/.
2
To realize its vision of translating the entire Tibetan Buddhist literary heritage, the 84000 works
simultaneously in five domains. These are:
1. Translation grants: The 84000 organizes the translations of important texts - mostly
stras so far - in the form of grant applications.
2. Publication: The editorial board of the 84000 accompanies and supervises the editing
process of the translated texts until their online publication on the website of the 84000.
3. Fundraising: The 84000 undertakes the necessary efforts to raise the funds for the
ongoing and future translation projects.
4. Translation Tools: The 84000 has started to provide information that is relevant to
pursuing its long-term goal by providing links to existing translation programs, to
translation tools, and other relevant information.
5. Dharma Events: The 84000 organizes dharma events in which the translated stras are
used for dharma practice, such as the Resounding of the Buddhas Word in Bodhgaya
(2012, 2014) or New York (2012, 2013). Apart from the meritorious aspect of such
practices, these events certainly serve the purpose of publicizing the importance of
sponsoring the translation projects.
Translators Supported
Translators
4.4 million
Text Downloads:
110,898
times
Website Visitors:
151,813
visitors
ReadingRoom
Visitors:
Readers Come From:
81,238
135
hits
visitors
countries
Impact, accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/about/impact/ Information updated on: January 1, 2014.
Dpe sdur ma, Krung go'i bod rig pa'i dpe skrun khang /, pe cin/. 2006-2009. par gzhi dang po, 109 volumes,
accessed Oct 10, 2014. http://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=W1PD96682.
7
This expression is borrowed from Dr David Bellos, Translation and Transmission Conference, Oct 2014.
15
David
Weldon,
Guardians
of
the
Sacred
Word,
accessed
Oct
10,
2014.
http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/covers/intro. html.
16
Peter Skillings, Dr. Peter Skillings address to the conference, http://translationandtransmission.org/videos.html.
17
Roberta Raine, Translating the Tibetan Buddhist Canon: Past Strategies, Future Prospects, Forum 9.2 (2011):
157-186.
18
Jamgon Kongtrul ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas), Treasury of Knowledge, Buddhism's Journey to
Tibet, (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publication, 2010), 220.
10 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
Translator Types
Who are the people, who participates in these events? Apart from a few Tibetan teachers
committed to translating, they are men and women mainly from Europe and America, who have
a particular connection to Tibetan Buddhism, culture and language. During the latest conference,
which I attended along with 200 other participants, senior translator Wulstan Fletcher and others
discussed the distinction between two types of translators:
1. Dharma practitioners who become translators and interpreters they are often self-professed
or designated by a Tibetan teacher. Often not subject to professional oversight, their focus is
on the religious significance of a text, the accessibility for the target audience of
19
Roberta Paine mentions H. Kerns translation as an example for Christian influence in translation (in The
Translator in Tibetan History: Identity and Influence. Forum 8.2 (2010): 133-161). Jungian influence can be found
for example in Evans-Wentz, W. Y., Tibetan Book of the Dead: or, The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo
Plane, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927. It contains a "Psychological commentary" by Carl Jung.
11 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
practitioners, and/or the use of a text as practice liturgy. As practitioners they are sometimes
bound by religious rules of samaya (dam tshig) and secrecy.
2. Academics whose fields of expertise often include philology, buddhology, philosophy,
anthropology, religious studies, etc. - they are not necessarily trained as interpreters or
language experts. The oversight of their translation work comes from within academia in the
form of peer-review. Their focus in translating is on accuracy, comparison of editions,
historical and philosophical contextualization and significance. Academics are not bound by
the traditions norms of secrecy, but follow the code of critical investigation and unrestrained
curiosity.
Both types of translators often work as individuals, seeking occasional help from advisors or
colleagues. A peculiar fact is that many translators that work with text translations cannot
necessarily speak colloquial Tibetan. Both groups generally consider the literary language to be a
classical Tibetan which is distinct and separate from spoken Tibetan. However, the more
experienced translators, and particularly those who have been immersed in Tibetan communities
for some time, emphasize the importance of the oral tradition. Spoken Tibetan is not only
important for the collaboration with Tibetan scholars, but also allows a richer understanding of
the subtleties of the language.
Concluding Remarks
These glimpses into the history of the translation of Buddhist scriptures, however brief and oversimplified they may be, show sufficiently the different contexts in which translation has taken
place in the past and is taking place today. The most important difference in my view is the fact
that translation started as a state-supported endeavour in Tibet which entailed a strong
centralizing and standardizing power right from the beginning. In comparison, todays
translation projects do not enjoy royal or state support, and only a few efforts to centralize a
translation effort. The 84000 is probably the most important of them. The short but successful
story of the 84000 shows the importance of concerted efforts in this field. The recent surge in
Tibetan Buddhist translation conferences worldwide is most likely another outcome of a shift in
thinking about translation, a shift moving away from the individual achiever towards mutual
support and team efforts.
There is another significant difference in the translation context then and now - a difference on
which I do not elaborate in this presentation because of time restrictions - and that is the
immense supply of translation tools available today. Starting with digitized dictionaries, digitized
and searchable texts, online resources such as the TBRC, ACIP or AIBS data bases, cloud
search, etc., translators are able to benefit from the accumulated and recorded knowledge of
Buddhist scholarship like never before in history.
In the second part of my presentations, I would like to present and reflect upon my personal
experience as translator of the 84000 within the context that I have outlined so far.
12 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
II.
In the summer of 2011, the Sakya Pandita Translation Group signed a contract with the 84000
for the translation of several stras, among them the kagarbha Stra. This stra is a text of 20
folios in the Dege Edition,20 or 44 pages in the Pedurma edition. Its complete name is
kagarbha-nma-mahyna-stra ('Phags pa nam mkha'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen
po'i mdo). In the Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons [Tokyo: Thoku University, 1934],
it is Th. no. 260. It was translated into Tibetan by the scholars kyaprabha and Ratnarakita.
In the following I will present our translation work of this sutra. I will briefly introduce the text
and our translation team, and then focus on the challenges we encountered in the work process,
as well as the solutions we found.
20
13 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
ethics by masters such as ntideva, Sakya Paita or Jamgon Kongtrul.21 The famous
Bodhicaryvatra (translated as The Way of the Bodhisattva) by ntideva recommends the
kagarbha Stra as the first reference text to study for bodhisattva training.
This sutra was translated by four members of the Sakya International Buddhist Academy, which
I will briefly introduce before turning to the work process of our translation group.
21
ntideva was an Indian master of Nalanda, lived around the 8 th century. Sakya Paita (chos rje sa skya paN Di
ta kun dga' rgyal mtshan) (1184-1251), is one of the five founders of the Sakya School. Jamgon Kongtrul ('jam
mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas), (1813-1899), is a renowned master of the Rim (ecumenical) movement.
22
Welcome
to
the
International
Buddhist
Academy,
accessed
October
10,
2014.
http://internationalbuddhistacademy.org/about/
14 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
conversations about Buddhist teachings, as well as colloquial Tibetan. At the IBA, Tibetan
scholars also spoke Kham and Amdo dialects but these were not taught to non-Tibetan students.
The non-Tibetan, or Western students at the IBA come from various backgrounds, some hold
academic degrees in Buddhist studies, others have a strong affiliation with a Tibetan lama who
advised them to learn the skill of translation. In a two year program, they receive an education
consisting of three areas: Tibetan grammar, translation of Buddhist scriptures, and conversational
Tibetan. They study Tibetan grammar (sum chu pa and rtags jug pa) with Tibetan teachers, i.e.
from a Tibetan perspective without the attempt to apprehend Tibetan grammar through western
grammatical concepts. Translation into English is taught in workshop style with experienced
senior translators such as Gavin Kilty (Institute of Tibetan Classics), Dan Martin (PhD,
independent researcher), Khenpo Jorden (PhD Harvard, Director of the Institute), and others.
Tibetan conversation is practised daily in one-on-one modules, and informally during lunch and
tea breaks. According to Gavin Kilty, for translating a classical text you must have knowledge of
spoken Tibetan. You need to discuss it, not only with khenpos and lamas that you might ask, but
with yourself.
At the end of the first two year intensive program in 2011, a small number of students committed
to working in the two translation groups associated with the IBA, the Chodung Karmo
Translation Group which focuses on the translation of specific commentaries of the Sakya
tradition, and the Sakya Pandita Translation Group, which translates stras and is funded by
grants of the 84000.
Team Translation
The ideal model that these translation groups follow is that of the lotsawa-paita as explained
previously. Since different text translations demand various ranges of language expertise, the
translation teams are complemented with Sanskrit experts, English editors and proof readers as
needed. In the case of the kagarbha Stra, the text was translated into English by a team
consisting of the monastic scholars Jampa Tenzin and Ngawang Tenzin, and the western
academics Christian Bernert and myself. It was edited by Pamela Gayle White and the final
proof reading was done by Vivian Paganuzzi, an English professor at the IBA. Our team was
supervised by Dr Khenpo Ngawang Jorden, the director of the IBA.
Challenges
In the process of translating the sutra, we faced different kinds of challenges. Roughly speaking,
one could group them into four categories: [1] human resource challenges, [2] structural
challenges,[3] textual challenges and [4] challenges of the Tibetan language.
1. Human Resource Challenges
Our first challenge consisted of the fact that we were junior translators. The two Tibetan scholars
had no prior experience; Christian Bernert and I had academic training, both holding a M.A. in
Buddhist Studies, but had each translated only a few shorter texts before embarking on this
15 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
project. All four of us had studied Tibetan Buddhism for more than a decade, albeit in different
contexts. None of us had, however, focused particularly on the study of stras. We were,
therefore, in many respects, in a training process.
The solution for this challenge was that we were very well framed. The head of our translation
team was Khenpo Jorden, the director of the IBA. A student of Khenpo Appey Rinpoche, he is
excellently trained in the Tibetan monastic college system, as well as in the Western academic
System, holding a PhD from Harvard. He helped us with difficult passages and verified the end
result. Moreover, we were well connected via email with translators and editors of the 84000
who helped us with a number of problems. An online community of translators has since started
a Google group, which is regularly used for conversations on translation issues.
2. Structural Challenges
Our second challenge could be called a structural challenge because it had to do with how we
structured our work flow. We decided to divide the text in two parts. Acharya Jampa Tenzin and
myself translated the first half, Acharya Ngawang Tenzin and Christian Bernert translated the
second. Afterwards we exchanged our translations and verified the section of the other party.
The advantage of this work style was that we had a fresh, new reading of our translated text by
two other translators, which we hoped would reduce the amount of errors. The challenge was,
evidently, to harmonize two different styles, and to verify that passages that had the same
wording in Tibetan would have the same wording in English. This work style was quite timeconsuming. It elicited numerous discussions between the translators which were helpful for
gaining experience in translating but, generally speaking, we concluded that it would be
reasonable to have one text translated by only one pair of translators in the future.
3. Text Edition Challenges
The translators of the 84000 are requested to research existing versions and editions of the stra
they are translating. For the kagarbha Stra, no Sanskrit version is available, but there is, in
the Chinese Canon, the Stra on the Bodhisattva kagarbha, translated by Buddhayaas
between 403 and 413 CE. The Chinese version of this text differs, however, significantly from
the Tibetan translation found in the Kangyur. It has been translated into German from the Korean
and Chinese versions by the Korean monk and scholar Sunim Tenzin Tharchin together with
Elisabeth Lindmayer in 2010.23 Christian Bernert and I both read this translation, but decided
that although the basic content of both texts is the same, their structures are very different, i.e.
the Chinese contains numerous passages not found in the Tibetan, and vice versa.
The solution to this challenge was simply to acknowledge that there were two different versions
of the kagarbha stra in the introduction to our translation, but to treat our text as an
23
Tenzin Tharchin and Elisabeth Lindmayer. Das Akashagarbha- Sutra. Allumfassende Liebe und Weisheit: Heilend
und Wunscherfllend, (Mnchen: Diamant Verlag, 2010).
16 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
independent work. We did not attempt to compare our translation with the translation from the
Korean-Chinese version.
4. Challenges of Translating the Tibetan Language
The fourth and most important challenge in my list is found in the Tibetan language itself.
Unlike the inflectional language of Sanskrit, classical Tibetan is an agglutinating language that
uses particles, or connectors (phrad) to express person, number, gender, and case. The particular
challenge in understanding Tibetan texts is due to the transcategorical and optional nature of the
use of case markers.24 This means that the same particles (phrad) may designate different cases,
or that particles may be omitted altogether. This elliptical style that overrides rules of syntax was
dubbed The Tibetan Telegram Principle by Stephan Beyer.25 In order to produce an accurate
translation, it is therefore indispensable to possess a large contextual understanding. Knowing the
vocabulary and grammar rules alone is not sufficient; the understanding comes from background
knowledge. In a teamwork of paita-lotsawa, it is often the Tibetan scholar who can provide
such a background.
Specific Examples:
4a. Archaic Language
The first challenge that I would like to address among the many linguistic challenges in
translating Tibetan texts, especially stras, is the challenge of archaic language. Even though we
do have wonderful resourceslexica, dictionaries, data bases and so onthey are not able to
answer all of the translators questions. In the process of translating the kagarbha Stra, we
had a few terms that posed a challenge even for learned Tibetan scholars. Living at the
International Buddhist Academy, we were surrounded by Tibetan scholars with various fields of
expertise. Still, we had a few expressions that were unfamiliar to all of them. One example is the
term phyag dar ba which occurred in the passage on the seventh and eights bodhisattva
transgressions. The words meaning that was familiar to native Tibetan speakers, and which you
find in dictionaries, is sweeper, phyag dar meaning dust or rubbish. In the kagarbha
Stra, the term occurs in connection with advisors, ministers, soldiers and physicians. To
translate the term as sweeper did not seem intelligible in the context of this stra.
To solve this problem we spoke with various experts at the IBA and also consulted other texts on
the bodhisattva transgressions. We read the corresponding Tibetan and Sanskrit passages in
ntidevas iksamuccaya. This led us on to discover that phyag dar ba is the translation of
cal in the Sanskrit text, a term that means in general outcast, person of lowest value.
According to Monier Williams it can also mean a very low representative of something.26 It
seems that the context for this secondary meaning could be found in brahmanical thought, in
24
Nicolas Tournadre, The Classical Tibetan Cases and their Transcategoriality: From sacred grammar to modern
linguistics. Himalayan Linguistics 2010, Vol. 9(2): 87-125.
25
Stephan Beyer, The Classical Tibetan Language, 195.
26
Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 383/3.
17 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
particular its hierarchy of pure versus impure occupations and the value judgement associated
with it.
4b. The Tone of a Translation
The second challenge I would like to discuss is the tone, or voice, of a translation. The
kagarbha Stra contains several passages of poetry, which were challenging to translate
because they were obscure, and seemed to express several layers of meaning at the same time.
Our translation group discussed the verses several times and finally opted for reading the passage
as describing the realization of Bodhisattva kagarbha. We decided to keep the translation as
literal as possible. In these verses (below), the Tibetan word kun gzhi means literally all-ground.
This term refers in numerous other texts to the laya, the eighth or so-called storehouse
consciousness in Buddhist psychology, which in some schools of thought is associated with
tathgatagarbha, or Buddha nature. However, after some discussion, we finally opted for
ignoring a possible philosophical reference and used a literal translation of the all-ground.
The verses of obscure poetry on folio 265b read as follows:
The Bhagavn replied:27
It is just as you have said.
The place where the all-basis is heard,
and where, with wisdom, sentient beings are established,
that place is the sphere of activity of meditative concentration.
It is the sphere of activity
of the Bodhisattva kagarbha,
who has demonstrated the meditative concentration free of appearances
and free of proliferations.
Whoever is attached to the two views
will later be in a realm of delusion.
Attachment to permanence o annihilation
is utter delusion about here and there.
Those who wish to free themselves
completely from both of these views
should meditate on that which is inexpressible,
thereby swiftly attaining the grounds.
27
18 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
In Tibetan this passage reads as follows:
Regarding our first translation of these verses, the reviewer of the 84000 - whose identity was
kept anonymous by the editorial committee - pointed out that the meanings of the versified
teachings on the nature of reality in this sutra are often obscure and lend themselves to
ambiguity. However, if the translation is rendered clearly and unambiguously, the reader will
have no idea of the ambiguous nature of the text, and will assume that the clarity of the English
reflects the clarity of the Tibetan. This could lead the reader to believe that the translation is
definitive, whereas future translations of the same sutra that carry contradictory readings will not
be seen as merely reflecting the obscurities inherent in the text but as either correction to the
original or mistaken readings of the Tibetan.
The suggested solution for such problems was to insert a paragraph in the introduction on the
difficulties of translating these kinds of verses on the nature of reality in general, and specifically
within this sutra. Moreover, specific instances of ambiguity could be annotated with footmarks to
the translation itself. We opted for the first solution suggested here.
4c. Technical Terms and Treatment of Sanskrit
A third challenge concerns the numerous Buddhist technical terms. Many or all of them
encompass meanings that cannot be accurately rendered with one single English term. Whereas
the Tibetan translators in the 7th century were reluctant to retain Sanskrit loan words in their
translation, and rather translated nearly everything into Tibetan including names of people and
places, English translators often resort to the original Sanskrit terms. Tibetans did not shy away
from creating altogether new words, rendering, for instance, the word Buddha with sangs
rgyas, two words that both carry new meanings, none of which directly found in the Sanskrit
19 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
budh (to awaken). Since many English translators use Sanskrit terms, over time, English
readers got accustomed to certain words such as buddha, bodhisattva, dharma. In accordance
with the 84000 guidelines, we tried to find a middle way between the necessity for, and the
overload of, Sanskrit. Our solution was to use Sanskrit whenever we could not find a satisfying
English term. We tried to reduce the amount of Sanskrit as much as we could. In our first draft
we had also bhiku, parmit, bhmi, sagha, etc., which you find now as English terms -monk,
perfection, ground, assembly, etc. - in the final, published version. The Sanskrit of these terms
can still be found in the online glossary which the reader can access by clicking on highlighted
terms in the translated text.
We used Sanskrit terms in the following instances: to describe [1] particular types of
practitioners (mahsattva, rvaka, pratyekabuddha), [2] particular types of beings that were
mentioned as part of the Buddhas entourage (deva, nga, yaka, gandharva, asura, garuda,
kinnara, mahoraga, kimbha, preta, pica, ptana, kaaptana), and [3] for Buddhist
technical terms that encompassed a spectrum of meaning too vast to capture all meanings. One
example for the latter category is dhra. This term is used in various ways. For instance, it
refers to the mental capacity of not forgetting, enabling one in particular to cultivate positive
forces and to ward off negativity. It is also very commonly used as a term for mystical verses
similar to mantras, the usage of which will grant a particular power. There is no English
multivalent term bearing equivalent meanings. Thus, the use of Sanskrit remains a necessity as
long as no satisfying English translations have been determined; and translation decisions have
to be taken in a case-by-case manner.
4d. Repetitions
Another challenge peculiar to translating stras pertains to repetitions. The editorial policies
statement of the 84000 reads: A great deal of repetition, sometimes of stock phrases, is a
characteristic feature of some Kangyur texts, and in most cases it should be reproduced in full in
the translation.
To give an example from our particular sutra: We had several passages mentioning fear, or the
absence thereof, for example, in the face of kagarbhas magical displays. In the original,
three verbs relate to being afraid: jigs pa, dngangs pa and skrag pa. In a first discussion, we
opted for a translation closer to English speaking habits. Arguing that the triple use of a word
simply meant to intensify the expression, we wrote extremely afraid. The reviewer of the
84000, however, reminded us of keeping the repetitions in order to express the character and
characteristics of the original. As you can see in the example below, we used three words for
describing fear, but we did not repeat the grammatical structure, i.e. we did not repeat the
negation and the auxiliary verb (mi byed).
20 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
At that place, the bodhisattvas dwelling on the tenth ground, who had achieved the meditative
concentration of brave progression, and who were bound by one more life and in their last
existence, looked and saw, yet were not at all frightened, afraid, or terrified, because they
realized that all phenomena are by nature endowed with final reality, suchness, and emptiness.
Therefore, they were not at all frightened, afraid, or terrified. [F.265.a]
These are but a few examples, albeit representative ones, with which I hope to have given a
glimpse into our translation work. Translating the 20 folio Mahyna kagarbha Stra took
about one month for the translation itself, and one year for the editing process, including the
various exchanges between the reviewers and editors of the 84000 and the translators. We were
not full time translators; we had other projects and studies to pursue at the same time. The long
period of one year also includes weeks or months of waiting for editors to work on our text.
Conclusion
In sum I hope to have given a picture of our small translation group within the bigger project of
the 84000, which itself is part of the larger history of translating Tibetan Buddhist texts into
English, which in turn is part of the even larger 2500 year old history of transmission and
translation of the Buddhas teaching in the world.
In this presentation I have tried to elucidate the editorial policies of the 84000and our personal
experience with it. The challenges that we faced were partly specific to our team of junior
translators, and partly general difficulties that all translators of the Tibetan language encounter.
The solutions that we found have one feature in common: in order to find solutions we had to
expand we had to expand our pool of knowledge to include the intelligence and experience of
senior translators, and we had to expand our focus beyond the limits of the text we were
translating in order to find information and ideas in other texts. Generally speaking I can say that
the English translation of the kagarbha Stra would not have reached its level of quality
21 | J u l i a S t e n z e l , T h e S a k y a P a n d i t a T r a n s l a t i o n G r o u p
without the assistance of many scholars, particularly the editors and reviewers of the 84000. In a
collaborative effort, we have attempted to come close to their ideals of accuracy of meaning,
clarity, consensuality, and consistency. The organization of the 84000 demonstrates that in a
structured collaborative effort, translations can be produced in quantity and quality that represent
much more than the sum of the individuals work.
Bibliography
Tibetan Texts
kagarbha nma mahyna stra ('Phags pa nam mkha'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen
po'i mdo). Th. 260. Deg Kangyur, vol. 66 ZA, (mdo sde, za), folios 264r.4-283b.
Dpe sdur ma. Krung go'i bod rig pa'i dpe skrun khang /, pe cin/. 2006-2009. par gzhi dang po/.
Accessed Oct 10, 2014. http://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=W1PD96682
Secondary Literature
84000 Editorial Policy v8.0. Accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/resources/grants/.
Beyer, Stephan. The Classical Tibetan Language, New York: State University of New York,
1992/ Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1993.
Jamgon Kongtrul ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas), Treasury of Knowledge,
Buddhism's Journey to Tibet. Ithaka, NY: Snow Lion Publication, 2010.
Origin. Accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/about/origin/.
Raine, Roberta. Translating the Tibetan Buddhist Canon: Past Strategies, Future
Prospects. Forum 9.2 (2011): 157-186
Progress. Accessed Oct 10, 2014. http://84000.co/about/progress/.
Skillings, Peter. Dr. Peter Skillings address to the conference,
http://translationandtransmission.org/videos.html.
Tharchin, Tenzin, and Elisabeth Lindmayer. Das Akashagarbha- Sutra. Allumfassende Liebe und
Weisheit: Heilend und Wunscherfllend . Mnchen: Diamant Verlag, 2010.
Tournadre, Nicolas. The Classical Tibetan Cases and their Transcategoriality: From sacred
grammar to modern linguistics. Himalayan Linguistics 2010, Vol. 9(2): 87-125.
Welcome to the International Buddhist Academy, accessed October 10, 2014.
http://internationalbuddhistacademy.org/about/
Weldon, David. Guardians of the Sacred Word. Accessed Oct 10, 2014.
http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/covers/intro. html.