Kangyur in English in 25 years
26 March, 2009 – Fifty of the world’s leading Buddhist translators and six incarnate lamas, including Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, have pledged to translate, within the next 25 years, Buddha’s core teachings – the Kangyur – from Choekyed into English
The outcome is being hailed as a landmark event in Buddhist history. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, who hosted the meeting in Bir in India from March 16-20, and whose Khyentse Foundation funded the conference, said it would preserve Buddhism from “global annihilation”.
According to a press release from Bir, the group also thrashed out a 100-year programme to translate and make universally accessible the entire Buddhist literary heritage. At the urging of the translators and lamas, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche has agreed to be their interim leader. The Khyentse Foundation will also support the initial planning of the translation project. During the project, veteran translators will train translators, improve their tools and resources, and also fortify collaboration between western translators and lamas and teachers.
An incarnate lama at the meeting said that the translators were translating the Buddha’s wisdom, realisation, and compassion, and that the biggest roadblocks to good translation were ignorance and pride. A rinpoche said that the Buddha’s words were a “heritage of mankind” that can “bring peace and harmony to the world,” and urged the participants to translate the Buddha’s teachings also into French, Spanish, Arabic, and many other languages after English.
Renowned Buddhist translators Matthieu Ricard, who was there at the meeting with Robert Thurman, said that, for the Buddha’s teachings to be truly meaningful and readable in English, writing in beautiful, literary English was critical.
Source: Kuenselonline