Full text of translated Kangyur to be published in 25 years and Tengyur in 100 years

Religion: 84000, a global non-profit initiative to translate the words of the Buddha, has now launched a state-of-the-art reading room where viewers can read some 29 texts or about 2,000 pages of Kangyur and Tengyur translated in English.

Until the launch of the upgraded online reading room, there were close to eight million views and more than 138,000 visits from people of 238 countries.

In just ten days from the launch of the new reading room on September 16, the reading room has had more than 35,000 views, close to 80% of which were new visitors.

The goal of 84,000 is to translate 70,000 pages of the Kangyur in 25 years and 161,800 pages of the Tengyur in 100 years. In just six years, 84000 is supporting 38 teams of 201 translators from around the world, including both Tibetan scholars and Western academics.

According to a press release from 84,000, these teams are currently working on the translation of more than 23,000 pages, amounting to one-third of the entire Kangyur. However, about 80 text or more than 6,000 pages of Kangyur and Tengyur have been translated.

The state-of-the-art platform is fully responsive and mobile-friendly. “This new Reading Room ensures that these translations will be easily accessible and will enable practitioners and scholars alike to remember and study the words of the Buddha,” said 84,000 executive director Huang Jing Rui.

Today resources and texts like the question of maitreya, the illusory absorption, the teaching on the extraordinary transformation that is the Miracle of attaining the buddha’s powers and the sūtra of the inquiry of Jayamati, among others, are available.

The need to translate was felt because many of the learned masters and scholars who were capable of accurately interpreting the texts were either aging quickly or had recently passed away.

84,000 is the initiative of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and the Khyentse Foundation provided the interim administrative infrastructure and financial support until the project could stand alone as an independent organisation.

The press release quoted Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche as saying: “by translating and making available the Tibetan Buddhist texts to modern people, a vast swath of Buddhist civilisation and culture may be saved from annihilation.”

84,000 was officially launched in 2010 as a project under the Khyentse Foundation.

84,000 is a major undertaking to build upon and further the efforts of past renowned translators and Dharma patrons (such as Trisong Deutsen, Ashoka, Wu Zetian and Xuanzang), without whom the words of the Buddha may not have been available today, the press release states.

Tshering Dorji

Advertisement