JStenzel SPTG Presentation

8/9/2019 JStenzel SPTG Presentation

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1 | 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

Presentation of the Sakya Paṇḍita Translation Groupof the International Buddhist Academy, Kathmandu, Nepal

and their Translation of the Mahāyāna Ākāśagarbha Sūtra

This paper was presented at the International Conference ―Translation of Buddhist Scriptur es from aroundthe World,‖ organized by the Research Center for the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, Dongguk University,Gyeongju, South Korea, November 28-29, 2014. I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Khenpo Ngawang

Jorden, director of the International Buddhist Academy, Kathmandu, for his thoughtful guidance of our

translation work, as well as to my translation colleagues, Ven. Ngawang Tenzin, Ven. Jampa Tenzin, and

especially Christian Bernert whose comments to this paper were of great help.

IntroductionIn February 2014, coinciding with the Tibetan New Year, the ―84000-Translating the Words ofthe Buddha‖ published online the Mahāyāna Ākāśagarbha Sūtra (’phags pa nam mkha’i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo) as part of their ongoing translation project of translatingthe 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 Pa ṇḍitaTranslation Group within the larger context of the 84000, drawing on our most recent experience

with the Ākāśagarbha Sūtra. 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

Ākāśagarbha Sūtra, and explain the various solutions we found.

I. “84000 – Translating the Words of the Buddha”

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


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2011, renamed ―84000 – Translating the Words of the Buddha.‖ The project was thus initiated by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and funded by the Khyentse Foundation.

1The foundation is a

registered global non-profit initiative that ―aims to translate all of the Buddha’s words intomodern languages, and to make them available to everyone, free of charge.‖

The participants of the Bir conference also resolved to invite the participation of the masters andholders of all lineages. Today, the list of 153 translators and 23 translator teams that have

participated so far in the 84000 project2 demonstrate that all major schools of Tibetan Buddhism

(Nyingma, Kagyü, Sakya, Gelug) are represented, thus making it a non-sectarian, unified

enterprise.

In their published vision statement, the 84000 explains its motives:3

It is said that the Buddha taught more than 84,000 methods to attain true peace andfreedom from suffering. Of these teachings, only 5% have been translated into modern

languages. Due to the rapid decline in knowledge of classical languages and in the

number of qualified scholars, we are in danger of losing this cultural heritage andspiritual legacy.

Therefore, the 84000’s declared goal is to translate the entire treasury of Tibetan Buddhistliterature within one hundred years. The interim goals of five, ten, and twenty-five years

determine the order in which this goal is to be accomplished. For now, the 84000 focuses on

translating the more important texts of the Kangyur (bka’ ’gyur ), and, to a lesser degree, of theTengyur (bstan ’ gyur ).

The long and short-term goals are specified in the following chart:

100 years To provide universal access to the Buddhist literary heritagetranslated into modern languages.

25 years To make all of the Kangyur and related volumes of the

Tengyur available in English, and provide widespread

accessibility in multiple platforms.

10 years To make a significant portion of the Kangyur and

complementary Tengyur texts available in English, and easily

accessible in multiple platforms.

5 years To make a representative sample of the Kangyur and

Tengyur available in English, and establish the infrastructure

1http://84000.co/about/origin/2―Translators,‖ accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/about/translators/.3―Vision,‖ accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/about/vision/.


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and resources necessary to accomplish the long-term vision.

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

sūtras 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 sūtras areused for dharma practice, such as the ―Resounding of the Buddha’s 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.

Some Facts: Works Published and in Progress

Translations in Progress and Published Online4

Pages Commissioned for Translation

4http://84000.co/about/progress/. Accessed Oct 10, 2014.

http://84000.co/about/progress/http://84000.co/about/progress/http://84000.co/about/progress/


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Pages Published

Translators Supported

Translators


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Translators’ Affiliations

Impact of the 84000’sWork The table below provides an overview of how often the translations provided by the 84000 have

been viewed.5

Reading Room Hits: 4.4 million hits

Text Downloads: 110,898 times

Website Visitors: 151,813 visitors

ReadingRoom Visitors: 81,238 visitors

Readers Come From: 135 countries

The Editorial Policy of the 84000

The 84000 have developed an editorial policy which all their translators have to follow. Once a

year the 84000 invites translators to submit applications for the translation of preselected sūtras.To do so, translators have to present a sample translation of 5 pages, along with an introduction

to the team of translators and a budget. The chosen teams may then start their translations based

on certain rules that have been postulated by the editorial team of the 84000 since their

beginnings in 2010, and expanded over the years.

5―Impact,‖ accessed Oct 30, 2014. http://84000.co/about/impact/ Information updated on: January 1, 2014.

http://84000.co/about/progress/?share=facebook&nb=1


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Source and Target Languages

As mentioned previously, the 84000’s primary focus is on the translation of Tibetan scripturesincluded in the Kangyur and Tengyur . Translations are done primarily from the Tibetan

language, under consideration of extant Sanskrit originals or Chinese translations. There is no

plan to translate canonical texts from Pāli and Chinese, since such translations are alreadyundertaken by other organisations.

The target language is English, with the long term vision of including other modern languages,

including Chinese, when resources are available. The target audience is an educated but non-

specialist readership. Translators are asked to use a language that is accessible to both scholars

and practitioners.

Texts, Text Comparison and Critical Editions

The source text for most translations is the Tibetan text from the Degé edition. For a large

majority of works, no Sanskrit version has been found and the English translation will

necessarily be made from the Tibetan translation. Only for a minority of works an originalSanskrit version in a reliable edition is available. In such cases the translators will take the

Sanskrit edition as the primary source.

The translations ideally include textual comparison with, and reference to, differing versions,

when they exist, whether in Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pāli, Chinese or other. For the different Tibetaneditions, this task is facilitated by the new comparative edition (dpe sdur ma) of the Kangyur and

Tengyur , published in Beijing by the Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau (bka’ bstan dpe sdurkhang ) of the China Tibetology Research Center (krung go’i bod rig pa zhi ’jug ste gnas).6 Translators use the Pedurma Kangyur to trace variations of the different editions. Only changes

that affect the meaning significantly should be marked in footnotes.

Research

In addition to translating sūtras, translators are required to do a certain amount of research and tocompose brief introductions, notes, bibliographies, glossaries and other reference material. These

are published along with the translations. All publications are online, free of charge.

Standards and Standardization

In their editorial policy, the 84000 has formulated the guiding principles for the translation work.

Generally speaking, the translations should possess the following qualities: ―Accuracy of

meaning, clarity, consensuality, consistency and flexibility.‖

7

What these principles entail, theeditorial committee of the 84000 explains in the Guidelines for Translators. In the second part of

my presentation, I will elaborate on some of these details. Generally speaking, one can say that

6 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―84000 Editor ial Policy v8.0,‖ IV A, 7, accessed Oct 30, 2014, http://84000.co/resources/grants/.


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all rules aim at producing a text of easy readability. As translators, we should think to ― be kind toour readers.‖8

Setting standards naturally leads to the question of standardization, i.e. to the idea that all

translators use the same vocabulary for recurrent technical terms. The editorial board of the

84000 has expressed the wish to develop such translation standardization, similar to the Mahāvyutpatti project in Tibet. Standardization, however, is not possible at the moment, and it isnot clear to which degree it will be in the future. The guidelines of the 84000 give rules as to the

spelling, capitalization, use of italics and punctuation, but leave the vocabulary to the discretion

of the translators. They demand however, that each translation team develops a glossary

alongside their translation. This is done in an excel sheet in which the Tibetan, Sanskrit, and

English terms are listed, as well as a short English definition. In the final publication, the English

word is hyperlinked so that the reader can easily access the glossary entries.

The challenge of, and resistance to, standardization are problems that are better understood when

we compare the historical contexts of the translation endeavours now with the translations ofSanskrit Buddhist literature into Tibetan. Therefore I would like to deviate for a short moment

into the history of the translation of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon. In the second part of my

presentation, I will then return to a few concrete examples of the editorial guidelines of the

84000.

Translations of the Buddhist Canons into Tibetan

The Tibetan Buddhist Canon is a translation of mainly the Sanskrit Canon, of which many texts

have been destroyed or lost over the centuries. Other translations were done from texts in

Chinese, Khotanese, Socdian, or other languages of that time, when these were believed to have

had a Sanskrit original that got lost.

Whereas the Pāli Canon could be preserved, or rather reconstructed, in its entirety thanks to theefforts of generation after generation copying individual manuscripts in neighbouring countries,

such as Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand -this is, unfortunately, not the case for the Sanskrit

teachings. Many Sanskrit texts have only survived in Tibetan or Chinese translation.

As for the translations to Tibetan, there were two clearly distinguishable phases of Sanskrit-

Tibetan translation, corresponding to the periods of uptake in Buddhism known to Tibetan

historians as the ―early propagation‖ ( snga dar ) and ―later propagation‖ ( phyi dar ).The first, a

―top-down‖ movement, lasted from the 7

th

to the mid-9

th

century and was an initiative based onroyal initiative and support. In the 7

thcentury CE, the newly united kingdom of Tibet was still

relatively young when its ruler, Songtsen Gampo (srong btsan sgam po, 569 – 649?/605 – 649?),decided to sponsor Buddhism and with it the translation of important texts from India. Two and a

half centuries of prosperity were followed by a time of political collapse and religious crisis. The

second, ―new translation period‖ ( gsar ‘gyur ) - also called the ―later dissemination of the

8This expression is borrowed from Dr David Bellos, Translation and Transmission Conference, Oct 2014.


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teachings‖ ( phyi dar ) - between the 11th and 14th centuries was a fragmented movement thatsprung from the grassroots, fuelled by teachers and adepts. It was a period of great individual

achievements, though less consistent in following uniform standards. Such individuals were, for

example, Bari Lotsawa,9 Drogmi Lotsawa,

10and Rinchen Zangpo

11 - three translators that are

revered in the Sakya School, with which the Sakya Paṇḍita Translation Group is affiliated.

After the 14th

century, Buddhism had mostly disappeared from the Indian subcontinent, and no

further Sanskrit texts were translated into Tibetan. In total, 5250 texts 230,000 folio sides were

translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan. Over 870 translators and scholars were involved and their

translations have been praised by modern historians as a masterpiece of teamwork, terminology

and consistency.12

Characteristic Features of the Translation into Tibetan

Translating from Sanskrit into Tibetan had a unique feature because the Tibetans created a

Tibetan linguistic system that was modelled upon Sanskrit, even though the two languages share

no direct linguistic relation, Tibetan belonging to the Tibeto-Burmese language group. However,Sanskrit was chosen as a benchmark in order to be able to translate Buddhist scriptures into

Tibetan.13

Not only did grammarians attempt to conceptualize Tibetan through the lens of

Sanskrit noun cases, syntax, and verbal conjugation (albeit simplified), moreover, by royal

commission the vocabulary and style of translations were highly regularized. Standardization

became maybe the most important feature of translation; and the fabricated similarity of Tibetan

to Sanskrit facilitated translation, and made it possible to produce texts of high precision.14

Lotsawa-PaṇḍitaAs we know from colophons, the translations were mostly carried out by a collaboration of

Indian scholars and Tibetan translators, a model that received the name lotsawa-paṇḍ ita. TheSanskrit title paṇḍ ita designated mastery of the five sciences: grammar, logic, medicine, artisticcrafts, and philosophy. The title lotsawa was an honorific term for the native Tibetans involved

in the translations of Sanskrit texts into Tibetan. Some of them had travelled to India or a

Himalayan borderland, had accompanied Indian paṇḍ itas back to Tibet, had invested health andwealth, effort and sacrifice, to make translations happen. Since the collaborative effort of people

with two different skill sets has proven highly successful, many translators today, including my

9 Ba ri lo tsA, also called Rinchen Drak (rin chen grags) (1040-1111).10

Brog mi shakya ye shes (994-1078).11 Rin chen bzang po (958-1055).12 http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/canons/about/wiki/tibetan%20canons%20introduction.html. See also

Roberta Paine, ―The Translator in Tibetan History: Identity and Influence.‖ Forum 8.2 (2010): 133-161.13 It is believed that the Tibetan script and texts on grammar date to the 7 th century. Under the rule of king Songtsen

Gampo ( srong btsan sgam po) the scholar and grammarian Tonmi Sambhota ( thon mi sam bho ta) is credited by the

tradition to have created a script and composed the Root Verses on Grammar, the so-called sum cu pa, and the

Guide to the Signs (rtags kyi ‘jug pa)14 For a detailed account, see Stephan Beyer, The Classical Tibetan Language, (New York: State University of New

York, 1992/ Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1993).


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own translation group, try to emulate the lotsawa-paṇḍ ita model when translating Tibetanscriptures into English.

Translation Tools - The Mahāvyutpatti and Madhyavyutpatti

The Tibetan translations of Sanskrit sūtras show a high degree of conformity in vocabulary. This

is the result of an invested effort of standardizing terminology. It is documented in the Mahāvyutpatti, the Madhyavyutpatti, and similar texts. The Mahāvyutpatti (bye brag tu rtogs pachen po) or ―The Great Volume of Precise Understanding or Essential Etymology‖ is a Sanskrit-Tibetan lexicographical reference work with nearly 10,000 entries, which is still used by scholars

today. The related Madhyavyutpatti ( sgra sbyor bam po gynis pa) provides a detailed account of

translation technique. These two volumes were created c. 814 at the order of King Tride

Songtsen (khri lde srong btsan, r. 799-815), i.e. during the first translation period in Tibet, with

the intention to standardize the translation of Buddhist texts into Tibetan. These texts settled

issues of orthography, grammar, and translation rules, and thus played a central role in achieving

a largely consistent standardized language for translating Buddhist scripture. Students of Tibetan

language still refer to this compendium today.15In an address to the recent Tsadra Foundation

conference on ―Translation and Transmission‖ in October 2014, the scholar Peter Skillingsadvised translators to study the Mahāvyutpatti attentively. He even suggests that these texts betaught in university seminars.

16

Apart from the royal supervision of the early translations in Tibet, another factor facilitated the

creation of a standardized language: Tibet, unlike China, did not have a well-developed

philosophical tradition prior to the arrival of Buddhism. Therefore, translators coined technical

terms that were assigned to Sanskrit expressions with little danger of being misunderstood in the

light of some other context. Thus the Tibetan translations, though literal and somewhat dense

and unnatural are considered relatively reliable in representing the Sanskrit originals. They have

proven to be an invaluable source for the reconstruction of lost Sanskrit texts.17

Language reforms

During the two translation phases, three major language reforms ( skad gsar bcad ) took place.

During these reforms numerous words were labeled ―old signs‖ (brda rnying ) and were replacedwith new terms. These revisions were instrumental in establishing standardized spelling,

vocabulary, and grammar. The last reform dates to the 10th

century CE. The literary language has

been more or less frozen since this time.18

During each of these revisions, older, existing

translations were updated to reflect the new standards.

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 Skilling’s 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):157-186.18Jamgon Kongtrul ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas), Treasury of Knowledge, Buddhism's Journey to

Tibet , (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publication, 2010), 220.


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Translation from Tibetan to English

Jumping forward in time now for about half a millennium, the situation for translators looks very

different. The first thing to note is that the translation of Tibetan Buddhist Texts into English (or

other European languages) does not have a very long history. At the Tsadra conference in

Keystone, Colorado, Tsadra founder Eric Colombel, shared his experience as a young student in

Paris, France, where the only books in French available numbered two, and were very difficult to

understand. However, the interest in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism in the Western world progressed

very quickly from being the reserve of a few Indologists and Tibetologists in the 19th

century to

an accepted mainstream phenomenon 150 years later. Older translations of texts often exhibited

some influence from the particular groups that were cultivating contact with Buddhist cultures,

be it colonialists, Christian missionaries, or followers of Jungian psychology.19

At present, with the social and political situation in Tibet and in Tibetan exile communities,

leading Tibetan masters have recognised the very real risk that in one or two generations’ timethere will simply be too few people with sufficient understanding of the language or contents.

The growing awareness of this risk has not only led to the founding of the 84000, but to a few

similar events that are concerned with the preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist literary legacy:

2008 Light of Berotsana, Colorado, USA: http://www.berotsana.org/conference-of-translators/

2009 BLHP/ 84000, Bir, India: http://84000.co/about/origin/ , previously mentioned

2011 Tengyur Translation, Sarnath, India: http://www.aibs.columbia.edu/conference.html

2014 June: Translation Conference and Workshop at University of Vienna, Austria:http://buddhism.tibetan-translation.com/2014/05/translating-and-transferring-buddhist.html

2014 October: Translation and Transmission Conference in Keystone, Colorado, USA:http://translationandtransmission.org/index.html

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-professedor 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. Kern’s translation as an example for Christian influence in translation (in ―TheTranslator in Tibetan History: Identity and Influence.‖ Forum 8.2 (2010): 133-161). Jungian influence can be foundfor 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.

http://www.berotsana.org/conference-of-translators/http://www.berotsana.org/conference-of-translators/http://84000.co/about/origin/http://www.aibs.columbia.edu/conference.htmlhttp://buddhism.tibetan-translation.com/2014/05/translating-and-transferring-buddhist.htmlhttp://translationandtransmission.org/index.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Y._Evans-Wentzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Junghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Junghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Y._Evans-Wentzhttp://translationandtransmission.org/index.htmlhttp://buddhism.tibetan-translation.com/2014/05/translating-and-transferring-buddhist.htmlhttp://www.aibs.columbia.edu/conference.htmlhttp://84000.co/about/origin/http://www.berotsana.org/conference-of-translators/http://www.berotsana.org/conference-of-translators/


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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 orlanguage 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 bythe tradition’s norms of secrecy, but follow the code of critical investigation and unrestrainedcuriosity.

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 ofthe subtleties of the language.

Concluding Remarks

These glimpses into the history of the translation of Buddhist scriptures, however brief and over-

simplified 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, today’stranslation 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 successfulstory 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 ofBuddhist 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.


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II. The Translation of the Ākāśagarbha Sūtra In the summer of 2011, the Sakya Pandita Translation Group signed a contract with the 84000

for the translation of several sūtras, among them the Ākāśagarbha Sūtra. This sūtra is a text of 20folios in the Dege Edition,

20 or 44 pages in the Pedurma edition. Its complete name is

Ā k āśagarbha-nāma-mahā yāna-sūtra ('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: Tōhoku University, 1934],it is Tōh. no. 260. It was translated into Tibetan by the scholars Śākyaprabha and Ratnarak ṣita.

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.

Introducing the SūtraThis sūtra is named after the Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha, in Tibetan Namkhe Nyingpo, whichmeans ―essence of space‖ or ―matrix of space.‖ The sutra tells of a situation in which Buddha

Śākyamuni resides in the Khalatika Mountains, which refers probably to the Barabar mountainsnear Bodhgaya. Buddha Śākyamuni and his retinue are joined by the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha,who arrives displaying his magical powers. At first, a bright ray of light, coming from the jewel

on top of his head, transforms the whole of the world into a pure land. Thereupon the bodhisattva

Maitreya requests Buddha Śākyamuni to give a teaching on the powers and capacities ofBodhisattva Ākāśagarbha. The answer of Buddha Śākyamuni forms the major part of the sūtra.The Buddha explained the qualities and the powers of Ākāśagarbha. His particular power is hisability to help practitioners purify their wrongdoings, in the sutra called ―downfalls.‖ TheBuddha explains each of the twenty-three downfalls, or transgressions, separately, in more or

less detail. They include general unwholesome actions such as killing and stealing, and also theeight transgressions of bodhisattvas which are deeds like teaching emptiness to disciples that are

not mature enough for comprehending it; or trying to convince somebody that the Mahāyāna path is not the right path to practice; or trying to deter somebody who wants to take the monastic

vows of self-liberation. The Buddha also explains various methods of purification of these

negative deeds and transgressions, such as praying to Ākāśagarbha, giving special offerings,reciting dharaṇis, and so forth. A special emphasis is on a dream incubation type of practice. The person invites Ākāśagarbha to appear in her or his dream and to listen to the confession ofwrongdoings, and it is in the dream that Ākāśagarbha purification will take place. The sutra endswith the Buddha giving a teaching on the emptiness of phenomena.

Because of its systematic presentation of the twenty-three transgressions this sūtra has gainedspecial importance among Mahāyāna sūtras and is mentioned as reference work for Bodhisattva

20Degé Kangyur, vol. ZA, folios 264r.4-283v.2.


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ethics by masters such as Śāntideva, Sakya Paṇḍita or Jamgon Kongtrul.21 The famous Bodhicaryāvatāra (translated as The Way of the Bodhisattva) by Śāntideva recommends the Ākāśagarbha Sūtra 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.

Introducing Sakya IBA and its Translation Team

The International Buddhist Academy (short: IBA) is located in Kathmandu, Nepal, and was

established in 2001 by the late Khenchen Appey Rinpoche, an eminent Sakyapa scholar and

teacher, whose students include prominent teachers such as His Holiness the Sakya Trizin, and

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.22

In 2009, an intensive translator training program began that educated simultaneously Tibetan and

Western scholars to prepare them for collaborative translation programs in the future. The

Tibetan monastic scholars who were admitted to the IBA all had completed seven to nine yearsof philosophical studies at various Sakya monastic colleges, such as Dzongsar Shedra (Bir,

India), Sakya College (Dehradun, India), Rimbik Shedra Sakya Chopelling (Darjeeling, India),

or Sakya Institute (Puruwalla, India). Thus, all of them are highly qualified in Buddhist

philosophy and have attained either a Shastri (ka chu pa) degree - equivalent to a Batchelor’sdegree - or an Acharya ( slob dpon) degree, equivalent to a Master’s degree, prior to entering theIBA. Their education at the monastic colleges had included extensive training in logic and

debate. This discipline of philosophical debate has become so ingrained in the monks’ way ofthinking and speaking that, even though not formally on the curriculum at the IBA, debates can

often be witnessed during tea breaks and recreation time. At the IBA, the monks’ training

focuses on English language which most of them had received only to a very little degree beforearriving at the IBA.

The non-Tibetan (mostly Western) students of the IBA translator program focused on studying

Tibetan language: classical Tibetan (chos skad ) as well as colloquial Tibetan ( phal skad ). Tibetan

exists as a diglossia, i.e. as two different co-existing language ―habits,‖ namely classical, literaryTibetan which has seen very little change since the Buddhist canon itself was translated, and

colloquial Tibetan, spoken dialects, which have continued to evolve into new usages of

vocabulary and grammar. Both aspects of Tibetan intersect in the field of Buddha Dharma. The

monastics at the IBA are familiar with both, and therefore it is deemed necessary also for non-

Tibetan translators to study not only literary language, but also its practical application in

21 Śāntideva was an Indian master of Nalanda, lived around the 8th century. Sakya Paṇḍita (chos rje sa skya paN Dita 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 Rimé (ecumenical) movement.22 ―Welcome to the International Buddhist Academy,‖ accessed October 10, 2014.http://internationalbuddhistacademy.org/about/

http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rim%C3%A9http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rim%C3%A9http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rim%C3%A9http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rim%C3%A9


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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 educationconsisting 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 sūtras and is funded bygrants of the 84000.

Team Translation

The ideal model that these translation groups follow is that of the lotsawa-paṇḍ ita as explained

previously. Since different text translations demand various ranges of language expertise, thetranslation teams are complemented with Sanskrit experts, English editors and proof readers as

needed. In the case of the Ākāśagarbha Sūtra, the text was translated into English by a teamconsisting 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] structuralchallenges,[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


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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 sūtras. 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 isexcellently 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 thesecond. 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 time-

consuming. 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 s ūtrathey are translating. For the Ākāśagarbha Sūtra, no Sanskrit version is available, but there is, inthe Chinese Canon, the Sūtra on the Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha, translated by Buddhayaśas 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 Ākāśagarbha sūtra in the introduction to our translation, but to treat our text as an

23Tenzin Tharchin and Elisabeth Lindmayer. Das Akashagarbha- Sutra. Allumfassende Liebe und Weisheit: Heilend

und Wunscherfüllend , (München: Diamant Verlag, 2010).


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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 thatuses 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 theuse 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 accuratetranslation, 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 paṇḍ ita-lotsawa, it is often the Tibetan scholar who can providesuch 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 sūtras, is the challenge of archaic language. Even though wedo have wonderful resources — lexica, dictionaries, data bases and so on — they are not able toanswer all of the translators’ questions. In the process of translating the Ākāśagarbha Sūtra, wehad 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 theterm phyag dar ba which occurred in the passage on the seventh and eights bodhisattva

transgressions. The word’s meaning that was familiar to native Tibetan speakers, and which youfind in dictionaries, is ―sweeper,‖ phyag dar meaning ―dust‖ or ―rubbish‖. In the ĀkāśagarbhaSūtra, the term occurs in connection with ―advisors, ministers, soldiers and physicians.‖ Totranslate the term as ―sweeper‖ did not seem intelligible in the context of this sūtra.

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

Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya. This led us on to discover that phyag dar ba is the translation of

caṇḍālā 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 Itseems 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 modernlinguistics.‖ Himalayan Linguistics 2010, Vol. 9(2): 87-125.25 Stephan Beyer, The Classical Tibetan Language, 195.26 Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 383/3.


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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

Ākāśagarbha Sūtra 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 Āk āśagarbha. We decided to keep the translation asliteral as possible. In these verses (below), the Tibetan word kun gzhi means literally ―all-ground.‖This term refers in numerous other texts to the ālaya, the eighth or so-called storehouseconsciousness in Buddhist psychology, which in some schools of thought is associated with

tathā gatagarbha, or Buddha nature. However, after some discussion, we finally opted forignoring 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 Bhagavān 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 Ākāśagarbha,

who has demonstrated the meditative concentration free of appearancesand 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.

27Degé Edition, F.265.b.


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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 versifiedteachings 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 themencompass 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 ― sangsrgyas,‖ two words that both carry new meanings, none of which directly found in the Sanskrit


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√ budh (to awaken). Since many English translators use Sanskrit terms, over time, Englishreaders got accustomed to certain words such as ―buddha, bodhisattva, dharma.‖ In accordancewith 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 bhik ṣu, parāmitā, bhūmi, saṃ gha, 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 (mahāsattva, śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha), [2] particular types of beings that werementioned as part of the Buddha’s entourage (deva, nāga, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuda,kinnara, mahoraga, kimbhāṇḍa, preta, piśāca, pūtana, kaṭapūtana), and [3] for Buddhisttechnical terms that encompassed a spectrum of meaning too vast to capture all meanings. One

example for the latter category is dhāraṇī . This term is used in various ways. For instance, itrefers 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 sūtras pertains to repetitions. The editorial policies’ statement of the 84000 reads: ―A great deal of repetition, sometimes of stock phrases, is acharacteristic 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 Āk āśagarbha’s magical displays. In the original,three verbs relate to ―being afraid‖: ‘jigs pa, dngangs pa and skrag pa. In a first discussion, weopted 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 the84000, 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 ).


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At that place, the bodhisattvas dwelling on the tenth ground, who had achieved the meditativeconcentration of brave progression, and who were bound by one more life and in their lastexistence, 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 Mahā yāna Ākāśagarbha Sūtra tookabout 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 Buddha’s 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 ofsenior 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 Ākāśagarbha Sūtra would not have reached its level of quality


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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 astructured collaborative effort, translations can be produced in quantity and quality that represent

much more than the sum of the individuals’ work.

Bibliography

Tibetan Texts

Ākāśagarbha nāma mahāyāna sūtra ('Phags pa nam mkha'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo). Tōh. 260. Degé 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 Skilling’s address to the conference,‖ http://translationandtransmission.org/videos.html.

Tharchin, Tenzin, and Elisabeth Lindmayer. Das Akashagarbha- Sutra. Allumfassende Liebe und

Weisheit: Heilend und Wunscherfüllend . München: Diamant Verlag, 2010.

Tournadre, Nicolas. ―The Classical Tibetan Cases and their Transcategoriality: From sacredgrammar 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.
http://84000.co/about/progress/http://84000.co/about/progress/

Documents

JStenzel SPTG Presentation