Lost In Translation
Friday, 21 July 2006, 11:00 a.m.
Geshe Lhakdor |
Dharamshala: While hundreds of thousands of books related to Tibet, have been published in (or translated into) English and other major world languages, barely a handful of foreign literature have been published in Tibetan.
The issue is one of the many underlined for the 26 Tibetan youth, currently honing their translation skills here at a workshop since last month, organised by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archivesâ€â€ÂÂan institution “dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of Tibetan culture”, by serving as “the repository for Tibetan artifacts and manuscripts, and a centre for language and cultural education.”
Functionaries of Tibetan NGOs, recent college graduates and students from various institutes of higher Tibetan studiesâ€â€ÂÂthe participants of the workshop come from various places, with diverse academic and professional backgrounds, but are united in their passion to become someday a full-fledged lo-tsa-wa (translator).
“There is such a dearth of competent translators today,” laments Geshe Lhakdor, the director of the Library, with holdings of “more than 80,000 manuscripts, books and documents; hundreds of thankas, statues and other artifacts; 6000 photographs and other materials.”
In traditional Tibet, Lo-tsa-was have enjoyed high social esteem, as they took great pain and suffering in translating the sheer plethora of religious texts from Sanskrit into Tibetan, which has been the bedrock of (Tibetan) Buddhism.
“The complete, unabridged 300-odd volumes of Ka-gyur (translation of the teachings of the Buddha) and Ten-gyur (translation of the commentaries on the teachings of the Buddha) are today the exclusive possession of the Tibetan people,” said Geshe Lhakdor, who was formerly the (English) translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
“If at all any, only few books have been published or translated into Tibetan, like for instance, Seven Years in Tibet. While it is important to sustain and promote one’s traditional knowledge, it is equally important that we tap into the wealth of information and knowledge in foreign literature, by translating them into Tibetan,” Geshe la said.
The three-month intensive workshop, which will last through September, aims to pave a sound academic background for translation, based on which an individual can further develop on his own. “After all, we can’t make experts out of them in mere three months.”
(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration.)