84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, a global nonprofit initiative founded by the renowned Bhutanese lama, author, and filmmaker Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, has unveiled a revised brand mission and the launch of a redesigned website. After last year reaching the landmark of 15 years of intensive scholarship, translating and preserving the sacred Tibetan Buddhist canon and maintaining a unique online portal where these profound teachings may be freely accessed, 84000 said the exciting refresh represented a new chapter in 84000’s work to “open gateways to an authentic source of Buddhist wisdom.”

“The new brand centers on a renewed statement of purpose. Vision: Planting seeds of awakening for a changing world. Mission: Opening gateways to an authentic source of Buddhist wisdom,” 84000 said in an announcement.

“84000 is dedicated to bringing the entire Tibetan Buddhist canon to the world. Translated, preserved, and made freely available to anyone, anywhere. Spanning thousands of pages of timeless wisdom, the work is vast and essential, ensuring this wisdom remains a living source of guidance for a changing world.”

“To bring our new vision to life, we invite you to explore 84000.co,” 84000’s executive director Huang Jing Rui explained in a statement shared with BDG. “Alongside a refreshed logo, we’ve enhanced our digital library with a dedicated Reading Room for general readers and advanced tools in our Scholar’s Room. Beyond the written word, you can now engage with the Buddha’s wisdom through new audio and video content, featuring bite-sized snippets designed for modern learning.”

Accompanying 84000’s expanded scriptural library, the revamped platform offers new ways to engage with the Buddhadharma and their work to bring it to the world—from original articles and interviews with translators and teachers to Dharma teachings from across the canon and interdisciplinary projects that see the translated teachings interpreted and expressed through art, music, and contemporary creative practice.

“This shift is reflected in a renewed vision and mission: we are now deepening our commitment to Planting Seeds of Awakening for a changing World,” Huang noted. “By Opening Gateways to authentic Buddhist wisdom, we ensure these timeless wisdoms remain accessible and transformative in our modern age.”

More than 15 years ago, 84000 set out on a long and winding path to translate into English—and make freely available to all—all surviving canonical texts preserved in the Classical Tibetan language—a literary archive of immeasurable wisdom that was on the brink of being lost to the world forever. According to 84000, less than 5 per cent of the canon had hitherto been translated into a modern language, and due to the rapid decline in the knowledge of Classical Tibetan and in the number of qualified scholars, the world is in danger of losing an irreplaceable cultural and spiritual wisdom legacy. 

This long-term labor of love aims to translate some 70,000 pages of the Kangyur (the translated words of the Buddha) by 2035 and 161,800 pages of the Tengyur (translated commentaries on the teachings) by 2110. Since its founding, the work of the 84000 team has been anchored by five guiding principles: offering and volunteerism; translation accuracy and readability; nurturing and supporting translators; placing equal value on all audiences; and understanding that the project will require perpetual effort.

“Now with 50 per cent of the Kangyur published and 80 per cent fully translated, we are carefully exploring how AI and emerging technology can aid our scholars, while ensuring that our work remains grounded in authenticity, lineage and academic rigor,” Huang noted, emphasizing that “human stewardship will always be at the heart of our work.”

Since its inception in 2010,* 84000—named for the number of teachings the historical Buddha is said to have given—has awarded in excess of US$6 million in grants to teams of translators around the world, including Tibetan scholars and Western academics. In just 14 years, with the endorsement of all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, 84000 continues to strive forward, supported by some of the most learned living teachers of the Vajrayana tradition.

“For most of its history, 84000’s primary work has been scholarly: recruiting and supporting translators, developing rigorous editorial standards, and building the infrastructure to house thousands of texts,” said 84000. “That work continues. But the organization has entered a new phase —one focused not only on producing translations, but on ensuring those translations are genuinely encountered, understood, and found meaningful by the widest possible audience.”

The new platform is built around two major spaces that together are aimed at meetings the needs of all who wish to access the wisdom shared by 84000.

The Reading Room. Access to thousands of texts spanning the entire range of Buddhist wisdom, freely available to all. Readers can browse by section, search by topic, or simply wander.

The Scholar’s Room. Aimed at scholars, the tools here include multilingual resources, translation comparisons, textual variants, and specialized search functions designed for academic inquiry and cross-referencing.

“What began as a translation initiative is now evolving into an engagement initiative,” said Huang. “The challenge today is no longer only how to translate texts but also how to ensure they are meaningfully available across many different languages, levels of familiarity, and modes of learning.”

In addition to 84000, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s projects include Khyentse Foundation, established in 2001 to promote the Buddha’s teaching and support all traditions of Buddhist study and practice; Siddhartha’s Intent, an international collective of Buddhist groups supporting Rinpoche’s Buddhadharma activities by organizing teachings and retreats, distributing and archiving recorded teachings, and transcribing, editing, and translating manuscripts and practice texts; Lotus Outreach, which directs a range of projects to ensure the education, health, and safety of vulnerable women and children in the developing world; and Lhomon Society, which promotes sustainable development in Bhutan through education.

The translation of Buddhist texts is one of the foundational initiatives undertaken by Khyentse Foundation. This aspiration has branched out into four multi-year translation projects: 84000; the Khyentse Vision Project,* founded in 2021 to make the writings and treasures (terma) of Khyentse lineage masters accessible to practitioners and scholars; the Kumarajiva Project,** launched in 2019 to produce Chinese translations of texts in the Tibetan Buddhist canon; and DJK Chinese Translation, initiated in 2023 to translate key works of Khyentse lineage masters from Tibetan into Chinese.

No matter what kind of changes happen in the world, there is always an answer that can be found in the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha. And I think it’s going to be more and more relevant because modern people like us, and more than us our next generation, are challenged by all kinds of challenges. There’s a challenge of identity crisis. There’s a challenge of sanity crisis.

This is a good news for 84,000 because we have the remedy for everything even gardening, parenting of course, leadership, at every level the Buddha’s teaching is absolutely relevant now more than ever. — Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

* Khyentse Foundation Launches New Initiative to Translate the Works of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (BDG)

** Khyentse Foundation Plans Ambitious Undertaking to Translate Tibetan Buddhist Canon into Chinese (BDG) and Khyentse Foundation’s Kumarajiva Project Marks 2nd Year with 7 Buddhist Texts Translated into Chinese (BDG)

See more

84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha (Bluesky)
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha (Facebook)
Translate 84000 (Instagram)

Related news reports from BDG

Online Dharma: 84000 Celebrates 15 Years of Translating the Words of the Buddha
84000 Launches New Community for Supporters of its Dharma-Translation Mission
84000 Announces New Translation Milestone, Publishing Their First Text from the Tibetan Tengyur
UPDATE: 84000 Launches Crowdfunding Campaign to “Bring 10,000-pages of the Buddha’s Words to Life”
84000 Announces that 25 Per Cent of the Tibetan Kangyur Is Now Freely Available in English
UPDATE: 84000 Launches New App, with Insights from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
84000 Announces the Historic Publication of a Major Buddhist Sutra Never Before Available in English