Khyentse Foundation, founded by the renowned Bhutanese lama, filmmaker, and author Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, has announced the live launch of a new online reading room for its Dharma translation initiative the Khyentse Vision Project.
Launched in early 2021,* Khyentse Vision Project’s mission is to translate the complete works of the revered terton Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, the Great First Khyentse and founder of the Rimé movement, into English and make them freely accessible online.
“The reading room is the fruit of years of work by the project’s tech, translation, and editorial teams,” Khyentse Foundation explained. “It comprises translated works on a wide range of topics that can be browsed by genre, by volume, or through a detailed catalog of the collections. The genre page features such topics as sadhanas, prayers and praises, songs, instructions, philosophy, history and biography, arts and sciences, and rituals, while the volume page lists the texts according to how they are arranged in the Kabum and Kabab Dun. The catalog offers detailed information about each work in the collections, including English title, Tibetan title, author, and text location, and a link to the Tibetan pecha page.” (Khyentse Foundation)
Born in the traditional Tibetan region of Kham (now in Sichuan Province, China), Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–92), also known as Pema Osal Do-ngak Lingpa, was one of the most eminent masters in 19th century Tibet. He was a contemporary of the renowned masters Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa (1829–70) and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, and was regarded as the reincarnations of Vimalamitra and King Trisong Deutsen.
He was a founder and key figure of the non-sectarian Rimé movement, which sought to recognize and appreciate the differences and strengths of the various schools and traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. The movement’s efforts to collate and reproduce rare Tibetan Buddhist texts of the Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma schools, including many near-extinct teachings, was also a significant factor in the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism amid aggressive Communist suppression.
“The [Khyentse Vision Project] website further offers a new ‘World of Khyentse’ menu, which includes a Khyentse incarnation lineage tree and information on the life and legacy of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo,” Khyentse Foundation noted in an announcement shared with BDG. “More about the project, such as its mission, core values and principles, training and internship program for promising translators, and team, as well as news and events, can be found in the ‘About’ menu. There is also a blog.”
As a Dharma translation initiative, under the umbrella of Khyentse Foundation, the Khyentse Vision Project stands alongside the Kumarajiva Project, also founded under the auspices of Khyentse Foundation, which has been working for the past two years to translate Tibetan Buddhist texts into Chinese. Meanwhile, the global non-profit initiative 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, is a long-term undertaking founded by Rinpoche that aims to translate and publish all surviving canonical texts preserved in the Classical Tibetan language—70,000 pages of the Kangyur (the translated words of the Buddha) in 25 years and 161,800 pages of the Tengyur (the translated commentaries on the Buddha’s teachings) in 100 years.
Khyentse Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in 2001 with the aim of promoting the Buddha’s teaching and supporting all traditions of Buddhist study and practice. The foundation’s activities include major text preservation and translation projects, support for monastic colleges in Asia, a worldwide scholarship and awards program, development of Buddhist studies at major universities, training and development for Buddhist teachers, and developing new modes of Dharma-inspired education for children.
“Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo’s work is important not only because of the content of what we are translating—the words of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo—the significance also lies in the non-sectarian nature of what it represents. Because many times for ordinary people, different schools of Buddhism, different traditions of Buddhism—not only in different parts of the world but even within the different Tibetan schools—are almost approached as if they are totally separate,” Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche explained.
“But this has never been the case. The different schools of Buddhism—generally in the world and especially in Tibet—they have all brought their nuances and their richness, and their incredible, unthinkable flavor, and by the time of the 18th century, already many of these nuances were declining and degenerating. So Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, along with Jamyang Loter Wangpo and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, they have really worked hard keeping those things alive. And so I consider Khyentse Vision’s endeavor to be very important.”
Born in Bhutan in 1961, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is the son of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche and was a close student of the Nyingma master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–91). He is recognized as the third incarnation of the 19th century Tibetan terton Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892), founder of the Khyentse lineage, and the immediate incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1893–1959).
In addition to Siddhartha’s Intent, Rinpoche’s projects include: Khyentse Foundation, established in 2001 to promote the Buddha’s teaching and support all traditions of Buddhist study and practice; 84000, a non-profit global initiative to translate the words of the Buddha and make them available to all; 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.
* Khyentse Foundation Launches New Initiative to Translate the Works of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (BDG)
See more
Khyentse Vision Project
Khyentse Foundation
The Kumarajiva Project
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
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