Khyentse Foundation

“It’s entirely possible that the survival of the Buddhadharma could depend on it being translated into other languages.”
—Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche at the Translating the Words of the Buddha Conference, March 2009, Bir, India

The objective of KF publication fund is to make Buddhist texts, both ancient and contemporary, readily available to all those who wish to study the dharma. Efforts are concentrated on projects that support the preservation, translation, and distribution of Buddhist texts in all traditions and lineages.

Original Texts

Khyentse Foundation has supported the preparation and publication of four original publications: Introduction to the Middle Way: Chandrakirti’s Madhyamakavatara with Commentary by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche; the Longchen Nyingtik Practice Manual: Advice on How To Practice; The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra; and the newest addition to the collection, What to Do at India’s Buddhist Holy Sites. These publications are available free of charge as PDF downloads to those who send a formal request. We hope to expand this list in the coming years as the translation and editorial team continues to collect, compile, and edit Rinpoche’s teachings.

Text Preservation

The Foundation is a major supporter of text preservation and conservation initiatives of like-minded organizations such as the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC) and the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation.

TBRC’s programs include digitally preserving its collection of more than 12,000 volumes. (For more information, see blog.tbrc.org.) Fragile Palm Leaves is preserving and studying the heritage of the Buddhist literature of Southeast Asia by cataloging and preparing a database of its large collection of Buddhist manuscripts. Many of these texts are written on palm leaves and paper, in classical Pali and in several Southeast Asian languages.

These preservation initiatives benefit not only Buddhists, but also the world at large by sharing the highly developed traditions of scholarship and practice, including metaphysics, ethics, philosophy, psychology, medicine, poetry, and art.

Translation

“It’s entirely possible that the survival of the Buddhadharma will depend on it being translated into other languages.” – Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche at the Translating the Words of the Buddha Conference, March 2009, Bir, India.

To help ensure that authentic Buddhadharma is available to students of all nationalities well into the future, Khyentse Foundation is working in collaboration with translators and lineage holders from around the world. In 2009, the Foundation sponsored an international translation conference that culminated in the establishment of 84,000 – Translating the Words of the Buddha, with the goal of seeing all of the vast and extraordinary riches of Buddhist literature, particularly the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur, translated and made universally accessible within 100 years. This monumental and historic undertaking is long overdue.

The Foundation also provides scholarships for translators in training and supports various translation projects commissioned by Rinpoche and by other institutions.