Patrons of Buddhism: Part IX
Gene Smith and TBRC
In 2002, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche began identifying some of the great
patrons of Buddhism, from Shakyamuni's own patron, Sudatta
Anathapindika to the warlord king Ashoka. Without these patrons,
Buddhism would have had little chance to flourish. In every Khyentse
Foundation Communique, Rinpoche shares the life story of one of these
inspiring patrons.
When E. Gene Smith was
asked how he managed to single-handedly gather together a tremendous
amount
of the Tibetan literature that had been dispersed during and after the
events of 1959, he replied simply, "Karma, I guess." It's not that Gene
is at
a loss for words--he often tells amazing tales--but Gene Smith is
primarily focused on one subject only: Preserving Tibetan spiritual
literature in its entirety. In Gene's view, this literature can and
must be preserved and made available, at no charge, to anyone, anywhere
in the
world.
Karma may be the short answer to how Gene became the steward of this gargantuan effort, but the
colorful details of his journey make for quite a story.
In part because
students of lesser-known languages could avoid being drafted into the
U.S. Army,
Gene began studying Tibetan at the University of Washington in Seattle
in 1960. There he met his teacher, the Venerable Deshung Rinpoche, who
at the
time lived in Seattle with eight other lamas on a grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation. Gene became interested in understanding
Buddhism from a
scholar's perspective, but his teacher steered him toward practice. In
1964, at the age of 28, he finished the course work for his Ph.D. On
the
advice Deshung Rinpoche, he traveled to India to see what he could do
to help the Tibetans pick up the pieces of their shattered culture.
In
India,
he studied with Geshe Lobsang Lungtok, Drukpa Thuksay Rinpoche, Khenpo
Noryang, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He traveled extensively in Asia,
and in
1968 the U.S. Library of Congress hired him to work in its New Delhi
office. The U.S. government had started a food aid effort, called the
Public Law
480 Initiative, which encouraged developing countries to buy surplus
U.S. wheat and other agricultural products with local currencies. The
government
took the money it made on the wheat and put it back into cultural and
scientific programs to benefit those same countries. Talking about the
haphazard nature of these allocations at a recent benefit in his honor
at the Rubin Museum of Art, Gene remarked, "We could have used that
money for
anything--we could have bought lawnmowers if we wanted to."
Instead, Gene and his
colleagues used the funds to make copies of rare and important Tibetan
texts
that had been smuggled out of Tibet by exiles of all five lineages of
Tibetan Buddhism--texts that he had identified as valuable in his
travels in
Asia. These texts--wood-block prints and manuscripts--were faded and
crumbling. The copies were sent back to North America, to the United
States and
Canada, and installed in the libraries of over 20 universities,
including Harvard and the University of
Washington. These
and other texts were also made available to Tibetan monks. All told,
the PL 480 program acquired around 8,000 volumes. When more Buddhist
texts began
appearing in China after the revolution, Gene used his contacts to buy
those as well. Today he is known for having amassed the largest library
of
Tibetan books in the world.
For the Tibetans who had smuggled the
manuscripts out of Tibet, the fact that Gene paid Western prices for
the texts that
he bought for the Library of Congress made a big difference in their
lives. For the Tibetan publishers, the revenue of the sales went a long
way
toward covering the price of publishing more texts. In this way, Gene's
purchases were crucial for the publication of hundreds of works, thus
making
them available for Tibetan scholars, practitioners, and libraries at an
affordable price.
But it wasn't just the
priceless Tibetan canon that Gene sent back to the United States for
copying
and preserving (in many cases, only one copy of a text had
survived)--he also sent his notes. His commentaries put each manuscript
in historical,
religious, and cultural context for Western scholars struggling to
understand the Dharma. For many years, Gene's house in New Delhi was a
hub of
scholarly activity. His walls were lined with thousands of Tibetan
books. Hundreds of lamas, scholars, and practitioners visited him there
and
marveled at his ability to find an obscure book, hidden amid stacks of
texts, without hesitation.
Gene retired from the Library of Congress in 1997, and in December of 1999 he and a group of friends
founded the Tibetan Buddhist Resource
Center
(TBRC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the goal of digitizing every
text in his collection, now over
12,000 volumes. In an interview in 2002, he said about TBRC, "What
we're trying to do is make things as easy as possible for the scholars,
the
holders of the traditions, and the translators to gain access to the
texts. Right now, Tibetan studies is basically a matter of
serendipity."
Since 2002, TBRC has
moved into the offices of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, and
is now
working to expand its digital library of Tibetan texts, putting them on
portable hard drives and exporting them to monasteries in India, Tibet,
Nepal, and Bhutan. They're also building an encyclopedic database that
will provide a way to navigate TBRC's immense body of Tibetan
literature. And
they serve as a research center for Tibetan studies.
When Dzongsar Khyentse
Rinpoche introduced Gene at an early Khyentse Foundation meeting, he
emphatically stated that Gene is one of the most important Bodhisattvas
of our time. "He is such a great man," said Rinpoche. "With Gene's
digital
library, no future disaster, whether natural, political or economical,
will destroy these precious Buddhist texts again." At the
Buddhanature
teachings in Vancouver in the summer of 2007, the audience gave Gene a
spontaneous and lengthy standing ovation that filled the auditorium
with
thunderous appreciation for all of his work. Gene, as ever, smiled and
humbly accepted the thanks.
To read about other patrons of Buddhism, visit the Patron Kings page of the KF web site.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche invited Ponlop Rinpoche to be the
Chair of the Translators Conference at a meeting in Vancouver in August.
Words of the
Buddha
Khyentse
Foundation
Translators
Conference 2009
Dzongsar Khyentse
Rinpoche, Khyentse Foundation, and Deer Park Institute will host a
landmark translators conference, "Translating the Words of the
Buddha," at Deer Park, Bir, India, March 16 through 20, 2009. The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche will chair the conference. His
Holiness the XIV
Dalai
Lama, His Holiness Sakya Trizin, His Holiness Mindroling Trichen, His
Holiness the XVII Gyalwa Karmapa, Sogyal Rinpoche, Pema Wangyal
Rinpoche, and
Khyentse Jigme Rinpoche have all given their blessings to the gathering as honorary patrons, and other patrons are in the process of
confirming their
support.
Without the work of translators, western Dharma students would not be
able to practice and study the Dharma. Yet, despite the translators'
extraordinary contributions, many of the most important Buddhist texts,
including major teachings of the Buddha himself, have not yet been
translated. Also, translators frequently don't know what others are
doing; there is no agreement on the translation of key terms; and
communication
among leading translators is often minimal.
The main objectives of the conference, therefore, are:
- To provide a forum for a small group of about 40 leading Tibetan-English Dharma translators and
related groups to review present translation
efforts and to identify major challenges
- To discuss ways to improve communication among translators and to facilitate coordination and
collaboration, including creation of a translation
database
- To initiate actions that will ensure the highest standards of translation for the future, to
identify priority texts for translation, and to
distribute high-quality translations
To facilitate intensive discussion and movement toward concrete
actions, participation is on an invitational basis. Invitations are
being extended to
a small number of leading Tibetan-English translators from all
traditions (Kagyu, Gelug, Nyingma, and Sakya), from all areas
(academics,
practitioners, Buddhist scholars), and from roles that support the work
of translation (major publishers, patrons, and so on). The intention is
for
this group of invited participants to represent a critical mass of all
key players involved in Dharma translation from Tibetan to English. We
hope
that future gatherings will extend the dialog to many other
translators, including those translating texts into German, French,
Spanish, Portuguese,
and other languages, and from Chinese, Japanese, classical Indian, and
other languages.
Translation of Dharma texts is a high-priority area of Khyentse
Foundation's work. The Foundation is already supporting, on a small
scale, several
translation projects and groups in different parts of the world. The
coming conference is Rinpoche's initiative to encourage conversation
among major
translation groups. The Foundation's commitment extends past the time
of the actual conference and into the future, beginning (as finances
and
fundraising allow) with financial assistance in translating selected
high-priority texts, creating a translation database, and helping to
realize
other key conference outcomes.
In ways like this, your contributions to Khyentse Foundation are
helping to make the Dharma accessible to future generations of
practitioners for the
benefit of all beings. More information about the Translators
Conference will appear in future issues of the KF Communiqué.
photo: Alan Kozlowski
Perfect Partners
Cangioli Che on the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center and Khyentse Foundation
By Executive Director Cangioli Che
I visited Tibet and Dzongsar Monastery for the first time in 2001.
Dzongsar Monastery is the seat of my teacher, Dzongsar Khyentse
Rinpoche, and is
also the location of Dzongsar Khamje Shedra, which was founded by
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo the Great in the 1870s.Among the many sites
that we
visited, one of the most memorable was the remnant of the once-famous
Rimey--or pansectarian--library at Dzongsar Monastery, one of the many
major
libraries that were destroyed during the political turmoil of the
1960s. This library was famous for its comprehensive collection of rare
Buddhist
text, embracing all traditions, compiled under the supervision of its
founders, the great Buddhist master Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892)
and his
successor, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1894-1959).
We had a chance to speak with witnesses of the devastation, who
described how the library burned for seven days. Very few books
survived the
rampage.
Around the time that we undertook this journey, Khyentse Foundation was
conceived as a collaborative effort of Khyentse Rinpoche's students and
friends all over the world to support the study and practice of
Buddhism. The Foundation was formally incorporated in late 2001. As one
of the first
top priority projects, Rinpoche wanted Khyentse Foundation to undertake
the restoration of the library at Dzongsar Monastery.
It's relatively easy to rebuild a physical library building, but how do
you replenish the library? Where and how do you find the lost books
again?
Fortunately, we didn't have to look very far to find out what Gene
Smith had already accomplished. For more than 30 years he has been
collecting,
preserving, cataloging, and more recently digitizing much of the
surviving Tibetan canon.
Rinpoche visited Gene at his new Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center
(TBRC) office in New York during that period and saw what Gene was
accomplishing.
Rinpoche's reaction was immediate and his instructions to us were very
clear: "No need to do anything else (concerning the restoration of the
library
at Dzongsar), just support Gene's work, and help Gene complete what he
is doing as much as we can." And Khyentse Foundation has been doing
that ever
since.
The primary role that Khyentse Foundation has taken in Gene's work is
as a financial donor. We raise and disburse funds so that Gene can
complete the
scanning, outlining, and formatting of his entire collection of over
12,000 volumes of Tibetan literature. About 5,000 volumes have already
been
scanned, but much work remains to be done to complete a fully
functional, easily searchable, and user-friendly digital library that
is free for all to
use. All the planning, technology, know-how, and infrastructure are in
place. With sufficient funding, this digital library can be completed
in just 4
years.
When Gene's Digital Library is complete, the comprehensive Buddhist
archives can be easily reproduced by print-on-demand facilities at
Dzongsar and
other institutes, restoring the library for the benefit of students and
practitioners.
However, the significance of Gene's work is not only about preservation
and archiving books in a museumlike library. Just like Rinpoche, Gene's
concern and effort are directed toward making these books easily and
readily available, free of charge if possible, to everyone--Buddhist or
non-Buddhist, scholar or student, monastic or layperson, researcher or
translator--in fact, anyone who wants to use them. This is completely
in
synergy with Khyentse Foundation's mission in supporting the
preservation, translation, and distribution of Buddhist texts for the
benefit of all
beings.
In addition, with his encyclopedic knowledge of Buddhist studies, Gene
is a most valuable adviser to Khyentse Foundation. Gene was
instrumental in
the Foundation's selection of UC Berkeley as the recipient of our
Endowed Chair in Buddhist studies. He is also helping us tremendously
in
formulating the translators' conference in 2009, and is involved in
many other KF projects.
In accordance with Gene's statement that "The greatest Tibetan library
in the world had its beginning in Dzongsar Institute," the wheel will
have
turned full circle when Gene's digital library provides the source
material to restore the original library compiled by Jamyang Khyentse
Wangpo the
Great.
Preservation of Buddhist texts is a priority of Khyentse Foundation's
work. In addition to supporting TBRC, the Foundation also supports the
work of
Professor Peter Skilling's Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation in Thailand
and the Jonang Foundation. We are still raising funds to complete
Gene's
digital library.
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In This Issue
Special Focus:
Publications
Patrons of Buddhism IX:
Gene Smith
KF Institutes International Translators
Conference:
Bir, India, March, 2009
TBRC & KF:
Perfect Partners
KF Publication Grant Listing
The Cup:
Now Available on DVD
Original Texts
The Foundation has three original texts the
Introduction to the Middle Way: Chandrakirti's Madhyamakavatara
with Commentary by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, the Longchen Nyingtik
Practice Manual: Advice on How To Practice, and the newest addition to the collection, The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. These
publications are available free of charge 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.
KF Publication Fund Grants
The objective of Khyentse Foundation's Publications Fund is to make Buddhist texts,
ancient and contemporary, readily available to all those who wish to
study the Buddhadharma. The Foundation is establishing an endowmen to fund a
number of core publishing projects, while raising separate
project-based funds for other unique publication and translation
efforts. The list of recent grant recipients includes:
- Fragile Palm Leaves: for continued preservation projects.
- Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala: for Graduating Class Project. Tenzin
Northen and
his graduating class translated Thoughts on Education into Tibetan, printed 1000 copies and distributed them to
schools and colleges.
- Jonang Foundation: for the preservation and presentation of the living
tradition of Jonang in its indigenous context and to generate greater understanding of its prominence in 17th century Tibet.
- Rime Foundation: for the translation of The Gateway to the Great Perfection by Cortland
Dahl.
- Tibetan
Buddhist Resources Center: for continuation of preservation and distribution
activities.
- Tibetan Text Society: for the translation of
Jeffrey Hopkins book, Meditation on
Emptiness
into the Chinese language.
- Tucci Translation: for partial support Dr.
Guiseppe Vignoto's project to
translate
Giuseppe Tucci's seminal work on Tibetan Buddhism, Indo-Tibetica, into the Chinese language.
TBRC goes to Mongolia
Gene Smith and David Lunsford, TBRC board member and president of Bodhi
Foundation, recently visited Mongolia to meet with many representatives
of monasteries, universities, and related organizations to formalize
relationships and to explore areas of collaboration. They distributed
the TBRC search appliances and helped to set up various libraries with
TBRC's collection of scanned texts. Here are some photos for your
enjoyment.
The Cup Now on DVD
A portion of the
proceeds from sales will benefit KF
The Cup, the debut feature film by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (a.k.a. Khyentse Norbu), was
released on 13 November 2007 on
DVD
in North America by
Festival Media. The story of young monks in a Tibetan monastery in
exile obsessed with World Cup soccer is both an audience-pleasing
comedy and an
insider's look at the challenges for Buddhist traditions in the face of
modernizing changes.
This breakthrough film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and had a
successful theatrical run in over twenty countries. Roger Ebert of the
Chicago
Sun Times called it a "wonderful and delightful
comedy," and Jeffrey Wachs of Reel.com said it's "the best glimpse
of...Tibetan Buddhist culture
yet
to make it to the screen."
The DVD was mastered from a new direct-to-digital transfer from the
original film, and includes a bonus documentary entitled Inside The Cup,
featuring
the director discussing the film, cinema in general and Buddhist
philosophy, along with outtakes from the film. There is also a
director's
commentary audio track.
"We're delighted to be introducing new audiences to this extraordinary
director and his wonderful film," Festival Media executive director
Gaetano
Maida says. "Beginning with the US premiere of Travellers & Magicians
at our 2003 International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) in LA, we've
been
honored to help bring his work to audiences through our festivals
around the world and now through our DVD distribution service." A
portion of the
proceeds from sales of The Cup will benefit Khyentse Foundation.
Festival Media is the
distribution service of the nonprofit IBFF, and offers films on DVD
through
retailers around the country, including Amazon. Proceeds from sales of
its DVDs benefit IBFF, the filmmakers, and often through them, the
subjects of
the films.
Suggested retail price: US $29.95; 94 min.;
NTSC; Tibetan with English Subtitles.
MORE INFORMATION:
www.festivalmedia.org
OTHER NEWS
Benefits
Gallery Closing Down
a good time to place holiday orders
The Khyentse Foundation Benefits
Gallery is an online store from which all profits go to support the
Foundation's activities. Over the next few
months, the site will reduce its
inventory and shut down. Please visit the site to take
advantage of
discounted items before they are removed. Many thanks to all those who
donated items over the years and especially to volunteer Helen Jones
for
her hard work in managing the gallery and handling all of
the
orders.
Visit the Gallery
Some Sales Items:
Travellers & Magicians book
Was: $28, now $15
Hand-stitched purses
Were:$12 to $26, now $10 to $24
On the Path book
Was $40, now $15
PLEASE NOTE: The KF Communique will no longer be made available in print form.
Thank You For Reading!
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