This year, Khyentse Vision Project (KVP) team members attended and participated in the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS) with the support of Khyentse Foundation. IATS, the single largest conference on Tibetan Buddhism, was held in the center of Prague, July 3–9. The event was held at Charles University, one of the oldest universities in the world for Tibetan Studies.
IATS was attended by prominent researchers, professors, Himalayan monastic scholars, and translators from institutions across Asia, Europe, and North America. This conference provided an important opportunity to connect with the best minds in the field on new research and advances in Tibetan translation methods and Buddhist studies.
During the conference, scholars and translators from the KVP team were able to showcase their own research and introduce the Khyentse Vision Project to colleagues. KVP also connected with key organizations including 84000, Lotsawa House, Tsadra Foundation, Treasury of Lives, BDRC, and BuddhaNexus, and met with several younger translators interested in the works of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Through their participation at IATS, KVP brought significant attention to the life, writings, and legacy of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and the Khyentse lineage for academic researchers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism.
Presentations
Philippe Turenne, KVP’s translations director, and Casey Kemp, KVP’s editorial director, gave a plenary session presentation to attending members of IATS. This talk was given on the first evening of the conference and covered the project’s scope, details of the collections, and KVP’s methods and principles for translation and editing. Toward the end of the presentation, the KVP reading room prototype was presented, providing an early glimpse of the interactive platform features, planned to be launched in early 2023.
Several members of KVP’s translation and editorial teams also presented papers on their own research, including Zack Beer, Dr. Berthe Jansen, Lopon Sonam Jamtsho, Dr. Renee Ford, Dr. Albion Butters, and Casey Kemp.
KVP Team Face-to-Face
The conference provided a rare and wonderful opportunity for many of the KVP team to meet together in person for the first time. During the conference, the team had several productive working sessions together to focus on strategy, readership, and translation methods.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Applications for our 2023-2024 Training and Internship Program opened on August 1. Our two-year program targets the specialist skills needed to expertly translate the range of material found in the Khyentse Wangpo collections. Applicants need to have already completed a minimum of three years of classical Tibetan language study and have a keen interest in translating the works of Khyentse Wangpo. If you are interested in applying, or to find out more, click here.
- Some of our translators and editors will be attending the upcoming transmissions from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in Bir of the Drubtab Kundu collection. Since over 200 texts in the collection are by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, this will be an important opportunity for the relevant team members to receive the necessary transmissions to translate these texts for Khyentse Vision Project.
- Stay tuned for our second Verse to Music session soon!