84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, a global non-profit initiative to translate and preserve the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, is launching a video campaign to raise awareness around one of the world’s largest and oldest collections of writings: With 230,000 pages locked within the fading Classical Tibetan language, the world is on the brink of losing access to a priceless archive of wisdom. This launch marks 84000’s 10th anniversary.
In 2009, a conference of the world’s leading Tibetan Buddhist teachers, translators, and academics concluded that less than 5% of the Canon had ever been translated into a language spoken today. That 5% of writings has already offered the modern world much insight into the mind, human psychology, relationships, and ethics.
Since its founding, 84000 has awarded over US$6 million in grants to translation teams around the world–from UCSB, Oxford, the University of Vienna, through to Rangjung Yeshe Institute (Nepal)–who work to decipher the Tibetan Buddhist Canon.
“The number of scholars who are both proficient in Classical Tibetan and trained to interpret this profound philosophy, is fast-fading,” explains Huang Jing-Rui, 84000’s executive director. “If we don’t act now, imagine how much wisdom might be lost forever, locked within this ancient language.”
In just ten years, 84000 has translated over 30% of the sūtras. It has the endorsement of all four major sects of Tibetan Buddhism, and continues to work with the support of some of the most learned, living teachers of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
This historic initiative makes freely available for the first time, primary-source material in English that is proving invaluable for international scholarship on Buddhist history, philosophy, and insight into the development and transfer of cultures across Asia. And 84000 continually integrates new technologies with its digital library giving its readers access to multi-language glossaries, and source-text, bilingual reading ability. The translated Tibetan Buddhist Canon is made available freely to the public to enjoy.
Video: https://84000.co/2020video
Directed by: Queena Li
Produced by: Blacksugar
Voiceover by: Joanna Lumley (English), Leah Dou (Chinese)
Website: 84000.co
