DONATE
  • join our email list   

Additional information

FPMT Education News

FPMT Translation Work

Details
Published on January 20, 2011

As the Dharma takes root in the West, clear translations of Buddhist texts, prayers, and teachings are crucial. FPMT works with translators around the world to translate Tibetan texts into English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, and many other languages.

English Translations

In May 2011, FPMT hosted its first international translation conference, Taking up The Challenge of Translating Buddhism, at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy. Please see the complete and summarized conference reports below:

Current FPMT translation projects in English

Other Language Translations

Sponsoring translations of Dharma texts is an incredible way to accumulate the positive energy of merit. If you would like to help fund translation work, please see our FPMT Translation Fund. Thank you for your support!

Some of Our Translators

Our translators live in every part of the world and bring extensive Dharma and language education to their work as translators.

Conni Krause is director of FPMT's translation office in Germany. She participated in the seven-year Systematic Study of Buddhism program under Geshe Thubten Ngawang in Hamburg from 1990 to 1997. She is also a graduate of FPMT’s Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program (LRZTP) in Dharamsala, and served as an interpreter for Geshe Thubten Soepa at Aryatara Institute in Munich. She has recently translated Je Tsongkhapa's Middling Lam-Rim from the original Tibetan into German, and is currently making available Discovering Buddhism and the Basic Program texts as well as the FPMT Essential Buddhist Prayer Books in German.

 

Ven. Fedor Stracke has been a Buddhist monk since 1988 and spent over fifteen years studying at Sera Je Monastic University and attending public teachings given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since 1996, Ven. Fedor has been teaching in FPMT centers and has served as Tibetan interpreter for various geshes. He currently teaches the Basic Program at Kopan Monastery in Nepal and at Aryatara Institute in Munich, Germany. He has translated the Commentary to 'Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds' (Spyod ’jug tikka) by Gyaltsab Je, a  standard Basic Program text, and Losang Chökyi Gyältsen’s Wisdom Debating Ignorance (Gshaga ‘debs), from Tibetan into English. For the Basic Program in Munich Ven. Fedor has translated various Basic Program texts into German.

 

John Newman was introduced to Buddhadharma by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan, Nepal in 1973.  He subsequently studied under Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche at Deer Park Buddhist Center and at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, in Wisconsin, USA.  In 1987 he received a PhD in Buddhist Studies, and he currently teaches Asian religions at New College of Florida in Sarasota, Florida, USA.  He continues to study under Geshe Lundub Sopa Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and his research focuses on Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, especially Madhyamaka and Vajrayana.

 

Philip Quarcoo was born in Freiburg, Germany. He studied Modern European Languages at the University of Durham in Britain. He participated in Geshe Tashi Tsering’s two -year course Foundation of Buddhist Thought, at Jamyang Buddhist Center in London and later attended classes with Geshe Thubten Soepa at FPMT’s Aryatara Institute. Philip graduated with an M.A. in Tibetan studies from the University of Munich in 2007 and then lived in Mongolia teaching English at FPMT’s Shedrup Ling Centre in Ulaanbaatar. He has translated three short booklets on vegetarianism by Geshe Thubten Soepa, as well as texts by the 19th Century Mongolian scholar Agvaanbaldan. He recently translated Je Tsongkhapa’s Middling Lam-Rim from Tibetan into English for FPMT’s Basic Program, in cooperation with Conni Krause.

 

Ven. Tenzin Namdak, born in 1970 in The Netherlands, met the Dharma in January 1993. After his graduation (B.Sc. in Hydrology) he lived for one year at Maitreya Institute in The Netherlands where he mainly received Lam Rim teachings from Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen. On the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche he moved to Dharamsala, India, in the end of 1994 to learn Tibetan language and to take Getsul (March 1995) and Gelong ordination (March 1996) from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In April 1997 he entered the Geshe Study Program of Sera Jey Monastery in South India and has completed the thirteenth year of this program, the third year of Madhyamika. He is director of Shedrup Sungdrel Ling, Sera IMI House, a house for western monks studying at Sera and he also teaches and translates for visiting Lamas at Choe Khor Sum Ling, Bangalore. 

 

Toh Sze Gee holds a BSc with honors in mathematics as well as a postgraduate diploma in education. After teaching in a junior college in Singapore for several years, in 1998 she joined the seven-year residential Masters Program at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, from which she graduated with high honours. Since then she has been teaching regular Dharma courses in Singapore, as well as translating texts from Tibetan into English for the FPMT Basic Program and Masters Program. Sze Gee was well known among the her fellow Masters Program students for her incredible energy both for study and Dharma practice. True to form, she accepted and served not only as TA for Ornament for Clear Realizations during ILTK's Masters Program 2008 but also as Tibetan-English interpreter, and during that time completed translating Gyaltsab Je's commentary, including the Haribhadra commentary and root verses, from Tibetan into English. Sze Gee has since acted as interpreter for Geshe Ngawang Drakpa at FPMT's Tse Chen Ling Center, California, and has accepted to come to Nalanda Monastery in France to serve as Teaching Assistant for their Masters Program starting September 2013.

 

back to top ^