December 2007

December 01, 2007
NOVEMBER COMMUNIQUE AVAILABLE
The best way to keep up to date with KF activities is to read the bi-monthly Communique. In This Issue: Special Focus on Publications. Also a new Patron of Buddhism article featuring Gene Smith.
If you missed the November Communiqué or any past Communiqués, please check that you are signed up on our mailing list. The Communiqué is Khyentse Foundation's monthly publication that keeps you updated on the latest news, Rinpoche's teaching schedule, new downloads and other important information. If you are on the mailing list but haven't received the Communique, please check your spam filters so that messages from any khyentsefoundation.org address are allowed through, especially if you have a Yahoo address. Access this and all past editions of the Communique on the Downloads Page. Click here to view the November issue online.

KF HOSTS LANDMARK TRANSLATORS CONFERENCE
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.

THE CUP FINALLY AVAILABLE ON DVD
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: Festival Media Web Site

PERFECT PARTNERS
Executive Director Cangioli Che describes her trip to the original Dzongsar Library in Tibet.

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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