Great Accomplishments: Tibetan Translations in 2013

2013

It has been an active year for the publication of translations. Here are some highlights from the year:
(please do add a comment if you feel something is missing)

The Light of Wisdom series from Rangjung Yeshe Publications will be complete this year with the publication of both the Great Accomplishment: Teachings on the Drubchen Ceremony (vol. 3) and Light of Wisdom: The Conclusion (vol. 5). This series is the translation of three connected texts: 1) the root text is a Padmasambhava terma, as recorded by Yeshe Tsogyal in the 8th or 9th century, and revealed by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Chogyur  Lingpa in the 19th century as the Lamrin Yeshe Nyingpo (ལམ་རིམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྙིང་པོ་). 2) the main commentary is Jamgön Kongtrül Lodro Thaye’s (1813-1900) the Light of Wisdom, “Yeshe Nangwa” (ལམ་རིམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྙིང་པོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བ་རབ་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ།, TBRC Text). 3) the third text is Entering the Path of Wisdom, Yeshe Lam Juk (ཡེ་ཤེས་ལམ་འཇུག), a set of annotations and notes from Jamgön Kongtrül’s student, Jamyang Drakpa, as recorded by Jokyab Rinpoche (1903-1960). Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in turn received these teachings directly from Jokyab Rinpoche and his explanations are also included throughout the series. The first volume of the series was translated in 1993 and the final will be released on November 12th, 2013. The translation has been completed by Erik Pema Kunsang (Erik Hein Schmidt) with help from Gyurme Avertin and editing done by Marcia Schmidt and Michael Tweed.

Adam Pearcey and the Lotsawa House team continue to do their great work online: http://www.lotsawahouse.org

Wisdom Publications

Keith Dowman’s Eye of the Storm has been republished in a new edition by Wisdom Publications as Original Perfection: Vairotsana’s Five Early Transmissions. These are translations of 1) Rig pa’i khu byug: The Cuckoo’s Song of Gnosis 2) Rtsal chen sprugs pa: Radical Creativity 3) Khyung chen lding ba: Great Garuda in Flight 4) Rdo la gser zhun: Pure Golden Ore and 5) Mi nub pa’i rgyal mtshan: Nam mkha’ che: The Eternal Victory Banner: The Vast Space of Vajrasattva.

Cyrus Stearns published a translation of Tshar chen blo gsal rgya mtsho’s (1502-1566) Celebration of the Cuckoo (རྟོགས་བརྗོད་ལམ་གླུ་དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མོའི་དགའ་སྟོན།, rtogs brjod lam glu dpyid kyi rgyal mo’i dga’ ston) as Song of the Road: The Poetic Travel Journal of Tsarchen Losal Gyatso with Wisdom Publications and Tsadra Foundation.

Mark Siderits and Shōryū Katsura published Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way.

In 2013 Wisdom also published Yael Bentor’s A Classical Tibetan Reader.

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UMA Institute

Jeffrey Hopkins’ team at the UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies have been hard at work at a set of translations, many of which are available online here. Recent publications that are available now include:

Principles for Practice: Jam-yang-shay-pa on the Four Reliances with Ngag-wang-pal-dan’s Annotations, 120 pages, translated by William Magee.

The Hidden Teaching of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras: Jam-yang-shay-pa’s Seventy Topics and Kon-chog-jig-may-wang-po’s Supplement, 750 pages,  translated by Jeffrey Hopkins and Jongbok Yi, and edited by Elizabeth Napper.

Shambhala Publications

The Epic of Gesar of Ling was translated by Robin Kornman, Lama Chonam, and Sangye Khandro and published in a beautiful edition by Shambhala Publications (680 pages, 9781590308424)

This year, Snow Lion, now an imprint of Shambhala Publications, printed several previously published works along with new translations. Heidi Köppl’s Establishing Appearances as

Divine and Glen Mullin’s From the Heart of Chenrezig: The Dalai Lamas on Tantra are both worth mentioning here. As you can see below, they also generously published a number of books in the Tsadra Foundation Series.

Also in 2013, Judy Lief’s three volumes of Trungpa teachings titled The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma was published in a beautiful set by Shambhala Publications.

Dharmachakra Translation Committee completed Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Intrinsic Nature Maitreya’s Dharmadharmatāvibhaṅga (ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ།, chos dang chos nyid rnam par ‘byed pa, TBRC Text) with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga (TBRC Text) and Ju Mipham (TBRC Text).

Wulstan Fletcher and Helena Blankeleder of the Padmakara Translation Group have finished the second and concluding volume of the Treasury of Precious Qualities, translated from Jigme Lingpa’s Tibetan text the Yönten Dzö (ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད།, TBRC Text) with Kangyur Rinpoche’s commentary.

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Columbia University Press

Andrew Quintman’s The Yogin & the Madman: Reading the Biographical Corpus of Tibet’s Great Saint Milarepa in the South Asia Across Disciplines series from Columbia University Press. Although not primarily a translation, this is worth mentioning here and includes translations with Tibetan transcription in the appendices.

Special mention should be made of the Sources of Tibetan Tradition, from Columbia University Press, edited by Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Matthew T. Kapstein, and Gray Tuttle. This text will certainly become an essential resource for students of the Tibetan traditions. Mr. Schaeffer and Mr. Tuttle have been particularly busy, as they also published A Tibetan History Reader, which “reproduces essential, hard-to-find essays from the past fifty years of Tibetan studies, along with several new contributions.”

And in other news for 2013, Christian Wedemeyer’s Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology, and Transgression in the Indian Traditions received the 2013 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion (Historical Studies).

Speaking of Columbia, Bob Thurman and Tom Yarnall’s team at AIBS have been busy with several new publications:

AIBS

Tom Yarnall’s translation of chapters 11 and 12 of Tsong Khapa’s སྔགས་རིམ་ཆེན་མོ། (sngags rim chen mo) is now available as Great Treatise on the Stages of Mantra, which was published as a part of the rjey yab sras gsung ‘bum series, which is a sub-series of the Treasury of Buddhist Sciences series from the American Institute of Buddhist Studies.

As a follow up to his 2007 publication of The Cakrasamvara Tantra, David Gray published editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts in the Treasury of Buddhist Sciences series from the American Institute of Buddhist Studies. The volume “includes an introductory essay on the textual history of the Cakrasamvara Tantra, a critical edition of the Sanskrit text, based upon available manuscripts, commentaries, and intertexts in the Buddhist explanatory tantras; a critical edition of the standard Prajñākīrti-Mardo revised Tibetan translation, based upon seven print redactions; a diplomatic edition of the Sumatikīrti-Malgyo revised translation, as preserved in the Phug-brag manuscript Kangyur; and an edition of the extracanonical Sumatikīrti-Mardo translation, based upon two surviving prints.”

Paul Hackett’s A Catalogue of the Comparative Kangyur (bka’ ‘gyur dpe bsdur ma) was published in the AIBS series as well, with the second title on the Tengyur coming soon.

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Karl Brunnhölzl, who appears to be constantly finishing translations, had Mining for Wisdom Within Delusion come out in January from Snow Lion/Shambhala Publications. Along with the text attributed to Maitreya and Asanga, the Dharmadharmatāvibhaṅga, this publication includes Vasubandhu’s Dharmadharmatāvibhaṅgavṛtti, Ranjung Dorje’s commentary ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པའི་རྒྱན། (chos dang chos nyid rnam par ‘byed pa’i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa’i rgyan, TBRC Text), and Gö Lotsāwa’s commentary ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང། (theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma’i bstan bcos kyi ‘grel bshad de kho na nyid rab tu gsal ba’i me long, TBRC Text), as well as excerpts from all other available commentaries on Maitreya’s text.

A new version of bu ston rin chen grub’s (1290-1364) བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་བསྟན་པའི་གསལ་བྱེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འབྱུང་གནས་གསུང་རབ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད། (bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ‘byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i mdzod, TBRC Text) was translated by Lisa Stein and Ngawang Zangpo (Hugh Thompson) as Butön’s History of Buddhism in India and Its Spread to Tibet with Snow Lion/Shambhala Publications in the Tsadra Foundation Series.