Workshops and Meetings

At the request of translators and scholars in the field of Tibetan Buddhist studies, Tsadra Foundation has initiated a series of workshops and meetings focused on Tibetan Buddhist topics and texts. The purpose of these meetings is to support advancement in textual translation practices, professional skill development, as well as increasing the availability of opportunities for the combined study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism.

Lotsawa Translation Workshops

2022 Lotsawa Translation Workshop at the Northwestern University

The second Lotsawa Translation Workshop was titled “Celebrating Buddhist Women’s Voices in the Tibetan Tradition,” and was held at Northwestern University from October 13th through 16th, 2022. The organizers of this event were Sarah Jacoby (Northwestern), Padma ‘Tsho (Southwest Minzu University), Holly Gayley (CU Boulder), Dominique Townsend (Bard), and Joshua Shelton (Northwestern). Learn more and listen or watch the presentations on the conference website.

2018 Lotsawa Translation Workshop at the University of Colorado, Boulder

The Lotsawa Translation Workshop, held at the University of Colorado Boulder on October 5-8, 2018, created an opportunity to nurture a community of practice around the translation of Tibetan Buddhist texts. The thematic focus of the workshop was “Tibetan songs (mgur) and affect in a Buddhist devotional framework”. Learn more at the workshop website.

Religion and the Literary in Tibet

In 2013 Tsadra Foundation collaborated with the University of Colorado to facilitate a translation conference with the Center for Asian Studies. The “Translating Buddhist Luminaries Conference” saw young scholars and experienced translators meeting together and workshopping translations of 19th century Tibetan texts that were published in a collection dedicated to Gene Smith: A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rimé Masters of Tibet (Wisdom Publications, 2017).

In 2015 Tsadra Foundation supported the work of the AAR group Religion and the Literary in Tibet by funding a workshop at the University of California, Berkeley, organized by Jacob Dalton, Kurtis Schaeffer, Andy Quintman, and Janet Gyatso. This workshop was the culmination of a five-year series of meetings held with leading scholar-translators in the field. A published volume of essays is expected in 2018/19, containing the blueprints for more nuanced literary understandings of Tibetan writings.

In 2017 Kurtis Schaeffer and Andy Quitman continued their work on literature by organizing the Kavya Workshop at the Latse Library in New York, with a follow-up “translator’s craft” session at the 2017 Translation & Transmission Conference. The Religion and the Literary in Tibetan has now become an ongoing seminar and further detailed information can be found here: http://tibetanlit.org/

Salon Tibétain

Students, teachers, professors, and Tibetan translators from the Boulder-Denver area regularly meet at the Tsadra Research Center in Boulder to share ideas and discuss their work. If you wish to attend an event in Boulder, please ask to be added to the email list at research@tsadra.org.

Immersive Workshops at Shambhala Publications in Boulder

Tsadra Foundation was delighted when Shambhala Publications moved its headquarters to Boulder, Colorado. This allowed us to deepen our relationship and opened the door to such collaborations as hosting weekend events for unique dharma study opportunities with distinguished translators. Recordings of these events are available online.

Another example of the creative collaborations with Shambhala Publications, these workshops allow unprecedented access to special translators and teachers for people to experience live as well as online.