Translator’s Path Takes Her From Nepali Village to Interpreter for Chӧkyi Nyima Rinpoche
Dr. Catherine Dalton was 18 years old in 1998 when she first traveled to Nepal to teach English to Nepali children in a remote Buddhist village and fulfilled a childhood wish to visit Asia. She became interested in Buddhism while spending time at the local monastery. Back in the U.S., in her last semester of college, she took a class in Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy. That class got her hooked.
“I changed my major from Latin American Studies to Buddhism, and then went back to Asia as a student. I studied in Nepal, India, and Tibet and that’s where I started learning Tibetan,” Catherine recalls. Catherine received an MA from Kathmandu University’s Centre for Buddhist Studies at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute (RYI) in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she served for more than a decade as an interpreter for monastic philosophy instructors and later for Chӧkyi Nyima Rinpoche. At the request of Rinpoche, she pursued a PhD and earned her doctorate in 2019 at UC Berkeley.
Teaching and Translating
Now she teaches and translates in several capacities—as an associate translator at 84000, an assistant research professor at RYI, and as Rinpoche’s interpreter during teachings and retreats around the world. She splits her time between Gomde California, a remote retreat center in the forested mountains off the Northern Californian coast, and RYI in Nepal, both part of the Shedrub Mandala of Chӧkyi Nyima Rinpoche.
As you listen to Catherine carefully and concisely relay Chӧkyi Nyima Rinpoche’s teachings, you might think she was born doing this work. But in fact, she never intentionally sought to become a translator. She was inspired to learn about the Buddhadharma and, in the process, sought to learn Tibetan to better understand and validate the teachings.
“I wanted to study Dharma, and interact directly with Tibetan teachers,” she said. “I didn’t really trust translators,” she admits with a laugh, quickly adding, “I do now.”
Interpreting for a Khenpo
Then one day in 2002, while still a very new student at RYI, she found herself interpreting for a khenpo who was teaching students in the West. “When someone asked a question in English, the khenpo responded in Tibetan and everyone looked at me. I happened to have understood him, so I had to interpret what he said.” Later, back at RYI, translators were needed to assist the khenpos teaching philosophy classes. She tried it out and realized she enjoyed doing both oral and written translation. She started translating Tibetan texts into English for Rinpoche’s Dharmachakra translation group and now works directly for 84000.
In 2009, Catherine was attending the historical meeting in Bir, India, convened by 84000 Founding Chair Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, which launched the project that later became known 84000. Chӧkyi Nyima Rinpoche gave a strong video address supporting the vision for 84000, and offered to lend his translators to the project to work on the tantras.
Catherine took this to heart and assisted Dr. Andreas Doctor, now the 84000 Editorial Director, on creating a prototype for a tantric translation. She later chose a topic related to Indian tantras for her doctoral thesis. While doing the thesis, she came to appreciate the philological and historical approaches to studying the Buddhist texts. “I find it intellectually stimulating and curious and fun,” she said.
At 84000, she has mostly concentrated on translating both tantras and dhāraṇī texts, which contain mantras and recipes for various rituals. Recalling one text that required identifying the ingredients of a recipe using flora and fauna of Tibet, she noted, “It can be difficult to determine the identity of specific terms and how to translate them. Often it’s a question of how far down the rabbit hole you should go.”
Goosebumps
Catherine feels goosebumps when she hears her teacher using the same, or very similar, words and phrases found in ancient Sanskrit or Tibetan texts circulated in the seventh, eighth, or ninth centuries. “There is something inspiring about looking at the Buddhist teachings in the time they appeared in history, and seeing they used the same methods of realizing the basic truth that we are taught today,” she said.
For her dissertation, Catherine was working on a text that was composed in the ninth century. She read a series of verses and felt a sense of déjà vu. “I realized the words were identical to those we recite in the Ocean of Amrita puja,” a nineteenth century extensive group sādhana practice based on the revealed treasures of Chokgyur Lingpa, Catherine said. “It was so amazing to directly experience the incredible continuity of the textual tradition in an unexpected way that also felt very personal, because of its connection with my own practice.
“Even if we don’t know exactly what language the Buddha spoke, we can have confidence about the validity of the texts.”
As an 84000 translator, Catherine feels grateful and personally fulfilled to be part of the project. “It allows me to spend my time relating to the Buddhist texts and gives other people the opportunity to connect with the Dharma,” she said.