Journey and Milestones
Background Information
Experience
Lowell Cook
Associate Translator
Lowell produces the initial translations of the sūtras, tantras, and other texts in the Kangyur.
Lowell has translated independently for 84000 since 2016, before formally joining as an associate translator in 2023. He has also contributed translations to Samye Translations, Lotsawa House, the Journal of Tibetan Literature, and other projects. Lowell completed his MA in Translation, Textual Interpretation, and Philology at Kathmandu University’s Centre for Buddhist Studies at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute, where he has also taught courses in Classical Tibetan literature and translation.
For Lowell, the so-called “literal” and “interpretive” approaches to translation are a false dichotomy. Lowell is rather an optimist who believes that one can represent the Buddha’s words faithfully and accurately by producing translations that read naturally and eloquently in English. In his own translation practice, Lowell often finds that, by avoiding a hyper-literal translation and mindfully allowing for a degree of distance from the source text, one in fact arrives closer to the heart of the text’s meaning. This is, perhaps, the paradox of translation.