Resources for Translators
Discover essential resources for Buddhist translation work: translation guidelines, ready-to-use templates designed to streamline and support your translation efforts, and a comprehensive glossary and translation memory. Start enhancing your translations today.
Translator Guidelines
Our 84000 guidelines for translators are updated regularly, and the latest version is always posted on this section.
84000 Guidelines for Translators
84000’s main effort is directed to commissioning and publishing new translations, made according to defined guidelines and subjected to an appropriate review process.
84000 Guidelines for Translators—Checklist
Before submitting your work to 84000, please review this checklist as a quick reference to specific sections and to confirm that you have met its primary technical requirements.
Text Critical Guidelines for Translators
The ongoing practices of writing, copying, editing, commenting upon, translating, and printing Buddhist scriptures—differently at different times and locations—has resulted in tremendous local variation. Consult our text critical guidelines for translators.
Templates for Translators
Our 84000 guidelines for translators are updated regularly, and the latest version is always posted on this section.
Template for introductions to shorter texts
Guidelines for writing content summaries, and explanations of any special terms or concepts that appear in the text.
Bibliography styles
Frequently used entries in Chicago style for citing sources.
Glossary template
Template for including glossaries in translations.
Tools for Specialists
The following tools allow scholars to research terminology and translation choices.
Glossary Search
Explore the 84000 glossary search combining entries from the entire 84000 collection. The trilingual glossary, in English, Tibetan, and Sanskrit combines entries from all our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.
Translation Memory Search
Search our Translation Memory files to find translations aligned with the Tibetan source. You can use quotation marks, e.g., “realm of phenomena,” to search for complete phrases rather than individual words.
Translation Grants
Since 2011, 84000 has been awarding grants to translation teams around the world, allowing translators and scholars to work on this canonical literature full-time and help make our vision a reality.
Our grants catalyze the work of translators and scholars, so that together we can help to keep traditional Buddhist scholarship and practice alive.
We are currently looking for experienced translators with specialized knowledge to translate texts from the Tantra and Dhāraṇī sections of the Kangyur.