Never before have so many of the Buddha’s words been available in English
New York, NY (June 13, 2022) —On the auspicious day of Saga Dawa Düchen—commemorating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and Parinirvāṇa—84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha announces that 25 percent of the 70,000 page Tibetan Kangyur has now been published in English translation and made freely available to the world. This significant milestone in 84000’s one-hundred-year project has been reached along with the publication of a translation of one the longest sūtras in the Tibetan Buddhist canon, The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines.
The Kangyur is the principal collection of the Buddhist scriptures in Tibetan. It contains some 900 works in over 100 volumes, all translations into Tibetan of the Indian texts considered to record the words of the Buddha (while its sister collection, the Tengyur, contains translations of the treatises composed by the great Indian Buddhist masters and scholars).
“At 84000, we are constantly excited and humbled to be working on a project of such magnitude, and particularly one that has drawn expressions of support from all the major schools of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition,” shares Huang Jing Rui, Executive Director, 84000. “Our generation of translators, teachers, editors, administrators, patrons, readers, and supporters will go down in history as having secured priceless access for future generations to the source texts of the Buddhadharma, and ensured that the legacy of the Buddha can continue touching and transforming beings around the world.”
In 2009, more than fifty of the world’s leading Tibetan Buddhist teachers, translators, academics, and patrons gathered to discuss the Tibetan Buddhist canon—the Kangyur and Tengyur—and realized that 95% of the canon still only existed in Classical Tibetan, impeding direct access for millions of people to over 230,000 pages of source texts, and inhibiting the study and exploration of the words of the Buddha. Recognizing that future engagement with this collection—the root from which all Himalayan Buddhist traditions originate—was in danger, 84000 was born with the mandate to make one of the world’s largest archives of wisdom freely and easily accessible to this generation and the next.
Founded in 2010, 84000’s goal is to translate and publish the entire Kangyur in English by the year 2035, and to translate and publish the additional 161,800 pages of the Tengyur by the year 2110.
Currently, the nonprofit organization reports that an additional 13 percent of the Kangyur is already translated and awaiting publication, while a further 24 percent of the Kangyur is currently in translation. However, the vision and work of 84000 does not stop there.
“Today, 84000 goes above and beyond simply making canonical texts freely available in English. We work to innovate the ways in which we present this collection, providing interactive tools and intertextual linkages to deepen understanding of its wisdom for everyone,” explains Huang Jing Rui. “84000’s work is really to ensure that as Buddhism spreads, as intermediaries and interpretations multiply, future generations are empowered with direct access to the Buddha’s wisdom for their own consultative study and practice.”