Studying Tibetan at Esukhia and Kangyur input project

Several years ago while staying in Bir, India, I was present at weekly gatherings in garden café, near Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche’s place, with a local bunch of westerners attending Tibetan shedra’s. Both Sherab Ling and Dzongsar Shedra had their holiday on Thursdays, so each Thursday we would gather and discuss the intricacies of learning Tibetan, living with Tibetans, studying at shedra’s, the buddha’s teachings and all other meaningful and less meaningful topics of discussion, while enjoying loads of chai and delicious meals. During this time I witnessed the birth of a new school for learning Tibetan, later to be called Esukhia. The need for a proper Tibetan translation school was felt, and with some initial funding the school was started. Now, a few years later, the school has grown substantially, employing almost a hundred people, mostly Tibetans, and involved in a variety of projects. Here I want to shed some light on two of them. Regarding their Tibetan program Esukhia has three main departments. One is online tutoring classes, one is the full or half-day immersion, and one is the freshly started translator training. 

Two teachers and two students

Some ideas on how one can learn Tibetan

But before we get into the details of Esukhia’s programs, let us first make a a few notes on the theory of learning Tibetan. Esukhia’s founder, Ngawang Trinley, explains Tibetan grammar actually only takes a few months to learn. This is in sharp contract with India’s classical language Sanskrit. According to one of the world’s leading Sanskritist Tom Tillemans, it takes at least 5 or 6 years to learn Sanskrit grammar properly. So we have these two very different languages, which nonetheless where both perfectly able to convey the words of the Buddha, in the collection of Sutra’s and Tantra’s, what is now called in Tibetan the Kangyur. The meaning they can express is similar. So there is a huge gap here, isn’t it? It is not the case that one language only takes a few months to learn and another years and years. So then the linguists where questioned. How can we learn a language with so little grammar? Well, they said, each language is indeed similarly complex, but some are very much dependent on grammar, and others, like Tibetan and in particular Chinese, are not or much less so. So then how can we still understand the same complexity in a language which has so little grammar? How can we learn to read such a language properly? Well, the linguists say, you should learn to speak and think in that language, and then you will understand.

Now if we take this understanding regarding Tibetan to the present day situation, we can see the problem when relying mostly on dictionaries while translating Tibetan –Buddhist- texts. If you don’t really speak the language, or think in the language, and if you need to look up many words while reading and try to figure out what is being meant by relying on grammar, there is a large chance you miss some meaning, which is not conveyed by each word on its own, but by the whole sentence taken together. No need to speak of subtle links between different paragraphs. While for Sanskrit the approach of relying on grammar seems to be justified, we need to take a different approach regarding the Tibetan language. We need to actually speak, write and live the language in order to master it and be able to translate it. Many present day teachers seem to agree with this. For example, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche has made sarcastic remarks about the present day ‘dictionary translators’, in contrast with the learned and realized Lotsawa’s of the past. Also Orgyan Tobgyal Ripoche has remarked, that he does not trust translators who ‘speak Tibetan like a five year old child’.

Studying Tibetan at Esukhia

Of course there is much more to say, but keeping this in mind we can now perhaps appreciate Esukhia’s approach to learning Tibetan. Just studying a grammar book and some vocabulary does not suffice, and students at esukhia are truly being ‘immersed’ in the language, from morning till evening. One thing to mention is that currently one of the main aims of Esuhkia is to develop a teaching method, following the European standards of language acquisition, with levels like A1, A2, B1 and so on. I’ve never seen such a radical approach of learning Tibetan before, relying on the western knowledge of language acquisition for studying this language, which in it’s huge literary collection holds so many useful truths which can truly enlighten the people of present day.

Thus, for those aimed at mastering the spoken language, there is the immersion program. With  seven hours a day of talking Tibetan, no doubt students learn quickly.

Immersion school

That is, if they survive, because it’s not easy! Unlike any most other Tibetan learning books, following the manual students go mainly through modern day life situations with their teachers.

Textbook section on love

They have one teacher for two hours, and after a tea break another 1,5 hours with another teacher. Then the students and teachers eat lunch together. After lunch there are another two sessions, three hours in total. The approach is Tibetan only; there is a notice hanging on the door, that those who speak English will have to pay a fine!

Students and teachers eating together

Recently also a translator training program has started. Currently their schedule looks something like this. First students will have class on a particular text, which is currently the Pema Katang, the life story of Padmasambhava. There are plans to study Jamgon Kongtrul’s Treasury of knowledge in the future. Afterwards students have a one on one talk with one of the tutors, who are also following the class, and discuss what has just been taught to them. Then there is some class on the collected topics, or dudra in Tibetan, followed by debate.

Translation training classroom

After lunch there is another teaching, like the 37 practices of a Bodhisattva or the Jewel Ornament of Liberation  from Gampopa. Afterwards again the text is discussed with a language partner, and then finally at the end of the day there is one tutor session focusing more on colloquial.

Students studying outside

The kangyur project

Kangyur input and comparison department

Another project of Esukhia is the Kangyur project. The Kangyur, the words of the Buddha, have already been typed in by a group led by Alak Zenkar Rinpoche some years ago in China, where a critical edition had been made by comparing several Kangyur versions. This edition is called the Kangyur dedur. However, besides noting the differences in the different editions, decisions had not been made on which spelling is the correct one.

Discussing kangyur input

To arrive at a faultless edition of the Kangyur, the Dalai Lama has recommended three steps. During the first stage the obviously wrong grammar (which if corrected would not change the meaning), will be corrected. For this phase mainly the Esukhia team will take responsibility. For the second phase, we need to start looking at slightly more difficult issues, namely those issues concerning mistakes where if one would change the grammar, it would also change the meaning. Now in order to correct these mistakes, the Tibetan text will be compared to its Sanskrit source. This will most likely be done by Sanskrit experts from the Central University Tibetan studies at Varanasi. Finally, a team of scholars from each different Tibetan Buddhist school, Nyingma, Geluk, and so on, will look at the discrepancies and decide what they think should  be the correct spelling. This will probably be done by the teams of Lobsang Monlam, the creator of the famous Tibetan dictionary Monlam Bodyig. He already has specialist teams for each school, for example for the Nyingma this would be Khenpo Pema Sherab and khenpo’s from Namdroling Monastery in south India.

Kangyur project planning

Why is this necessary? Now, when translators want to translate one page of kangyur there are about 25 discrepancies. Thus presently the translator has to decide what is the correct spelling and meaning. Of course, it’s much better if native speakers do this work. Translating being difficult enough, then at least the translator has a correct text to work with.