Translation and Transmission
This panel synthesizes many earlier discussions about the connections between the processes of translation and transmission. Wulstan Fletcher acknowledges the bifurcation of “scholar” and “practitioner” and the basic assumptions associated with each label. Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo explores the limits of tolerance and the translator’s responsibility in terms of social justice issues. Donald Lopez speaks of the importance of all types of Tibetan texts when seeking historical context, and Jules Levinson discusses the point at which translators find themselves poised to develop literature and poetry for the sake of creative process.
Event: TT Conference 2014 – Plenary Session
Date: October 5, 2014 – 9:00 am
Speakers: Donald Lopez Jr., Jules Levinson, Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Wulstan Fletcher
Topics: Translation, Transmission
Karma Lekshe Tsomo
University of California, San Diego
Karma Lekshe Tsomo is a professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. She received novice precepts from the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa in France in 1977 and full ordination in Korea in 1982. She studied Buddhism in Dharamsala for fifteen years and received a doctorate in Comparative Asian Philosophy from the University of Hawai`i in 2000. She is a founder and past president of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women (www.sakyadhita.org) and director of Jamyang Foundation (www.jamyang.org), an innovative education project for women in developing countries. She has edited a number of books on women in Buddhism.
Wulstan Fletcher
Padmakara Translation Group; Tsadra Foundation Fellow
Wulstan Fletcher studied modern languages and theology in Oxford and Rome. He completed a three year meditation retreat in Chanteloube, France 1986-1989 and is a member of the Padmakara Translation Group. He has been a Tsadra Fellow since 2001. Wulstan has completed several Tibetan-English translation projects in collaboration with Helena Blankleder, including The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham’s Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva (2017), Treasury of Precious Qualities (Book 1, 2010; Book 2, 2013), The Root Stanzas of the Middle Way (2008), The Way of the Bodhisattva (revised 2006), The Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech (2007), White Lotus (2007), Introduction to the Middle Way (2005), The Adornment of the Middle Way (2005), Food of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist Teachings on Abstaining from Meat (2004), and Counsels from My Heart (2003). Wulstan is currently working on Longchenpa’s sems nyid ngal gso and Mipham’s brgal lan nyin byed snang ba.
Donald Lopez, Jr.
University of Michigan
Donald Lopez is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, where he is chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000. His most recent translation, with Thupten Jinpa, is Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler (the Gtam rgyud gser gyi thang ma of A mdo Dge ’dun chos ’phel). Forthcoming translations include Ippolito Desideri’s refutation of rebirth and emptiness (also with Thupten Jinpa), and the grub mtha’ of Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje.
Jules Levinson
UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies
Jules B. Levinson graduated from Princeton University in 1975 and soon thereafter began studying at the University of Virginia under the guidance of Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins and the eminent Tibetan scholars invited by the University’s Center for South Asian Studies. He received a doctoral degree in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia in 1994. At present he lives and works in Boulder, Colorado.
