Oddities and Curiosities in Tibetan Translation
“What is an oddity,” you ask? How odd of you to ask! We all know what oddities are when we see them. It may be a subjective response, but it’s there all the same. The odd thing seems out of place, it sits there glaring out at you without an obvious explanation. Every problem has its solution, or so it’s sometimes said, but that doesn’t mean they always will be solved.
The co-organizers take turns presenting oddities from among their personal favorites. The range of possible oddities, which seems beyond all limit, were narrowed down to more manageable categories that included the following: 1. Oddities of script. 2. Oddities of Spelling. 3. Word oddities. 4. Odd identifications (problems with proper names). 5. Odd philosophical discussions. 6. Odd choices of quotations 7. Odd ways of filling numeric categories. And, as a final catchall category, we should add oddities of content. Our primary intention is to discuss literary examples, oddities found in Tibetan-language texts.
Event: TT Conference 2017 – Translator's Craft Session
Date: June 2, 2017 – 4:45 pm
Speakers: Amelia Hall, Dan Martin
Topics: Oddities, Tibetan Translation, Translation
Dan Martin
Independent
Dan Martin, PhD in Tibetan Studies, Indiana University, 1991. Researcher and translator with many interests in Tibetan religions, literature, and cultural topics. Currently working on a translation of a lengthy 13th-century history for the Library of Tibetan Classics series.
Amelia Hall
Naropa University
Amelia Hall became a student of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche and Lama Tharchin Rinpoche in 2001. In 2005 she embarked upon a master’s degree in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies from the University of Oxford. She obtained her doctorate from Oxford in 2012, her dissertation, Revelations of a Modern Mystic: The Life and Legacy of Kun bzang bde chen gling pa 1928-2006, translates and reflects upon the biography of this Tibetan Buddhist visionary and the assimilation of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary North America. She currently teaches courses on Buddhism and Tibetan language at Naropa University. In addition she directs research projects for the Naksang Foundation. Current projects focus on the translation and study of biographies, historical texts, and maps relating to the spread of Buddhism in the 17th Century CE from Tibet and Bhutan to Arunachal Pradesh. She is also an affiliated scholar at the Tibetan and Himalayan Studies Centre at Wolfson College, University of Oxford.
