Lotsawa Translation Workshop Opening Remarks
Conference organizers Holly Gayley (University of Colorado, Boulder) and Dominique Townsend (Bard College) welcome participants and mentors. Holly thanks Tsadra Foundation for supporting the conference, and shares her inspiration for facilitating sustained dialogue about various genres of Tibetan literature. Dominique introduces the venerable speakers for the opening keynote.
Marcus Perman, Director of Research for Tsadra Foundation, encourages translators in their work by articulating the relevance of translated publications for the Western Tibetan Buddhist audience. Ending with a moment of silence for two bright translators who recently passed away (Chris Stagg and Gen Tsering Dhundup Gongkatsang), Marcus helps start the workshop with a reflective tone, an appropriate ground upon which to introduce the keynote dialogue with Janet Gyatso and Kurtis Schaeffer.
Event: Lotsawa Translation Workshop – Opening Remarks
Date: October 5, 2018 – 5:30 pm
Speakers: Dominique Townsend, Holly Gayley, Marcus Perman
Topics: Tibetan Language, Translation, Transmission
Holly Gayley
University of Colorado, Boulder
Holly Gayley is Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. With a passion for translation, her research examines the revitalization of Buddhism on the Tibetan plateau since the 1980s with a special interest in issues of gender, agency and identity in contemporary Buddhist literature by Tibetan masters and cleric-scholars. She became interested in the academic study of Buddhism through her travels among Tibetan communities in India, Nepal, and China, and completed her M.A. in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University in 2000 and Ph.D. at Harvard University in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies in 2009. She is author of Inseparable across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of the Tibetan Visionaries Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo (Shambhala, 2019) and Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet (Columbia University Press, 2016) and co-editor of A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rimé Masters of Tibet (Wisdom Publications, 2017). Her articles on an ethical reform movement spearheaded by cleric-scholars at Larung Buddhist Academy in Serta include "The Compassionate Treatment of Animals: A Contemporary Buddhist Approach in Eastern Tibet" (Journal of Religious Ethics, 2017), "Controversy over Buddhist Ethical Reform: A Secular Critique of Clerical Authority in the Tibetan Blogosphere" (Himalaya Journal, 2016), "Non-Violence as a Shifting Signifier on the Tibetan Plateau" (Contemporary Buddhism, 2016 with Padma 'tsho).
Marcus Perman
Tsadra Foundation
Marcus Perman is the Director of Research at Tsadra Foundation, a nonprofit trust established to provide vital funding for the combined study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism in the west. Marcus graduated from St. Lawrence University with honors in Psychology and Philosophy and graduated from Naropa University with an MA in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, focusing on Tibetan and Sanskrit languages. He studied extensively at Nitartha Institute and from 2007 to 2008 he studied at Tibet University in Lhasa. Marcus has been developing a specialized library for Tibetan Buddhist translators in Boulder, Colorado and is the organizer of the Translation & Transmission Conference series.
