Through the magic of the internet, we heard from Lopon Tsering Nyima, the Assistant Director of the Kagyur Karchag Project, who updated us on the team’s progress so far.
More than 50 researchers from all Tibetan Buddhist schools work on this vast project, which will provide comprehensive summaries of the 368 sutras that compose the Kagyur, the transcribed words of the Buddha.
Whereas previous karchags were essentially indexes or tables of contents, Tsering Nyima explained that the summaries contained in the Kagyur Karchag Project will allow readers to immediately access the heart essence (snying po) of each particular sutra.
“For more than 1,200 years, for generations and generations, Tibetans have held these precious Buddhist teachings. If we can translate our work into English, I have faith that we will likewise benefit people long into the future, for many generations to come.”
—Lopon Tsering Nyima, Assistant Director, Kagyur Karchag Project
Professor Alexander von Rospatt, friend of SINI who attended the retreat, proposed that “Sutrapedia” might be a more appropriate title for the project, given the vast amount of information included in each summary!
Throughout his presentation, Tsering Nyima emphasized his aspiration that the summaries will be read not only by scholars and researchers, but also lay Tibetans, who may have difficulty reading the original language of the sutras. He also expressed his hope that these summaries will later be translated into English in order to benefit people all over the world.