General Spiritual Director
German National Festival 2024
Dec 11, 2024
International Buddhism reaching new regions and languages
Teams of translators around the world are working to bring pure Kadam Dharma to their countries by translating the Collected Works of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche.
The full collection of twenty-three books is currently available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and German. However, throughout the world many people are dedicated to making all of Geshe-la's works available in their respective languages. Below you can find updates on the auspicious work that is being done by Kadampas to help people access Kadam Dharma in their language.
NORWAY | THAILAND | THARPA ASIA | SWEDEN | FINLAND
Norway
The first book in the collected works of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso to be published in Norwegian will be 'How to Transform Your Life'. The translation team is now approaching the final stages of a long and vigorous process and are hoping that the project will be completed by the end of the year.
Thailand
Translation of How to Transform Your Life into Thai is progressing well and at time of writing, we are working on the first draft of the Ultimate Bodhicitta section. Thai is a language that is based on Pali and Sanskrit, the languages of Buddha’s sutras, and this has presented an interesting challenge. Many of the terms that would be the natural choices for translation already have very specific meanings linked to Thai Buddhism. Through reliance on Venerable Geshe-la and receiving his blessings, we have been encouraged to explore language that better matches a more modern and inclusive form of Thai.
Tharpa Asia
Tharpa Asia has recently completed the editing of the 2nd edition of Modern Buddhism in Chinese, which will be available for sale after the Summer Festival 2023. Additionally, there will be a free e-book download option for this edition. Currently, Tharpa Asia is in the process of editing Joyful Path of Good Fortune and translating Clear Light of Bliss.
Sweden
At Tharpa Sweden we have translated and published a number of Venerable Geshe-la’s precious texts: The New Eight Steps to Happiness, How to Transform Your Life, Modern Buddhism and Universal Compassion. We are currently working on the Swedish translation of How to Understand the Mind and Gen-la Dekyong has very kindly been helping us with the reverse translation of this book.
Even though Swedes generally speak and understand English very well, it has been greatly appreciated having these books in Swedish. We believe that Kadam Dharma can touch the hearts of the people in Sweden even more deeply when it is presented in Swedish and we plan to keep going until we have produced qualified translations of all of Venerable Geshe-la’s books and sadhanas.
Finland
Samuel and Lekmo steadily and patiently translate Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's How to Transform Your Life, A Blissful Journey. They find the translation work very inspiring and rewarding. A small sample of the translated sentence in Finnish: Onnellisuuden todellinen lähde on sisäinen rauha (The real source of happiness is inner peace).
