About the Translation Project
The Translation Project focuses on Tibetan expositions of Four Great Indian Books, together with a related theme of the Mind of Clear Light. The Four Great Indian books are essential Buddhist texts that form the basis of philosophical study and contemplation in Tibetan Monastic Colleges.
The Four Great Indian Books are taught through levels of Tibetan textbooks, exploring detailed issues through exposition and debate. Each Monastic College in the Tibetan Gelug tradition has its preferred textbook author; UMA translations focus on Jam-yang-shay-pa (1648-1721) together with commentaries by the Mongolian author Ngag-wang-pal-dan (b. 1767) and others. To date UMA has published forty-five annotated translations of textbook literature in English and Chinese (free for downloading), including three translations of a treatise on the Mind of Clear Light by the Nying-ma scholar Mi-pam-gya-tsho (1846-1912).
UMA’s publications offer a wide-ranging, researched, and explorative body of work about these indispensable repositories of Buddhist philosophical thought so profound that it becomes meditative contemplation of the nature of reality and a call to compassion. A feature of the Project is the usage of consistent vocabulary and format throughout the translations which enhances comprehension.
ā Jeffrey Hopkins
The Four Great Indian Books
- Maitreyaās Ornament for the Clear Realizations
- NÄgÄrjunaās Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Called “Wisdom”
- ChandrakÄ«rtiās Supplement to (NÄgÄrjunaās) “Treatise on the Middle”
- DharmakÄ«rtiās Commentary on (DignÄgaās) “Compilation of Valid Cognition”
Drepung Gomang Monastic Curriculum
The following document gives a detailed outline of the texts and subjects that are studied at the Gomang College
of Drepung Monastic University:
| Classes and Texts in the Curriculum of Gomang College of Drepung Monastic Universityā | Tshe-wang-trin-lay, Lo-sang-gyal-tshan, Jongbok Yi |