The Course

Part One: Literary Tibetan

Students are expected to come to the course having already acquired a basic familiarity with the Tibetan alphabet including its superfixes etc. (upon registration, participants will be emailed several pages of material that set out the basics of the Tibetan alphabet). We will then cover the alphabet and the phonemic dimension of Tibetan in more depth at the beginning of the course by studying the first four chapters of Fluent Tibetan.

As any understanding of the Tibetan language is founded on familiarity with its eight cases, we will begin our study of Literary Tibetan with the presentation of Tibetan case functions found in Appendix 5 of Joe Wilson's Translating Buddhism From Tibetan.

When students have a grasp of the cases, we will begin reading some fairly easy passages from a variety of Tibetan texts. These texts will include

• the “White and Red Colors and So Forth” chapter from Pur-bu-jok's Collected Topics debate text,
• Tsong-kha-pa's “Condensed General Path” from his Great Exposition of the Path, and
• a selection of non-Geluk passages with very different vocabulary from Mi-pam's Fundamental Mind (about Dzog-chen) and Taranatha's Essence of Other Emptiness (from the Jo-nang lineage).

Finally, we will look at passages from Chandrakirti's Clear Words to acquaint ourselves with Tibetan translations of Sanskrit.

Outcome

At the end of this part of the course, students will have:

• gained a clear understanding of how to examine a Tibetan sentence in order to understand its grammar,
• a solid foundation of vocabulary for reading Ge-luk texts, including debate-oriented texts,
• an appreciation for the wide differences between the literatures of the different lineages, and
• an introduction to the distinctive Tibetan-Sanskrit translation style.

This course provides an excellent foundation for the continued study of the Tibetan language at a professional level (eg., translator/interpreter training programs).

Part Two: Tibetan Debate

As the study of Tibetan debate presents students with a simple and repetitive formal structure that they can quickly and easily learn to read, it is included in the course right from the beginning. The vocabulary of the debate text is essential for any kind of study of Tibetan philosophy, and the syllogistic debate form is part of the standard format in most Ge-luk texts.

In our two-month course we will not have the time to become very proficient debaters, but we will be able to read and practice debating the first chapter of Pur-bu-jok's Collected Topics text on "White and Red Colors and So Forth" ("And So Forth" refers to the divisions and subdivisions of phenomena as well as their definitions).

The procedure of this part of the course is like rehearsing a rowdy play: we learn our lines and repeat them as loudly as circumstances permit. It is fun and instructive to speak Tibetan in this authentic form of give and take.

Outcome

At the end of the course, students will understand Tibetan syllogistic logic and be able to read and follow initial debates based on Collected Topics. They will also gain a basic understanding of what goes on in the Ge-luk debate courtyard.

Part Three: Oral Translation – Tibetan to English

This optional evening session will be spent working with digital recordings of oral teachings and translations arranged by Jeffrey Hopkins and Bill Magee especially for first-year Tibetan language students interested in becoming oral translators.

One of the best ways to become an oral translator is to practice with short sound files (think of them as audio flash cards). Hundreds of such files are already available for listening and download. Perhaps the most useful collection of them is here: http://magee.ddbc.edu.tw/shared/NLD_3PA/NLD_3PA.htm

In this part of the course we will begin with Nga-wang-lek-den's lectures on Tsong-kha-pa's Three Principal Aspects of the Path, which are broken into short sound files of one or two sentences in Tibetan followed by Jeffrey Hopkins' English translation.

Outcome

At the conclusion of the course, students will have developed an initial proficiency in listening and translating, and will have greatly improved their vocabulary in the process.