Diamond Cutter Classics Translation Program

Around 700 AD, over 1200 years after the time of the Buddha, the Tibetans undertook a monumental task:  to translate thousands of pages of Buddhist literature from Sanskrit into Tibetan.  It took them 700 years to complete translations of the kangyur (the word of the Buddha) and the tengyur (the Indian commentaries).

Now, as Buddhism has been making a big push westward, our aim is to complete an even larger task: to translate hundreds of thousands of pages of Buddhist literature into modern languages. Since the blossoming of Buddhism in Tibet, no less than 200,000 pages of brilliant commentary have been composed by masters and scholars in the Tibetan language.

The aim of our project is to create and guide a team of young translators to translate these great classics. We’re beginning by translating into English and from there, the work can be easily translated into modern Chinese, Spanish, German, Russian and many other languages.  We have teams around the world already translating our work.

On this site, you’ll find a description of the latest round of texts that we’re translating and an introduction to the translators on our team.  The translations of these texts are still in progress and are available for your eyes and thoughts as we go.  As we value the opinions of our fellow Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan enthusiasts, our work is posted together with the original Tibetan language and is enabled to receive your comments.  Please register with your name and email to begin leaving your comments today!

Diamond Cutter Classics is a 501c3 non-profit organization in the United States.  We are registered with EIN number:

86-1222674

All donations are used to support our mission of creating and disseminating modern translations of classic ideas.  Expenses include computers, software, web platforms, staff salaries, and accounting and legal.   Our 2022 expenditures are available to view here.