History

The American Institute of Buddhist Studies was founded in 1972--at the suggestion of H.H. the Dalai Lama and at the behest of the late Ven. Geshe Ngawang Wangyal--with the ambitious mandate to create and support the necessary long-term institutional framework within which to translate and present the Tibetan Tanjur (bstan 'gyur). During the 70s and 80s, translations were done slowly and steadily, while translators were systematically trained. Since 1988, the AIBS stabilized its program for the long term by entering into an historic affiliation with Columbia University, creating the Center for Buddhist Studies (CBS) and assisting the University in developing the endowment for the Jey Tsong Khapa Professorship of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, its incumbent being formally charged with the oversight of the systematic translation of the Tanjur collection and its associated literatures.

Ven. Geshe Ngawang Wangyal

The idea to translate the Tibetan Tanjur (bstan 'gyur) at Columbia University began in the 1940s with Theos Bernard. Having completed a highly successful trip to Tibet in 1937, Bernard returned to America with a complete set of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon and numberous volumes of secondary Tibetan commentarial literature. Bernard proceeded to compile a translator's guide to Tibetan grammar and even acquired a large estate in which to house translators and Tibetan Lamas. Although Bernard was not to see his vision become a reality, the dream of an English Language Buddhist Canon did not die, but rather returned to Columbia in 1988 with the arrival of Dr. Robert A.F. Thurman.

Theos Bernard

Following the direction of Geshe Ngawang Wangyal, Robert Thurman and Christopher George founded the American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS) with the explicit goal of translating the Tanjur portion of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. With generous start-up funding from Dr. C.T. Shen's Institute for the Advanced Study of World Religions (IASWR), the AIBS was based in Amherst, Massachussetts until 1988 when it merged with Columbia's Center for Buddhist Studies (CBS) where collaborative translation work has gradually continued under the joint auspices of these organizations.

Since the founding of AIBS 29 years ago, Indo-Tibetan scholarship has progressed markedly and a new generation of highly skilled and dedicated scholars has emerged. With improved analytical and technological tools, scholars are producing new translations, revising the pioneering works of their predecessors, and sharpening the critical edge of Buddhological, textual, and comparative methodologies.