Leadership Opportunities

Scope of Tanjur Initiative

In recent decades, Indo-Tibetan scholarship has progressed markedly and a new generation of highly skilled and dedicated scholars has emerged. With improved critical and technological tools, scholars have been producing ever more translations, revising the pioneering works of their predecessors and sharpening the critical edge of Buddhological, textual, and comparative methodologies. Moreover, dedicated publishers such as Snow Lion and Wisdom have emerged to initiate translation series of classic Buddhist texts to ensure that these works receive wide distribution. Nevertheless, it must be noted that all these efforts to date have been mostly unorganized and sporadic, and have resulted in the translation and distribution of only approximately 5% of the Tanjur texts. At this rate it can be assumed that this project will take several more generations to complete.

AIBS believes that the time is now ripe to address the translation of the Tanjur in a more comprehensive and systematic way. AIBS joins this broad based endeavor, bringing to it the important affiliation with Columbia University’s Center for Buddhist Studies. Columbia's long-term commitment anchors AIBS institutionally with the financial endowment for the Je Tsong Khapa Chair of Buddhist Studies, entrusted with the overseeing of the translation of the Tanjur.

Given the rare opportunity and urgency of our current circumstances, AIBS is committed to raising further funding sufficient to develop and fully endow the current institutional infrastructure necessary to provide long-term guidance, coordination, and support for international teams of scholars to produce critical editions, comparative and critical studies, and standardized, modern-language translations of every text in the Tibetan Tanjur over the next generation.

AIBS has calculated that it would take one person approximately 580,000 hours (300 years of full-time work) to produce critically translated and edited editions of all the 3,600 texts of the Tanjur. The importance of this project, and the urgency of our times, mandates that this timetable be accelerated—for example, thirty scholars could do the job in ten years, ten scholars in thirty years. Therefore, AIBS intends to procure the resources to support 10+ scholars and 4 staff working full-time in order to complete this massive undertaking within a generation.

Leadership Opportunities

AIBS is currently seeking sponsorship for these initiatives. While individual books can be supported with an average $30–50,000 subvention per book, AIBS is seeking an initial $800,000 over three years to establish a firm foundation for this translation enterprise and to publish an initial 24 books. To fully fund and complete the Tanjur translation on our accelerated schedule, AIBS will require approximately $11 million over thirty years.

Your gifts to AIBS play a vital role in supporting our mission, enabling us to bring the breadth and depth of the Buddhist tradition into meaningful dialogue with the innovative spirit of the modern West. AIBS is interested in developing strategic partnerships with individuals, philanthropic foundations, and visionary corporations interested in fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhist world and the energy and acumen of contemporary society.

You or your organization will become an integral part of the legacy of Buddhist wisdom and compassion by taking a substantial leadership role in supporting this historic endeavor.

Giving to AIBS puts the meaning and purpose of family and corporate wealth into a new light as we work together to foster the core values of wisdom and compassion in the world today. As AIBS reaches out by means of its translations and other initiatives, we touch people's lives, thereby contributing towards the creation of a more harmonious global culture. AIBS remains thankful for your generous gifts and welcomes your participation in our programs whenever possible.