Time is also alloted to studying Tibetan grammar using a variety of sources, both traditional and modern. Opening and closing chants are done in Tibetan. Please plan to budget 3 to 4 hours of preparation time for each class."
This class is oriented toward students who have no experience or little experience with colloquial Tibetan. During the Summer Institute, we will introduce the eight categories of Tibetan letters, how to spell Tibetan words aloud, how to pronounce Tibetan letters and words, and how to read and write Tibetan. We will also introduce some useful phrases and sentences.
This course is for those students who already have some established grounding in colloquial Tibetan. The focus will be to gain further fluency in reading, speaking, listening, and understanding Tibetan using the Central Tibetan dialect. Classes are mostly in Tibetan with minimal English.
This course is a continuation of an ongoing class dedicated to reading Tibetan Buddhist texts and literature. The subject matter of LAN530 for NSI 2023 will follow Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyeltsen’s main lecture. Thus, we will be reading the 3rd Karmapa Rangjung Dorje’s །རྣམ་ཤེས་ཡེ་ཤེས་འབྱེད་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་བཞུགས་སོ།, the Treatise Distinguishing Wisdom (jñāna) from Consciousness (vijñāna), alongside Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé’s commentary །རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་འབྱེད་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ཚིག་དོན་གོ་གསལ་དུ་འགྲེལ་པ་རང་བྱུང་དགོངས་པའི་རྒྱན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ། as our primary Tibetan texts. As in previous years interesting and important grammatical points will be explained in the context of specific passages. In addition, as time allows we will study section four, “Other Particles” (ཚིག་ཕྲད་གཞན་དག), from Kelsang Gyurmé’s རབ་གསལ་མེ་ལོང་།, The Clear Mirror, a non-traditional modern analysis of Tibetan grammar. We will do abbreviated opening and closing chants in Tibetan.
This course is a continuation of LAN530 and is similarly oriented towards reading Tibetan Buddhist texts and literature, largely from the Kagyü and Nyingma traditions. The class is structured as a translation committee. Each student is given an opportunity to read a passage aloud and offer their translation to the group. Then we collectively analyze the translation and discuss difficult points of phrasing and grammar in the context of the specific passage. Through this process the entire group benefits from the insights and mistakes of each participant (including, at times, the instructor).
Time is also allotted to studying Tibetan grammar using a variety of sources, both traditional and modern. Opening and closing chants are done in Tibetan. Students are encouraged to practice the traditional discipline of jor-lo (སྦྱོར་ཀློག) — “reading the connections” as a way to learn how to spell in Tibetan, a very useful skill when working with native Tibetan scholars and speakers. Please plan to budget 3 to 4 hours of preparation time for each class.
Prerequisites:
- LAN 530, LAN531, a similar Tibetan course at an accredited program, or consent of the instructor. Prospective students will be asked to complete an evaluation form.
- If you have not taken LAN530 or LAN531 and are interested in this course, please contact the registrar at eweiss@nitarthainstitute.org
