Projects of the Sapan Fund
H.E. Jetsun Kushok transmitting (Tib. lung) a religious text in the 1990s
SECOND STAGE NOW UNDERWAY TO DIGITIZE AUDIO TAPES OF HISTORIC SAKYA TEACHINGS
The Sapan Fund has begun digitizing a SECOND cache of cassette audio tapes of teachings given by Sakya teachers to students in the US in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
With support from Stanley Teo of the Khenpo Appey Foundation, we have already digitized 100 tapes of teachings by HH the 41st Sakya Trizin, HE Jetsun Kusho, HE Luding Khen Rinpoche, and HE Dezhung Rinpoche III. The tapes were first preserved in a high-quality digital format, and then split into separate English and Tibetan files.
The second phase will be digitization in August 2023 of about 180 additional tapes, including formal and informal teachings by Dezhung Rinpoche III and Chogye Trichen Rinpoche.
The third phase will be to make most of the digitized teachings available worldwide in an online format to English and Tibetan speakers alike. (The restricted teachings will be made available on flash drives to qualified students and lamas.)
Please click on the Donate button to support this project, and/or contact us at info@sapanfund.org.
THE SAKYA JETSUNMAS AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE
The second edition of our 2021 book, Elisabeth Benard's The Sakya Jetsunmas: The Hidden World of Tibetan Female Lamas, is available worldwide from Shambhala Publications.
Elisabeth's book profiles Jetsunma Chime Tenpai Nyima (1756–ca. 1855), Jetsunma Tamdrin Wangmo (1836–96), Kyabgon Pema Trinlei (1874–ca. 1950), and Jetsun Kushok Chimey Luding (b. 1938), and introduces Jetsunma Kunga Trinley (b. 2007, shown at right holding her copy of the book).
"With impeccable research, Elisabeth Benard has opened the hidden treasury of the lives of Sakya women of the Khon clan, trained from childhood for awakening. Chapter after chapter we meet yoginis whose wisdom, radiance, and resourcefulness in the face of obstacles glow from every page. This invaluable book brings these remarkable women out of obscurity into the living history of Tibetan Buddhism.” —Judith Simmer-Brown, Naropa University, author of Dakini’s Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism
PROGRESS ON TRANSLATION PROJECTS
The Sapan Fund has supported two major translations by Sakya scholars Dr. Cyrus Stearns and Dr. David Jackson, who are among the leading translators of Tibetan Buddhist texts working today. Both projects are approved and supported by the great scholar-practitioner His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin (now Trichen).
Cyrus's project has been published by Wisdom Publications in two volumes—Ornament to Beautify the Three Appearances (available as a standalone) and Ornament to Beautify the Three Continua (available to qualified readers in a two-volume set with the first volume). These works are Cyrus's annotated translation of the two most extensive commentaries on the Sakya Lamdré teachings, the foundational meditation/practice tradition based on the realization of the early Indian adept Virupa. These commentaries by Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrup constitute the core of the Lamdré tradition.
David’s ongoing project is the translation of a classic history of Tibetan Dharma by one of the five Sakya founders, Sonam Tsemo. Entitled The Entrance Gate to the Dharma, this work explains how to enter into the practice of authentic Tibetan Dharma by showing how it was transmitted from Sakyamuni Buddha himself to the Sakya tradition.
Read more about the Lamdre translation project