Vimalakīrtinirdeśa: The Teaching of Vimalakīrti

Description

2022 Khyentse Foundation prize for Outstanding Translation. The Teaching of Vimalakirti, An English Translation of the Sanskrit Text Found in the Potala Palace, Lhasa, by Luis Gomez and Paul Harrison, with members of the Mangalam Translation Group. In 1999, a Sanskrit version of the Vimalakirtinirdesa, long thought lost, was discovered in the Potala Palace in Lhasa by a team of scholars from Taisho University in Japan, who then presented it to the world in a series of landmark publications. Previous English renderings of this classic Mahayana text had been based on Chinese or Tibetan translations and not the Indian Sanskrit. Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages sponsored a three-week workshop on the newly discovered text in 2010, led by five eminent scholars. At the end of the workshop, the decision was made to prepare a full translation. Building on the initial efforts of workshop participants and working closely with Luis Gomez before he passed away, Paul Harrison, the George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, has carried the English translation to completion. The result is a careful and scholarly treatment of this enduring text by two dedicated interpreters and translators of Buddhist literature. Elegantly translated and easily readable, this book is a major contribution to the study and understanding of this playful and complex text for English readers.