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A Program to Translate the Chinese Taisho Tripitaka into English and Other Western Languages Trần Tiễn Khanh, Tuệ Quang Foundation, USA ABSTRACT Mahayana sutras and other sacred texts have often been taken from the Taisho Tripitaka that is composed of over 9000 fascicles organized into 2372 sutras. These sutras were translated over 12 centuries from Sanskrit into Chinese. Until now, however, only a few sutras have been translated into English and other Western languages. For the last several years, Tuệ Quang Foundation has been engaged in the development of a computer-based translation system to expedite the translation of the Taisho Tripitaka (over 70 million Chinese characters) into Vietnamese and popular Western languages such as English and French. This paper will describe the translation software that includes advanced algorithms in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine translation. We have completed a draft translation of all 2373 sutras that occupy over 1.4 gigabyte of MS Word files. These files are readily edited by Buddhist scholars and expert translators. Based on the experience of the on-going Vietnamese translation, we propose a systematic and efficient program to translate the Taisho Tripitaka into English and French. With our unique software, the translation will be completed in a few years instead of decades or centuries with manual method. We are ready to cooperate with collaborators and sponsors to complete the translation program. Sample translated sutras and additional information are available from our website http://www.daitangvietnam.com/index_en.htm. We believe that the development of a complete Tripitaka, in English and other languages, will be a great contribution to not only Buddhism but also to the culture of the world. It will make Dharma teachings and a good exposition to the Asian culture available to millions in the West and other countries.
Biography of Dr. Tran Tien Khanh Dr. Khanh Tran was born in Hue. Following his graduation in 1970 from the French Lycee Jean Jacques Rousseau in HCM City, he went to study abroad at the University of California. After receiving his MS and BS degrees, he completed in 1978 his PhD research in Environmental Engineering at UCLA. Since 1975, Dr. Tran has been active in the field of environmental impact assessment, especially air pollution modeling. Since 1980, he has formed his private consulting firm named AMI Environmental. He is a leading authority in air quality modeling and health risk assessment. He has served as a technical consultant to US government agencies, utilities and multinational oil companies. He had performed air pollution studies for the Los Angeles region, oil and gas development in California and Alaska and several power plant projects. In recent years, he has served as an air quality expert with environmental defense organizations such as Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council in legal challenges to proposed coal-fired power plants in several states throughout the US. He has also performed wind energy development projects for the US Department of Energy. For the last several years, he has been actively involved in researching and developing a computer-based software package for translating the Chinese-based Buddhist texts in the Taisho Tripitaka into Vietnamese and other Western languages such as English and French. He is currently Vice President of Tue Quang Foundation that has started a multi-year program to develop a Vietnamese Tripitaka. |
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