Customer Reviews

A Tibetan English Dictionary (With Sanskrit Synonyms)

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The book is beautiful, no doubt about it, but the beauty doesn't compensate for the poor printing quality. This is the one factor that definitely influences the usability of the book, and it's a shame. It certainly is a remarkable book with respect to its tireless coverage of the Tibetan language and if it were printed on better quality paper with more legibility and uniformity in the way of Tibetan character depiction, it would be much more useful. The beauty of the Sanskrit-derived Tibetan language is in its wealth of expression, and the dictionary, however difficult a tool to use, is still a showcase for the myriad words and expressions of this ancient language-script. To have the dictionary for the pleasure of nonacademic perusal alone, is enough for me. The dictionary presents Tibetan words in alphabetical order (with a helpful listing of the Tibetan alphabet, a pronounciation guide, names and grammatical abbreviations in the beginning of the book) followed by the Sanskrit equivalent of each word and its English meaning. Sarat Chandra Das was thorough in his work; he used four ancient Tibetan dictionaries to compile the current work, one of which explains the Tantric portion of Buddhist scriptures. Even after Das' work was finished, if you will, three other scholars, one of whom had made Sanskrit and Pali works his specialty, were consulted. The dictionary covers three main periods in the development of the Tibetan language: The "Period of Translations" which stems from the study of Sanskrit and the subsequent invention of the Tibetan alphabet by the minister of King Srongtsan Gampo beginning in the second half of the seventh century; the Classical Period, "when Tibetan authors began to indulge in compositions of their own" (Jaschke) and from the first quarter of the 18th century onward when the sovereignty of the Dalai Lama was established. In the words of Das in 1902, "It is within this period that Tibet has enjoyed unprecedented peace under the benign sway of the holy Bodhisattvas, and its language has become the "lingua franca" of Higher Asia." This reader would like to see a revisiting of the text with special treatment to the later historical periods, including the latter part of the 20th century, as well as an improvement made upon the printing quality of this extremely important and definitive work.

We use Das' dictionary in the intermediate classical Tibetan translation class. The only alternative for those who need both the English and Sanskrit equivalents is Jaschke, which is antique. Students who read and understand Chinese may find the Chinese-Tibetan dictionary a better tool linguistically.