Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program participants.

Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program (LRZTP) is an FPMT project in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India. LRZTP has produced many gifted Dharma interpreters-translators for FPMT Dharma centers since its conception over twenty-three years ago. In addition to the two-year intensive training program, LRZTP also runs short Tibetan language courses and offers private online Tibetan language lessons.

The latest  interpreters training course, LRZTP9,  successfully began in April 2023, with twelve new students. At the completion of  their first year of the two-year program, we are happy to share this report from LRZTP on the progress of the students:

For the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program students of the ninth edition it all began on April 24, 2023. Their journey through the mountains and valleys of Tibetan grammar has been an adventurous one. But they have made it! The whole group graduated with wonderful results on April 19, 2024 and had their well deserved holiday.

And then on May 6 they began their second and final year of LRZTP9. The new journey is quite different compared to the first year. The focus in year one was the language. Students learned loads of vocabulary as well as intricacies of Tibetan grammar (both colloquial and literary). They passed tests and checked themselves every day during conversation classes.

The new journey brings new adventures. In the second year the focus is on Dharma in Tibetan. English is no longer there to help understand and explain. Now everything is in Tibetan. And the teachers of the program are now our wonderful geshes who will lead the students through such topics as the Lamrim (Stages of the Path), Dura (Collected Topics) or The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva.

This of course brings new challenges. That is why every afternoon the students will still learn one on one with their conversation tutors to help clarify difficult points. The core of the geshes’ team to guide students through the second year is: Geshe Lhundup Kalsang, Geshe Phuntsok Legmon, Geshe Tsering Samten, and Geshe Tsering Dargye. All of them have the highest qualifications to teach these topics.

Very soon the students will begin their debate practice and later in the course of the year the interpretation workshops.

One of the new and amazing teachers in the second year of LRZTP9 will also be Geshema Kalsang Wangmo who very soon will begin giving classes on interpretation.

The vision of the school’s founder Lama Zopa Rinpoche was to provide students with the best possible tools to educate and mold them into fine translators and interpreters of the Buddhist teachings. For that reason it is also necessary for the participants of the program to spice up their motivation by meeting with accomplished teachers, translators and graduates of previous courses.

In the last module of the first year, one of the distinguished guests of LRZTP was Dr. Paul Hackett of Columbia University, the author of Learning Classical Tibetan and A Tibetan Verb Lexicon among many other books. He graciously accepted the invitation to meet the students on Zoom and gave a very inspiring talk. Another guest, this time in person, was Alvaro Fernandez Pereto, graduate of LRZTP8 and currently a student of a Sakya shedra (monastic college) in Dehradun. He encouraged everyone to keep on persevering in their studies and talked about the very demanding schedule of his monastic studies. Meetings like these always help to keep the flame of motivation burning.

We wish all our amazing students more success in the second year of their LRZTP adventure. Their determination and perseverance despite various obstacles and a demanding schedule is highly admired. We also welcome new students who joined our school in order to learn in individual one-on-one sessions. They have come from South Korea, Bolivia, and Buryatia. We are always open for anyone who would like to study with us, so please, check our website for information on individual sessions.

Meanwhile another great team of students completed, in March 2024, their Advanced Level I (third year) of the Foundations in Tibetan Language online program. We wish to congratulate all of them, too. Online classes began on Advanced Level 2: Focus on Dharma, May 29. 

Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program is dedicated to providing the best possible platform for anyone who wishes to study Tibetan language either to be able to translate Dharma or for their own purpose. The language is taught on all levels, from elementary to advanced. You can learn both colloquial as well as literary Tibetan. 

Check the LZRTP website for dates for LRZTP10 as this information becomes available: www.lrztp.org

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.