Dharamshala: - Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, the chairman of Central Tibetan Administration launched a new comprehensive Tibetan dictionary authored by Mr. Lobsang Tendar at a function in Gangchen Kyishong where Central Tibetan Administration based, Wednesday (18th May). Tendar is a lexicographer and editor who is currently working as the editor of text books at the Tibetan Children's Village school in Dharamshala.
While explaining the features of the dictionary, Tendar said it had taken him 13 years of laborious research in creating the dictionary, which contains 60,000 words which have been taken from Tibetan history to books on Buddhism and also the biography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, according to the Tibet Net.
The final editing and publication was overseen by The Department of Education (DoE) of the Central Tibetan Administration. Acharya Karma Monlam of the publication section of DoE carried out exhaustive editing and provided valuable inputs because of his expertise in Hindi, Tibetan and English languages. It was under his supervision around 10 experts based in Dharamshala assisted in editing and gave nuggets of information.
Admiring Lobsang Tendar for his work, Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche said the new dictionary will make the learning and preservation of Tibetan language among the younger generations of Tibetans more accessible.
"... The Tibetan dictionary will always remain relevant in learning process unlike the articles and essays which are written once for an event or issue," Kalon Tripa said.
He emphasized upon the importance of both written and spoken language as an identity of any nation or person. He said that the unique culture and language of Tibet are the most important features for our struggle.
The publication of this dictionary comes at a significant time as the Department of Education was aiming to translate vocabularies available in their English-Tibetan dictionary into their Tibetan counterparts.