Make the Ageless Wisdom of Tibet Available to All

We have reached the end of a challenging year, one in which we all have had to endure many restrictions, much hardship and, for some of us, terrible loss. But it has also given us a valuable chance for spiritual growth. Restrictions give us the opportunity to reflect on impermanence and put into practice flexibility and patience. Loss of loved ones or economic security, indescribably tragic and difficult to bear, tests our resilience not to lose hope. As for hardships, Shantideva expressed it nicely:

“Furthermore, there are advantages to suffering: with agony, arrogance disappears; compassion grows for those in recurring samsara; negative conduct is shunned; and joy is taken in being constructive.” 

What could be a greater incentive for practicing compassion for all sentient beings than a global pandemic and economic crisis which, in fact, affect us all? When the scope of our concern is limited to just ourselves and our loved ones, and the strength of our fear builds emotional walls within which to hide from others, our hearts and minds remain closed and we suffer terribly. But when the scope of our concern becomes unlimited and extends to all beings, and the strength of our compassion builds a loving connection with everyone on this planet, our hearts and minds stay open and our peace of mind and happiness grow. With the strength and self-confidence that compassion brings, let’s look back on this epic year and rejoice in how much we have grown, and reaffirm our dedication to continue wishing for and working toward the benefit of all. 

Let me share with you what we’ve accomplished during this amazing year. In 2020, we have had more than 1,160,000 users of the website (up an incredible 40% from last year), who've read almost 2.7 million articles (up 31%) in our 31 languages. This impressive increase in readers is certainly aided by our efforts in bringing ten brand new Asian language sections to the website. Altogether, we produced more than 4325 translations of articles and subtitles, which is nearly 12 every single day! Almost 66% of our users visited the site on a mobile device, while 30% visited on a computer and 4% on a tablet. 

We now have a grand total of 10,640 articles on the website. Around 1/3 of our users read our English content, while two out of three people read articles in one of our 30 other languages. The most popular are Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese and Hindi, as well as Tibetan and Mongolian. One out of six readers come from the US, while the rest come from 226 other countries. The most popular of these are India, Germany, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia, while Italy, Turkey, Mongolia, Mexico and Vietnam come close behind. We truly are reaching the entire world.

The community on our Facebook channel grows on a daily basis, with around 10,000 newcomers interested in learning about the wisdom of Tibet joining this year. We now have over 44,000 followers, an increase of 25% from last year. Our posts have been viewed 4.6 million times (up 86% compared to last year) and our videos have been watched for the equivalent of 630 days.

Our YouTube channel is also enjoying great success, with us reaching 22,000 subscribers, up 77% from last year. We now have a total of 392 videos, consisting of interviews with 28 of the world's leading experts on Buddhism and the mind today. 

Over on SoundCloud, an increasing number of people are finding and enjoying our wide range of audio material. We now have 2,033 followers, up 20%. We now have a total of 1,510 tracks. They’ve had 190,000 plays and 6,700 downloads. Our top listeners come from the USA, Australia, the UK, Germany, and Canada, and a newcomer in this category: Slovakia!

All of our work, from maintaining the website and creating new material, to producing video content and translating thousands of subtitles and articles, relies upon you, the public, and your donations. So, I wish to thank you all for your continuing support. Please share with your loved ones and friends our project, or anyone who might be interested in the wisdom of Tibet but does not know of our website and might like to help support our work. Together we shall “Make the Ageless Wisdom of Tibet Available to All.”

Links:

• Study Buddhism website of the Berzin Archives
• Study Buddhism on Facebook
• Study Buddhism on YouTube

We’ve had another busy and productive three months here at Study Buddhism. As we approach the end of the year, we have started to look back to see what we’ve achieved so far, as well as how we can improve in the future. We are happy that, despite the extraordinary year the world has experienced, we have continued to work hard at developing our website and bringing the Dharma to our readers, viewers, and listeners across the globe. 

We’ve also worked to broaden the scope of our horizons. This quarter, we’ve released our first interview with a Muslim teacher, in this case, Dr Imtiyaz Yusuf. Dr Yusuf is Associate Professor and coordinator of the Islam and Buddhism Program at The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and provided interesting insight into Islamic-Buddhist relations in a series of videos which have proven very popular. We have also prepared for release our second interview from Dharma Drum Mountain, one of the world’s largest Chinese Chan Buddhist organizations. We premiered Abbot Guo Huei’s interview back in the summer, and soon we’ll be ready to release the interview videos of Venerable Chang Zao, the Director of Dharma Drum Mountain Malaysia.

As usual, our teams of translators have been busy translating content into our 30 languages, producing a stunning average of 11 translations every single day, with the number of subtitle files translated up more than 100% compared to the same period in 2019. All of this is having a positive effect with visitors, both to our Studybuddhism website and our various social media channels, continuing to grow. Our YouTube channel recently surpassed 21,000 subscribers, and every day we inch closer to 50,000 followers on Facebook. You’ll find more details in the bulleted list below.

Here are some of our accomplishments over these last three months:

• Translation and addition of 584 new articles
• Translation and addition of 440 subtitle files
• Copyediting of 75 English articles
• Transcription of 10 audio files
• Adjustment and expansion of tagging feature for articles
• Program, design and addition in the English section of a pop-up window feature with definitions of technical terms
• Program, design and addition of team photos and statistics feature on the About Us pages
• Creation of a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan
• Implementation of SEO recommendations for redirects for external links
• Improvement of the management of our hosting server and database
• Design and creation of a new, updated About Us page, featuring photo sections for our main staff and teams of translators
• Design and construction of statistics icons on the About Us page, providing a clear overview of our content and followers across the website and social media
• Search Engine Optimization improvements of backlinks for the old Berzin Archives website
• Editing of 13 videos of an interview with Tashi Mannox, acclaimed Dharma artist and Tibetan calligraphy expert.
• Subtitling and addition to the Study Buddhism YouTube channel of the above-mentioned interview clips with Tashi Mannox.
• Subtitling of 13 videos of our interview with Geshe Dorji Damdul, a distinguished Buddhist scholar, who is currently serving as the director of Tibet House, the Cultural Centre of H.H. the Dalai Lama, based in New Delhi, India.
• Editing of 11 videos of an interview held at Drum Drum Mountain Taiwan with Venerable Chang Zao, a Chan Buddhist nun and the Director of Dharma Drum Mountain Malaysia.
• The transcription of the above-mentioned interview, which was in Chinese, and the translation of this text into English.
• The creation of Chinese and English subtitles for the above-mentioned interview with Venerable Chang Zao.
• Releasing on our YouTube channel of 9 videos of an interview with Dr Imtiyaz Yusuf, Associate Professor and coordinator of the Islam and Buddhism Program at The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

All of this hard work is made possible by your continuing generous support. Together, we shall “Make the Ageless Wisdom of Tibet Available to All.”

Links:

• Study Buddhism website of the Berzin Archives
• Study Buddhism on Facebook
• Study Buddhism on YouTube