Make the Ageless Wisdom of Tibet Available to All

At Study Buddhism headquarters, our dedication to sharing the profound wisdom of Tibet with the world remains unwavering. This quarter has been no exception, as the entire team has worked tirelessly to fulfill our mission. From expanding our digital resources and translating rare texts to developing innovative learning materials, with their expertise and passion, the Study Buddhism team continue to bridge the gap between ancient Tibetan teachings and the modern world, ensuring that this invaluable wisdom remains accessible to all who seek it. 

Over the last few months, our various translators, editors, and assistants, who are based all over the world, have prepared over 260 article translations and more than 350 subtitle files. 

This continued effort in creating subtitles for our video content is proving extremely worthwhile, as 53% of our videos are now watched with subtitles turned on. Meanwhile, our YouTube channel is performing excellently, with high engagement for every new video we post. Over the last quarter, views are up 25% from the previous quarter, while watch time is up 45% to 7,200 hours (the equivalent of 300 days!). This seems to show that our recent swing to providing slightly longer form content is proving popular with viewers. We recently released our second interview series with the beloved Buddhist master Ringu Tulku, and these videos, like the previous set, have been very well received. Engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has also been increasing steadily and, all in all, over the last three months, our content has been seen more than 4 million times on the social media platforms we use.

At the same time, we have been researching how to use current technology in an efficient manner to bring our vast archive of Dharma teachings to the public. Using the same application that we did for our recently released audio articles, we are testing its transcription abilities for a range of recorded teachings, starting with those of Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II. It is our hope that such technology will remove some of the toil of manual transcription and allow our experts to finalize texts more quickly for publication on the website. We will keep you up to date with our progress!

• Preparation and publication of a 7-part commentary on “Differences between Gelugpa and Nyingma concerning Emptiness (Voidness) in Prasangika” given by Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II
• Preparation and publication of a translation of “Compatibility of the Four Tibetan Traditions’ Assertions about Primordial Mind” given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• Editing and publication of a 7-part transcription of a seminar “Elaboration of ‘Karma: Who’s to Blame?’”
• Editing and publication of 2 parts of a multipart article on “Buddhism in the Mongol and Turkic Regions of Russia 2023” by guest author Dr. Andrey Terentyev 
• Editing and publication of an additional part of “The Pre-Soviet History of Buddhism in the Russian Empire” by guest author Dr. Andrey Terentyev  
• Editing and publication of a 3-part article on “Mongolian Monasteries before the 1937 Purge” by guest author Dr. Zsuzsa Majer
• Revision of the 6-part article “Using Buddhist Metaphysics to Analyze a Problem”
• Preparation and publication of 270 translations of articles into our various languages
• Copyediting of 56 transcripts, files, and articles
• Editing of 12 videos from our interview with Ringu Tulku, Buddhist master and founder of Bodhicharya International. This includes the creation of YouTube versions, as well as versions for our Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram and TikTok channels
• The addition of the above-mentioned Ringu Tulku videos to our YouTube channel and the creation of 12 subtitles files in English, plus 372 subtitle files in our other languages for this interview series
• Creation of a transcript of the interview with Ringu Tulku for later use in our online interview section
• Preparation of 8 quotes taken from our video interviews and other sources, accompanied with graphics, and the uploading of these to social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter)
• Preparation of 8 different video clips and uploading them to social media channels. Each video was prepared for posting on Facebook with 32 language subtitles, on Twitter with embedded English subtitles, and on Instagram at 9:16 format with embedded English subtitles
• Preparation of 8 article posts for our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) along with introductions to these articles
• Addition of written interviews with His Eminence Dagyab Rinpoche, Ajahn Sulak Sivaraksa, Charok Lama, and Venerable Chang Zao, in the Interviews section
• Preparation and design of the User Interface and Navigation for the new Recommended Reading Lists section of Accounts
• Translation of the User Interface and Navigation for the Recommended Reading Lists into 16 of our website languages 
• Splitting of Accounts into Profile, Favorites and Recommended Reading Lists and updating of the Accounts Navigation
• Addition of images to each of the sections and subsections of Accounts
• Addition to Favorites of personalized titles with user’s first name
• Expansion of the Content Management System for the input of all needed material for the Recommended Reading Lists and for generation of the lists in all languages on the website, showing for each language only translated and published articles and hiding sections with no translated articles 
• Deployment of teh Recommended Reading Lists in the Accounts section in 16 language sections
• Setup and Installation of Microsoft Clarity Analytics and Bling Analytics
• Addition of SoundCloud mini player to articles with machine-generated voice synthesized audio and restriction of its addition to only the English section
• Machine-generated transcription begun of English audio files of lectures given by Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II
• Completion of research and testing of alternative donation platforms for non-US donations and decision to extend the contract of the present Micropayment platform
• Continuing maintenance of all technical systems   

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