The Eyes of the World - Lives of Tibetan Lotsawas

The book entitled "The Eyes of the World" contains the biographies of sixty-one great Lotsawas (Translators) of the Snow Land (Tibet) who played a crucial role in opening the eyes and generating a good heart of the people of Tibet through the translation of the Buddhavacana from Sanskrit to Tibetan and enabling them to study and comprehend it.

Born in a middle class family in West Bengal, Dr. Sanjib Kumar Das was educated at Chandpara Nimna Buniyadi Vidyalaya (Amtala) and then in Gobardanga Khantura High School. Meanwhile, due to some of his personal problems, he fled away from home and worked as a waiter in several hotels and sweet shops for about two years in Kolkata. Later, he went to Darjeeling and took shelter in a Buddhist Monastery where he also worked as a helper of mason for about a year. There, an auspicious co-incidence came upon in his life that also totally changed his life as well. On account of the kindness of the Thupten Sanga Choling Monastery, he was admitted in its branch school named 'Drukpa Kagyu Destitute Home' where he studied upto standard VIII. Subsequently, he was sent to Varanasi in 1989 in order to get admission in the then Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (present CUTS), Sarnath for higher studies. Getting admission, he obtained M.A., pursuing upon Buddhist Philosophy, Tibetan Language and other prescribed subjects. In 1998, he was awarded with the Kashi Naresh Gold Medal for being the best student of 1998. After completing M.A., he started doing his Ph.D. which he completed in 2002. In 1999, he was invited as a Translator from Tibetan into English to Taiwan where he stayed for about five months. In 2002, he got a temporary job in the Translation Department in the CIHTS, Sarnath and simultaneously a permanent job in Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh where he worked for about six years. In 2008, he got a new job in Visva-Bharati University. Santiniketan where he has been working on the post of Associate Professor in the Department of Indo-Tibetan Studies since he joined. Apart from his academic works, Dr. Das was also carried out the responsibility of HOD [Head of the Department]. Department of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Visva-Bharati for about seven years as well as the I/C Director, Centre for Buddhist Studies for three years, Visva-Bharati. Dr. Das has also composed, translated, edited, restored and compiled several books which have been published by different universities, institutions and publishers in India. Apart from translation, compilation, restoration and editing work, Dr. Das attended number of Local, National and International seminars, and presented papers.

'Lotsawa' (Wyl. lo tsA ba) is a Tibetan term used as a title refer to the native Tibetan translators who worked with Indian panditas to translate Buddhist scriptures into Tibetan from Sanskrit and other Asian languages. It is thought to derive from Sanskrit locchava, which is said to literally mean 'bilingual' or 'eyes of the world'. The term is also referred to modern-day translators or Tibetan Buddhist texts.

Two years back, once when I was going through a book entitled "dpag bsam ljon bzang (Eng. History of Buddhism in India and Tibet)" by Sumpa Khenpo for collecting additional information about the Indian Buddhist Personalities, which I included in one of my previous books: "The Torch Bearers", I coincidently came across a word "108 Tibetan Lotsawas" who are called the "Eyes of the World". Those lotsawas (translators) are the ones who played a vital and incredible role in keeping the Buddha's teachings, particularly the Mahayana teachings alive till today. They are also the ones who extended noteworthy contribution in making the Buddha's teachings accessible for the subjects and devotees of the Land of Snow in their own language. After making a thorough investigation, when I came to know that the biographies of all those lotsawas were not available neither in Tibetan, Hindi or English in a single source, I immediately made up my mind to make them accessible in one book upon consulting different Tibetan sources. My main aim to work on it was to be inspired with the meticulous and painstaking effort made by those lotsawas for translating the huge treasury of Buddhavacana and its commentarial works.

**Contents and Sample Pages**