༄༅། །བྲག་གདོང་བཀྲས་གླིང་དབང་རྡོར་ལགས་སུ་གླེང་མོལ། In conversation with Drakdong Tréling Wangdor lak

Drakdong Tréling Wangdor was born in 1934, during The independent Tibet . As a child, he rose every day before dawn and chanted the mnemonic formulas of Tibetan grammar, which were composed well over a millennium before and would one day become the foundation for his Shakespearean translations. After completing primary school in Tibet in 1946, he was one of ten students sent by the Tibetan government to study at St. Joseph’s, an English Jesuit boys’ boarding school located in Darjeeling, India. It was there that a teenage Wangdor fell in love with Shakespeare.
Founded in 1888 as the educational epitome of the British Raj, the school was the English heart of the Himalayas, with many of the students leaving directly for Cambridge or Oxford upon graduation. India gained independence in 1947, but St. Joseph’s Anglophile educational system continued unchanged; students were prohibited from reading Indian newspapers due to the administration’s assertion that these publications were not written in proper English. The school boasted a vast library of masterworks of Western literature, shipped thousands of miles from Europe to the Himalayan foothills, with the works of William Shakespeare being central to the collection.
Within a few years of arriving in India, Wangdor spoke fluent English with the Queen’s accent. He studied at St. Joseph’s for seven years, and in 1953, two years after Tibet’s “peaceful liberation” by China, 19-year-old Wangdor returned to his home country. He taught mathematics at the newly founded elementary school in Lhasa and simultaneously began his initial study of Chinese, later working as a translator for the Chinese cadres stationed in Tibet. In the prefaces to his Shakespeare translations and in numerous interviews, he credits his skills as an English-to-Tibetan translator to this earlier work translating Chinese.
When the Chinese government allowed foreign travel to Tibet in the 1980s, Wangdor began to work for a travel agency and revived his English language skills that had been dormant for more than thirty years. Upon his retirement seven years later, he finally began the project he first conceived of as a boy in India: translating Shakespeare into Tibetan.
@tricycle.org/t...

[@sonamlhasa9053]

བཀྲས་དབང་ལགས་རྒྱ་སྐད་མང་པོ་སྐྱོན་དགོས་དོན་ཅི་ཡིན་ནམ།

[@lhagangchoedak2541]

ཞུ་ཚོད་ཐིག་མ་སོང་། གང་ལ་འདུལ་ཡིན་ན་ནི་གང་ཤེས། དེ་མིན་ཅུང་རྣ་བར་མི་མཛེས་པ་འདྲ་པོ་མཐོང་བྱུང་།

[@Longlife59]

Sad to learn Wangdor la passed away in Lhasa. I have a fond memory of spending a day with him at home in Lhasa

[@lhagangchoedak2541]

ཁོང་གི་བཀྲས་ཟུར་ཚང་གི་གསང་བའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་དང་རོ་མོ་དང་ཇུ་ལེ་ཡི་ཟློས་གར་ཚར་ཁ་ཤས་བཀླགས་ཡིན། རྩོམ་པ་པོ་མཇལ་མ་མྱོང་ཡང་། སེམས་ཐག་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཉེ། ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨ་ཧུཾ🙏

[@nfncidan8354]

Really awesome 👏

[@ooamazing111newyork5]

Yong guys sounds like Red Chinese 🤮 Thoda Hajam NaHe huwa 🤣