Immerse yourself in all things Tibet
at the Dharma Farm
The Dharma Farm is an online school of translation of Tibetan language, philosophy, culture, and environmental sciences. We are translators of Tibetan works on the commentaries on Buddha’s Thought, historians of Asia, and field practitioners in science and technology.
Our Dharma Farm Fall Semester begins on September 30 and ends on December 7. The semester is eight weeks with a week off from 10/28 - 11/02 in the middle and a week off for the US Thanksgiving holiday 11/25 - 11/30. All times are given in Pacific Daylight Time.
Students can join classes anytime in the semester. Our students have complex lives and we want to help their learning. All classes are recorded, and the recordings will be made available to students a few hours after the class.
The Dharma Farm is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational foundation.
2024 Fall Courses
Tibetan Language Classes
We offer Tibetan language classes at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. Levels indicate the general level of the instruction and are not intended to exclude interested students. Our students have complex lives and we want to help their learning. We record all our classes. The recordings are available shortly afterwards so that students can catch up when convenient for them.
Beginning Tibetan Language Class: Tibetan for Absolute Beginners and Beginners Wishing to Review with Andrew M. McKenzie.
This course meets Once a week at 11:00 am - 12:30 on Wednesdays for an hour and a half for eight weeks. Tuition is $360.
Prerequisites: only that you want to read and pronounce the Tibetan language!
This is a relaxed, fun class for beginners, and for folks who would like a review from the ground up. We will start with learning how to write and pronounce Tibetan letters, and then learning how to pronounce letters when they are combined into syllables. Next is the introduction to words and their pronunciation. Tibetan has nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and postpositions. This is the grounding you need, opening the door to learning how to read sentences, not to mention the many upper level Dharma Farm Tibetan translation courses.
Beginning Translating Classical Tibetan with Craig Preston, J.D.
This course meets Twice a week at 9:00 am - 10:30 on Tuesdays and Fridays for eight weeks.
Tuition is $720 per semester. This is a year-long course that will continue into the winter and spring semesters.
This is the Dharma Farm’s signature beginning course in learning how to translate Buddhist philosophy from Tibetan. This course is for students who have some familiarity with pronouncing syllables and some reading. The more prior reading experience a student has, the more context the student will bring to this systematic presentation of how Tibetan signifies meaning. In the over twenty years I have taught this course, many of my students have taken it a second time. Some prior experience with Buddhist philosophy would be helpful because we will be introducing patterns in Tibetan grammar often with the vocabulary of philosophy. Roughly there are four parts:
1. Recognizing recurring patterns in syllables, words, phrases, clauses, and sentences.
2. How verbs anchor clauses and sentences, Wilson's descriptive classification of eight classes of verbs, morphology of verb forms, compound verb syntax, and verb-noun hybrids we call "verbals."
3. Declension: how the eight cases signify relational meanings for nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and noun phrases.
4. Beyond declension: how Classical Tibetan employs a range of lexical particles and syntactic particles.
Translating Textbooks on Tenets: The Sutra School with Craig Preston, J.D.
This course meets Twice a week at 9:00 am - 10:30 on Mondays and Thursdays for eight weeks.
Tuition is $720 per semester. This is a year-long course that will continue into the winter and spring semesters.
This is an intermediate level Tibetan translation course.
This is a continuation of last year’s tenets course reading the tenets of the Great Exposition School. We will be reading Jay-dzun-pa’s Presentation of Tenets on the Sutra School where we will focus on learning to translate technical Buddhist philosophy from Tibetan.
Translating Textbooks on Minds and Awareness with Craig Preston, J.D.
This is an intermediate level Tibetan translation . It course meets Once a week at 9:00 am - 10:30 on Wednesdays for eight weeks. Tuition is $360.
We will be reading Ge-shay Jam-pel-sam-pel's Presentation of Awareness and Knowledge, Composite of all the important points, Opening the eye of new intelligence. For background and commentary we also have Mind in Tibetan Buddhism Paperback – January 1, 1981, by Lati Rinpoche (Author), Elizabeth S. Napper (Editor, Translator, Introduction).
Reading Jamgön Kongtrül’s Encyclopedia with Jules Levinson, Ph.D.
This is an advanced level Tibetan translation class. This course meets Once a week on Wednesdays from 1:00 pm - 2:30. Tuition is $360 per semester. This is a year-long course that will continue into the winter and spring semesters.
We will be reading a chapter from Kongtrül Lodrö Tayés Encyclopedia (shes bya kun khyab). The sections are devoted to principles for interpretation of Buddhist scripture, the three turnings of the wheel of doctrine, and the two truths in the four schools of tenets.
Their Point of View: Tibetans on Classical Tibetan Grammar with Jules Levinson, Ph.D.
Unfortunately, this class is unavailable this semester.
We will be reading Yangjen Gawé Lodrö’s Commentary on Thönmi Sambhoṭa’s རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པ།.
Debating Collected Topics in Tibetan with Craig Preston, J.D.
This is an advanced level Tibetan debate class. It meets Once a week on Saturdays 9:00 am - 11:00.
We will be learning the form of debate used in Tibetan monastic colleges using Pur-bu-jok’s Magical Key to the Path of Reasoning. This course that will continue into the winter and spring semesters. There is no tuition for this class.
Not Just a Pretty (type) Face: Exploring the Tibetan Syllabary with Andrew McKenzie
This course meets Once a week at 7:00 am - 8:30 on Tuesdays for eight weeks. Tuition is $360 per semester. This course will continue into the winter and spring semesters.
This is a course in how to write the Tibetan Syllabary. It is a continuation of last year’s class and will pick up where that course left off. Each semester’s class can easily accommodate beginners.
Philosophy Classes without much Tibetan
The Necessary Angel: Wallace Stevens on Reality and the Imagination with Jules Levinson, Ph.D.
Unfortunately, this class is unavailable this semester.
This course explores this collection of essays, slowly to be sure, and in a manner that will encourage, even require, all of us to read deeply and be affected deeply. How cool is that?
Things I Wish I Knew When I Began Studying Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy with Craig Preston, J.D.
This course meets Once a week at 2:00 pm - 3:30 on Fridays for eight weeks. Tuition is $360.
This course explores the bewildering multitude of technical terms we find everywhere when reading Buddhist Philosophy.
Reading Georges Dreyfus’s Recognizing Reality with Craig Preston, J.D.
This course meets Once a week at 11:30 am - 1:00 pm on Thursdays for eight weeks. Tuition is $360.
This course is a leisurely close reading of Georges Dreyfus’s masterful Recognizing Reality: Dharmakirti's Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations. This course is an indispensable philosophical companion to both the fall Tenets translation course and the fall Minds and Awareness translation class. This is a year-long course that will continue into the winter and spring semesters.
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Companion to Reading Jamgön Kongtrül’s Encyclopedia with Craig Preston, J.D.
This course meets Once a week at 11:30 am - 1:00 pm on Mondays for eight weeks. Tuition is $360.
This course is a leisurely exploration of the doctrinal backstory for Great Vehicle philosophy of liberation discussed by Jamgön Kongtrül. This is a year-long course that will continue into the winter and spring semesters, for as long as Jules keeps reading Jamgön Kongtrül with us.
Classes on Tibetan Culture, History, and Climate Change in the Himalayas
Culture and History from the Beginning of the Era of the Dalai Lamas to the Early 20th Century with Rob Vanwey, J.D.
This course meets Twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. For this course there will be two sections: one meeting at 7:00 am - 8:30 in the mornings and the other meeting at 2:30 pm - 4:00 in the afternoon, for eight weeks. Tuition is $720. There are no prerequisites, so this is a good course for those just starting to learn about Tibetan history.
This course explores what was happening both inside of Tibet and between Tibet and its neighbors starting from the first Dalai Lamas to the present.
Adapting to Climate Change in the Himalayas with Rob Vanwey, J.D.
This course meets Once a week Wednesdays for eight weeks. For this course there will be two sections: one meeting at 7:00 am - 8:30 in the mornings and the other meeting at 3:00 pm - 4:30. Tuition is $360.
Rob has spent the last several years working on solutions for challenges people face adapting to climate change in the Himalayas through his EALS Global Foundation. EALS works with climate organizations across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, bringing technological solutions to traditional—if severely amplified—problems. This course will introduce you to people working in the field, the kinds of projects they do, and how you can become involved.