The Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish (s. Damamūka nidāna sūtra; t. མདོ་མཛངས་བླུན་, mdo mdzangs blun; k. hsien-yü ching) is a collection of Jātaka stories found in the Chinese and Tibetan canons. The text was translated into Chinese from Central Asian sources i. s. Around 445, and later in the 9th century, it was translated from a Chinese source text into Tibetan by Gö Cshödub (འགོས་ཆོས་གྲུབ་, ’gos chos grub, 755?‒849).

The origin of this unusual collection of texts is still uncertain. According to legend, the tales were heard by Chinese monks in Khotan, who later translated them into Chinese. In the caves of Thunhuang we find many wall paintings illustrating the stories of the Sutra of the Wise and the Fool, as well as painted scrolls on the same theme. The text was translated from Tibetan into Mongolian. The Tibetan translation can be found in Derge Kangyur [A. 129a-298a], in the General Sutras chapter, Toh 341 (Tohoku catalog number).

There is no full Hungarian translation yet. The Tibetan version of the sutra contains 51 stories, 20 of which have been translated into Hungarian: Zoltán Lengyel, Mónika Szegedi (editors). 1999. The Wise and the Fool – Tibetan Buddhist Stories. Budapest: Palatinus Publishing. The translations for this were also prepared by the college’s students studying Tibetan.

Within the framework of the Tibetan language specialization, classical Tibetan grammar can be learned in the lessons of the first two years. With this knowledge, students can start translating this text already in the third grade. First, the previously unpublished stories will be translated, and after they are finished, the stories that have already been published will be re-translated, in order to have a complete translation of the entire sutra in a uniform language as much as possible.

The students will not do the translation work individually, but in each year, under the professional guidance of the head teacher.

Tibetan language specialization 2021-2024

in progress