Knowledge is as infinite as the stars in the sky, yet the most valuable, the most useful, the most reliable knowledge is knowledge of our own mind. This is the lasting gift of the Dharma.
Ways of Work
Yeshe De History
Over 2,500 years ago, the Indian Prince Gautama departed from the royal palace of his father, determined to seek an end to suffering for himself and all beings. After thoroughly exploring every known philosophical doctrine and religious practice, he manifested complete Awakening at Bodh Gaya to become the Buddha. As a living embodiment of omniscience, the Buddha taught the Dharma, which reveals the way to bring confusion, aggression, and greed to an end and to release the full potential of human beings.
In the 7th and 8th centuries, the lineage of the Buddha's realization was transmitted from India to Tibet, and the teachings were translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan. During the next fourteen centuries, the Dharma was studied and practiced intensively and passed in an unbroken lineage from one master to the next, preserving the light of understanding in the human heart and in precious texts describing the steps on the path of liberation.
In our time, this precious treasury of knowledge has become seriously endangered. Since the communist takeover of Tibet beginning in 1951, the very fabric of Tibetan civilization has been destroyed; over 6,000 monasteries have been demolished together with their vast libraries of sacred books and the lineage holders have been forced into exile.
Tarthang Tulku, a Tibetan lineage holder, was exiled to India in the 1960s. He began to collect and publish the most important books that the exiled lamas and monks carried with them through the Himalayas. In 1969, he arrived in the United States, intent on preserving the Dharma heritage of Tibet and introducing the teachings to the West. After founding Dharma Publishing and Press, where his students learned to use modern technology and materials to produce high-quality, long lasting books, he embarked on an ambitious endeavor to gather together and publish Tibetan texts scattered throughout the world. In 1983, this text preservation work was named the Yeshe De Project after one of the greatest translators of 8th-century Tibet.
Our Yeshe De team of long-term Dharma practitioners and new and returning volunteers works together all year long to produce books annually to be given away at the Bodh Gaya World Peace Ceremony. To find out more about Bodh Gaya, read about the World Peace Ceremony.
