Introduction to Classical Tibetan

Instructor: Frances Garrett

This course offers a twelve-week introduction to Classical Tibetan language for beginners who know the Tibetan script (but who cannot decipher phrases or sentences), with lessons based on Joe Wilson's Translating Buddhism from Tibetan (Snow Lion Publications, 1992). Lessons focus on the development of basic grammar and vocabulary, with lectures and practice exercises presented on this website. For students officially enrolled in the University of Toronto online course, additional assignments, tests, and tutorials are available.

Lifestory Literature in Classical Tibetan: The Life of Milarepa

Instructor: Frances Garrett

This is an intermediate level Classical Tibetan language course that uses biographical literature as its focus. Over ten lessons, students in this course read an abridged version of a fifteenth-century lifestory of the meditation master and poet, Milarepa. Milarepa is one of the most well-known figures in Tibetan literature, and The Life of Milarepa offers a dramatic story of his search for liberation while presenting an intimate portrayal of Buddhism and society in medieval Tibet.