The Great Tibetan Dictionary vs DDB Access Usage & Stats

This dictionary is a fully revised version of The Great Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo). The basis for the revised edition is the very first edition of the dictionary, published on paper in the 1970’s in China. We produced and published this revised edition during the early 1990's in Nepal. It is noteworthy that there are other versions of this dictionary available in various places. However, these were all made from an input of the original done by the Asian Classics Input Project which we checked entry by entry and found to be highly corrupt and with significant omissions and additions. Be warned that all the other digital versions available these days still contain all the corruption, omissions, and additions! Having discovered that, we input the dictionary ourselves then spent two full years revising the content, correcting many mistakes, especially in the Sanskrit, in the original. Then we made another major change to the dictionary; the original comes with definitions in both Tibetan and Chinese but we wanted a version with Tibetan only. Therefore, we carefully removed the Chinese text. The result, available here, is an entirely new version of the originally dictionary with substantial improvements to the text and with the feature which many Westerners had requested of being Tibetan-Tibetan only. The dictionary is not easy to read. Definitions tend to be very short and terse so, unless you are already well-versed in Tibetan language, it is easy to go astray based on what is said. However, the dictionary contains over 55,000 entries, more than any other single dictionary and contains many useful examples. Thus, this is not a dictionary for beginners; it is a real Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary made for Tibetans which demands a good knowledge of the language to be of use. Nevertheless, it is an essential reference for anyone whose Tibetan is sufficiently good to be able to use it successfully. Certainly translators should be using this dictionary and should be using it instead of the many other copies available on the internet today.

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DDB Access

DDB (Digital Dictionary of Buddhism) and CJKV-E (Classical Chinese) are collaborative works edited by Charles Muller, University of Tokyo. DDB Access gives access to DDB and CJKV-E from iPhone and iPad. DDB Access is a free application. Any user may access the dictionary by entering "guest" as the username with no password. This will allow a total of 20 searches in each of the DDB and CJKV-E dictionaries in a 24-hour period. Contributors can get unlimited access by submitting a 350+ word entry as specified at http://www.buddhism-dict.net/contribute.html DDB and CJKV-E are primarily resources for scholars. Contributors are required to have completed a graduate degree to at least the equivalent of the M.A. level in graduate school program at a fully accredited university, where one has received direct formal training in the reading of classical East Asian Buddhist texts. PARSE AND LOOKUP Copy a full text and get all words with one click. DDB Access provides immediate access to unknown words, with links to related words (also in, contained) and character series (Kangxi, etymology). Texts or individual words can be read aloud with Apple voices. ETYMOLOGY Along centuries, Chinese writing has developed a number of reference points, reasonable or simply traditional, well known by most Chinese: "Se non è vero, è ben trovato". Character series emphasize these reference points. All character series available for the current character are easily accessible. SEARCHES Search dictionaries by Chinese, translation or pinyin. DICTIONARIES The application also includes general dictionaries for scholars working on Buddhist texts with literary or historical terminology, and a first demo of the "Couvreur" dictionary for Classical Chinese. USER INTERFACE User chooses to show pronunciations in Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese. Lookup is easily customizable to just show preferred details and keep presentation clear. On iPad, landscape orientation (horizontal) can be used either in full screen (split window like on laptop) or multiple applications: the original reader on one side and DDB Access on the other side. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Michael Beddow developed and steadfastly maintained the DDB/CJKV-E servers for about two decades. Paul Hackett has now taken this responsibility.