Until Nirvana’s Time—the first collection of traditional Khmer Buddhist poetry available in English—presents translations of 45 Khmer dharma songs whose soaring melodies have inspired Cambodian Buddhist communities for generations. Grounded in 15 years of research on oral and written traditions in Cambodia, the book centers on a corpus of poems from the 16th to 20th centuries that are still chanted today in daily prayers or all-night rituals. Many of these texts were transcribed by the translator from cassette tapes or bark-paper manuscripts and appear in print for the first time in this volume. Essays and notes that situate these local compositions within a broader Buddhist context accompany the translations.

KF’s five-member selection committee unanimously approved Professor Natalie Gummer’s nomination of Until Nirvana’s Time for this year’s award. Of her choice, Dr. Gummer writes: “Until Nirvana’s Time is a groundbreaking translation. Not only does it make a fascinating part of Cambodian Buddhist literature widely available for the first time in English, but it also renders the vocal qualities of these songs, in consonance with their composition and use, and offers rich context for their Buddhist background and their ritual recitation. Trent Walker sets a new standard for translations that aim to capture the power of performative texts.”

The book was the focus of a Khyentse Foundation Goodman Lecture in 2023.

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A distinguished scholar of Buddhism, Luis Gómez passed away in Mexico City on September 3, 2017. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. He had retired from the faculty on January 1, 2009.

Luis’s scholarship on Buddhism covered a remarkable range of important topics over his career, including Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and pan-Asian Buddhism, with a particular emphasis on the literature and religious vision of the Mahayana. He wrote a number of groundbreaking articles devoted to the “sudden vs. gradual” dichotomy both in early Chinese Chan and at the Samye Debate in Tibet. Among his books, The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996) is considered the definitive study of the highly influential Buddhist scripture, the Sukhavativyuha Sutra. He also published extensively in Spanish.

Professor Paul Harrison

Paul Harrison is George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, where he has taught since 2006. Educated in his native New Zealand and in Australia, he specializes in Buddhist literature and history, particularly of the Mahayana, and in the study of Buddhist manuscripts in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan. He has edited and translated several Mahayana sutras, and has published numerous journal articles on Buddhist sacred texts and their interpretation. He is also one of the editors of the series “Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection.”

Paul’s current projects include editions, translations, and studies of Mahayana and Mainstream Buddhist sutras and shastras, including the Vajracchedika (Diamond Sutra), Lokanuvartana (Sutra of Conformity with the World), and Shikshasamucchaya (Compendium of Training).

Paul serves as co-director of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford.

“When word of the discovery of a Sanskrit manuscript of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa began to circulate in the early 2000s, it sent shock waves throughout the Buddhist Studies world. Long known only in its Chinese and Tibetan translations, leaving scholars to guess what its original Indian terminology might have been, this highly influential text could now be consulted in an original Indic-language version.

“The news that Paul Harrison and the late Luis Gómez had embarked on a project to translate the newly discovered Sanskrit text was thus greeted with widespread enthusiasm. These two scholars, both leading figures in the field of Mahayana sutra literature, were uniquely qualified to produce a translation of this important text. The two worked on the translation over a period of several years, discussing and debating the rendition of every term. After Luis’s passing, Paul brought the project to completion, and the fruits of their joint labors are now available in print.” — Dr. Jan Nattier, an eminent scholar of Buddhist studies, served as this year’s nominating member on the KF Prize for Outstanding Translation committee.

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He is the former president of the International Association of Buddhist Studies and of the American Oriental Society. Since 1996 he has been the director of the University of Washington’s Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project, leading the ongoing international project of editing, translating, and publishing the earliest surviving Buddhist manuscripts.

Professor Salomon’s specialties include Sanskrit language and literature, Indian Buddhist literature and textual studies, Indian epigraphy and paleography, early Indian history, Gāndhārī language and Gandhāran studies, and the world history of writing. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

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Dr. Brunnhölzl said, “I feel very honored and privileged to receive this award. More importantly though, the prize highlights the major significance of the entire Yogācāra tradition in general, as well as Asanga’s Mahāyānasaṃgrahaand its commentarial tradition in specific, as being a major Indian Buddhist system of thought and practice that has been vastly influential over many hundreds of years in numerous countries. It is my wish that these volumes may be a small contribution toward Yogācāra receiving the attention and appreciation in the English-speaking world that it deserves.”

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“This award is incredibly gratifying. I worked for decades, literally, on this material, and I’m thrilled to receive this kind of recognition,” said Rotman, who is currently traveling in India for research on his next work. 

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“Although the title suggests clarity, the text is actually quite challenging,” said Dr. MacDonald in an article published in Der Standard, a Viennese newspaper. The Prasannapada, written in Sanskrit by the 7th century scholar Chandrakirti, is a commentary on Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika.

“I would like to sincerely thank Khyentse Foundation for having selected my book for their Prize for Outstanding Translation…I am sure that Chandrakirti would be thrilled were he alive today to see his work acknowledged by such a remarkable foundation, and by extension, by its exceptional founder and head, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, held by the Tibetan tradition to be an emanation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva associated with prajna, insight, who is repeatedly mentioned and praised by Chandrakirti in his works.

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Professor Skilling said, “Professor Katsura was a board member of the IABS for many years, so this is a particular honor and pleasure for us at the IABS to give this prize here.” Professor Siderits gave a short speech thanking KF and Wisdom Publications. He also thanked Professor Katsura for making the project so much fun. KF Academic Development Committee member Greg Forgues and others from the KF team were present for the ceremony.

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In addition to the clear and elegant translation of the poem itself, the book offers background information about the literary, cultural, and religious context of the text.

The translated poem is not simply a window into another culture; it is an aesthetic experience that moves the reader to an enhanced understanding of the life of the Buddha. The spirit of the translation lives up to the request of the poet, who shortly before his death in 1982 expressed his desire that the poem should “read well in English, so that the reader can understand the beauty [of] the original.”

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