Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia
The Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia (CBE) project is a project with a very far reaching vision, which needs energy, resources and time to develop. The key function of CBE is the combination of IT& computers, digitized Buddhist materials and software and providing everyone with access to Internet the opportunity to use those applications and materials. We believe that Buddhism is useful for everyone who has interest to study and Internet and computers provide excellent opportunity for such global projects as CBE.
The author and main organizer of Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia is Vello Vaartnou. The CBE project was officially started in December, 2012, when Vaartnou presented the idea of the CBE at the ECAI conference in University of California, Berkeley, USA. As the project is still very young, many of our ideas and plans have not realized yet. Just as Buddhism itself, the CBE project is a collective creation and in order for us to succeed, we need multi-lingual-national-traditional team to work together for the common goal.
We believe that in presence and the future computer and IT have an increasingly important effect and use amongst all people. Same applies for Buddhist studies and it is vital for Buddhists with computer skills to join in unified effort to create new and innovative solutions for 21th century Dharma students.
Academic approach will provide the opportunity to handle the materials and information scientifically, making them easily accessible and understandable for modern people and creating the opportunity for future generations to continue building on the online platform of CBE. Each published article will have an academic prologue. In case of traditional Buddhist texts, Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, and Mongolian terminology will be used. The meanings of the terminology will be explained in Chinese and English.
Join Us
Translators - our everyday work and communications are multi lingual, especially in terms of Chinese and English. We are seeking for more people whose mother tongue would be English or Chinese and could help us with proofreading and translating letters and text materials. We also need to translate and develop the idea of Buddhist Encyclopedia in different languages, therefore we welcome all people who are interested to be involved and master any other languages besides Mandarin and English.
Editors - the work that we have to do is enormous. We are looking for more English or Chinese speaking editors. Currently, the role of an editor is to search and post more articles. Usually every editor has his/her own research subject.
IT specialists- the success of our project relies equally on the knowledge on Buddhism as well as IT. We are constantly looking for new software solutions and we welcome people who are good with IT and computers such as – website developers, designers, programmers and others
Advisers - we are seeking for more highly educated Buddhist disciples, academics, scholars or any other individuals or organizations, who can contribute to the development of the Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia.
Partners- universities, schools, temples, monasteries, government departments, libraries, archives, museums, etc. are all welcome to propose any useful forms of cooperation
Sponsors - we need additional funds to increase the staff, buy equipment, books and conduct the Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia project. You DONATIONS are most welcome.
For any request of information, please contact us - info(at)chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com
