The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOS RAS) hosted the presentation of a new digital tool TRAIT — an assistant translator from Tibetan into Russian, created as part of a project to apply artificial intelligence technologies to the translation of sacred texts of the Buddhist canon.
The development was presented by a creative team that brought together orientalists, IT engineers, artificial intelligence specialists, as well as Buddhist scholars and clergy.
The created computer-aided translation system TRAIT (Translator with AI from Tibetan language) is an AI tool that can significantly simplify and speed up the process of translating texts from Tibetan.
According to the developers, the use of artificial intelligence in the translation of sacred texts not only facilitates the work of specialists, but also makes Buddhist teachings more accessible and understandable to the Russian-speaking audience. The Tibetan language is traditionally considered one of the most difficult and little-studied in translation practice, and the volume of the Buddhist canon (Kangyur and Ganjur) is 333 volumes, which makes the translation task especially large-scale.
According to the project participants, the cooperation of academic scientists from the IOS RAS, Buddhist universities and religious communities made it possible to combine scientific and spiritual approaches to the translation of ancient texts.
According to experts, the introduction of the TRAIT program will be a significant step in the development of Russian Buddhology and digital humanities. The new tool will not only help in the formation of the Russian-language Buddhist canon, but also create conditions for the unification of terminology in Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Mongolian.