Editorial Guidelines

Editorial guidelines for Rigpa Shedra Wiki editors.

0. Getting Started

• Make sure you have read our policy for editors
• You can find some basic information for editors on our Help page.

1. Articles

1.1. Titles

Texts

• Wherever possible, the page title should be in English, using the standard Rigpa translation. Wherever there is not a standard Rigpa translation, it is fine to use the most common translation and it can be revised later, if necessary.

Masters/Teachers

• The page title should be the full name, rather than a nickname. (For example, Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, rather than Khenpo Ngaga or Khenpo Ngakchung).
• Where possible, avoid using honorific titles in the page title: they can appear in the article itself. So, for example, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche rather than Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

1.2. Indicating Terms in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Chinese

Indicate equivalent Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Chinese terms in parentheses, placing Skt., Pali, Tib.,Wyl. or Chin. before the word itself. Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Wylie terms should be in italics. The Sanskrit term in parentheses can have diacritics, but avoid the use of diacritics in the main article. The Tibetan font listing is first, then the Tibetan pronunciation string. Wyl. is a link unlike the other term shortcuts as the reader might not know about Wylie encoding. Only the first Wyl. entry will have the link (standard Mediawiki style to only add a link to the first entry.)

The order to cite is Sanskrit first, then Pali, Tibetan (first Tibetan script, then phoneticization) and Wylie, and lastly Chinese. If the title page already has a phoneticization title, don't add a duplicate entry. Also, phonetics are not needed for all entries. Only terms which would be useful to know for a non-scholarly person could have phonetics.

Tibetan terms and words should end with a sha ( ་ ), not without one or with a tsek (་། ). Ex: སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་, not སྟོང་པ་ཉིད or སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། This is for consistency.

For example:

• The bell (Skt. ghaṇṭa; Tib. དྲིལ་བུ་, drilbu, Wyl. dril bu) symbolizes the feminine principle.
• Hope and fear are the mechanism of samsara (Skt. saṃsāra; Tib. འཁོར་བ་, khorwa, Wyl. 'khor ba) that perpetuate suffering.
• The Stanzas on Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes (Skt. Madhyānta-vibhāga-kārikāḥ; Tib. དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་, Wyl. dbus dang mtha' rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa; Trad. Chin. 辨中邊論頌).

The use of an asterisk (*) preceding the title of a Sanskrit text, place, name and so on, indicates that the title has been reconstructed on the basis of surviving Tibetan and/or East Asian materials.

1.3. Article Structure

All articles should follow this structure of headings after the definition and general explanation:

• Subdivisions or outline
• Text/writings
• Commentaries
• Quotations
• Alternative Translations
• Notes
• Oral Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha
• Further Reading
• Internal Links
• External links

1.4 Hyperlinks within Articles

Hyperlinks to other articles should always be added, but only once at first occurrence.

1.5. Texts

Any page which concerns a single text or a collection of texts, an author page with bibliography, or any other place where texts are listed, should have a texts heading under which the full title, all the information of different languages, translations and for example Kangyur and Tengyur Sigla is combined. Sites that have an icon should be first in the list.

For example:

• The Spell of Uṣṇīṣasitātapatrā (Skt.uṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā aparājita pratyaṅgirā mahā vidyārājñī, Tib. གཙུག་ཏོར་གདུགས་དཀར་གྱི་རིག་སྔགས།, Wyl. gtsug tor gdugs dkar gyi rig sngags, or more fully Skt. ārya sarva tathāgatoṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā nāma aparājita pratyaṅgirā mahā vidyārājñī, Wyl. ('phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi gtsug tor nas byung ba gdugs dkar po can zhes bya ba gzhan gyis mi thub ma phyir zlog pa'i rig sngags kyi rgyal mo chen mo, D 590/985). Tibetan text : གཙུག་ཏོར་གདུགས་དཀར་གྱི་རིག་སྔགས། (Derge Pedurma)
• English translation: The Great Queen of Spells (vidyā-rājñī), the invincible averter [of evil] called the One With The White Parasol, who issued forth from the uṣṇīṣa of all the noble Tathāgatas, translated by Tibor Porció, PhD thesis, Viena, 2000.

And:

• The Casket of Siddhis: A Recitation Manual for 'Vidyādhara Assembly' (Rigdzin Düpa) (bsnyen yig - rig 'dzin bsnyen yig dngos grub kyi za ma tog) (249-260). Tibetan text: གཙུག་ཏོར་གདུགས་དཀར་གྱི་རིག་སྔགས། (Derge)
  • English translation: The Casket of Siddhis, A Recitation Manual for Rigdzin Düpa, the Gathering of Vidyadharas. Translated by Adam Pearcey for Rigpa Translations, 2006. Amended and first published on Lotsawa House, 2015.
  • Colophon: This was written by the master of this teaching [Jigme Lingpa] in response to persistent requests from the one called Kundrol, a student of this lineage.

The TBRC link should be made in the following way. In TBRC, click on details, and then at the bottom on 'Cite this section of the outline'. Then use '5 Permalink' and copy the address starting after #!rid= . For the title use the short Tibetan title, and put the version or publishing house behind it in between brackets.

Or else:

1) you find the 'code' of the page in the url, such as: G2909 (it's always a simple code with letters and numbers. it also appears on the TBRC page itself)

2) you add the code in the middle of this template:

*{{TBRC|G2909|text name}}

1.5 Citing Sources (Footnotes and Endnotes)

When using superscript numbering to indicate endnotes or footnotes, place the number after, not before a comma or full stop.

At the first occurrence of a publication source, specify in this order: Author, Title (Location: Publisher, Date), Chapter Reference (optional), Section Reference (optional), Page Number.

Examples: Dudjom Rinpoche, Perfect Conduct (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1996), 97.

Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (rev. and upd. edn., HarperSanFrancisco and London: Rider, 2002), Chapter Five, 'A Delicate Balance', 76-77.

If there are extra elements to add, here is an augmented order to follow: Author, Title, Editor, Compiler or Translator, Edition if not the first, Volumes, Volume number, Series Title and Volume Number within series (City: Publisher, Date), Page Number.

Example: Kamalashila, Stages of Meditation, quoted in the Lam Rim Chenmo, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, trans. The Lam Rim Chenmo Translation Committee, volume 1 (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2004), 45.

An example of citing a subsequent edition of a publication is: A Guide to the Practice of Ngöndro, (2nd edn., Rigpa, November 2006).

Note: abbreviations for ‘edition’—edn.—and ‘translated by’—trans.—are used in the above examples. ‘Revised’ becomes ‘rev., and ‘updated’ becomes ‘upd.’. ‘Ed.’ is the abbreviation for ‘editor’.

For subsequent occurrences of the same text, only specify: Author, Title, Page Number.

For heavily cited texts, only specify the Title .

For consecutive footnotes citing the same text, ‘ibid.’ is used instead of repeating the title.

For more detailed examples see: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

And, see a sample paper at: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/11/

1.6 Dictionary Entries

Visit this page for more information: How to create dictionary entries

2. Categories

Please look at existing categories before creating new ones! Category names should have Title Case.

Internal Links

• Rigpa Phonetic Guidelines
• Pronunciation of Sanskrit words