Early Life & Cultural Background

Erick Tsiknopoulos was born on October 15, 1981, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA, and grew up mainly in Southwest Pennsylvania until high school graduation. His heritage includes Norwegian, Swedish, Greek, Irish and German ancestry, but he was primarily raised as a Greek-American, especially due to his close connection with his Greek grandmother, who grew up in Alexandria, Egypt and later Athens, and the fact that his father was raised by his Greek great-grandparents in Cyprus. The Greek side of his family also has roots in Ottoman Turkey, Rhodes and Crete.

He spent his early years on both the East and West coasts of the United States, primarily in Pennsylvania and California, developing early interests in languages, world cultures, and comparative religion.

​​​

Journey to Buddhism & Tibetan Studies

Erick began studying Buddhism in 1999 at age 17 and formally converted to Buddhism in 2000. He commenced formal study of Tibetan language in 2004, initially motivated by a desire to access Buddhist teachings in their original languages rather than through secondary translations. By 2007—at age 25—he had committed to professional Buddhist translation work as his life's vocation, and by late 2007 he began early attempts at translating Tibetan texts into English.

​​

The decision to move to India, arriving in Delhi on New Year's Eve of 2007 and in Dharamsala on New Year's Day 2008, marked a pivotal transformation: rather than pursuing conventional career paths, he chose total immersion in traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture for long-term training as a translator and scholar. This unconventional path—living for over a decade in Himalayan refugee settlements, studying daily with Tibetan scholars, and earning his livelihood entirely through translation work—required significant personal sacrifice but provided authentic cultural understanding impossible to obtain through purely academic channels or religious communities in Western contexts.

​

International Experience & Cross-Cultural Perspective

Erick is an experienced expatriate and world traveler who has resided in 10 different countries and visited numerous others throughout his life. His international experience includes extended stays in:

​​

Asia: India (Dharamsala, McLeod Ganj, Darjeeling, Sidhpur/Norbulingka and elsewhere in Himachal Pradesh), Nepal (Boudhanath/Kathmandu, Pokhara), Japan, Thailand, Taiwan
Europe: Romania (current residence), Greece, Bulgaria, Albania
North America: United States (Pennsylvania, Florida, California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and other states)

In addition to these extended periods of residency, he has also visited Mexico, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Serbia for shorter stays.

This global perspective, combined with his multiethnic heritage and unusually broad intercultural background, enables him to bridge Eastern and Western worldviews effectively, rendering Tibetan Buddhist concepts accessible to modern audiences while respecting their traditional Asian cultural context.

​

Current Location & Operations

Since 2019, Erick has been based in Bucharest, Romania, where he established Trikāya Language Solutions, SRL as an officially registered European Union company in 2020. From this European base, he serves clients globally across all time zones, providing translation services, language instruction, and consultation to Buddhist communities, academic institutions, publishers, and individual practitioners worldwide.
 

Mission & Vision

Erick's overarching mission is to make Tibetan literature, Tibetan language, and the full spectrum of Buddhist teachings more widely available and better understood in the modern world. He aims to preserve and transmit the wisdom of Buddhist literature through accurate, scholarly translation that honors both traditional understanding and contemporary academic standards.
 

He envisions building effective teams of translators and scholars who can collaboratively tackle the massive undertaking of making the vast ocean of Tibetan Buddhist literature accessible in English and other modern languages. The Trikāya Translation Committee represents this collaborative vision, bringing together diverse expertise from both Asian and Western backgrounds to ensure translation quality through multiple specialist perspectives.
 

Professional Philosophy

Unlike many translators who work in isolation, Erick emphasizes collaborative consultation with native Tibetan scholars, traditional Buddhist teachers, and academic specialists. He believes that high-quality Tibetan translation requires not just linguistic skill but cultural competency, doctrinal understanding, and spiritual sensitivity—qualities developed through long-term immersion in Buddhist practice and Tibetan-speaking communities rather than purely academic study or culturally distant religious communities in the West.
 

His approach combines three essential elements:
 

Traditional Training: Learning Tibetan Buddhist textual interpretation according to traditional scholastic methods, studying with qualified Tibetan teachers who transmit authentic understanding
Academic Rigor: Applying modern scholarly methodology, including philological precision, comparative textual analysis, and bibliographic documentation
Cultural Authenticity: Living experience within Tibetan communities, enabling natural cultural fluency rather than academic observation from outside
 

This synthesis of traditional Buddhist scholasticism, Western academic standards, and genuine cultural immersion distinguishes his work and informs his vision for the field of Tibetan translation more broadly.
 

Published Works & Ongoing Projects

In addition to his commissioned translation work and the extensive library of translations freely available on tibetantranslation.com, Erick has published translations through various channels:
 

Published Books & Major Projects:

• Erick's translations have been published through multiple channels including printed books, academic journals, Buddhist organizational publications, and online platforms. His works are distributed internationally and available through major retailers including Amazon, as well as through his comprehensive online library.

• He has completed commissioned translations for prestigious clients including numerous Buddhist monasteries, Dharma centers, academic institutions, and publishers worldwide.

• Over 17 years of professional translation work, Erick has completed several hundred individual Tibetan text translations spanning canonical scriptures, philosophical treatises, ritual texts, contemporary literature, and major multi-volume projects.

• He actively undertakes commissioned translations for high-profile clients, many of which are published and distributed through various institutions. 

• His published translations serve Buddhist practitioners, academic researchers, and general readers internationally.
   

Ongoing Translation Projects:

• Complete translation of the Heart Sphere of Yuthok (Yuthok Nyingthik), the primary Vajrayāna practice cycle connected to Traditional Tibetan Medicine

• Major sections of canonical Buddhist scriptures from the Kangyur and Tengyur

• Contemporary Tibetan literature and philosophical works
   

Contributions to Buddhist Scholarship

Beyond individual translation projects, Erick's work with the Rangjung Yeshe Dharma Dictionary has contributed to the standardization of Tibetan-English Buddhist terminology, helping establish consistent translation conventions that benefit the entire field. His dictionary entries, numbering in the thousands, provide detailed definitions, contextual usage examples, and cross-references that serve translators, scholars, and practitioners worldwide.
 

Personal Interests & Continuing Growth

Erick maintains active intellectual engagement across multiple fields beyond Buddhist studies. He is an avid reader with interests in world history, comparative religion, linguistics, literature, philosophy, and cultural anthropology. This broad intellectual curiosity informs his translation work, providing comparative frameworks for understanding Tibetan concepts within global philosophical and religious contexts.
 

He continues active language study, currently focusing on advancing his Romanian and Chinese proficiency while maintaining his skills in Japanese, Sanskrit, Pāḷi, Hindi and other languages. He also studies other languages for their relevance to Buddhist transmission history and comparative religious texts.
 

As a dedicated multi-linguist aspiring toward polyglot proficiency, he views language learning not as an end in itself but as a means to access diverse cultural and intellectual traditions, enriching his understanding of human wisdom across civilizations.
 

Contact & Collaboration
 

Erick welcomes inquiries from:

• Buddhist organizations seeking translation services

• Academic institutions requiring scholarly Tibetan translation

• Publishers developing Buddhist literature projects

• Students seeking serious Tibetan language instruction

• Scholars interested in collaborative research

• Qualified translators and specialists interested in joining the Trikāya Translation Committee
   

Professional Contact:

trikayatranslations@gmail.com (Translation Services)
trikayacommittee@gmail.com (Committee Membership)
tsiknopoulos.e@gmail.com (Personal Correspondence)
Phone/WhatsApp: +40 769 824 828