Welcome to the website of Dr. Christopher Handy.
I first created this website for my own use as a way of organizing various resources for learning languages.
As the site grew, I decided to share it with the public in the hope that others will benefit from these resources.
I have a PhD in Religious Studies from McMaster University.
My specialization is Buddhist monastic law texts, a category called Vinaya within the Buddhist tradition.
My dissertation is a study of the concept of etiquette in these texts.
Most of the texts I work with were composed in an Indian language called Sanskrit (and some in Pali and other Prakrits as well).
A significant number of these texts were translated into classical Tibetan and classical Chinese.
In some cases, the Sanskrit original has been lost, and the old world translation is the only version of a text available to us.
I have found it useful to study the above languages, and also contemporary languages in which research on Buddhism is presented, including German, Japanese, and French. In addition to my research on Buddhism, I enjoy
studying the texts of other major religious traditions, and have dabbled in Latin, ancient Greek, and Hebrew.
On this site, you will find various materials for learning many different languages. New resources are added infrequently. The home page contains the latest information on what is going on with the site. Check back often!