Respecting the receptors

In the later 1980s I was the TC for a project to produce a modern Bible translation in Tibetan, sponsored by the BS in Nepal. When the OT was well advanced, the BS Secretary, Loknath Manaen, decided to publish an OT portion to test the audience reaction. He assumed as I did that it would be one of the usual favourites, Psalms or Genesis, or a short narrative book like Ruth or Jonah. But Loknath had the good sense to consult the small Tibetan Christian community, and after discussion among themselves, they were quite clear what they wanted. To everyone’s astonishment, they chose Exodus and Esther (in one volume). Their logic was impeccable: all the accessible Tibetans at that time were people in exile, and these two books tell how God looked after his own people when they were in exile. This choice demonstrated an insightful perception of their own needs that would never have occurred to an outsider, and the portion was published as requested (I still have a copy). I believe that the importance of consulting receptor communities on how they perceive their needs is incontrovertible.

One also has to take into account practical matters. For instance it was not acceptable in Tibetan for a holy text to be typeset, as this would show a lack of respect. It had to be handwritten, and printed from photos of the hand-written ms. Of course, this made the whole process more laborious and expensive, but it was necessary for receptor acceptance. I also seem to recall that somewhere I met a situation where any printing on the spine or cover of the book had to be in gold, but I’m not sure where that was. In some contexts, even the colour of the cover may have to be chosen carefully to avoid upsetting receptor sensibilities. But I expect everybody knows that already. There’s many a slip that consultation with receptors can help us to avoid.

----David Clark