On English Translation Of The Tourism Texts Of Tibetan Buddhist Scenic Spots From German Functionalism

With the dramatic development of economy, tourism has become one of the fastestdeveloping industries in the world. Tourism can not only help develop local economy butalso promote cultural exchanges between nations. Tibet, which is famous for Tibetan andBuddhist culture, is no doubt one of the most popular scenic spots at home and abroad.Tourism texts play a vital role in offering information and arousing tourists’ interest in acertain place. Unfortunately, the quality of translation of tourism texts is far fromsatisfactory. Some errors like incorrect collocations, grammar violations and wronglystructured sentences exist in the tourism texts of Tibetan Buddhist scenic spots. Up till now,many scholars have done studies on scenic spots in the mainland of China. According tothe author’s investigation on the Internet and the academic journals, few scholars havetouched upon the tourism texts of Tibetan Buddhist scenic spots. Hence it is a subjectworthy of much attention and research work.The German functionalism has provided a new perspective for translation studies. Itwas originated from Katharina Reiss who was representative of the first generation ofGerman functionalism, and then was further developed and refined by Vermeer and Nord.Skopos theory views translating as a purposeful activity and holds that it is the intendedpurpose of the target text that determines the overall translation process including theselection of strategies and methods. This thesis attempts to make a systematic study on thetranslation of tourism texts under the guidance of the German functionalist approachexemplified by Tibetan Buddhist scenic spots including the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple,the Remoche Temple, Sera Monastery, and the Norbulingka Summer Palace.Under the guidance of German functionalism, the study is exemplified by tourismtexts in Lhasa. Through a thorough analysis of the recent tourism texts translation of theabove mentioned scenic spots, the study will finally point out some errors in the Englishtranslation texts and offer some tentative suggestions to correct the errors. Besides, somebetter translation strategies are presented on translating Buddhist tourism texts in the hopethat the quality of the tourism texts translation in Buddhist scenic spots will be improved.Besides the method of borrowing, this thesis also puts forward transliteration based onTibetan pronunciation. Transliteration is more suitable for the translation of scenic spots’ names in Tibet. This method can publicize the unique Tibetan culture, especially Buddhistknowledge and Tibetan customs. In a word, a successful translation of Tibetan Buddhistscenic spots can not only attract the visitors from all parts of the world but help develop theTibetan tourism economy quickly and smoothly as well.