About Cinthia Font.
Born in a family of diplomats, Cinthia had the unique opportunity of being raised in diverse parts of the world, and, from a young age, to come into contact with a variety of new languages and cultures, cultivating in her a passion for linguistics, communication, literature and translation.
Her journey into the Tibetan Buddhist tradition began at the age of 12, when her father was assigned to be the Mexican ambassador to India. In India and Nepal, Cinthia and her family were introduced to important Buddhist leaders. That was the starting point of her learning journey into the profound world of Tibetan Buddhism and subsequently, the language.
Cinthia has over 20 years of studying the Tibetan cultures and religious traditions, spending over 10 years intimately immersed in the Tibetan community. She studied scriptures in the traditional Shedra style in addition to receiving teachings from renowned Buddhist leaders since 1996. She is currently a Tibetan language teacher in Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhism, an interpreter, translator, and a private tutor.
Cinthia is fluent in Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Tibetan, English and studies Hindi and Nepali.
Tibetan Studies & Professional Background
Cinthia studied scripture and Buddhist principles under revered monastic teachers in the traditional Shedra style, in addition to receiving teachings from renowned Buddhist leaders.
She has been teaching both modern spoken and written classical Tibetan language since 2010.
She taught the academic language courses in the Buddhist Studies Bachelor of Arts and in the Translator Training Programs at Rangjung Yeshe Institute Center for Buddhist Studies, Kathmandu, from 2010 to 2017.
She has taught in the Colloquial Tibetan Summer Intensive language program at RYI every summer since 2010, including summer 2022.
In addition to being one of the main Tibetan courses faculty members at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, she has taught and coordinated the Tibetan intensive program at Study Abroad Program (SIT) since 2013.
She has participated and organized SIT language teaching workshops in India and Nepal in 2015 and 2017 respectively.
In August 2018 and 2019, Cinthia taught the very first two Summer Tibetan Language Intensive programs organized by the Tsadra Foundation and hosted at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
She is currently teaching both spoken and classical Tibetan language courses online to students from diverse backgrounds living around the world, through the language medium of English, French and Spanish.
Cinthia has Masters degrees in Buddhist Studies from Rangjung Yeshe Institute as well as Art History and Archaeology from Paris IV Sorbonne.
She completed the degree of Tibetan Language and Civilization at the Institut of Langues Orientales (INALCO) Paris, and the Translator Training Program at Rangjung Yeshe Institute.
While at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, she trained in the traditional Tibetan educational style at the Tibetan monastic college (shes sgrwa) learning Buddhist philosophy and scripture from highly skilled monastic professors, also known as “khenpos” (mkhan po).
Cinthia also serves as an oral interpreter primarily into Spanish, French and English for renowned Tibetan Buddhist masters such as Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche and Ven. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche.
Teaching Tibetan in different formats at SIT, Rangjung Yeshe, Tsadra Foundation and online in programs that combine academic rigor with fieldwork and introducing students to this culture and language so close to her heart, has been nothing short of an experiential gift for Cinthia.
Scholarships & Programs
Khyentse Vision Project Internship
March 2022—Present
McGill School of Religious Studies
May 2019
Speaker at the workshop “translating devotion” a multipart workshop on the poetics of devotion in Tibetan and Sanskrit literature.