Pecha_org_tools: A tool to categorize and manage Tibetan texts on pecha.org

PechaData OPF
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A python package called pecha_org_tools to get category for a particular pecha.

Backgroud

pecha.org is a website hosting a vast collection of Tibetan Buddhist texts, along with their various versions and translations. These texts are prepared with the help of dedicated human annotators who work tirelessly to ensure high-quality data for the platform.

Motivation

The OpenPecha Toolkit is used to parse data contributed by human annotators and generate serialized JSON files that are directly usable on pecha.org.

However, one significant challenge remains: determining the correct category or catalog for a given Pecha. Previously, this task was performed manually, which was time-consuming and prone to errors.

To address this, the pecha_org_tools package provides a centralized and efficient solution. It allows users to easily manage categories in a single spreadsheet, streamlining the process of assigning texts to the appropriate sections.

How it works?

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pecha.org organizes content in a tree-like structure, where a specific Pecha can belong to various nested categories or sections.

For example, in the image below:

  • The primary category is ཁ་འདོན། (Recitation).
  • Under it, there are subcategories like སྨོན་ལམ། (Aspiration Prayer), which further branches into ཀུན་བཟང་སྨོན་ལམ། (Samantabhadra Aspiration Prayer) and བཟང་སྤྱོད་སྨོན་ལམ། (Bodhicharyavatara Aspiration Prayer).

Each cell in the spreadsheet contains the following information:
སྨོན་ལམ།(སྨོན་ལམ་འགྲེལ་བཤད་)(སྨོན་ལམ་འགྲེལ་བཤད་ཐུང་ཐུང་)

Structure of a Cell

  1. Title: The first part is the title of the category (e.g., སྨོན་ལམ།).
  2. Description: The text in the first set of parentheses provides a detailed description (e.g., སྨོན་ལམ་འགྲེལ་བཤད་ - Explanation of Aspiration Prayer).
  3. Short Description: The text in the second set of parentheses gives a brief description (e.g., སྨོན་ལམ་འགྲེལ་བཤད་ཐུང་ཐུང་ - Brief Explanation of Aspiration Prayer).

The corresponding English cell might look like this:
Aspiration Prayer (Explanation of Aspiration Prayer) (Brief Explanation of Aspiration Prayer)

By using pecha_org_tools, users can ensure consistency in both Tibetan and English categorizations, making it easier to organize and navigate the texts on pecha.org.

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