Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

author, poet, teacher, and performer

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2025 Ancient Tamil Literature Promotion Award

I was deeply honored and humbled to receive the 2025 Ancient Tamil Literature Promotion Award from the Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Mr. M. K. Stalin at the Chennai International Book Fair earlier this year.

The award citation reads, “In recognition of exceptional dedication to translating the classical Tamil text, “Tirukkural,” into English, thereby fostering global appreciation of ancient Tamil literary heritage. Your meticulous translation bridges cultural and linguistic divides, preserving and promoting the philosophical and poetic essence of the Tirukkural for future generations and contributing to cross-cultural understanding.”

At the awards ceremony, I made a short speech that has been making the rounds on social media. It’s primarily in Tamil, but includes enough English to make sense of the verse from the Kural that I sing in both languages toward the end.

If you’re curious, you can take a peek here:

My enduring gratitude to Tamil Professor Dr. K. V. Ramakoti and all of the friends and adoptive family who have been and continue to be my teachers, in language and in life.

Taller Than a Mountain 2024

I’m very excited to announce my upcoming online course on the Kural, Taller Than A Mountain.
It starts April 27, with a free intro class on April 13.

Among my guest teachers I’m honored to include Andrew Harvey, Bob Thurman, and Perumal Murugan.

The course is being offered at a price that you set yourself as a way to practice one of the Kural’s key teachings: honoring what fits each person, place, and situation.

Who is it for?

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll answer this question from a few different angles.

One of the groups it’s most definitely for are people who want to enjoy and learn from the poetry of a great teacher such as Tiruvalluvar but who sometimes find poetry intimidating, complicated, or just plain confusing.

For instance, I was having coffee the other day with a friend, and he said to me:

“I’ve been reading the Kural, and enjoying it, too. But while there are some verses that make so much sense to me immediately, there are others that I’m not sure what to make of. I never felt comfortable with poetry in school, but I know it’s something that people sometimes find deeply meaningful. I’d love to be able to see that for myself.”

As I said to my friend, not only is the course for people who are uncertain about poetry, I myself was like that for a very long time.

That’s why I’m all the more excited to share some of things that have helped me personally to experience poetry with greater ease, understanding, and delight.

If this sounds at all intriguing, please do take a peek!

TALLER THAN A MOUNTAIN | A 7-week course on the Kural | Available through July 31  LEARN MORE
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