TIBETAN BUDD RESOURCE CE
17 WEST 17TH
NEW YORK , N
T. 646.839.59
F. 212.645.320
WWW.TBRC .O
INFO @ TBRC.OR
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Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center Creating a Digital Path to Tibetan Literature
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A Vital Culture is Dispersed In the middle of the 20th century, in response to turmoil in their homeland, the Tibetan people began a painstaking passage from Tibet, a Himalayan country north of India. They traveled far and wide, set up makeshift communities, and began the process of rebuilding their lives. What was a tragedy for one people, however, has been a magnificent gift to the world. For when the Tibetans left their homeland they carried with them more than Old World customs. They carried dynamic, living traditions that have touched the lives of people all over the world. This vitality is captured in the great literature of the Tibetan people, but as those people scatter across the globe, the treasures contained in that literature are in danger of being lost forever.
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If we can preserve the books, even if we can’t preserve the buildings, it doesn’t matter, the culture will come back.” Tulku Thondup Rinpoche
Maitreya Fine gold line, red background on cotton Collection of Rubin Museum of Art C2006.66.2 5
Using Technology to Preserve Tibet’s Literature In 1999 Gene Smith and friends founded Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC) to preserve and make available Tibetan literature. TBRC specializes in digital preservation that is based on the internet, so that Tibetan masters, scholars, translators, and all interested readers, wherever they are located, have access to the full range of Tibetan literature.
In order to realize this vision, TBRC: • Digitally preserves literature so that it can never be lost. • Catalogs and organizes texts into a modern digital library so that they are easy to find. • Actively seeks out rare and undiscovered literature. • Disseminates the library online and to remote locations so that anyone can read, print, or share texts.
Through the generous patronage of our supporters, we at TBRC have made tremendous progress. We have greatly expanded our original collection and developed cutting-edge technology that preserves and distributes it. With Gene’s insight and stewardship, TBRC is now a modern Tibetan library unlike any that has existed
before. However, to continue our work, we need your support.
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This is a contribution not only to the Tibetan people but to entire humanity.� Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche
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Opening the Vast Tibetan Tradition The Tibetan literary heritage stretches back more than 1,300 years. Its influence is seen throughout the Himalayan region from Nepal, Bhutan, India, China, and Mongolia to as far west as modern-day Iran. While general knowledge about Tibetan cultural and religious life is common today, few have plumbed the depths of the literature, and much remains to be discovered. The heart of TBRC’s mission is to seek out texts and gather them in a single place. The Tibetan literary heritage is immense and includes traditional medicine, astrology, astronomy, alchemy, art, history, geography, biography, grammar, folk culture, poetics, and extensive philosophical and religious treatises. However, while TBRC estimates that it holds 80 percent of the best-known texts, this is perhaps only 25 percent of the total writings by Tibetan masters. As lost libraries are unearthed, TBRC receives and preserves them, in an effort to make whole
an immense body of literature that has been broken apart.
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It was the books that first drew people closer to trying to find out what Tibetan culture is really all about, what Tibetan Buddhism is really all about, but, of course, there are many more books.”
Temple devant la montagne sacrée de Jara Latzé (Myniak Rabgang) Photograph by Matthieu Ricard
Leonard van der Kuijp, Harvard University
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It’s like someone has surprised me with the greatest treasure trove, real treasure. My grandfather taught me and I’ve felt myself . . . that if we could just save the books we would have what we needed . . . Now we have them and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Z. Altangerel, Head of Khamar Monastery, Mongolia
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Photograph by Martin Ruetschi
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Kaltse, Lhasa-Beijing
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It is not just about Buddhism. It is about Tibetan history, it is about Tibetan language, it is about Tibetan politics, ethics . . . books are the heart of the civilization.” Tulku Thondop Rinpoche
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Building a Digital Home Digital preservation is the basis of TBRC. We now scan more than one million pages a year at our two scanning centers in New York and New Delhi and have scanned more than six million pages since the founding of TBRC. The preservation process is labor intensive. To create a digital text, TBRC scans the ink-print copy one page at a time. Each page is then reviewed to ensure that it is legible. As pages are scanned and checked, they are published into a digital library. The result is a library that is secure, error-free, and accessible. At the current rate, the entire TBRC collection and a majority of our acquired texts will be scanned in 10 year’s time. After that, ongoing work will be required to capture newly discovered literature, develop and deepen access to our library, and upgrade systems to keep pace with the latest technology.
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Ensuring Global Access TBRC preserves literature, but ultimately it is a community that
sustains a tradition. In order for that to be possible, people must have access to the literature. TBRC estimates that there are roughly 1,000 monasteries and more than 250,000 monks, lamas, and interested readers who could benefit from direct access to the TBRC Library. This interest will increase over time as more individuals discover the literature.
Toward this goal, TBRC is building a library that provides: • Password access through a public website. • A special subscription program for university scholars and academics that provides access within institutional settings. • Hard drive installations for monasteries in areas where internet connections are not available. • Access for holders of Tibet’s wisdom traditions wherever they may be.
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Moines tibétains au bord du lac de Yiloung Lhatso, Photograph by Mattihieu Ricard
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I’ll be doing prostrations every morning to this computer. Thank you so much. You are giving all of us a huge gem, a jewel and gem.” Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
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Mapping the Tibetan Mind The literary heritage of Tibet is a living oral tradition based on the transmission of texts from one generation to the next. Throughout Tibetan history, kings and great lamas sustained these traditions by assembling woodblock texts and manuscripts in monastic and institutional libraries. Today, these libraries continue to support the oral and textual traditions and, in turn, protect their continuity. TBRC faithfully captures the richness of the literary traditions.
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Lois Conner, Lhasa, Tibet
As standard library practices cannot adequately classify Tibetan texts, TBRC developed new methods to address their unique configuration. These methods create a map of the structure, intent, and historical context of the literature. Scholars continually update and improve these maps, add detailed information, and in the process create a vital and enduring Tibetan library.
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The History of TBRC In the early 1960s Gene Smith enrolled in the University of Washington to work on his PhD. While there he had the good fortune of studying closely with Venerable Deshung Rinpoche. In 1964, as Gene’s studies deepened, Deshung Rinpoche encouraged him to leave Seattle and go to India to study more directly: “Go out and find the books, don’t hang around here.” Equipped with letters of introduction to the great lamas of the day, Gene entered the Tibetan exile community in India. Then, in 1968, after four years of study and travel, the U.S. Library of Congress hired him for its New Delhi office. Under the aegis of a U.S. food aid effort, called Public Law 480 (PL-480), which exchanged Indian rupees from the sale of U.S. agricultural products for humanitarian projects, Gene organized the printing of thousands of Tibetan texts. With each printing, Gene obtained a copy for his own collection. In 1975, accompanied by huge containers of texts, Gene left India for new postings, first in Indonesia then later in Egypt. During this time, as the Cultural Revolution came to an end, he was able to collect important texts from China. Even from afar, Gene remained involved in Tibetan text projects, and after thirty years he had amassed a collection totaling 12,000 volumes. In 1996 Gene retired from the Library of Congress, initially settling in New York City, and then shortly thereafter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While Gene maintained his personal collection, storing the texts floor to ceiling throughout his home, he was aware that preserving the texts was only part of the job. He needed to make them accessible. In 1999, with the help of David Lunsford, an entrepreneurial engineer formerly of Dell Computer, he founded Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center. With the encouragement and support of Shelley and Donald Rubin, Gene moved TBRC to New York City in 2001. This move was a turning point in the history of TBRC. 18
Gene Smith with staff in New Delhi, India 1982, Photograph by Rosalind Solomon
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When he came downstairs I joked and called him Gene Smith Rinpoche because he is one of the outstanding Rinpoches of the Tibetan tradition . . . no else has done such tremendous work . . . in the preservation of the literature.” Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche 19
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TBRC Today TBRC has made impressive progress. Today, we at TBRC have:
• Created a network of affiliated scholars and collaborators who are committed to our goals and contribute to the TBRC Library. • Scanned 12,000 volumes, which include more than half of the original PL-480 collection plus several thousand acquisitions. • A diverse staff of American, Tibetan, Indian, and, Nepali scholars, librarians, engineers, and technicians. • Entered more than 300,000 bibliographic, biographic, and geographic documents and mapped them to texts in the library. • Developed cutting-edge technology and released three versions of the library, the latest of which provides native Tibetan and Chinese script. • Welcomed a momentous growth in the number of visitors to the website when 815 users per day more than tripled to 3,000 users per day. • Distributed the library to 30 universities and 25 monasteries while providing global access to the library through the website. • Provided 250 library accounts to lineage masters and translators along with thousands of texts to individual scholars.
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The Future of TBRC TBRC would like to see every monastery, every Tibetan master,
every scholar, every translator, and every interested reader have access to the complete range of Tibetan literature, regardless of social, political, or economic circumstances.
In the next 10 years, TBRC needs to: • Discover, acquire and preserve rare literature. • Unite fragmented collections from all over the world into a single place in the TBRC Library. • Organize, catalog, annotate, and classify the entire corpus of Tibetan literature, which in the end could be more than 50 million pages of texts. This is critical so that the library can be searched. • Distribute the TBRC Library to every monastery on every continent and provide free and open access on the Internet.
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Gongkar Gyatso, Shambhala of Modern Times
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Most of us use the web site on a daily basis. It is useful not only for researchers but also for the preservation and the propagation of Tibetan culture. . . . It is a ‘ work of memory ’, as we say in French, as well as a research tool.” Francoise Pommaret, National Centre for Scientific Research 23
Tenzing Rigdol Excuse me Sir, Which Way is to my Home? 24
The Impact of Your Generosity We are currently seeking gifts to help us complete our work. TBRC is funded entirely by private donations and operates
with a small core staff and project-oriented consultants. Our New York City offices are provided by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Thus, because TBRC has low overhead costs, your gifts have a direct impact on the library’s work.
We can accommodate many types of targeted donations: • General support of any TBRC program in any one of the four strategic areas—seeking out, preserving, organizing, or disseminating. • Publication of a specific genre of literature, such as traditional medicine. • Installation of TBRC library hardware at a chosen monastery or institution. • Preservation of a particular collection or genre. • Receipt of digital texts for personal use, in research, translation or other uses such as a home shrine. • To provide a monk or lama with a flash drive amulet containing the Tibetan canon (Kanjur and Tenjur).
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Our Patrons and Board of Directors patrons
Bodhi Foundation Thomas M. Cramp Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation Klaus Hebben The late William Hinman Dzongsar Khyentse Foundation Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation Rudolf Steiner Foundation Trace Foundation Tsadra Foundation Several donors who wish to remain anonymous
board of directors
Cangioli K. Che Patricia Gruber Janet Gyatso Leonard van der Kuijp Derek Kolleeny Richard Lanier David Lunsford Michele Martin Timothy J. McNeill Tudeng Nima Rinpoche Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche (Honorary) Shelley F. Rubin E. Gene Smith Tulku Thondup Rinpoche Gray Tuttle Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Honorary)
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The Communities We Serve tibetan buddhist lineage masters
Akong Rinpoche, Anam Tulku, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Dhakpa Rinpoche, Doboom Rinpoche, Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Drukchen Rinpoche, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Gangteng Rinpoche, Garchen Rinpoche, Garwang Rinpoche, Gehlek Rinpoche, Geshe Gelek Chodak, Geshe Thubten Kunkhen, Drigung Chetsang Rinpoche, Gyalwa Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, Lelung Tulku, Menri Trizin Rinpoche, Namkhal Norbu Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku, Sakya Phuntsok Phodrang Dagchen, Sakya Trizin Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Samdhong Rinpoche, Shamar Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, Thrangu Rinpoche, Traleg Rinpoche, Zasep Rinpoche
universities & institutions
Asian Classics Institute, Bibliotheque Universitaire des Langues et Civilisations (BULAC), Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Columbia University, Dharma Drum Buddhist College, Dharma Publishing, Emory University, Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, Garchen Buddhist Institute, Geumgang University (Korea), Gyuto Tantric College, Harvard University, Indiana University, Institut fur Indologie und Iranistik, Kanyig Monastery, Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, Library of Congress, Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, Lumbini International Research Institute (LIRI), McGill University, Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Namo Buddha, National Library of Bhutan, Southwest University of Nationalities, Oxford University, Princeton University, School of Dialectics, Shambhala Publications, Shang Shung Institute, Shechen Monastery, Sherab Ling, Songtsen Library, Stanford University, Tibet House Delhi, University of British Columbia, University of Chicago, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Michigan, University of Munich, University of Toronto, University of Virginia, Wisdom Publications, Yale University 28
independent scholars, translators & collaborators
Richard Barron, Anne Benson, Alex Berzin, Martin Brauen, Karl Brunnhoelzl, Elizabeth Callahan, John Canti, Chojor Radha (in memoriam), Eric Colombel, Bryan Cuevas, Karl Debreczeny, Andreas Doctor, George Dreyfus, Art Engle, Elise Frick, Alex Gardner, Holly Gayley, David Germano, Geshe Michael Roach, Ari Goldfield, Steven Goodman, Dr. Yonten Gyatso, Gyurme Dorje, Sarah Harding, Ann Helm, Edward Henning, Jeffrey Hopkins, David Jackson, Ani Jinpa, Leslie Kawamura, Anne Klein, Ralf Kramer, Dawa Chodak, Karma Phuntsok, Jules Levinson, Donald Lopez, John Makransky, Dan Martin, Larry Mermelstein, Betsy Napper, Ani Palmo, Adam Pearcey, Ramon Prats, Jann Ronis, Sangye Khandro, Kurtis Schaeffer, Michael Sheehy, Cyrus Stearns, Victoria Sujata, Dr. Tashi Tashigang, Dr. Tsering Tashigang, Thupten Jinpa, Christine Tomlinson, Stacey Van Vleet, Ives Waldo, Allan Wallace, Gerry Weiner, Scott Wellenbach
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May the merit of this activity be returned for the benefit of all sentient creatures.
Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center 17 West 17th Street, 9th Floor New York, New York 10011 www.tbrc.org | info@tbrc.org 646.839.5915 30
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