CUL - Main Content

In addition to the popular links below, please also see the Columbia Online Research Guide for Modern Tibetan Studies, which provides an extensive bibliography of resources for Modern Tibetan Studies, including online resources.  Additional links are also listed on the website of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

 

NEWLY UPDATED AND RECOMMENDED!

Treasury of Lives

http://treasuryoflives.org/

The Treasury of Lives is a biographical encyclopedia of Tibet, Inner Asia, and the Himalayan region.  Founded in 2007 as a project of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, The Treasury of Lives recently established independent non-profit status. The Treasury provides an accessible and well-researched biography of a wide range of figures, from Buddhist masters to artists and political officials, many of which are peer reviewed. Website localization into Tibetan and Chinese languages in is progress in order to meet the growing numbers of users active in those languages.

 

ONLINE RESOURCES HOSTED AT COLUMBIA

Columbia Online Research Guide for Modern Tibetan Studies

https://library.columbia.edu/indiv/eastasian/tibetan/guide.html

This guide is derived from the extensive syllabus compiled by Professor Gray Tuttle for his “Sources for Modern Tibetan History” seminar.  Exceptionally strong in its survey of resources for historical research, it also provides general bibliographies for the field of Tibetan Studies and related disciplines, as well as useful tools, dictionaries, blogs, etc.

 

The Buddhist Canons Bibliographic Database

http://www.aibs.columbia.edu/databases/login/login-form.php

A project of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies, this vast database provides searchable bibliographic information and links to scanned canonical scriptures, translations, and related secondary studies. (Login required)

 

Engaging Digital Tibet

http://digitaltibet.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/

Engaging Digital Tibet was created to enhance the teaching and learning of Tibetan material history. The site contains an advanced, searchable repository of Tibetan objects, as well as unique features for creating and sharing descriptive annotations about the objects and their significant parts, allowing for a collaborative decoding and description of Tibetan culture itself.

 

LOCATING ARTICLES IN JOURNALS AND EDITED MONOGRAPH VOLUMES

 

Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) (UNI required)

http://bmc.lib.umich.edu/bas

or via a CLIO Databases Search.

800,000 entries on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to present. Especially good for discovering articles in the Tibet Journal or in journals on Asia, China, India, or Buddhist Studies more generally.

 

Bya-ra Database

http://latse.org/byara

Online database of more than 12,000 Tibetan-language research articles published in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  Many English abstracts provided. Also includes contents of Rig gnas lo rgyus series and the English-language journals, Tibet Studies and China Tibetology.

 

China Academic Journals (UNI required)

https://resolver.library.columbia.edu/AUS5589

or via a CLIO Databases Search. or Chinese Studies Home Page > Electronic Resources

Thousands of journals in the humanities and social science since 1994, including periodicals from nationalities universities throughout the PRC, Qinghai Minzu Yanjiu, China Tibetology, etc. Full-text in both CAJ viewer and .pdf.  English abstracts for most articles.  May search in Chinese or English. See also Century Journal Project database, covering articles prior to 1994, as well as full-text databases for dissertations and core newspapers.

 

Catalogue of Chinese Publications in Tibetan Studies (Ref. Z3107.T5 C48 1997)  v. 1: 1949-1990, v. 2: 1991-1995, v. 3: 1996-2000

 

TibetBook

http://www.tibetbook.net

The catalogues and updates of this Tibetan-language book distributor offer a convenient way to search for new publications released in the PRC.

 

DIGITAL LIBRARIES

Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (easy access in English)

www.thlib.org

Contains images, maps, and audio and video materials relating to Tibet, Nepal, China, India and Bhutan. Thematic Collections include Art, Environment, Geography, History, Language, Literature, Medicine, Music and Religion.  

 

PlateauCulture.org (easy access in English)

http://www.plateauculture.org (temporarily not working - stay tuned)

An archive of images, writings, recordings and place information about areas on and surrounding the Tibetan Plateau, with a special focus on oral traditions and cultural production in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces; also links to the journal Asian Highlands Perspectives.

 

Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC) Core Text Collection (UNI required)

or via a CLIO Databases Search for texts provided to subscribing institutions

Provides online access to more than 9,000 Tibetan texts in all eleven Core Text Collections published to date, and a virtual library of bibliographic and biographical information.

 

Asian Classics Input Project

http://www.asianclassics.org/

ACIP offers searchable texts regarding Tibetan philosophy, history, etc. Includes bka’ ʼgyur and bstan ʼgyur collections and gsung ʼbum of many famous early scholars. (Login required.)

 

Peking Tripitaka online search (Kyoto)

http://web1.otani.ac.jp/cri/twrpe/peking/

Database of the Kanjur and Tanjur that can be searched by typing in a term in transliterated Tibetan (Wylie) or Sanskrit (KH Sanskrit transcription system). Project of Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute, and published by Ōtani Daigaku (Kyoto).

 

Digitized Tibetan Archives Material at Bonn University

http://www.dtab.uni-bonn.de/

 a rich resource offering top-quality scans of 2700 documents from the TAR Archives.  An additional 1700 documents from private collections and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives have also been digitally recorded.

 

Old Tibetan Documents
http://otdo.aa-ken.jp/

Online images of Old Tibetan documents from Dunhuang (7^th – 12^th centuries). Many have also been transliterated to provide searchable texts.

 

International Dunhuang Project

http://idp.bl.uk/

International collaboration based at the British Library to make information and more than 445,000 images of manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artifacts from Dunhuang and other Silk Road sites freely available on the Internet.

 

China Data Online (UNI required)

via CLIO

Project of the University of Michigan. Wide-ranging statistics for most of the PRC down to county-level for China Population Census Data (1982, 1990, 1995, 2000). Also includes database for China statistical yearbooks.

 

ChinaLawInfo (=Beida fa bao) (UNI required)

via CLIO or E-Resources>Databases or Chinese Studies Home Page

Project of Beijing University. China laws, regulations, treaties, law literature, etc. from 1949.

 

Electronic Resources for Chinese Studies: https://library.columbia.edu/subject-guides/chinese-studies/eresources/descriptions.html

 

IMAGES

Himalayan Art Resources

http://www.himalayanart.org/

Online educational resource with over 25,000 images of Tibetan tankas from collections worldwide, searchable by image, data, and lineage, as well as links to other Tibetan art sites. Articles by Tulku Thondup, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Peter Della Santina, David Jackson and Moke Mokotoff supplement the images. Maintained by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation in collaboration with Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center and Wisdom Publications.

ExploreArt (Rubin Museum of Art)
http://interactive.rma2.org

Educational Interactive Library to explore thangka and other artistic images by theme, time, and place.

The Tibet Album: British Photography in Central Tibet 1920-1950

http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/index.php

Searchable by photographers, dates, people, places. Includes a “Who Was Who” project for early 20^th c. Tibet, also day-to-day diary of Gould Mission in Tibet (1936-37)

primarily photos by Charles Bell (1870-1945), Frederick Spencer Chapman (1907-1971), Arthur Hopkinson (1894-1953), Rabden Lepcha, Evan Nepean (1909-2002), Hugh Richardson (1905-2000), and Harry Staunton (1908-1945). Project of the Pitt Rivers Museum, British Museum.

Digital Himalaya

http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/

Ethnographic materials from Himalaya Mountain communities, including slides, videos, audio tapes, etc. Includes materials from the Williamson Collection (1930-1935, Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet), the Fürer-Haimendorf Film Collection (1930s, North Eastern India and Nepal), the Naga videodisk created in the 1980s, the Thak Village of central Nepal collected since 1969, and the Thangmi Archive of northeastern Nepal. Features sample images and video clips (.qt) from the collections.

 

The Tibet Map Institute
www.tibetmap.com

This website offers detailed topographical maps of Central Tibet and more.

 

DICTIONARIES

Tibetan and Himalayan Library Reference

http://thlib.org/reference/

Provides an online dictionary for Tibetan, Nepali, Chinese, Pali and Sanskrit, a reference roster to contemporary scholars, a gazetteer of Tibetan and Himalayan places, and a guide to Himalayan-related internet resources.

THL Tibetan to English Translation Tool
Online translation tool managed by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library

Nitartha International

http://nitartha.org/

Provides an online Tibetan dictionary in collaboration with Rangjung Yeshe Publications where one can type in a Tibetan word using the Wylie transliteration system and get a thorough range of definitions for 306, 000 entries. Includes free downloads of Tibetan fonts that can be used to write in Tibetan on the internet. They also have small art exhibits of Tibetan thanka paintings and Tibetan masks with detailed explanations. Some digital texts available.

 

OTHER IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Journal of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (JIATS)

Proceedings of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (Call numbers vary)

 

Trace Foundation's Latse Library 

http://trace.org/latse-library

The online site of this library located at 132 Perry Street (reading room hours:  Thurs-Sat, 10am-5pm) offers the Bya-ra database, as well as an online catalogue of for holdings at the library.  Latse Contemporary Tibetan Cultural Library is based in New York City and contains collections of books, magazines, photographs, maps, audio-visual materials and more. The site has an on-line newsletter, available in both English and Tibetan.

 

China's Tibetology (official website)

http://www.tibetology.ac.cn/

Research institute of Tibetan studies sponsored by Chinese government. Introduces the institute, organization, academic staff, research projects and publications. Includes news related to area development, photos research resources, scholars and their works, bibliographies, and important topics. Introduces Tibetan religion and culture, and its social and economic development. Includes lists of research institutions and links to other sites of Tibetan studies.

 

The Center for Research Libraries

catalog.crl.edu ; includes Digital South Asia Library (dsal.uchicago.edu)

Recently purchased archives related to the East India Company, China Inland Mission and Curzon, India and Empire. Also, easy-to-browse list of subject headings for strong PL480 collection.  Good source for works on Tibet originating from India, and trade statistics for the 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

The Nepal-German Manuscript Conservation Project

https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/en/forschung/ngmcp

Initiated in 1970 by the German Oriental Society to catalogue and create microfilm images of ancient Nepali and Tibetan religious and historical texts. The site gives a history of the project, as well as a few paragraphs on the "Cultural heritage of Nepal" and the process of microfilming. Copies of the texts microfilmed by the project can be ordered. Includes numerous historical documents from Samling Gompa (Mustang area), including Tibetan and Chinese documents from early 19th century relaying orders of the Manchu emperor.

For more information, contact: lh2112@columbia.edu

 

Tibetan Studies WWW Virtual Library  (no longer updated)

http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-TibetanStudies.html

Part of the World-Wide Web Virtual Library project, this site includes databases, online forums, general information, software, maps and images, and electronic newsletters and news. There are links to sites about Tibetan art, theater, music, the flag, human rights, the language, literature, politics, religion, and travel and tourism. Maintained by Dr. Matthew T. Ciolek from January 1995 through July 2010.