Open access to the Tibetan canons
Published by Jeff Wallman on 19 May 2009
TBRC is pleased to announce open access to Tibetan canonical works in the TBRC Digital Library.
The current release includes complete and unrestricted access to the many carvings of the Tibetan bka’ ‘gyur and bstan ‘gyur extant in the TBRC Digital Library. The service includes catalog access to outlines (extensive metadata), text downloads (scans), title, author and topic searching, as well as page by page viewing and user selected PDF downloads.
The Tibetan Canon’s Project at TBRC is an ongoing effort, and a part of our core organizational mission. Given the size and extent of the Tibetan corpus, it is a work in progress. We have established title level access to many of the bka’ ‘gyur and bstan ‘gyur but some important examples still need to be completed. We are also in the process of gaining access to rare carvings and hopefully will be able to make them available over the next few years. When completed, the resource will be a complete repository of Tibetan canonical writings.
By supporting important projects such as Translating the Words of the Buddha Conference, sponsored by the Dzongsar Khyentse Foundation at Deer Park Institute in Bir, India earlier this year and the new Unified Catalog of Buddhist Texts (UCBT) initiated by the International Association of Buddhist Universities (IABU) in Bangkok, Thailand this May , TBRC hopes that increased access to the extensive Tibetan canonical writings will facilitate scholarly exchange for the benefit of all.
A list of works available has been posted on the TBRC website. More will be added over the coming weeks.
By selecting either the blue link (to the bibliographic record) or the outline icon (to the outline describing the work), the user can browse the contents of the works or download the source literature.
From the bibliographic record, the “Open Access” link allows page by page viewing and user selected PDF controls.
Alternatively, a user can navigate the outline for a given work by following the Outline link.
TBRC is delighted to announce the release of this program and we hope that you contact us with comments, questions or concerns at support@tbrc.org
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