Two of the greatest collections of Tibetan woodblock texts exist far from Tibet, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The first collection, at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, contains approximately 25,000 volumes, representing up to 150,000 titles (some of which are duplicates). The second collection is found at the Oriental Library, a part of the Library of the University of St. Petersburg. It is a carefully selected treasure of 3,300 separate titles.
The books in each of these collections have been faithfully collected by generations of Russian explorers and scholars ever since the time of the tsars, and maintained with devotion by library staff even in the most difficult of times, such as the three-year siege of St. Petersburg during World War II.
ACIP staff first visited the collections of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s. Many hours of work, in collaboration with the library directors and staff, went into the design of the St. Petersburg Catalog Project. Russian and Mongolian scholars from a number of different institutions including the Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg University, and the Kuntsechnoienei Datsang Buddhist Society helped us with every aspect of this project: visa and immigration work for the Tibetan refugee scholars who would come and do the input of the catalog; housing and travel arrangements; preparing and equipping a working office; and hundreds of other details.
The St. Petersburg Catalog Project has been working since 1994, with devoted labors by a team of native scholars from Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery in South India, under the direction of the Russian library staff. It has truly been an international collaboration of Russian, Tibetan, and American citizens working together with respect and affection, producing a work that we hope will be a lasting contribution to all those who study these great books and ideas in the centuries to come. The catalog as it stands now contains more than 100,000 entries; the Tibetan input operators are typing in the entire colophon of each work, with valuable information on the Tibetan teaching lineages and other historical detail; the resulting catalog already contains over fifty times more material than the most famous Tibetan catalog to date, the Tohoku.
The following is a list of some of the dedicated individuals who have made the St. Petersburg Catalog possible:
At the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Prof. Yu. A. Petrosyan, Institute Director Emeritus
Prof. Evgeni I. Kychanov, Institute Director Emeritus
Prof. Irina F. Popova, Institute Director
Dr. V.L. Uspensky
Dr. E.A. Rezvan
Dr. I.G. Tikhonova
Bhutia Karma Tenzing
At St. Petersburg University:
Dr. Natalja Sheshina, University Library Chief Director
Dr. A. Shukovskaya, Oriental Library Director
Prof. Badma M. Narmaev
Ms. Tamara Petrova
And many others who have given assistance over the years:
Dr. Lev S. Savitsky
Geshe Thupten Pelgye
Jampa Namdrol
Ven. Buddha Balzhivich,
Dr. Losetsering Wangyal,
Aleksander Morozov,
Munkuev Zorictovalzhivich,
and with special thanks to the invaluable Dr. Elena Kharkova
