TIBETAN PROJECTS
SOUTH ASIA FIELD OFFICE
The South Asia Field Office (SAFO) of ACIP oversees our three main input centers where we create searchable e-text versions of Tibetan books. Sera Mey Monastic University Computer Center (Bylakuppe), Tibetan Rabgyeling Refugee Settlement Computer Center (Hunsur), and Tibetan Dekey Larsoe Refugee Settlement Computer Center (Bylakkupe).
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SERA MEY MONASTIC UNIVERSITY
The Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University Computer Center and the Sera Mey Library Computer Sectionare the founding centers of ACIP. Established in the late 1980's, the centers at Sera Mey trained Tibetan Buddhist monks attending the college to work with computers as a way to further their education, as well as contribute to the preservation of the literature being input.
Sera Mey Computer Center is currently staffed by eight data entry operators, all of them monastics attending the college, and is managed by Ven. Pemba.
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TIBETAN RABGYELING
Tibetan Rabgyeling Input Center, located near Mysore in Hunsur, South India, started operations in 1996, and currently has 11 input operators, mostly Tibetan refugee women. It is under the supervision of Lobsang Tsering, and SAFO general manager Sonam Lhamo.
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TIBETAN DEKEY LARSOE
The Tibetan Dekey Larsoe Input Center, located near Sera Mey Monastery in Bylakuppe (Mysore District) in Karnataka, South India, was founded in 1997. There are currently 9 fulltime input operators, all Tibetan refugee women, under the supervision of Migmar Phentok, and SAFO general manager Sonam Lhamo.
MONGOLIA NATIONAL LIBRARY
ACIP established its catalogue and digital imaging project in Mongolia, located in the National Library of Mongolia in Ulaanbataar, in 1999. There are approximately 650,000 Tibetan titles housed in this collection, many of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
The Mongolian staff includes 12 cataloguers and digital imaging personnel. Most of them have a degree in Textology and Tibetology from the National University of Mongolia. The cataloging portion of the project is managed by a Tibetan, Ngawang Gyatso, who was trained by ACIP in India.
The primary focus of the center has been the cataloging and organization of the vast Tibetan collection, as well as the digital imaging of the Peking and Tempangma Kangyurs.
CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF TIBETAN STUDIES
The ACIP-CUTS project is located at the esteemed Central University of Tibetan Studies (CUTS) in Sarnath, India. This collaborative endeavor with CUTS began in 2007 and is overseen by a senior CUTS staff member, Mr. Pema Gyalpo.
The strengths of the ACIP-CUTS personnel is that they are highly educated in Tibetan and Sanskrit, and as graduates of CUTS, they are able to employ academic materials and methods when needed. In addition, they enjoy access to exceptional resources - both printed and human expertise, of the University itself.
The primary work that has been done in Sarnath has been the verification of searchable e-text data of the Dege Tengyur, and the Lhasa Kangyur, using specialized ACIP softwares designed to identify many of the transliteration errors found in the raw typed data. The focus of the center relies on it's high level of competency using computer technology in conjunction with the available scholastic resources.
SANSKRIT PROJECTS
The Yoga Classics Input Project (YCIP), operating within ACIP, is dedicated to the preservation of the ancient Sanskrit heritage. There are currently three YCIP centers located in India: Varanasi, Kerala, and The Kaivalyadama Library (located just outside of Pune).
VARANASI
The Varanasi Sanskrit Center, established in 2005, is focused primarily on digitally preserving rare texts of Indology such as Yoga, Tantra, Buddhism works in Sanskrit, and Ayurveda. There are currently five staff responsible for digitizing and nine participating scholars. Some major accomplishments to date include the five volume Sanskrit encyclopedia Sabdakalapdrum, as well as digitally imaging 100,000 pages of sanskrit text from the Buldhana district in the state of Maharashra.
KAIVALYADHAM
Our Kaivalyadham Library Project, located in Pune, India, in the state of Maharashtra, was founded in 2009 and houses over 26,000 volumes. This center is our main resource for Yogic and Tantric texts and focuses primarily on making digital scans of rare manuscripts. In addition, the center's staff of three digital imaging specialists, assisted by two Sanskrit scholars from the Library, has photographed over 100,000 pages of the Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts.
KERALA
Our Kerala Center, located in Palghat, India, was established in 2007 and employes five full time staff members responsible for digitizing manuscripts on Ayurvedia, Yoga, Sankhya, Nyaya, Sanskrit, as well as Tantra, Agamas, Vedic, Upanishads, Kosas, and many other rare and ancient paper and palm leaf manuscripts.
The Kerala library currently consists of 1.4 million folios of various subjects on Indology, with a monthly output of 8000 scans. Our personnel also record video interviews of owners of the private collections, documenting the distinctive characterisics of its contents.
PAST PROJECTS
ST PETERSBURG
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 130,000 titles. 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.
Since the time of the tsars, the books in each of these collections have been faithfully gathered together by generations of Russian explorers and scholars, 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.
We worked from 1994 until the completion of the project in 2007 cataloguing the entirety of both collections. The Tibetan input operators typed the entire colophon of each work, with valuable information on the Tibetan teaching lineages and other historical details.
LADAKH
ACIP's Ladakh office, in operation from 2005 through 2007, consisted of four Ladakhi monks and was led by experienced cataloger Jampa Namdrol (who worked with ACIP for many years on the St. Petersburg Catalog) This project team created an extensive electronic database of Tibetan books and manuscripts held by 17 gompas, or monasteries, around Leh valley in addition to the Tibetan holdings at the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS) in Leh.
The challenging physical conditions in Ladakh required the cataloging team to carry their computers and electrical generator to each of the 17 monasteries.
Nearly 48,000 titles were cataloged by this collaborative effort; about 18,000 items from the collections of the 17 monasteries, and a further 30,000 titles that are held by the CIBS library.
OTHER PAST PROJECTS
Other past projects include:
- Sera Jey Monastic University Computer Center
- Ganden Jangtse Monastic University Computer Center
- Dakpa Tibetan Refugee Settlement Computer Center
- Gyume Tantric College
- Drepung Loseling Monastic University Computer Center
- Sakya Monastic University Computer Center
- Rajpur Institute of Buddhist Studies: Leh, Ladakh
- ACIP/Gompa Association Project of Leh, Ladakh
- Drepung Gomang Monastic University Computer Center
- Rato Monastic University Computer Center
- Ganden Shartse Monastic Computer Center
- Tashi Hlunpo Monastic University
- Drolma Ling Buddhist Refugee Nunnery
- Ganden Choling Buddhist Refugee Nunnery
Many of the computer centers started and supported by ACIP in the 1990s have since developed into fully independent operations -- now mainly focused on producing computer typeset textbooks for use in the monasteries and nunneries.
