Digital Library Initiatives at UVa

The Tibetan and Himalayan Library

UVa is host to one of the world’s largest digital initiatives on Tibetan cultures, the Tibetan & Himalayan Library (www.thlib.org), with coverage of geography, religion, literature, dictionaries, maps, audio-video, images, and much more. It is supported by the UVa Library and the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.

THL has produced a complete online reproduction and catalog of the Collected Tantras of the Ancients (rnying ma rgyud ‘bum). This resource represents the most intensive effort to date to provide deep, chapter-level cataloguing for a major collection of Tibetan literature, and is freely available to all users. The THL is currently producing a similar resource for the Tibetan Buddhist canonical collections, the Kangyur and Tengyur. The THL is also developing a considerable list of electronic texts that will eventually be fully integrated into the Library’s catalog.

The Tibetan Community Library

UVa also supports the Bhutan National Digital Library, and is currently preparing the Tibetan Digital Library, which is in Tibetan language and targeted for Tibetan communities.