Category: Academic Projects

Academic Projects

  • The Karoṣṭhi Klub at The University of Washington

    The Karoṣṭhi Klub at The University of Washington

    aEvery Friday afternoon at the University of Washington a group of scholars and students gather their laptops, electronic tablets, projectors, and infrared images of ancient birch bark scrolls and hike up to a windowless room on the mezzanine floor of Gowen Hall for some not so old-fashioned detective work. The objective of their sleuthing is to coax a little meaning from the most ancient Buddhist manuscripts known to still exist. An image of one piece of one side of a birch bark scroll (the original buried in the vaults of the British Library) is projected on the wall and the group attempts to decipher the small scribblings of an ancient scribe.

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  • The University of Washington – Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project

    The University of Washington – Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project

    The University of Washington – Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project:
    Rediscovering the Worlds’ Oldest Buddhist Manuscripts
    I. Origin of the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project

    The Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project (EBMP) was constituted in 1996 to study a collection of Buddhist manuscripts dating from the first century a.d. which had recently been discovered in Afghanistan and acquired by the British Library. The British Library contacted Professor Richard Salomon of the University of Washington’s Department of Asian Languages and Literature requesting that he supervise the study and publication of these unique documents, and shortly thereafter an agreement was signed between the library and the university, establishing the EBMP with Professor Salomon as director of the project and Professor Collett Cox as assistant director. Subsequently, a contract was drawn up between the EBMP and the University of Washington Press for the publication of the results of the research in a new series entitled “Gandhāran Buddhist Manuscripts.” To date, six volumes in this series have been published by EBMP research scholars, with a seventh to be issued shortly.

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  • Update on the Tibetan Himalayan Library

    Update on the Tibetan Himalayan Library

    Many of you probably know THDL, but if you haven’t kept up with their machinations you may find it difficult to find information on this huge resource. The first thing to know is that THDL is no longer THDL, it is called THL (Tibetan Himalayan Library) and it is no longer housed (even in parts) at www.thdl.org. It is now officially only at www.thlib.org The journal for International Association of Tibetan Studies is here.

    Although one might fall prey to the hope that things have become easier to find on THL now that it has fewer letters, simply recall the old adage about hope and fear and settle in for a session of learning experiences. Other than the pretty pictures, THL has also provided us with the experience of not being able to find half of the things that one used to be able to find on the old site. This is because some pages and resources are still in transition and will arrive at their new homes soon.


    There are some really excellent resources that you should know about:

    1. Knowledge Maps – Look on the right side of the Reference page for the link to an amazing set of “interactive” knowledge maps being developed at UVa. Contents include information about various doxographical traditions, languages, Tibetan Literary Genres. Unfortunately, many of the more interesting maps are still being developed.
    2.  Historical Tibetan Dictionary – Try the Browse function. Not every entry has as detailed entries, but some are excellent. Take a look at the word of the day, thod rgal.
    3. NGB – The searchable rnying ma rgyud ’bum IS still there, you just have to find it. Here it is. What you get is extremely detailed cataloging of each text in the NGB.
    4.  Canons Project – As they did with the NGB, UVa is attempting to do deep cataloging of several of the Tengyurs and Kangyurs. Sadly nothing new to report here. They are still working, however, there is an interesting article about Tibetan Historiography by Dr. van der Kuijp.
    5.  There is a very interesting set of pages on the bibliographies of such luminaries as Rin chen bzang po, Machik Labdron, Nyang ral nyi ma ‘od zer, Shenchen Luga, Sakya Pandita, and more. See the link here and send a note to Marcus (marcus@tsadra.org) if you can’t access the information.

    When THL has anything new to offer, or they update anything substantial, I will provide a new post with links to the most interesting information.

  • Texts Now Available Online from Soka University Buddhology Institute

    Texts Now Available Online from Soka University Buddhology Institute

    The publications of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University are available online:

    I. Volume of Sanskrit manuscripts in the British Library:
    http://iriab.soka.ac.jp/orc/Publications/BLSF/index_BLSF.html

    II. International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University monograph series:
    http://iriab.soka.ac.jp/orc/Publications/BPPB/index_BPPB.html

    III. International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University annual journal:
    http://iriab.soka.ac.jp/orc/Publications/ARIRIAB/index_ARIRIAB.html

  • "New" Sanskrit Term Search Program

    "New" Sanskrit Term Search Program

    In case you did not see this post on H-Buddhism Net, or do not have access to that listserv, here’s the news:

    I am pleased to announce a new service that is now available through the INDOLOGY website.

    SARIT is a freely-available online facility that enables you to search through an online library of Sanskrit texts for keywords, word-collocations, and other linguistic strings.  The system is based on the well-known ARTFL software, and is exceptionally powerful.  It can handle many forms of query and output, including KWIC indexes. Your imagination is the limit.

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  • Karmapa Bibliography

    Karmapa Bibliography

    A friend of mine, Charles Manson of Harvard and Oxford University, is creating a list of all works attributed to each of the Karmapas. At the moment he has done little more than collect what is available via TBRC, but he plans to create a website with information as he gathers more. His studies are focused on Karma Pakshi’s life and philosophy, references for སྐུ་གསུམ་ངོ་སྤྲོད་ (about which Mikyo Dorje wrote 4 volumes) and the beginning of the Mahakala Bernagchen tradition in the Kagyu lineage. if you are interested in any of his projects, or want to add to his list of works by the Karmapa’s, you can email him at : charles.manson@orinst.ox.ac.uk

    ~Marcus