Under the auspices of H.H. the Dalai Lama and the trusteeship of eminent Tibetan lineage holders and scholars, we are pleased to announce the formation of a breakthrough digital library for classical Indo-Tibetan studies – the Tibetan International Digital Library.

Founded on more than forty years of continuous cultural documentation and archiving activities in India and Nepal, the Tibetan International Digital Library is the first digital library specifically designed for the study of Indo-Tibetan classical culture as it is traditionally studied.

In Indo-Tibetan culture the classical texts are traditionally studied together with a detailed line-by-line oral commentary given by a lineage holder and / or in the case of the ritual or visual arts traditions together with physical demonstration by an accomplished master.

The Tibetan International Digital Library is the first digital library which fully supports the integrated study of classical texts together with their related oral commentaries and / or together with detailed video documentation of ritual or visual arts practices.

In its first iteration, the Tibetan International Digital Library will enable the integrated study of the world's largest collection of oral commentarial recordings, the world's largest collection of video documentation of the ritual and visual arts, and their related classical texts.

Further, the Tibetan International Digital Library is built on a library system specifically designed to support the ease of integration of diverse collections of resources and the secure archiving of endangered collections.

The Tibetan International Digital Library will therefore provide the framework for a comprehensive digital library and archive for the Tibetan cultural resources of all media types – classical texts, oral commentaries, and the still image and video documentation of the ritual and visual arts – which are currently dispersed in over 300 collections worldwide.

In short, the Tibetan International Digital Library serves three vital and unique purposes: 1/ enabling the study of Indo-Tibetan culture as it is intended to be studied, 2/ bringing together the cultural resources scattered around the world into a single multimedia platform and 3/ providing a safe archival home for collections that may, either now or in the future, be endangered.

These three purposes are fundamental to supporting the continuity of Tibetan culture, advancing Indo-Tibetan studies, and enhancing access to Indo-Tibetan cultural knowledge across academia and by the public regionally and internationally.

Further updates will be posted here as the technical development of the Tibetan International Digital Library moves forward. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us at: .