Tibetan Digital Initiatives at UVa
Tibetan Himalayan Library
The Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL) is hosted by the University of Virginia as an online publishing, archiving, and networking platform to promote collaborative generation and sharing of resources on Tibet on an international scale. Many individuals and organizations around the world participate in THL to build and disseminate their scholarship, data, maps, audio-video, images, and far more. THL is enabling and promoting collaboration across boundaries, and also facilitates a more engaged model of academics which includes Tibetan scholars and local residents on the plateau, as well as taking care for how academic knowledge can benefit local communities.
Communities and Tools
THL has been a world leader at developing technologies for use with the Tibetan script, as well as technologies for processing and publishing content concerning Tibet. This has been part and parcel of THL’s larger concern for the full participation of Tibetans in both generating content about their own culture, history, and environment, as well as being able to access such content.
Collections & Resources
At the core of THL is its large collections of digital content – Tibetan literature, audio-video recordings, images, maps, journal and book reprints, immersive objects, and much more. These collections are archived in a system that allows them to be utilized in multiple ways and in different publications. THL also hosts collaborative reference resources – a rich Tibetan dictionary, a Place Dictionary, Knowledge Maps, and Encyclopedias, which are under development.
Tibetan Scholarship
THL is the publisher of the Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (JIATS), the official scholarly publication of the world’s major Tibetan Studies organization. It also hosts a rich array of scholarly projects, such as the monastic projects on Sera, Drepung , and Meru monasteries.