Tibetan Knowledge Consortium

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The TKC digital library will bring together:

1. The world's largest collection of digitized (e-text) classical Tibetan literature. 2. The largest single translation project into English of classical Tibetan materials. 3. The largest collection of recorded oral commentaries to the major classical texts by senior contemporary lineage holders. 4. One of the world's leading film and video archives of Tibetan cultural traditions.

TKC relies on the guidance and active participation of scholars, lineage holders, cultural experts, community members and institutions for determining cultural documentation priorities and undertaking the actual work of cultural conservation and revitalization.

TKC has many years of experience in implementing appropriate low-cost digital technologies and training local community members in its use. TKC's digitized cultural resources can be accessed, without charge, by the people of the local communities via a network of multimedia libraries in the region.

To find out more about the Tibetan Knowledge Consortium visit:

website

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Tibetan Buddhism at the Digital Frontier – A Synopsis

Robert R. Chilton, Technical Director, ACIP

How can digital technology be utilized in support of traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture? In particular, how can digital technology be employed to transfer or record culturally important materials onto electronic media, in a universally viewable format, and thereby preserve access to essential cultural resources? These are vital questions for Tibetan Buddhism at the beginning of the 21st century. But preserving the cultural materials is only one part of the task: we must also consider how modern information and communications technologies might be used to support the traditional institutions that transmit the cultural heritage—knowledge, skills, and outlook—from one generation to the next.

Many of the challenges now facing traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture can be addressed through the creative use of digital technology. This classical culture was severely disrupted by adverse political and economic circumstances during the 20th century. Much of the physical culture—including libraries and monasteries along with their books and artwork—was lost; the surviving remnants are held in isolated and widely separated locations. Moreover, an already vast cultural region has become even more geographically diverse as refugees have settled in South Asia and around the world. And there is an urgency to the work of recording this cultural heritage since thousands of fragile books, works of art, and other elements of physical culture are threatened by environmental, political, and economic forces. Meanwhile, the transmitters of cultural knowledge—the lineage-holders and other masters of traditional learning—are aging. Also, the problem of the global “digital divide” is particularly acute within Tibetan Buddhist societies; a generalized lack of both money and infrastructure prevents access to the Internet and other channels of communication while a lack of technical knowledge hampers effective use the new media. But even if a technically skilled person from the Tibetan Buddhist community is able to gain access to the ’Net, he or she will find very few culturally relevant materials—a situation that is exacerbated by the historical lack of standards and support for the Tibetan script within computer environments.

Nevertheless, there is hope that digital technology’s inherent efficiencies in preservation, access and information processing can be utilized in helping this endangered culture to survive and to thrive. Information and communications technologies can provide low-cost solutions that bridge the gaps of time and distance, providing immediate on-demand access to important cultural resources. International standards for computing in Tibetan (and the humanities in general)—which are crucial to the future of digitization initiatives—are now being widely adopted. As the costs of information and communications technologies have fallen and their capabilities have dramatically increased, there is every reason to anticipate feasible and affordable digital solutions to many of the problems confronting traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture. In fact, a number of cultural preservation initiatives have already begun to take advantage of digital technology. One ambitious initiative, undertaken by the Tibetan Knowledge Consortium (TKC), is working to (1) create digital records of important cultural knowledge and make these resources universally available throughout the entire Tibetan cultural sphere, and (2) provide assistance to more than thirty monasteries, libraries, and other cultural institutions in the form of infrastructure improvements, computer and multimedia training, and technology-based employment opportunities.

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