THDL Studies of Architecture

Architecture, as a technology that orders time and space and classifies people and things, has profound effects on many aspects of culture and plays a vital role in the reproduction of society at both the individual and institutional level. Modern Euro-American scholarship on vernacular architecture stems from the disciplines of cultural anthropology and cultural geography and, in its study of the classification and social origin of building elements, interacts closely with linguistics and history.

We approach the study of Tibetan and Himalayan architecture on two fronts: one, as a highly specialized technical system that is well represented by schematic diagrams and the quantifiable aspects of structural organization; and two, as a social, sensual art that is intricately interrelated with human personal and social identity. We thus aim to produce studies that emphasize schematic illustrations as well as polychromatic, three-dimensional representations, in an effort to interact as richly as possible with the whole architectural experience.

Collection development is now focusing on a documentation project of historically important building sites in and around Lhasa. Scholars of Tibetan history maintain that architecture - the construction of localized temples and other sites for social gathering - was one of the most important factors in the stabilization of Buddhist cultural traditions in Tibet. Throughout history, the creation of physical sites on the Tibetan soil has clearly been important for religious and political figures who wished to exert their own influence. Many of the early sites featured in this study were institutions for academic study, way-stations for traveling scholars, and communities for students of various scholastic and contemplative traditions. Often placed at locations of strategic importance, these buildings were used in medieval times as watchtowers that guarded territories of religious, political, and economic import.

Our study of these sites includes selected measured drawings, extensive photographic and videographic documentation, and video interviews with Tibetan historians and residents or patrons of the sites. Lhasa has been the capital of Tibet for centuries, and as such is home to some of the greatest exemplars of traditional Tibetan architecture. In Lhasa we have focused in particular on the Meru Nyingba, the Barkor, and the Zhol neighborhood (an old neighborhood located in front of the Potala palace). The Barkor area is the classical center of Lhasa, and consists of a circumambulation route around Tibet's central temple (the Jokhang) that winds through some of the most important temples, domestic residences, and governmental buildings of pre-modern Tibet. It thus best reflects Lhasa's distinctive urban architectural style for domestic, governmental and religious structures, and it also contains much important ancient art in the form of murals, carvings, and statues.

The THDL Architecture Collections currently contain materials on Tibetan architecture. The Library expects to expand these resources over time to encompass the entire Himalayan region. THDL is eager to engage projects on Tibetan and Himayalan architecture that draw on the media in our Library, or those that aim to develop new media collections.