Status of THDL History Collections
The History Collections were begun in March of 2002. They contain e-texts, outlines, and summaries of Tibetan historical works. The coordinators welcome all input, collaboration, comment, and criticism regarding this site. All submissions will be clearly credited to their creators. The Collections currently contain materials on Tibetan history. The Library expects to expand these resources to encompass historical traditions of the entire Himalayan region.
Current Status: While we have abundant textual resources for the study of Tibetan history, these resources have yet to be analyzed and presented in a comprehensive and methodologically grounded manner. To this end the History Collections are currently focused on four primary goals:
- To make Tibetan historical literature more accessible to scholars, religious participants, and other interested parties at several levels:
Our knowledge of Tibetan history is based in large part on the rich historiographic tradition that has developed in Tibet over the last millennium. A recent survey lists over seven hundred historical works, and this number grows each year as Tibetans write new historical works and pre-modern works are recovered and made available. Additionally, the several thousand biographical and hagiographic works currently accessible contain a wealth of historical information, as do edicts, monastic charters, tax records, letters, legal texts, gazetteers, catalogs, colophons, and other documents that make up the raw materials of historical research. While we thus have abundant textual resources for the study of Tibetan history, the majority of these resources have yet to be analyzed and presented in a comprehensive and methodologically grounded manner.
The Tibetan History Collection will contain multi-lingual (primarily Tibetan and English) summaries, topical outlines, analytical surveys, digital texts, and downloadable and printable images of major Tibetan historical works.
- To provide historical layers to other collections in the THDL:
As digital texts, topical outlines, summaries, and analytical surveys of Tibetan historical works are added these will be linked to other subject collections and to area studies, such that from any thematic or geographic page on the THDL site the user can access both summarized historical data and Tibetan historiography on the subject.
- To present collaborative and individual research projects on historical topics:
Research projects by scholarly groups and individuals on the history of places, historical periods, themes, and texts will be showcased under the editorial auspices of the THDL.
- To encourage, promote, and provide a forum for historical study of Tibet that aspires to the highest standards of modern humanities and social science disciplines in collaborative setting open to discussion and debate:
The Collection will include discussions of historical methodology in relation to Tibetan contexts, sources of major research tools, and biographical information on modern and pre-modern Tibetan and western historians. Because the THDL architecture is designed for trans-regional collaborative research, it the History Collection can also serve as a forum for discussions and debates about the nature Tibetan historical studies.