Documentation
Resources
Overview
At present these are the primary types of documentation in the Porong Project:
- manuscripts
- GPS points and feature typology for historical pasture boundaries and toponyms for landscape features
- ethnographic data
- photographic and video images
- household and livestock census
- ecological surveys of rangelands, including species composition and pasture condition
- audio/video recordings of cultural traditions, especially songs (including rgyal gzghas ritual song and dance cycle), as well as interviews in the local dialect (potential use in THDL language modules).
Ethnographic data collected by Porong zla ba
- Household census (1999). Humans and animals. Currently a Word table with columns for household number, name of household head (khyim bdag), then lists of family members with codes like S1 for first son, S2 for second son, etc. Some households have names.
- Livestock census (1999). Goats, sheeps, horses, yaks, cows, donkeys.
- List of pastures, which include encampments. Many of these pastures have been photographed and need to be catalogued by settlement and geographic id.
- List of encampments (lhas): most are marked only by natural toponyms (ridges, lakes, streams, etc.); there are only a few areas that have been fenced since the 1980s. Encampments are typically stone enclosures with low walls. Several encampments are often located together. Each has pasture lands associated with them. Pastures are named and have been incorporated with government land divisions.
- Pasture lands (rtsa thang): different kinds of pastures and their season of use are currently kept in Word tables listing the resource associated with each village. The tables give the names, etymologies when available, and seasons of use (each divided into upper (stod) and lower (smad) halves. In addition, each row lists the different types of grasses found in that pasture. Each village has two tables, one for grasses that survive in winter and one for those that persist through winter (presumably annual versus perennial species?).
- Zla ba has hand-drawn a pasture map that was subsequently scanned. A toponym list for encampments and pasture lands associated with this map needs to be correlated with GPS points database.
Image archives
- Oxford University archives hold roughly 10,000 images from the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, many of them with accompanying GPS readings. The images are currently cataloged in a Filemaker database first set up by Mark Turin of Cambridge University's Digital Himalaya project. This template needs be migrated to the THDL Filemaker database, whatever version is available as of August 2003. In terms of direct collaboration needed, the institutions need to formalize the typologies that will be used to classify pictures – e.g., vegetation and feature types. Ultimately all images which have GPS readings will be migrated from Filemaker database to a GDMS Image Repository for internet GIS applications on the THDL platform. Once the images have been properly cataloged and migrated, GDMS can be used to express and query for complex and geographically-accurate spatial relationships over the internet.
Historical documents archives
Oxford University archives hold photos and images of historical documents delineating grazing boundaries for the region's traditional settlements. There is a need to digitize the boundaries of Porong's townships and the region's historical and contemporary pastures. This aspect of the GIS analysis would also specifically focusing on any boundary changes in grazing areas from 1980 onwards.
Oxford has digital images of tax documents from the pre-1959 era, dating mainly to 18th century. 10 separate documents of multiple folios. There were 8 tsho in greater Porong, and today's Zhabs ka township corresponds to one of the eight. These are less tax documents than they are confirmations of pasture boundary documentss previously issued by the 6th Dalai Lama and his theocratic state, referring to earlier documents by the 5th, and confirmed by the 6th with authority of the Manchus. These are often not originals, but ud copies made during the time of the 13th Dalai Lama.
Clan History. Oxford has images of folios containing the history of the clan 'bur ba of the rje dbon, ruler of Greater Porong. 36 folio sides in khyug. Oxford University has the main document, which talks about how Porong originated, etc. Porong probably began in early 15th century after collapse of la stod lho, which itself was one of the thirteen myarchies. Originally archived by Franz Karl Ehrhard.
Biographies
Biographies of lamas from the bodong pa and mdo dmar pa lineages. Ur rgyan pa came through this area in 14th century and was influential. Others?
In terms of inputting texts, the project has made progress thanks largely to the hard work of Nyima Dhondul of Mustang, Nepal, who worked on these processing the images and typing into Wylie many folios of documents from the Himalaya and Tibet. Caveat! Digitization of texts, processing of images, and database input and maintenance requires hours of constant work.