Reference Links

Welcome to the Reference section of Resources in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies. This section is not fully operative, but we have opened it with reference to a few major resources.

Abebooks (http://www.abebooks.com)

Abebooks possess a virtual collection of over 40 million rare and out of print volumes drawn from bookshops around the world. It has a powerful search engine, as well as a BookSleuth feature, which lets you pose obscure book research questions to a very active community.

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Asian Studies Online - a Timeline of Major Developments (coombs.anu.edu.au/asian-studies-timeline.html)

Asian Studies Online provides an annotated timeline of major events involving digital technology in Asian Studies. The chronological list begins in 1944, but is more detailed from 1989 onwards, while each year also briefly cites major global developments in technology for context. As of the time of review, it had 218 entries in total, each with short 1-4 sentence annotation.

Resource type: reference
Content classification: Reference: Timelines, Collections: Thematic: History, Tools: History
Director : Matthew Ciolek
Publisher: Australian National University.
Interface language: English
Other language(s): Tibetan
Region: Tibet
Web site rating: Useful
Reviewed by: David Germano on June 14, 2003

Padma Karpo Translation Committee (http://www.tibet.dk/pktc/tdiction.htm)

Padma Karpo Translation Committee provides electronic editions of a wide range of Tibetan dictionaries for modest prices, including: The Illuminator Tibetan-English Dictionary, Sarat Chandra Das's Tibetan-English Dictionary, Geshe Chodrak's Tibetan-Tibetan Dictionary, The Mahavyutpatti (Sanskrit-Tibetan-English Glossary), and a Tibetan Verbs Database. The dictionaries are proofed to a high standard, and delivered using special software. The software only works on Windows, though Mac Users should be able to run it using Windows emulation software. There are no on-line resources, however, aside from sample files and only the Committee's own products are sold.

Resource type: commerical
Content classification: Reference:Dictionaries
Interface language: English
Other language(s): Tibetan
Region: Tibet
Web site rating: Useful
Reviewed by: David Germano on June 12, 2003

Reference section of The Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (http://orion.lib.virginia.edu/thdl/reference/index.html)

The Reference section of The Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library provides an excellent on-line dictionary in its initial phases, a reference roster to contemporary scholars, a gazetteer of Tibetan and Himalayan places, and the current embryonic guide to Web resources. It promises to be a major locus for collaboratively built reference materials. However, the site is currently under construction, so much of its utility is currently limited or navigation is unclear.

Resource type: collections
Content classification: Reference:Dictionaries, Reference:Encyclopedia, Reference:Places
Interface language: English
Other language(s): Tibetan
Region: Tibet
Web site rating: Useful
Reviewed by: David Germano on June 12, 2003

Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (www.tbrc.org)

Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center provides an excellent reference resource for efficiently looking up titles for classical Tibetan literature, as well as for looking up Tibetan religious figures; it has more limited resources on Tibetan places. It is without question the preeminent site in the world for looking up a Tibetan title or person on-line and reflects the impressive scholarly knowledge of Gene Smith, its founder.

Resource type: collections
Content classification: Reference:Encyclopedia, Reference:People, Reference:Places
Interface language: English
Other language(s): Tibetan
Region: Tibet
Web site rating: Essential
Reviewed by: David Germano on June 12, 2003

Tibetan Studies WWW Virtual Library(http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-TibetanStudies.html)

Tibetan Studies WWW Virtual Library is host to a bibliography of hypertext links to online resources dealing with Tibet. These links are annotated and thematically organized into groups. The bibliography is also selective in that all listed links have been inspected and judged as useful resources. The links are very useful resources, though it appears the annotations are limited to short descriptions and use is limited to browsing without dedicated searching ability.

Resource type: reference
Content classification: Reference: Bibliographies: Web links
Director : Matthew Ciolek
Publisher: Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library/Australian National University.
Interface language: English
Other language(s): Tibetan
Region: Tibet
Web site rating: Useful
Reviewed by: David Germano on June 14, 2003