The documentary collection

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT COLLECTIONS OF TIBETOLOGY IN EUROPE

Specialized in Buddhism and Buddhist civilisations, the Dhagpo Kagyu Library houses a documentary collection covering Tibetan, Indian, Chinese and Japanese traditions. The Tibetan tradition is particularly represented, with translations of the Indian Buddhist corpus and its explanations, roughly 3 600 texts.

Through the support of a sponsor, the Dhagpo Kagyu library is endowed with 37000 microfilms of the “Collection of Tibetan Works, programme PL 480”. It is the only library in Europe to possess this priceless collection of texts spared from destruction through the work of scanning and reprinting begun in India in the 1960’s.

Today, the documentary collection at the Dhagpo Kagyu library is composed of:

• 8 000 volumes
• 37 000 microfilms
• 900 CD audio and DVD video
• 270 DVD of digital texts
• revues and periodicals

It is divided into two spaces of 90 m² housing the Tibetan collection, composed only of documents in Tibetan language and the “Western” collection, gathering documents in languages other than Tibetan.

A VAST FIELD OF BUDDHIST KNOWLEDGE

The texts cover five major categories of knowledge:

Buddhism : the philosophy, meditation instruction, the history and biographies
logic : the Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools of thought
language : the grammar and literature
arts : the Buddhist iconography
medecine

More contemporary themes such as geography, ethnology and linguistics as well as compared philosophy and sciences are also added to these five traditional fields of knowledge.

SPACE FOR NEW COLLECTIONS

Due to lack of appropriate space, the Dhagpo Kagyu library has been compelled to restrain its purchases. The new space of 300 m2 which has been allocated in the heart of the Institute will allow the team to once again acquire new collections.