Buddhist
Digital Resource
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Connecting Buddhist literature with the world.

Discover millions of pages of texts from the major Buddhist literary traditions.

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BUDA: BDRC’s
Archival Platform

BDRC’s Buddhist Digital Archives (BUDA) provides digital research tools and provides access to millions of pages of Buddhist texts contributed by BDRC and its many partners. Read the user guide here.

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BUDA : BDRC’s
Archival Platform

BDRC’s Buddhist Digital Archives (BUDA) provides access to more than 17 million pages of Buddhist texts and offers digital tools to support research.

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Programs

Our team of scholars, technologists, librarians, and project experts enact BDRC’s mission with  a passion for preserving and sharing Buddhist cultural heritage.

Learn more about our global operations

Budhist Digital Resource Center Preservation of Tibetan literary heritage

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Visit from Thupten Jinpa at BDRC headquarters.

02 November 2020

An Introduction to BDRC's Librarians

Tibetan texts can be tricky to work with. Publication information is often missing or unstandardized, with some works lacking titles entirely while others have author information buried in the colophon. That’s why BDRC has expert librarians with the specialized knowledge needed to catalog these challenging works.

08 October 2020

Job Posting: BDRC Seeks Fellow in Southeast Asian Manuscripts

With generous support from Khyentse Foundation, the Buddhist Digital Resource Center invites applications for a fellowship in Southeast Asian manuscripts, to begin 1 January 2021.

manuscript of the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti digitized in Kathmandu under the auspices of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library

26 August 2020

The BUDA Network: Creating a Web of Buddhist Resources

With libraries and archives closed around the world, the value of BDRC’s online platform has gained new significance as the most comprehensive collection of Buddhist writings in classical Asian languages.

Some of Gene’s personal notebooks about Kagyu history and literature

25 May 2019

The Kagyu Tradition

Today we’re featuring new acquisitions of texts from the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. BDRC founder Gene Smith championed Kagyu literary heritage and had fruitful relations with many Kagyu lamas.

Gene Smith with Dilgo Khyentse and others

17 May 2019

The Nyingma Tradition

BDRC has an excellent collection of Nyingma texts as a result of its close connections with Nyingma lamas. For decades, BDRC’s founder, Gene Smith, was both a student and friend of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse (1910-1991), who was the head of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism from 1987-1991.

BDRC's founder, E. Gene Smith, at Menri Monastery

10 May 2019

Rare Bön Texts From the BDRC Archive

With support from the BDRC community and our generous funding partners, BDRC has been expanding its collection of Tibetan texts through new digitization efforts in Tibet and Mongolia, as well as through our long-term operations in India

07 March 2019

We’re Hiring!

Join the BDRC team and help us preserve and share Buddhist literary heritage!

We’re seeking three technology and design experts—a UI developer, a UX expert, and a graphic designer—to help us finish our next-generation archival platform, the Buddhist Universal Digital Archive (BUDA).

05 October 2018

BDRC Board Selects Jann Ronis as New Executive Director

The Buddhist Digital Resource Center’s Board of Directors has selected Jann Ronis to lead BDRC as its new Executive Director.

BDRC’s Head Librarian, Karma Gongde, reviewing texts at the National Library of Mongolia

11 September 2018

Digitizing the National Library of Mongolia

With support from Khyentse Foundation, the Asian Classics Input Project and the Buddhist Digital Resource Center have partnered to digitize, catalog, and make accessible all Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs held at the National Library of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar.

From left to right: Rashmi Shakya, Nabin Bajracharya (Scanning Technician), Milan Shakya (NIBS Managing Director), Travis DeTour, Miroj Shakya (Director of NIBS), Tejendra Shakya

13 August 2018

Dispatch From the Field: Nepal

BDRC collaborates with many partners in Asia who are right at the source of important collections of Buddhist literature. With support from our local partners and generous sponsors, BDRC is able to digitize those collections and make them freely available in our online archive.

Budhist Digital Resource Center tests new digitization equipment

28 June 2018

BDRC In Thailand

BDRC, with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation, has been working with the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation since 2016 to preserve their massive collection of palm leaf Buddhist manuscripts.

30 April 2018

Support BDRC’s Spring Appeal

Your generosity during BDRC’s end-of-year appeal raised well over $15,000 to help support the ongoing development of our new online education platform—which has just launched its first courses! Thank you for helping make this possible!

Sample-image-of-a-manuscript-folio-for-the-Nepalese-Scanning-Initiative-BDRC

05 April 2018

The Nepalese Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscript Scanning Initiative

BDRC has been diligently seeking new collections of important Buddhist texts for preservation and archiving. The results of this work are coming to fruition as BDRC launches a new digitization initiative: the Nepalese Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscript Scanning Initiative.

26 March 2018

Buddhist Digital Resource Center seeks Executive Director

After 17 years at the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, BDRC’s Executive Director Jeff Wallman is stepping down. It is our priority to find the best individual to lead BDRC and the qualities and qualifications we seek in our next Executive Director are described in the announcement below.

Budhist Digital Resource Center Opens Office in Europe

19 March 2018

BDRC Opens Office in Europe

BDRC has recently opened a new office in Munich, Germany, which will serve as the central hub for all of BDRC's European activities and operations.

12 February 2018

The Gilt Manuscripts of the Fragile Palm Leaves Collection

The Fragile Palm Leaves collection includes over one hundred Kammavācā manuscripts, dating from the later 18th century through the early 20th century.

08 January 2018

2017: Year in Review

It may be a new year but it’s not too late to reflect on what happened in 2017. The last 12 months was a busy time for BDRC, and we reached a number of significant milestones.

27 November 2017

Khenpo Sodargye Visits BDRC

BDRC was visited by Khenpo Sodargye, one of the most eminent contemporary Buddhist teachers.

17 November 2017

Meet BDRC’s New Mobile App and Online Library for China

In collaboration with Buddhist Research and Resources Center of Zhejiang University, BDRC is thrilled to announce two significant product offerings: the launch of BDRC’s online library for users in China and the release of its free mobile app, “BDRC Lib.”

27 March 2017

Announcing the Fragile Palm Leaves Digitization Project

BDRC is pleased to announce the Fragile Palm Leaves Digitization Project. This vital project is made possible by the gracious funding support of the Khyentse Foundation.

James Robson (left) and D. Christian Lammerts (right)

20 March 2017

Announcing Expanded BDRC Board of Directors

We are pleased to announce the addition of two new members to BDRC’s Board of Directors: James Robson, of Harvard University, and D. Christian Lammerts, of Rutgers University. The knowledge and expertise of these two new members will vitally benefit BDRC as we develop our programs in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

01 March 2017

Introducing Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC)

We are pleased to announce the expansion of our institutional mission to include the preservation of texts in languages beyond Tibetan, including Sanskrit, Pali and Chinese.

Venerable Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche with TBRC staff

20 May 2016

Venerable Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche Visits TBRC

We were honored and pleased to host Venerable Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche at TBRC this week.

17 May 2016

David Weinberger on the Future of Digital Libraries

David Weinberger’s talk, “The Future of Digital Libraries,” surrounded importance of digital libraries as spaces in which the identities and values of communities can be expressed through data.

18 April 2016

Khenpo Karma Jamyang Gyaltsen Visits TBRC

Khenpo Karma Jamyang Gyaltsen visited TBRC on Friday afternoon, touring the TBRC office and joining us for lunch. Khenpo la took time to visit TBRC before giving a talk at Harvard University later in the afternoon; it was an honor for us to host him.

TBRC Board President Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp

13 April 2016

TBRC Board President Wins Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

We are thrilled to announce that TBRC Board President Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp has been awarded a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship for his outstanding scholarship and contributions to the field of Religious studies.

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche with TBRC staff and Lama Willa Miller

21 March 2016

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche Visits TBRC

During his time in the United States, Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche visited TBRC, touring our Cambridge office and discussing TBRC’s work and mission with staff amongst the manuscripts in our library.

07 December 2015

Help TBRC Keep Scanning Tibetan Texts!

Please join us in our end-of-year push to raise $18,651 for a much-needed scanning equipment for our Cambridge office and our fieldwork in India!

18 November 2015

The Digital Woodblock – Reprinting the Ragya Kanjur from TBRC Scans

Using scans from the TBRC archive, a new project in Chengdu, China, the Ragya Grant Kanjur Republication Initiative (RGKRI), is printing 1,000 copies of the Ragya Kanjur and distributing them to monasteries across Tibetan cultural areas of China.

Matthieu Ricard and a handful of TBRC staff

28 October 2015

Matthieu Ricard Visits TBRC

Beloved Buddhist monk, scientist, photographer, author, and humanitarian Matthieu Ricard made time on Friday to visit the TBRC office, sharing stories, memories, and tea with TBRC staff.

H.H. Khandro Rinpoche and Executive Director Jeff Wallman at TBRC

08 August 2015

Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Visits TBRC

Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche visited TBRC last week, touring the Cambridge office and discussing TBRC’s work with staff and TBRC Executive Director Jeff Wallman.

06 June 2015

TBRC Brings Tibetan Manuscripts onto the Google Cultural Institute

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the TBRC exhibition space on the Google Cultural Institute (GCI) platform, online and via mobile device. The TBRC partnership with GCI will allow people worldwide to intimately explore and interact with high-resolution images from select manuscripts in our digital archive.

23 April 2015

The Hunt for the Ragya Kangyur

In collaboration with monks from Ragya Monastery in eastern Tibet, TBRC has digitally preserved an extremely rare woodblock printing of the Tibetan Buddhist canon: the Ragya Kangyur.

His Holiness the Karmapa blessing the TBRC office

07 April 2015

His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa Visits TBRC

On Thursday, March 26 2015, the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center had the great honor of hosting His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa in our office for lunch.

06 March 2015

The Library of Congress Rockhill Kangyur Release

With the gracious support of The Library of Congress Asian Division Tibetan Collection in Washington D.C., and in cooperation with the University of Virginia (UVA), TBRC is making available for download a digital version of the Tibetan Kangyur from the Rockhill collection at the Library of Congress.

A discovery from the pages of The History of the 84 Mahasiddhas.

20 February 2015

Diving into the Backlog, Bringing Wisdom to Light

Our new campaign, Unlock the Backlog, gives friends of TBRC the opportunity to discover unseen texts, wear wisdom in the form of a beautiful treasure pendant, and donate directly to support the dissemination of little-seen manuscripts.

29 January 2015

TBRC launches collaboration with SOAS to improve access to Tibetan digital texts

A delegation of researchers from SOAS, University of London, visited TBRC for two weeks this autumn to learn about the inner-workings of the TBRC’s data management, search mechanism, and the new eText collection.

19 December 2014

Gene’s Vision for TBRC

After working with Gene for many years, and since his death, continuing his vision, I am amazed at where are today.

16 December 2014

Running Out of Disk Space as We Approach 10 Million Pages

Last week, the Wikipedia fundraising campaign inspired us to copy their year-end effort. And why not? TBRC has millions of pages of Tibetan texts that are readily available to individuals – TBRC is a huge public resource of Tibetan texts .

15 December 2014

Article about Gene’s Life Story Published in Prestigious Chinese Magazine

An article about Gene Smith’s life story was published in a prestigious Chinese Magazine called “Xin Zhi” in November 2014.

29 October 2014

TBRC Talks: A Rule Based Tagger for Classical Tibetan, Tuesday 11/4

Negation and Verb Stems Classification
With Dr. Nathan Hill, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

29 October 2014

Peter Gruber, In Memoriam

It is with great sadness I announce that our beloved friend Peter Gruber (1929-2014) passed away on Saturday October 18, 2014. Peter passed away peacefully at his home with his beloved wife Patricia by his side.

17 October 2014

Remembering Dezhung Rinpoche and Gene Smith

Lama Migmar Tseten has kindly offered to share his personal recollections of Dezhung Rinpoche and Gene Smith. This is a unique opportunity to hear, in an informal setting, about two extraordinary people who established the vision that is TBRC.

08 October 2014

TBRC Talks: Scholars and Scribes Friday, 10/10

Leveraging Computerized Tools for Navigating an Uncharted Tibetan Buddhist Philosophical Corpus
Demo and discussion with Dorji Wangchuk & Orna Almogi

24 September 2014

How to Use the Tibetan eText Repository

The following are entry points into the Tibetan eText Repository.
Browse eTexts /
Global Search eTexts /
Advanced Search eTexts /
Intra-Work search

15 September 2014

Lineage Transmission Research: The Backstory

Work that led up to the recent release of the Lineage records in the TBRC Library goes back ten years. This project to record Lineages from Tibetan gsan yig literature started with work that was done by Ralf and Jowita Kramer within a project originally devised by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch.

09 September 2014

The Lineage Transmission Knowledge Model

As part of our ongoing work in the Research Department, we are building a database of Lineage records in the TBRC Library.

28 August 2014

Tibetan Tulku Lines and Networks

We are systematically researching and tracking tulku lines (skye brgyud) to build successive multi-generational networks of incarnation relations amongst Person records in the TBRC Library.

_Harvard-Partnership-for-Long-Term-Preservation

07 June 2014

TBRC – Harvard Partnership to Support the Long-Term Preservation of Tibetan Texts

I am over thrilled to announce a historic partnership between Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center and Harvard University. The Harvard Library and Harvard Digital Repository Services will support the long-term preservation of our entire digital collection. Please see the article in Harvard Magazine.

02 May 2014

Tibetan Search Enhancements

TBRC has just released on its online library, enhancements for Tibetan language searching.

20 March 2014

TBRC Phonetic Tulku Titles

We are pleased to announce the first in a series of phonetic name imports into the TBRC Library. This first import is of over 1700 new phonetic Tulku Titles, corresponding to Person records.

12 March 2014

The Nyingma Kama Collections

Though the oral precepts of the Nyingma were introduced from the time of the imperial period, it was not until Minling Terchen Rigzin Gyurme Dorje (1646-1714) and his younger brother Minling Lochen Dharmashri (1654-1718) wrote a series of commentaries on these teachings that the kama (bka’ ma) or collection of oral transmissions were created.

05 March 2014

TBRC on Public Radio International

We’re happy to share this interview by Marco Werman, host of PRI’s The World.
Here, he talks with New York Times reporter Andrew Jacobs about TBRC’s founder Gene Smith.

20 February 2014

The impact of donations

If you are a major donor seeking to understand the incredibly rich opportunities that we have and the extraordinary impact potential of our organization – please read and reflect upon this quote of Jeff Wallman, TBRC’s Executive Director, to the magazine “Buddhadharma: The Practitioners Quarterly” about the bright outlook of TBRC’s future on Harvard...

16 February 2014

TBRC in the NY Times!

We are thrilled to post this article about TBRC and Tibetan text-preservation in China, which ran in the New York Times on February 15, 2014.

13 February 2014

Talk with Prof. John Dunne

A terrific conversation covering all things TBRC – from great insights about Gene Smith, to how the TBRC Library is essential today.

People

Our international team carries out BDRC’s mission with ingenuity and dedication, using its skills to make BDRC the online home for Buddhist literature.

DISCOVER THE PEOPLE INVOLVED

Partners

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Partners

Khyentse Foundation

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Locations

Cambridge, MA
USA

Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia

Hangzhou
China

New Delhi
India

Bangkok
Thailand

Phnom Penh
Cambodia

Cambridge, MA
USA

Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia

Hangzhou
China

New Delhi
India

Bangkok
Thailand

Phnom Penh
Cambodia

Buddhist Digital Resource Center

Highlights From the Archive

Learn how you can

Get the app and explore our library

BUDA: BDRC’s Archival Platform

BUDA : BDRC’s Archival Platform

Programs

News

News

An Introduction to BDRC's Librarians

Job Posting: BDRC Seeks Fellow in Southeast Asian Manuscripts

The BUDA Network: Creating a Web of Buddhist Resources

The Kagyu Tradition

The Nyingma Tradition

Rare Bön Texts From the BDRC Archive

We’re Hiring!

BDRC Board Selects Jann Ronis as New Executive Director

Digitizing the National Library of Mongolia

Dispatch From the Field: Nepal

BDRC In Thailand

Support BDRC’s Spring Appeal

The Nepalese Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscript Scanning Initiative

Buddhist Digital Resource Center seeks Executive Director

BDRC Opens Office in Europe

The Gilt Manuscripts of the Fragile Palm Leaves Collection

2017: Year in Review

Khenpo Sodargye Visits BDRC

Meet BDRC’s New Mobile App and Online Library for China

Announcing the Fragile Palm Leaves Digitization Project

Announcing Expanded BDRC Board of Directors

Introducing Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC)

Venerable Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche Visits TBRC

David Weinberger on the Future of Digital Libraries

Khenpo Karma Jamyang Gyaltsen Visits TBRC

TBRC Board President Wins Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche Visits TBRC

Help TBRC Keep Scanning Tibetan Texts!

The Digital Woodblock – Reprinting the Ragya Kanjur from TBRC Scans

Matthieu Ricard Visits TBRC

Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Visits TBRC

TBRC Brings Tibetan Manuscripts onto the Google Cultural Institute

The Hunt for the Ragya Kangyur

His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa Visits TBRC

The Library of Congress Rockhill Kangyur Release

Diving into the Backlog, Bringing Wisdom to Light

TBRC launches collaboration with SOAS to improve access to Tibetan digital texts

Gene’s Vision for TBRC

Running Out of Disk Space as We Approach 10 Million Pages

Article about Gene’s Life Story Published in Prestigious Chinese Magazine

TBRC Talks: A Rule Based Tagger for Classical Tibetan, Tuesday 11/4

Peter Gruber, In Memoriam

Remembering Dezhung Rinpoche and Gene Smith

TBRC Talks: Scholars and Scribes Friday, 10/10

How to Use the Tibetan eText Repository

Lineage Transmission Research: The Backstory

The Lineage Transmission Knowledge Model

Tibetan Tulku Lines and Networks

TBRC – Harvard Partnership to Support the Long-Term Preservation of Tibetan Texts

Tibetan Search Enhancements

TBRC Phonetic Tulku Titles

The Nyingma Kama Collections

TBRC on Public Radio International

The impact of donations

TBRC in the NY Times!

Talk with Prof. John Dunne

People

Partners

Partners

Locations

Order printed copies of works

Join our newsletter

Support our mission

Buddhist
Digital Resource
Center

Get the app and
explore our library

BUDA: BDRC’s
Archival Platform

BUDA : BDRC’s
Archival Platform