Blog

It is a great pleasure to announce the launch of the new version of the Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies (rKTs) archive: https://www.rkts.org/

Based on user feedback and our own ideas, we have thoroughly revised the rKTs website – a research platform for making Tibetan canonical literature openly accessibly. The new version features a redesigned interface and several new functionalities, including:

• enhanced collection data, with improved filtering options and an interactive map;
• expanded search functions for titles and direct quotations from canonical sources;
• the new E-Text Lab, providing access to a growing corpus of digital texts;
• a searchable bibliography linked directly to our Zotero database.

You will also find an extensive PDF tutorial and three video tutorials guiding you through the new features and functionalities.

Feedback and suggestions are most welcome and can be sent to Bruno Lainé at brunogml@gmail.com.

Lastly, we would like to thank Bruno Lainé, the webmaster of rKTs, as well as Daniel Wojahn for all their hard work over the past year, which made this relaunch possible.

The recent issue of Buddhismus in Österreich, the quarterly magazine published by the Austrian Buddhist Religious Society (ÖBR) , features an article on the documentation and preservation of Buddhist textual heritage in the Himalayas. Reporting on field research conducted in Dolpo in April, Markus Viehbeck discusses the many challenges involved in documenting and safeguarding Buddhist manuscripts in this remote region.

Based on user feedback and our own ideas, we have thoroughly revised the rKTs website.

The new version features a redesigned interface and several new functionalities, including:

• enhanced collection data with improved filtering options and an interactive map;
• expanded search functions for titles and direct quotations from canonical sources;
• the new E-Text Lab, offering access to a growing corpus of digital texts;
• a searchable bibliography linked directly to our Zotero database.

The official launch is planned for September, but we would already like to share a preview and invite your feedback. The beta version is available at: http://www.rkts.org/rkts1.

Comments and suggestions are most welcome and can be sent to Bruno Lainé at: brunogml@gmail.com

The Tibetan Manuscript Project Vienna is part of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Documentation of Inner and South Asian Cultural History (CIRDIS), which shares TMPV’s core interests in the documentation, archiving, and study of Himalayan cultures. A tangible outcome of this collaboration is an edited volume on the legacy of René Nebesky-Wojkowitz, a pioneer of Tibetan Studies in Austria. The volume emerged directly from the research project “The Scientific Legacy of René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz,” directed by Martin Gaenszle, and was edited by Uwe Niebuhr together with other CIRDIS members. An Open Access version is available directly from the publisher, the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press (VÖAW).

After a pause in documentation last year, the TMPV team was eager to resume work in the Tarap Valley, Lower Dolpo. This year’s expedition focused on documenting the manuscripts of Mekhyim Monastery, a remote institution perched high above Tarap. The monastery houses a remarkable collection of 51 manuscripts, tentatively dated to the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. As in other institutions in the Dolpo region, the core of the collection consists of a (complete) Sūtra collection and a substantial set of the Śatasāhasrikā-Prajñāpāramitā (‘bum).

Due to time constraints, the documentation had to be scheduled slightly earlier than usual, requiring work during the final phase of Dolpo’s winter in April. Although this posed considerable challenges for both equipment and personnel, it also offered strikingly picturesque impressions of the wintry Tarap Valley. A more detailed report, along with additional visual material, is provided in the documentation section.

The Tibetan Manuscript Project Vienna (University of Vienna) invites applications for a 15-month full-time Post-Doctoral Research Position, starting in January 2026. The position is part of the project “Himalayan Sūtra Collections” and focuses on the documentation and study of Tibetan canonical manuscripts within the Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies (rKTs) archive.

The role combines cataloguing, original research, and fieldwork (including high-altitude expeditions in Nepal) and offers the chance to contribute to the development of digital resources for Tibetan Studies.

Application deadline: November 5, 2025

OpenPecha, an initiative dedicated to advancing the study of Buddhism and Tibetan culture through modern digital technologies, has recently made available a remarkable collection of Tibetan fonts gathered from different sources. Some of these typefaces are inspired by historical manuscript styles, allowing users to engage with traditional Tibetan calligraphic forms in a dynamic, contemporary way.
The fonts are available through a GitHub repository, and an excellent preview can be viewed here.
We were especially delighted to see that the thirteenth-century manuscripts digitized by TMPV at Dragmar Monastery, Dolpo, served as inspiration for the Bhozuk Katenma font; the Bhozuk Dunhuang typeface, modeled after Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts, is equally fascinating. Both of these fonts have been developed by Bhodor Chang from Tibetanfonts.

Building on the foundation of our previous E-text Viewer, the E-text Lab offers a significantly expanded and redesigned environment for working with our textual resources. At its core are two powerful new search modes:

• Selective Search: Focuses on a curated corpus of representative, high-quality e-texts.
• Expert Search: Enables exploration across the full range of all available e-texts, including those of varying quality and completeness.

To support transparency and scholarly rigor, we have introduced a quality classification system for all e-texts, categorized as:

• Input: Manually entered and reviewed texts (highest quality)
• OCR+: Machine-generated texts with multiple proofreading steps
• OCR: Raw OCR output without further verification

Thanks to the integration of the BDRC OCR Appinto our workflow, we are now continuously producing and gradually releasing new e-texts. These will be available as free downloads in TXT format directly from the E-text Lab.

Additionally, we have enhanced the integration with the Image Viewer to include a citation export feature, allowing users to easily generate and adapt references for their work.

As part of our commitment to open collaboration, we warmly invite contributions from the scholarly community. If you identify errors or have corrected or high-quality e-texts to share, we welcome your input. All contributions will be properly attributed.

We would like to share this CfP for a panel to be held during IATS 2026 in Kathmandu: Etched in Devotion: Dedicatory Texts and Religious Patronage in Tibet.

Interested contributors are invited to submit a 200–300 word abstract to the panel organisers (markus.viehbeck@univie.ac.at & yannick.laurent@unibe.ch) no later than August 15, 2025. Following the review of submissions, further information will be shared with selected participants in early September.

For details, see the panel description.

In a recent contribution to The Digital Orientalist, an online platform dedicated to exploring the intersection of digital tools and the study of the humanities, Rachael Griffiths provides a detailed review of the rKTs platform.

By highlighting its core functions as a textual repository, through search functions in the titles or full-text search in e-texts of canonical literature, she provides a very useful account on how to use the rKTs archive. Her review also addresses additional functions and tools, such as different tools for the translation of canonical texts or the automated comparison of structural features, or its resource for tackling Tibetan abbreviations.