About us
Activities:
The principal activity of the Foundation is the multimedia recording and archiving of Classical Indian and Tibetan knowledge resources and the development of regional and international access to these resources.
Creating, Conserving and Developing Access to Multimedia Documentary Resources:
Beginning in 1993, the Foundation assisted in the setting up of twenty-four fully equipped multimedia documentation centres and libraries in the major Tibetan monasteries of India. Also in 1993, the foundation’s first archive, multimedia digitisation centre, and administrative hub was established at the Shantarakshita Library of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, U.P.
To date, the multimedia documentation programme has resulted in the live recording and archiving of over 25,000 hours of oral commentary to the key classical texts of Indo-Tibetan culture by the greatest masters, scholars, doctors and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition, over 2000 hours of digital video documentation of the classical ritual arts traditions has been completed, and a still image archive of over 19,000 photographs created, which includes over 5,500 individual high-definition images of foremost works of art. This documentation programme has been supported by grants from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts, the Ministry of Culture (Government of India), and the Orient Foundation for Arts and Culture (UK).
From the start of the Foundation’s programme, each partner library received analogue master and distribution copies of the documentary recordings created in their educational institution and each partner library has provided day-to-day access to the documentary materials to their institution’s scholars and students.
In 2007, the Foundation completed the digitization of the entire master analogue collections and in January 2010, the Foundation completed the compression of the entire master digital collections into MP3 format (for audio material), MP4 format (for video material) and JPEG format (for photographic material).
In March 2010, copies of the entire oral commentarial archive began to be distributed throughout the network of partner monastery and nunnery libraries in both India and Nepal. (See partner list.)
In order to increase the security of the master archival materials, both master analogue and digital copies of the entire archive are now held at the Songtsen Library in Dehradun and the Tibetan Yungdrung Bon Library at Dolanji.
Throughout the development of both the analogue and digital multimedia resource materials the Foundation has followed the technical guidelines as set out by the National Sound Archive of the UK, the National Film and Television Archive of the UK, and UNESCO.
In April 2010, the process of creating an internet-based multimedia platform for providing worldwide access to the Foundation’s archival resources began. The online multimedia digital archive was completed and launched in March 2012. (See: www.tibetan-knowledge.org.) New documentary materials are being added to the archive continuously and the online resource is being regularly updated, as new documentary materials are digitally processed and catalogued.
The Classical Tibetan Knowledge Archive and Multimedia Study Resource is now the world's most comprehensive multimedia digital archive and multimedia study resource of classical Indian and Tibetan cultural resources, which is used by over 30,000 scholars and students in the monasteries and nunneries throughout India and Nepal and by scholars and students worldwide.
Since 2010, in order to provide a means whereby apprentice artists could study the surviving works of earlier generations of eminent artists, the Foundation has been working in partnership with the major museums, monasteries and private collectors in India and Nepal, who hold classical Tibetan art collections. As a result, the most exemplary thangkas, held in over 30 collections, have either been photographed in situ by Foundation staff or high-resolution photographs have been donated to the archive by the collection holders.
Between 2011 and 2012, the Foundation assisted in the creation of the first online training resource for classical Tibetan artists, the Classical Tibetan Arts – Masterworks and Artists Training Resource. (See: www.tibetan-arts.org.)
New documentary materials are being continuously digitally processed, catalogued, and added to the resource. The Classical Tibetan Arts – Masterworks and Artists Training Resource remains the only artist training resource of its kind.
Training:In 1997, the Foundation assisted in an All-India initiative to introduce the benefits of networked, multilingual, multimedia Information Technologies to the Vice Chancellors of India’s leading universities and the heads of India’s major archives, libraries and museums, co-funded by the European Commission and the Ford Foundation.
Since 1997, the Foundation has conducted regular workshops for its network of partner monastery and nunnery libraries. These workshops have focused on providing training in multimedia documentation, archival conservation and library distribution methods.