Tibetan Microfiche Archive

In 2008 DDBC acquired an archive of more than 50.000 microfiche from the private collection of Professor Shunzo Onoda. The microfiche edition was produced by the Institute for the Advanced Studies of World Religions (IASWR) (1971-1991) at Stony Brook in the mid-1970s. The IASWR created the edition from material in the University of Pennsylvania Library – the microfiche edition comprises the PL480 collection plus a number of additional titles acquired by UP Library. The University of Pennsylvania Library was one of 18 recipients of the collection gathered by Gene Smith under the Library of Congress PL480 acquisition program in the 1960s and 1970s. The PL480 collection consists of imprints of Tibetan texts collected in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The establishment of this collection is one of the great achievements of engaged scholarship as it both contributes to the survival of an endangered culture as well as making a treasure trove of rare texts available for research.The PL480 contains many gsung ‘bum, collected works many of which are not part of the Kanjur or Tanjur. With this collection serious research on the history, medicine, and language of Tibet as well as on certain aspects of Chinese Buddhism under the Qing becomes possible in Taiwan.

Next to the PL480 collection on microfiche, DDBC acquired microfiche copies of four editions of the Kanjur (Derge, Lhasa, Narthang and Tog Palace) and two of the Tanjur (Derge and Cone). Printed editions of some of these are already in our collection. We are especially happy to have an alternative edition of the Narthang (our printed edition is in parts illegible) and the Tog Palace edition, which previously was not available in our library, but represents an important stemma in the edition history of the canon. With the addition of these canonical editions on microfiche, DDBC has become the prime location for research on textual studies on the Tibetan canon in Taiwan.

The microfiche collection of Tibetan texts will be housed on the fourth floor of the library. Once the archive is fully functional users will be able to search the collection, print out material and obtain PDF files from the microfiche. Our library staff will devise ways for users to access the collection conveniently and efficiently. Unfortunately the collection is so far not completely cataloged.

The collection can be accessed by the following reference works:

1. Musahi Tachikawa (in collaboration with Tshulkrim Kelsang and Shunzo Onoda): A Catalogue of the United States Library of Congress Collection of Tibetan Literature in Microfiche. Part 1 + Part 2. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1983, 1988. (Bibliographia Philologica Buddhica, Series Major III + IIIa).

2. The online catalog of the microfiche collection at the Tōyō Bunkō prepared by Yoichi Fukuda. The catalog can be searched by inputting one or two search terms in Wylie transcription.
http://www2.toyo-bunko.or.jp/Database/PL480_QueryInput-e.html