Stručné dějiny dobývání Tibetu je otevřený projekt zaměřený na historické cesty západních objevitelů do Střední Asie, zejména do Tibetu. Cílem není poskytnout vyčerpávající informace (podrobnější informace o jednotlivcích lze najít např. na Wikipedii), ale uvést často oddělená historická fakta do souvislostí, poskytnout základní osnovu pro případné další bádání v této oblasti. Nezasvěceným snad může tento přehled posloužit k snazší orientaci v příslušné literatuře, podat základní představu o chronologických souvislostech a v neposlední řadě se může pokusit eliminovat nepřesné a nejednotné přepisy tibetských, mongolských, čínských, popř. jiných cizojazyčných slov a názvů. Máte-li zájem, můžete se do projektu zapojit. Na několika místech se zde zmiňují i místa ležící mimo Tibet, popř. osoby, které Tibet nikdy nenavštívily. Jde o případy, které s touto problematikou nějakým způsobem souvisejí a ve kterých přesné „zaškatulkování“ není možné nebo je ke škodě věci. V neposlední řadě stojí za zmínku, že náš úhel pohledu (myšlena pozice českého čtenáře), je svým způsobem výhodný, protože je nám nyní dostupná jak západní literatura, tak i prameny z bývalého Sovětského svazu, které jsou v některých případech v anglofonní oblasti málo známé. Vždyť ani slavný (a nesmírně sečtělý) Hedin nevěděl zhola nic o Cybikovovi, který došel do Lhasy přibližně ve stejné době, kdy on o to léta marně usiloval. Jednotlivé výpravy jsou svým způsobem nesrovnatelné, svoji roli zde sehrál čas i účel cesty. Stovky let přitahovala tato nepřístupná, v Evropě téměř neznámá země, misionáře, vojáky, obchodníky, vědce i dobrodruhy. Stejně zajímavé jsou i osudy lidí, kteří se do Tibetu dostali nedobrovolně, jako uprchlíci nebo trosečníci. Nebylo jich mnoho a pokud tato místa navštívili v průběhu staletí další Evropané, pak o svých cestách nezanechali žádné zprávy. První zprávy o Střední Asii souvisejí s nájezdy Mongolů do Evropy, a přinesli je vyslanci papeže, kteří se vrátili z návštěvy u dvora mongolských chánů (cca 1240). Jak vyplývá z jejich zpráv, nebyli jedinými křesťany a Evropany u mongolského dvora. Byli však první, kdo o své cestě podal zprávu. Také skutečnost, že v srdci mongolské říše bylo nestoriánské křesťanství běžným jevem, svědčí o tom, že země Střední Asie měly kontakty se západním světem už mnohem dříve. Archeologické objevy v Chara-Choto (Kozlov) dokazují obchodní kontakty s kulturou starověkého Řecka. Tibeťané zpočátku nijak nebránili příchozím ze západu v cestě do vnitrozemí ani do samotné Lhasy. Přirozená nepřístupnost země byla spolehlivou ochranou až do 19. století, kdy koloniální tlak Británie a Ruska způsobil, že Tibet se stal pro západní svět "zakázanou" zemí. Po celou druhou polovinu 19. století byl cizincům neprodyšně uzavřen a každý pokus o proniknutí na jeho území byl zároveň hrou o život (proto byla např. přesná zeměpisná poloha hlavního města Lhasy zjištěna až tajným měřením indických geodetů v britských službách koncem 19. století). K postupnému obratu došlo až na začátku 20. století a pro tibetskou civilizaci to mělo neblahé důsledky. Proroctví o posledním dalajlámovi se nadevší pochybnost právě naplňuje.

In this modern age, data is ubiquitious. It seems to be everywhere but when it comes to Tibet-related datasets, we run out quickly. This site is built to collaborate together to gather Tibet-related datasets for both community building and political advocacy. When fake news is the norm, we owe it to each other to observe any news through critical lens. This applies to data as well. In addition, most data is not available in the right format and typically, 80% of our time is spent on data wrangling i.e. acquiring and cleaning these data.

Translations and Commentary from Tibetan Social Media

Lhakar Diaries is a blog dedicated to Lhakar, or, "White Wednesday," a non-cooperation movement in Tibet based on non-violent strategy, where ordinary men and women actively resist China's occupation by supporting Tibetan businesses, eat Tibetan food, wear Tibetan clothing, speak Tibetan language and celebrate the Tibetan identity. We are a team of young Tibetans around the globe, highlighting these examples of civil resistance inside Tibet. Lhakar Diaries serves as a platform to promote similar actions on the outside, showing our solidarity with Tibetans in Tibet. Each Wednesday we share our personal journeys with our essays, artwork, music and exploration of our shared cultural heritage and identity.

PlateauCulture presents an archive of images, writings, and place information about areas on and surrounding the Tibetan Plateau. Contributors are mainly students, members/managers of local media projects, and local and foreign teachers and scholars. The images here are mainly from Plateau Photographers, a participatory photography project that supports young photographers, bu other local and outside photographers' work is here too. We are also the online publisher for the Asian Highlands Perspectives journal. Most but not all of the writings are published journal articles. Place Citations are discreet snippets about a place. Sometimes, these are analyses of sources, but often just quotes.

G. M. Trevelyan, one of the pioneers of Social History, described the emerging field as “history with the politics left out”. A more charitable characterisation of the discipline has been proposed by Mary Fulbrook, who defended it as “history with the people put back in”. The aim of SHTS, a Franco-German research project jointly funded by the ANR (French National Research Agency) and the DFG (German Research Council) is to carry out fundamental research on the social history of Tibetan societies, from the mid-17th to the mid-20th centuries – a period corresponding to the duration of the so-called Ganden Phodrang government in Tibet. The region under consideration is “ethnographic Tibet” (i.e. ethnically Tibetan areas in the PRC and adjacent countries, especially Nepal and India). The main source materials will be the large archival collections already photographed by members of both the French and German research teams in Tibet, Nepal and India. Those documents that have not already been digitised (in the case of collections photographed with 35mm film) will be scanned, catalogued, transliterated and paraphrased or translated, and the entirety of the material made available as a resource for the international scholarly community in printed volumes and/or on searchable websites. The team will use these materials, in combination with published Tibetan sources, British Foreign Office archives, Nepali and Chinese documents and fieldwork-based investigations, to address issues that have never been satisfactorily treated by scholars: the nature of legal, fiscal and administrative relations among the various centres and peripheries in the region; the adequacy of characterising Tibet as a feudal society; the social role of clerics and nobles, farmers, nomads, craftsmen and traders; the organisation of civil society; strategies of dispute resolution and the numerous legal systems that prevailed in different areas. In addition to creating the largest available resource for the further study of Tibetan social history, members of the project will also produce monographs and articles focusing on selected geographical areas, on particular social groups, and on broader thematic issues.

A guide to writing systems and languages, with useful phrases, tips on learning languages, multilingual texts, and much more.

Welcome to the largest freely available archive of online books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric on the Internet. The site is dedicated to religious tolerance and scholarship, and has the largest readership of any similar site on the web.

This website provides fonts, software, and other additional resources covering various areas of Asia.

Until relatively recent times the Bon religion of Tibet was poorly understood by the majority of Tibetans and Westerners alike. Although our general knowledge has advanced greatly in the past few decades thanks to the work of a few pioneering scholars, misconceptions still abound, and many areas of this fascinating religion remain obscure. While most of the secondary literature on Bon has dealt with the history, philosophy and meditative systems of the religion, the domain of ritual is still substantially unexplored. Some of the most important contributions to this subject that have so far been published are presented here. [link] Understandably, students of Bon ritual have tended to favour the literary component: after all, where the rituals in question are obsolete, this is the only option available to the researcher, except in the rather unusual cases where the surviving texts are supplemented with illustrations. But ritual, by definition, includes an important performative element. In addition to the various accoutrements and effigies that feature in any performance, there are gestures, processions and interactions that are generally described in only the vaguest terms in the liturgical sources, where they are mentioned at all. Some of the most interesting aspects of ritual performances have no place whatsoever in the sources. These would include a lama’s idiosyncratic interpretation of text prescriptions, his exchanges with the other participants (such as his assistant and his patrons), the occurrence of errors (an assistant pouring red dye onto an effigy what should remain uncoloured), and solicited or spontaneous commentaries on procedures. If the text is just one – albeit an essential – component of a ritual, observing an actual performance can be a hopelessly confusing experience. Behind the noise, the chaotic activity and the protracted chanting it is often far from clear what is going on. One of the main purposes of this site is to render Bonpo rituals more accessible by combining the textual and performative dimensions. A detailed explanation of how this works is given [here], but the general idea can be explained in simple terms as follows: The site hosts several dozen Bonpo ritual texts. The texts are presented in facsimile form as well as romanised transliteration, and, in many cases, with a full English translation and notes. The performative aspect is represented by video recordings of a number of rituals, to which access can be had via links on the site’s pages. The videos are subtitled in English, and range in duration from approximately ten minutes to eight hours. Each ritual is also covered by an article that is divided into two main parts: 1. a general discussion of that category of rituals; and 2. a detailed description of a particular performance. The articles are illustrated with photographs, diagrams and tables, and contain numerous links. The links are of two kinds: 1. to texts; and 2. to video footage. The links will take you to precisely that point in the text or the video that is relevant to the part of the performance that is being described. (It is also possible, of course, to see the texts or watch the videos in their entirety.) The transcriptions of the texts also contain links that will take you to the point in the video where any given passage is being recited. This will enable you to see exactly what is going on when the lama is reading that section of the text. We hope, in time, to establish reciprocal links. This means that it will be possible to go from a point in a video to the corresponding point in a text (assuming that a text is being used at that moment) or to the description furnished in the accompanying article. While this website is dedicated mainly to ritual it also offers resources that are relevant to other areas of the Bon religion. These resources include: paintings (tsaklis and thangkas); texts not directly connected to ritual (such as biographies and canonical works); Tibetan periodicals and other publications related to Bon; scholarly contributions to Bon studies in Tibetan and in European languages.

Founded by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche as an institution of higher learning for those wishing to deepen their understanding of Buddhist philosophy and practice, Rangjung Yeshe Institute (RYI) has been conducting seminars and study programs in Nepal for more than 25 years. Since 2001, the Institute has worked in close partnership with Kathmandu University to manage the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute which offers undergraduate and post-graduate degree courses in Buddhist Studies and related topics. RYI may, to a large extent, be regarded as the Buddhist equivalent of a divinity school or seminary where spiritual practice is an integral part of the daily experience and where program graduates are scholar-practitioners. RYI envisions a world in which a wide diversity of people, interested in learning about Buddhism, has easy access to a living Buddhist tradition in order to foster the qualities of wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings. Rangjung Yeshe Institute's mission is to be a centre of higher learning, working to the highest standards, to provide both traditional and modern Buddhist education through teaching, translation, publication, research and practice. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and the RYI community were delighted to welcome Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. After a short tour of RYI, Rinpoche generously shared his insight on the place of academic studies in the transmission of Dharma teachings. Following his talk, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche also gave brief advice on Buddhist study and practice. Here is a full capture of the event.

Tibetan Language Institute: Learn to read & write Classical Tibetan. Proven, powerful study system with western insights by Lama David Curtis.

Himalayan Art Resources features thousands of artworks from Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India, China and Mongolia. The site presents art from leading private and museum collections, accompanied by scholarship, cataloging and interpretation. The mission of the Himalayan Art Resources website (HAR) is to create a comprehensive education and research database and virtual museum of Himalayan art: First, the website exhibits images of art from museum, university and private collections throughout the world. Second, the website documents all Himalayan art objects that are known through past or present collections or publications. Third, the database identifies and catalogues all images (comprised of painting, sculpture, ritual objects, murals, etc.). When an object image is not available for lack of permission from the copyright holder, the database uses a place card image. Book cover images are used for publications and generic place cards for collections. Fourth, the Himalayan Art Resources Inc. website owns no actual or material art. All images on the Himalayan Art Resources Inc. website belong to the individual institutions, museums, private collections and individuals that have loaned their images to the site.

A global non-profit initiative to translate the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.

Lotsawa House is a virtual library of translations from Tibetan, including works by Indian Buddhist masters preserved in the Tibetan language. The site began in 2004 with just a handful of translations in English, but has since grown into a large repository containing more than 3000 texts in nine different languages, including the original sources. The vast majority of texts on the site were suggested for inclusion by Tibetan lamas and expert scholars, many of whom also kindly offered their help and advice in the translation process. This collaboration between translators and native experts is modelled upon the ancient partnerships of lotsāwas and paṇḍitas, which proved so effective when the Buddhist canon was first translated into Tibetan.

This wiki serves as a platform for information on using Tibetan Unicode software and related technology on different platforms in order to facilitate the preservation and spread of digital dharma

Tools in the traditional library include interactive catalogs on computer work stations, microfilm readers, photocopiers and so forth to allow users to search and access its collections, as well as in limited ways also compile their own collections of information. Similarly, the digital library provides integrated software systems, tools, and fonts in general to enable users to work with the collections with search and access procedures considerably more powerful than the traditional library. In particular, though, the digital library goes far beyond the limited traditional tools of a library in its enabling of users to creatively interact with the digital collections and reference materials, as well as generate new user-defined collections for their own private purposes. The simplest level of functionality includes extraction of images and composing sequenced slide-shows on line, while more advanced features are, for example, the ability to make HTML pages drawing upon library resources, compile private dictionaries, create new videos from segments of existing videos and so forth. This site also provides a suite of Tibetan fonts along with software developed by THDL that enhances the use of these fonts both in word processors and on the Web. Together these tools aim to help other projects and individuals take advantage of technical work done by the Library, as well as provide a way to facilitate communication, exchange, interoperability, and project building among all scholars, students, and others interested in Tibet and the Himalayan regions. In particular, the Library is committed to developing digital tools to assist the teaching of Tibetan and Himalayan languages, literatures, environments, and cultures. The evolving multilingual capacity of the digital library system also offers the promise of a single integrated library that serves different communities with distinct language bases, as well as promote communication between them. There are six (6) overarching types of tools, all of which have been developed with an eye toward balancing the power of the latest technology against the need to reach the broadest possible audience. Technical Requirements for Using THDL From the Field to the Web Technologies used in THDL Software designed by THDL Fonts and input tools

The Ten Thousand Rooms Project (廣廈千萬間項目) is a collaborative workspace for pre-modern textual studies being developed at Yale University with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The East Asia Image Collection (EAIC) is an open-access archive of digitized photographs, negatives, postcards, rare books and slides under the general editorship of Paul D. Barclay, Professor of History at Lafayette College, in partnership with staff at Digital Scholarship Services and Special Collections & College Archives. The partnership was established under the direction of Eric Luhrs, former Director of Digital Scholarship Services, and has included several contributors over the years. Many of the items digitized for the EAIC are catalogued in Special Collections; visit the Asian Collections Finding Aids for more information. The EAIC documents the history of imperial Japan (1868-1945), its Asian empire (1895-1945) and occupied Japan (1947-52). Images of Taiwan 台湾, Japan 日本, China 中国, Korea 朝鮮, Manchuria 満洲国, and Indonesia are included. The Collection is built around a core of visual materials donated to Skillman Library Special Collections by the family of Gerald and Rella Warner. Images unique to this collection include the Warners’ unpublished slides and negatives , made from snapshots taken during their years of US State Department service in Asia (1932-1952). Rare materials include prewar picture postcards, high-quality commercial prints, and colonial era picture books. Each record in the East Asia Image Collection has been assigned subject headings, hyper-linked metadata, and, to the fullest extent possible, historiographical, bibliographical and technical data.

A guide to mostly free online resources and software that facilitates Japanese research and study.

Wikipedia webstie of Digital Sinology

Over 1.700 Chinese propaganda posters are shown on this website, with a lot of information about their history, background and design. | Chinese Posters | Chineseposters.net

Designed for anyone interested in modern and contemporary China's history, and especially educators and students, this website presents more than twenty interactive biographies of famous and more obscure objects of China's Mao Era (1949-1976). Each object biography includes an essay that introduces and contextualizes the object's history, and shows how it shaped politics, culture, economy, society and everyday day life during this tumultuous time. Essays are accompanied by several historical primary sources, including photos, propaganda posters, translated newspaper articles, brief memoirs, videos, and so on, many of which are available for download. Additional features include an interactive timeline and map, an essay on the concept of "the object" in Chinese history, a guide for using the website as a teaching resource, and a further readings list. Teachers of Chinese history at schools and universities will find the resource particularly useful as a complement to existing textbooks.

Image: Daily NK North Korea’s market generation embodies a decided lack of political loyalty and cohesion and are at the core of a society of passive resistance, a panel of experts at the recent event, “North Korea’s Jangmadang: New Generation,” asserted.  Hosted by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES) in Seoul, the event focused […]

38 North is a program of the Stimson Center dedicated to providing the best possible analysis of events in and around North Korea.

Our team of expert journalists at NK News produces leading analysis on all major developments in North Korea.

The Digital Analysis System for Humanities develops digital tools to meet the demands of humanities research, assisting scholars in upgrading the quality of their research. We hope to integrate researchers, research data, and research tools to broaden the scope of research and cut down research time. The Platform provides a comprehensive research environment with cloud computing services, offering all the data and tools scholars require. Researchers can upload texts and authority files, or use others’ open texts and authority files available on the platform. Authority terms possess both manual and automatic text tagging functions, and can be hierarchically categorized. Once text tagging is complete, you can calculate authority term and N-gram statistics, or conduct term co-occurrence analysis, and then present results through data visualization methods such as statistical charts, word clouds, social analysis graphs, and maps. Furthermore, the platform provides functionality for similar-passage comparison, Boolean search, word proximity search, and statistical filtering, enabling researchers to easily carry out textual analysis.

Promoting the exchange of knowledge and ideas, Tibetan language use and literacy, and sharing of resources.

A collection of online resources for the study of Chinese Buddhism. This list is intended to supplement the guides and collections of bookmarks currently available online. The linked resources are not maintained by me; I've only collected those which are potentially useful to scholars and researchers studying Buddhist religious traditions in China. Includes: 1. Language and Fonts 2. Texts 3. Dictionaries 4. Groups and Associations 5. Specific Topics 6. Collected Links, Bibliographies, and Guides