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Digitizing the manuscripts of Naksa Chholing

By Hagi Tran

Over the summer, I chanced upon the ancient Buddhist manuscripts of Naksa Chholing, corresponded with researchers Elie Roux (BDRC) and Marieke Meelen (Cambridge), and formally digitized nearly four thousand pages worth of manuscripts across dozens of Kangyur/Tengyur volumes into the BUDA public archive. Included in these discoveries is a rare Tengyur blockprint that has never been seen before in archive or online. Here's how :)

Pecha manuscript pages
Figure 1. Page 1 of volume 1, Ka (ཀ).

My chance encounter started a few days before my flight back for summer break. I was crouched down next to a pile of free books, flicking through the limited selection of architectural magazines and business journals when the spine of a certain Tibetan-English dictionary caught my eye. My dad has been a sort of Buddhist zealot in recent years, and I knew he'd .... What luck, I thought, that I stumbled across it.

When I finally got back and showed him it,

Getting help and getting there

Camera test capture at Namgyal Hotel, Kathmandu Camera settings used for manuscript capture
Figure 2. Testing the camera configurations in Kathmandu.

The monastery

The collection

Scanning

Camera on tripod photographing an open manuscript on the floor View from the scanning room through an open door to the mountains Three people photographing manuscripts on the floor beside shelves of wrapped pecha bundles
Figure 3. Scanning setup at Naksa Chholing.
Thick Dhomang manuscript held open to show its scale Scanning manuscripts at night under the lights we carried up
Figure 4. The Dhomang manuscript, and scanning after dark.

How old are they?

What I'd do differently

Next steps

Further reading