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The Endangered Archives Programme 45 (EAP) Is Dedicated to the Digitisation Report the Network of Any Kind of Archive That Is at Risk of Being Lost Forever

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The Endangered Archives Programme 45 (EAP) Is Dedicated to the Digitisation Report the Network of Any Kind of Archive That Is at Risk of Being Lost Forever The Newsletter No. 85 Spring 2020 Preserving stories The Endangered Archives Programme 45 (EAP) is dedicated to the digitisation Report The Network of any kind of archive that is at risk of being lost forever The Endangered We live in a world of incredible cultural diversity, which over the last century has been increasingly threatened by global capitalism. In many countries a response to this has emerged Archives Programme in a growing nationalism, an assertion of local, specific culture. But this is an equal threat to the diversity of voices, Towards a different kind of collection stories and ways of being that make up every culture. And if we cannot preserve these stories, these alternative ways of being, we will be poorer, subject to the flattening out that is Sam van Schaik the end result of both globalisation and nationalism. The Endangered Reaching out to Buddhist families in Kathmandu and Patan, Thapa found that many were Archives Programme Left: EAP749/12/1/1 - An old wooden statue of Tangtong concerned about preserving their traditions, and There is no easy solution to this, and some Gyalpo. Tangtong Gyalpo’s face and body have been keen to have their fragile manuscripts digitised recently repainted golden, his hair black. The statue was would argue that change and development cleaned and painted in bright colours prior to the 1996 for posterity. As with other EAP projects, these are inevitable. No doubt they are, but Kalachakra initiation at Tabo monastery. The statue manuscripts were catalogued as family archives remembering is also what makes us human. was blessed and consecrated by His Holiness the Dalai rather than separated by external categories Lama at that event. On the reverse of the statue a strip And a rich memory gives us more ways of of yellow cloth covers the space inside the statue that such as genre or format. Thus the manuscript thinking about our future as well. This is the contains written prayers. The statue is unclothed. Approx holdings of these Buddhist families were belief and motivation behind the Endangered 350 mm high. The material is owned by Jigmed Thakpa recorded in a way that allows us to understand Archives Programme, which was established and has been handed down through several generations. All the materials in the archive are kept within the prayer much better what the texts meant to them. by Lisbet Rausing (Arcadia Fund) in 2004. She room of the house. In the nineteenth century, British colonial summarised the aims of the programme thus: officials in Kathmandu, such as Brian Hodgson, collected Sanskrit manuscripts “The Endangered Archives Programme or had manuscripts copied especially for captures forgotten and still not written them by local Buddhists. These manuscripts histories, often suppressed or marginalised. are now in the university libraries of Oxford It gives voice to the voiceless: it opens a and Cambridge, the British Library, and the dialogue with global humanity’s multiple Royal Asiatic Society. They are vital sources pasts. It is a library of history still waiting for understanding Buddhism, in many cases to be written.” containing the earliest Sanskrit versions of Right: EAP749/10/1/1 - A narrative thangka key Buddhist texts. Yet their original context is The Endangered Archives Programme illustrating the story of hard to establish; which families owned them, (EAP) is dedicated to the digitisation of any Drowa Zangmo. Early were they still in use, how were they acquired? 21st century. New kind of archive that is at risk of being lost Thangka commissioned Moreover, the choice of manuscripts forever. This includes manuscripts, documents, from Sonam Angdui in reflects the British collector’s own interests photographs, sound recordings, newspapers Kaza. The material is in reconstructing the history of Buddhism, owned by Meme Gatuk and magazines. A huge variety of material has Tenzing and has been rather than recording the collections of been digitised under the programme, from handed down through contemporary practitioners. ancient Arabic manuscripts to photographs several generations of The digital collections created by Shanker of the everyday life of Buddhist monks in head Buchen. All the Thapa with the support of vajracharya materials in the archive 1 Laos. How does this work? are kept within the prayer families are different: here we see the logical Individuals or teams propose projects room of the house. Image structure of family collections, and we can to EAP for funding, and if successful, work (Melong) size 790 x 555 understand the part the manuscripts play mm. Full mounted size wherever the archives are located, to survey 1365 x 900 mm. in their own practices, and their relationship and digitise them. The archives are not taken with those who rely on them for rituals. Thus away, and the digitised images or recordings in a single collection we see, for example, stay in the country where the archives are prayers to Buddhist deities, along with mantras found. Copies are sent to the British Library, to be chanted for a long life, astrological the home of the EAP, and these are shared on texts for divination, and tantric texts for the the programme's website (eap.bl.uk). Over accomplishment of enlightenment. There are seven million images and recordings are now Left: EAP790/2/15 - fewer of the famous Buddhist canonical texts available on the website, a massive and diverse Manuscript containing than in Hodgson's collections, and this reflects digital collection crossing multiple regions and the Sutra of Five which texts were (and still are) actually used in Protectors, from the fields of study. These collections are only made collection of Suprasanna the Kathmandu Valley. This gives us a different available with the consent of their custodians, Vajracharya. perspective, one more closely aligned to that of for research and greater understanding, the custodians of the manuscripts themselves. and not for commercial gain. Supporting the collections A holistic picture The Endangered Archive Programme continues to give grants to applicants on of a tradition an annual basis with a call going out every Many of the major museum and library September (eap.bl.uk/grants). For those collections in Europe are the direct result of interested in exploring the digital collections, the collecting activities of colonial explorers, Buchen consider themselves to be the spiritual of their tradition, based on the logic of their they are freely available on the programme's soldiers and administrators. As such, these descendants of the 15th century saint Tangtong own practice, rather than the categories of website (eap.bl.uk/search/site). These collections represent the interests and Gyalpo, a visionary adept in meditation who is European museum and library collections. collections are held in trust for the original prejudices of these people, rather than the also thought to have designed and constructed owners and their descendants, and offer the values and practices of the original custodians over fifty iron suspension bridges in Tibet, potential for an approach to research based of the material. This has directly affected how and to have invented the Tibetan tradition of The custodians on a greater understanding of the custodians generations of scholars have conceptualised opera known as Ache Lhamo. It is this latter The Kathmandu Valley is one of the culturally of the traditions, who have preserved and the cultures that they study. In Buddhist achievement that links him to the Buchen, who richest regions in the world. It has also been transmitted them through to the present day. traditions, for example, the study of manuscripts use art and performance to communicate the the site of massive urban development in has favoured canonical textual traditions with essentials of Buddhist teaching: the round recent decades, and was hit by a tragically Sam van Schaik, Head of the Endangered their roots in India, or the works of well-known of rebirth and the role of karma. destructive earthquake in 2015. In the medieval Archives Programme, The British Library individuals. The way that these manuscripts The collection of a single Buchen comprises period, the valley was a hub connecting the [email protected] formed part of personal or monastic collections manuscripts in the Tibetan loose leaf form Buddhist cultures of India and Tibet, and home has largely been ignored. known as pecha, containing both ritual to renowned experts in the Vajrayana, the In two projects funded by EAP between 2012 texts and stories to be used in performance. texts and practices of tantric Buddhism. These Notes and 2016, Patrick Sutherland surveyed and Alongside these are thangka paintings, used teachings have been passed down through photographed the collections of a group of to illustrate Buddhist principles, musical the centuries in family lineages of Vajrayana 1 Kominko, M. (ed.) 2015. From Dust to Buddhist ritual specialists called Buchen.2 Living instruments such as the kogpo, a six stringed teachers known as vajracharyas. These Digital: Ten Years of the Endangered in the Pin and Spiti valleys of Himachal Pradesh, wooden instrument, and statues of the families hold rich collections of manuscripts, Archives Programme. Cambridge: Open India, the Buchen are a class of Buddhist ritual Buchens’ patron saint Tangtong Gyalpo. which are now under threat from the forces of Book Publishers. 2 Sutherland, P. & Tsering, T. 2011. Disciples practitioners and storytellers whose traditions The ritual accoutrements of a Tibetan Buddhist modernisation and environmental catastrophes. of a Crazy Saint: The Buchen of Spiti. are now under threat. Recognising this, practitioner are also present, including the In 2013, Shanker Thapa, of Tribhuvan Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum. several Buchen families worked together with metal vajra and bell, the rosary, amulet boxes University in Kathmandu, started an EAP- 3 Thapa, S. 2005. Newar Buddhism: History, Sutherland to document their manuscripts, and ritual daggers, swords and bows.
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