Two New Resources on the Huntington Archive

[John Huntington]

Dear Colleagues,

1) I am pleased to announce that after three years of work and with a
major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the first
section of the Digital database is ready for use. It consists of
about 40,000 black and white photographs from Susan's an my
photographic documentation work in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh and Afghanistan. the majority of the material is Buddhist
but many of the great Hindu temple sites are included as well. Much
of the photography was done in 1969-70 when access and photographic
permission were easier to obtain.

The site is entirely intended for educational use and to that end the
use of the site is free for personal research and teaching.
Unfortunately if you need high resolution images for publication,
there is a tiered fee system. Please see the site for details

Please note that the search engine is still a "work in progress" and
that it will be upgraded in the near future (once testing is done).
There is also a speed problem if you too many responses to a query.
That has to do with multi-server logistics and a solution is in the
works.

http://huntingtonarchive.osu.edu/ go to Digital Database

2) I have put up a few test examples of didactic drawings that I made
for the Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art catalog and
exhibition along with others that I have made as part of a "Visual
Encyclopedia of Buddhist Iconography." I basically intend that these
be available as both classroom graphics to use  to explain some of
the basic concepts of Buddhism and a a resource for individuals who
wish to learn about Buddhism.

At the moment, there are about 150 pages up in several areas
concerning mostly Mahayana and Tantric Buddhist concepts.  I have a
database of roughly 2000+ terms for which similar didactics could be
made. In addition, a pictorial database of images is also
underdevelopment.

I would deeply appreciate feedback as to the usefulness of this project.

In particular, I  would appreciate comments on the Chitta (yes, at
the moment, we are using phonetic spellings) , Mount Meru (which will
soon be expanded greatly), Mount Menu and the Yogin, the Five
Certainties, and (lower on the page under "Buddhist Symbol Systems)
Symbolic Systems of Stupas (which is the most fully developed of the
entries so far).

You are most welcome to review the other charts, but they are less
effective as complete explanations and we will be removing or
replacing them sometime this summer.

http://huntingtonarchive.osu.edu/  go to "projects," go to "NEW:
Visual Encyclopedia of Buddhist Iconography"

Enjoy, and thank you in advance for your responses.

Sincerely,

John C. Huntington, Founding Co-Director of the Huntington Archive
Dina Bangdel, Curator of the huntington Archive