Dear colleagues,

Within a new research project at the University of Vienna (Buddhist Kanjur Collections in Tibet’s Southern and Western Borderlands, headed by Helmut Tauscher, joined by Bruno Lainé and Markus Viehbeck) our online database Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies (rKTs) received a substantial makeover and now comes with many new features:

https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/kanjur/rktsneu/sub/index.php

Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies now provides access to searchable catalogues as well as images of over 50 (!) Kanjurs, larger canonical collections, Tanjurs, and tantric collections (rnying rgyud); further also various options to search in e-texts for both Kanjur and Tanjur.

While various tools and resources were integrated (handlists of individual collections, a tool for structural comparison of different collections, a growing database of secondary literature, Open-Access to our research publications), the most pressing functions for anyone working with Tibetan canonical literature might be the following three:

1) Search for a title of any canonical text. Advanced search allows for adjusting the level of accuracy and hence to also include title variants: https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/kanjur/rktsneu/verif/

The output will provide the bibliographic details of a specific text in a given edition as well as a direct link to the source material, including for example dual display of both manuscript images and e-text. Other features include a link to the English translation in case a text has been translated by 84.000 and an interface to share scholarly comments and notes (at the bottom of the results’ page).

2) Full text search in different e-text versions of both Kanjur and Tanjur. This allows for identifying any part of a canonical text, such as quotations. Also here the search mode can be adjusted to the specific needs (approximate search, searching for individual lexical units): https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/kanjur/rktsneu/ekanjur/

3) Direct access to manuscript images. Kanjur viewer, Tanjur viewer, and Rnying rgyud viewer (accessible in the left menu, under Archives) combine catalogue data and images and allow for browsing through the images of many canonical collections: https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/kanjur/rktsneu/digit/affiche00.php?collc=hemishe%7C%27dul+ba+ka%7C1

Given the scope of the archive and the fact that it emerged out of various, shifting research interests, some of the data is still in a provisional stage and will have to be revised over time. We hope however that already at the present stage the database will be of benefit for many Tibetologists, Indologists, and researchers on Buddhism.

In case you encounter technical problems with the database, please inform Bruno Lainé, the webmaster of the archive, at: bruno.laine@univie.ac.at.

This archive has become possible through the cooperation of many different individuals. In that spirit we are looking forward to receiving your input and feedback, notes on interesting manuscript collections, discussions on specific scholarly concerns, etc. In order to do so, please contact Helmut Tauscher (helmut.tauscher@univie.ac.at) or myself (markus.viehbeck@univie.ac.at).

Markus Viehbeck, for the Tibetan Manuscript Project Vienna (TMPV)

Dr. Markus Viehbeck

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Vienna

Associate Member, Cluster Asia & Europe, University of Heidelberg

Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde, Universität Wien

Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2 (Campus)

1090 Vienna, Austria