Just for information: these are indeed 61 volumes, of which
reportedly 5 sets were printed. This is the result of a project
dedicated to the survey (and photography) of all palm-leaf mss in
the TAR conducted between 2006 and 2011 under the direction of
Prof. Tsewang Gyurme. Photographs of the cover pages of volume 1
and 61, as well as a photograph of the entire set, were reproduced
in two 2014 issues of the journal "Tibet Palm-Leaf Manuscript
Studies" (Lhasa). As Jonathan Silk rightly points out, neither
scholars in the PRC nor foreign scholars have so far been able to
officially access these volumes, let alone procure them.
The production of these volumes is by the way briefly discussed
in Ernst Steinkellner's forthcoming paper "Sanskrit manuscripts on
palm-leaves, paper and birch-bark in the TAR: What now?",
delivered as a keynote lecture at the Beijing International
Seminar on Tibetan Studies in 2016, to be published in the
proceedings of the Sanskrit manuscripts panel at the Seminar
edited by Jowita Kramer, Xuezhu Li and myself (Beijing: China
Tibetology Publishing House).
With best regards,
Birgit Kellner
No one yet grabbed on to this, at least on this list, but ...
>> my professor found in Lhasa some large volumes of books in which there are many photographs of South Asian manuscripts. These books belong to a big project of an official committee in Lhasa which aims at preserving palm-leaf manuscripts in Tibet. <<
if this means what it seems to say, this means that someone, at least, namely your professor, has (some?) access to the near-legendary volumes produced a few years ago, a set of 61 if memory serves, in which --again, as I recall--excellent color photos were reproduced of palm leaf manuscripts ( those in good condition, and thought to be complete? I am not certain about this, but anyway apparently not paper MSS), and of which only a very small number of sets were produced, those inaccessible even to scholars in the PRC, much less abroad.**IF** someone now has actual access to these volumes ... well, I dare say it is not a big exaggeration to say that this signals a sea change, and I am far from alone in eagerly panting for access to these photos.Can you provide any more details?(In the plates you offered, on 1b-4b the volume itself is visible, and the color of the binding agrees with what I remember from seeing several years ago a CCTV segment on the publication of these volumes, so I would guess that your professor [I am quite eager to know who this is] seems to have held in his/her hands one at least of these very volumes.)
Jonathan Silk
--
J. Silk
Leiden University
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIASMatthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b2311 BZ Leiden
The Netherlands
copies of my publications may be found at
_______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list INDOLOGY@list.indology.info indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee) http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)
-- ---- Prof. Dr. Birgit Kellner Director Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia Austrian Academy of Sciences Hollandstrasse 11-13/2 A-1020 Vienna Austria Phone: +43-(0)1-51581-6420 Fax: +43-(0)1-51581-6410 http://ikga.oeaw.ac.at