Many of you probably know THDL, but if you haven’t kept up with their machinations you may find it difficult to find information on this huge resource. The first thing to know is that THDL is no longer THDL, it is called THL (Tibetan Himalayan Library) and it is no longer housed (even in parts) at www.thdl.org. It is now officially only at www.thlib.org The journal for International Association of Tibetan Studies is here.

Although one might fall prey to the hope that things have become easier to find on THL now that it has fewer letters, simply recall the old adage about hope and fear and settle in for a session of learning experiences. Other than the pretty pictures, THL has also provided us with the experience of not being able to find half of the things that one used to be able to find on the old site. This is because some pages and resources are still in transition and will arrive at their new homes soon.

There are some really excellent resources that you should know about:

1. Knowledge Maps – Look on the right side of the Reference page for the link to an amazing set of “interactive” knowledge maps being developed at UVa. Contents include information about various doxographical traditions, languages, Tibetan Literary Genres. Unfortunately, many of the more interesting maps are still being developed.
2.  Historical Tibetan Dictionary – Try the Browse function. Not every entry has as detailed entries, but some are excellent. Take a look at the word of the day, thod rgal.
3. NGB – The searchable rnying ma rgyud ’bum IS still there, you just have to find it. Here it is. What you get is extremely detailed cataloging of each text in the NGB.
4.  Canons Project – As they did with the NGB, UVa is attempting to do deep cataloging of several of the Tengyurs and Kangyurs. Sadly nothing new to report here. They are still working, however, there is an interesting article about Tibetan Historiography by Dr. van der Kuijp.
5.  There is a very interesting set of pages on the bibliographies of such luminaries as Rin chen bzang po, Machik Labdron, Nyang ral nyi ma ‘od zer, Shenchen Luga, Sakya Pandita, and more. See the link here and send a note to Marcus (marcus@tsadra.org) if you can’t access the information.

When THL has anything new to offer, or they update anything substantial, I will provide a new post with links to the most interesting information.