The Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) is a

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

Dharamshala Dharamshala (; also spelled Dharamsala) is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located away from Dharamshala, in 1855. The ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The library was founded by

Tenzin Gyatso The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

, the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

on 11 June 1970, and is considered one of the most important libraries and institutions of Tibetan works in the world. The library contains sources which were relocated from Tibet during the 1959 escape, including important

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

manuscripts and archives related to Tibet's history, politics, culture and even art. It possesses more than 80,000 manuscripts, books and documents; over 600

thangkas A ''thangka'', variously spelled as ''thangka'', ''tangka'', ''thanka'', or ''tanka'' (; Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा), is a Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk appliqué, usuall ...

, statues and other artefacts of Buddhist heritage; 10,000 photographs; and many other materials. The directors have included

Geshe Lhakdor Geshe Lhakdor , also Geshe Lobsang Jordhen and Geshe Lhakdor Lobsang Jordan , (born in 1956) is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar who has co-authored and co-translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He was also an English translator of the 14th Dal ...

, and Geshe Sonam Rinchen had also been scholar-in-residence. The second floor of the library contains a museum (opened in 1974) containing notable artifacts and items that date back to the twelfth century.

References

External links

Official website
Libraries in India Education in Dharamshala Tibetology Tibetan Buddhist places Buddhist libraries Religious organizations established in 1970 India–Tibet relations Tibetan diaspora in India {{library-stub

See also

References

External links