Key Tibetan Reference Resources
Presenting a list of the most important online Tibetan language and text resources
Terms: Tibetan Reference Resources
Tibetan Dictionaries
- THL Terms: a comprehensive, historical dictionary of Tibetan words and phrases.
- THL Places: a dictionary of places of the world with particular emphasis on Central/South Asia.
- THL Subjects: a dictionary of subjects related to Tibet.
- Dharma Dictionary: Rangjung Yeshe’s Tibetan-English dictionary, dharma glossaries, and resources.
- Dzogchen Wiki: encyclopedia entries on technical and philosophical terms, deities, people, places, and more (in French).
- Esukhia: Tibetan language learning, translation, and research.
- Jeffrey Hopkins-UMA Institute Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary
- Monlam Dictionary (སྨོན་ལམ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ།): a Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary that largely draws from other lexicographic sources..
- Rigpa Shedra: An online encyclopedia of Tibetan Buddhism.
- Steinert Online Tibetan Dictionary and App: allows search of most available dictionaries in a pleasing online format.
- Index of Spices in Tibetan Script: Gernot Katzer’s spice page.
- Golden Dict: online and offline Tibetan dictionaries combined (coming soon).
- Glossary for Buddhist Studies: Dharma Drum’s glossary of terms used in Buddhism.
Sanskrit Dictionaries
- Apte’s Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary
- Digital Dictionaries of South Asia
- Edgerton Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit: the standard resource for Buddhist Sanskrit, with various search settings.
- Macdonnell’s Practical Sanskrit Dictionary
- Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary: the standard resource for Sanskrit, with various search settings.
Nepali and Newar Dictionaries
Tibetan Translation Tools
- THL Translation Tool: parses strings of any length into component terms and returns dictionary entries for each term.
- Dharmamitra Translator: translate between Tibetan, Sanskrit, Chinese, and English.
- Monlam AI (སྨོན་ལམ་རིག་ནུས།): a dictionary of subjects related to Tibet.
Tibetan Transliteration Converters and Text-to-Speech Converters
- THL Tibetan Transliteration Converter: convert THL Extended Wylie to Unicode Tibetan and vice versa.
- THL Tibetan Phonetics Converter: convert Wylie or Unicode Tibetan to THL phonetics.
- Monlam AI: Tibetan text-to-speech converter.
Tibetan OCR
- Monlam AI (སྨོན་ལམ་རིག་ནུས།): Tibetan optical character recognition (OCR).
Tibetan Digital Tools and Fonts
- THL Tibetan Fonts Page: descriptions of an extensive list of Tibetan unicode and legacy fonts..
- Digital Tibetan: resources for Tibetan fonts.
- Tibetan on Digital Devices: Digital Tibetan’s page on Tibetan on digital devices.
- Qomolangma Fonts: a family of Tibetan fonts in a variety of scripts. See documentation here.
- Nitartha International Sambhota Tibetan Fonts: a family of Tibetan fonts in several scripts.
Digital Tibetan Texts
- THL Tibetan Literature Archive: searchable catalogs and texts as well as scans of canonical collections (Kangyur, Tengyur, Nyingma Gyübum, Kama Shintu Gyepa) of the Ancient and Modern schools as well as collected works of several authors (Longchenpa, Dilgo Khyentsé)..
- Adarshah: searchable Kangyur & Tengyur, Tibetan Collected Works, and Yungdrung Bon texts.
- Asian Classics Input Project: downloadable searchable Kangyur, Tengyur, and texts on a variety of topics.
- Asian Legacy Library Portal: catalogs, scans, input, and translations for Himalayan and Inner Asian, South Asian, and East Asian Collections.
- Buddhist Canons Research Database: AIBS and Columbia University database of bibliographic information and full-text search of 5,000 texts.
- Buddhist Digital Resource Center: over 17 million pages of Buddhist literature digitized, cataloged, and archived .
- Classical Tibetan Knowledge: archive and study resources from Central University of Tibetan Studies.
- Gdams ngag mdzod (Tsadra)
- Dharma Cloud: a Tibetan e-book library from Tsadra Foundation.
- Dharma Downloads: text collections, puja texts, audio, teachings.
- Digital Library of Library of Tibetan Works and Archives: digitized collection of 3000+ rare and sacred manuscripts from the LTWA collection.
- Jangchub Lamrim Texts: critical editions of 18 Geluk Stages of the Path (lam rim) texts (5 volumes).
- Lotsawa House: 5000+ Tibetan texts and translations.
- Munchener Digitalisierungs Zentrum Digitale Bibliothek: scans of Tibetan texts held in Munich.
- Nitartha Digital Library: Dege Kangyur & Tengyur as well as Tibetan-authored works, searchable by title, author, and subject, along with images of 650,000 text pages.
- Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies at University of Vienna: catalog and full-text searches of Kangyur and Tengyur texts with full texts accessible.
- Rinchen Terdzö Chenmo (Tsadra)
- A Sakya Digital Library: Tibetan translations of Indian texts and texts by Sakya scholars curated by Khenchen Appey Rinpoche, Khenpo Ngawang Jorden, and the International Buddhist Academy in Kathmandu.
- Sera Jey Rigzod Chenmo: the Jey College of Sera Monastery’s curriculum, ritual schedule, and more.
- Tibetan eBooks: downloadable e-books of modern Tibetan texts on a variety of religious topics.
- Tibetan Newspapers from Anna Saw’s Research: an overview of historical Tibetan-language newspapers.
- Tibetbook.net: a source for Tibetan texts from Asia.
- Tsadra Foundation Digital Resources: publications and catalogs.
- Tsadra Foundation: publications, translations, and digital resources for Tibetan literature.
- UMA-Tibet: annotated translations in English and Chinese of Geluk textbook literature from Drepung Gomang College and Nyingma texts on the fundamental innate mind of clear light.
- Bibliotheca Polyglotta: multilingual presentation of Buddhist literature sentence by sentence.
- Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon: original Sanskrit scriptures, over 600 texts.
Dunhuang Texts
- International Dunhuang Programme (IDP): online collections of scanned texts mainly from Dunhuang.
- Old Tibetan Documents Online: searchable Dunhuang manuscripts, inscriptions, and related materials.
- Pelliot Tibetan Texts: texts from Dunhuang in the National Library of France (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
Translations of Tibetan Texts
- 84,000: a project to translate the Kangyur collection, with English translations, summaries, glossaries, and bibliographies.
- Lotsawa House: 5000+ Tibetan texts and translations.
- Tib Shelf: English translations with the Tibetan for texts on a range of topics from the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
- Tsadra Foundation: publications, translations, and digital resources for Tibetan literature.
- UMA-Tibet: annotated translations in English and Chinese of Geluk textbook literature from Gomang College and Nyingma texts on the fundamental innate mind of clear light.
Tibetan Language Learning
- Rangjung Yeshe Institute
- Esukhia
- Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program
- School for International Training Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples Program
- College for Higher Tibetan Studies
- Loplao
- Tibetan Language Institute
Tibetan Calendars
Tibetan Places
- THL Places: a gazetteer of 21,000+ places from past and present Tibet and the Himalayas.
- Burial Mounds of Central Tibet and TAR Toponym Search: search about 45,000 place entries.
Tibetan People
- The Treasury of Lives. Biographies of Tibetan Masters: a biographic encyclopedia of Tibet, inner Asia, and the Himalaya.
- BDRC People Database
Tibetan Images
- THL Images: 80,000+ images from life in Tibet and the Himalayas.
Tibetan Audio-Video
- THL Audio-Video: 8,000+ video and audio items from life in Tibet and the Himalayas.
Tibetan Art
- Himalayan Art Resources: largest educational resource for Himalayan art and iconography.
- Project Himalayan Art: Rubin Museum.
Tibetan Lecture Series
Tibetan Blogs and Forums
- Ben Joffee’s blog
- Dan Martin’s Blog
- Dzogchen Wiki: a collection of encyclopedic entries on Dzokchen topics (in French).
- Jean-Luc Achard Blog: publications from Dr. Achard.
- Sam van Schaik’s blog: notes, thoughts and fragments of research on the history of Tibet.
Bibliographies
- THL Bibliographic Sources: presenting 600+ bibliographic citations on life in Tibet and the Himalayas.
- Bibliography of Indian Philosophies: Professor Karl Potter’s work.
- Bibliographies on Buddhism in Western Languages: Professor Marcus Bingenheimer’s work.
- H-Buddhism Bibliography Project
Journals
- Ancient Nepal
- Annual Report of The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University (ARIRIAB)
- The Buddhist Forum
- Bulletin of Tibetology
- Contributions to Nepali Studies
- Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines
- European Bulletin of Himalayan Research
- HIMALAYA: JOURNAL OF THE ANHS: previously published as Himalayan Research Bulletin (1981–2003) and the Nepal Studies Association Newsletter (1972–1980).
- The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies (IIJBS)
- Indica et Buddhica
- Journal of Bhutan Studies
- Journal of Buddhist Ethics
- Journal of Buddhist Literature
- Journals of Himalayan Studies: a list of free e-journals.
- The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (JIABS)
- The Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (JIATS)
- Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (JOCBS)
- Journal of the Tibet Society
- Kailash: Journal of Himalayan Studies
- Mountain Research and Development
- Nepalese Linguistics: current issue; volumes 1-34 (1980-2019); volumes 33-36 (2018-2022).
- The Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies
- Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines
- Studies in Central and East Asian Religions
- Tibet Journal
- Yeshe: a journal of Tibetan literature, arts and humanities.
Publishers of Tibetan Buddhist Works
- The American Institute of Buddhist Studies
- Dharma e-Books from Gyalwang Karmapa
- Dharma e-Books from Tsadra Foundation and partners
- Institute of Tibetan Classics
- International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies Gmbh
- Library of Tibetan Works & Archives
- Light of Berotsana
- Padmakara, France
- Rangjung Yeshe Publications: oral teachings of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and his spiritual sons.
- Shambhala Publications
- Tibetan e-Books
- Vajra Publications, Nepal
- Wisdom Publications
- WSTB, Vienna
Translation Group Websites
- American Institute of Buddhist Studies
- Berzin Archives and Translations
- Dharmachakra Translation Committee
- Drikung Kagyu Translation Group
- Institute of Tibetan Classics
- The International Buddhist Academy’s Chödung Karmo Translation Group
- Khyentse Vision Project
- Light of Berotsana Translation Group
- Nalanda Translation Committee
- Nitartha Translation Network
- Nyingtik Project
- Padmakara Translation Group
- Padma Karpo Translation Committee
- Rigpa Translations
- UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies