Buddhist Digital Resource Center

07/16/2026

One Palm Leaf at a Time

For decades, Professor Peter Skilling has worked, quietly and tirelessly, to keep a vanishing library alive. The Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation (FPL) he built in Bangkok now holds tens of thousands of Buddhist manuscripts in Pali, Burmese, Tai Khuen, Shan, Tai Lue, and Mon. Many of which are written on palm leaves so brittle that a single careless touch can undo a text that has survived for centuries.

This July, our Archival Engineer, Travis DeTour, traveled to Bangkok to work alongside the FPL team. His days there were spent in careful, hands-on work: checking scanned images for quality, upgrading workstations and software, and assessing the scope of the FPL's Tai Khuen collection, nearly 2,842 palm-leaf manuscripts and some 750 paper manuscripts that may be next in line for preservation.

Over the past decade, with the steady support of the Khyentse Foundation, BDRC and FPL have together digitized roughly 11,000 volumes of Burmese palm-leaf manuscripts. Each one now lives in our online library, freely open to scholars, monastics, and curious readers.

Preservation is not only about cameras and hard drives. It is about people who refuse to let these voices go silent. It is a partnership built on trust, patience, and shared devotion to timeless Buddhist teachings embodied in eggshell fragile texts. We are grateful to Professor Skilling and the entire FPL team for the amazing work they have been doing. Together, we are helping ensure future generations will still have access to these treasuries of Buddhist wisdom.

If this work moves you, you can help carry it forward. Every gift (https://www.bdrc.io/dharma-protectors-circle/) brings the next collection a little closer to safety. And we invite and encourage you to meet these manuscripts yourself on the BDRC website (https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:PR1FPL01?s=%2Fosearch%2Fsearch%3Fq%253DPR1FPL01).

07/14/2026

We are launching Digital Dharma, a new space where the Buddhist Digital Resource Center shares its work: preserving Buddhist texts and building the tools in the age of AI.

Our first post asks a question that matters more every month: how well can today's AI models actually translate Classical Tibetan into English? We built a benchmark to find out. We gave 200 curated Tibetan passages to 35 systems, 7,000 translations in all, and measured not just whether the English reads well, but whether it keeps the meaning, the terminology, and the doctrine intact. The results, and the honest limits of what machines can do here, are in the post.

Read it here: https://bdrc.substack.com/p/exploring-how-well-machines-carry

Find Digital Dharma here: https://bdrc.substack.com/

Code, data, and full results: https://github.com/GregoryForgues/benchmark_Tib_Eng_v.1

With gratitude to the Khyentse Foundation, whose generous support makes this work possible.

Follow along as we go.

06/25/2026

Welcoming new leadership at BDRC!

As BDRC looks toward its next chapter after more than twenty-five years of preserving and sharing Buddhist literature, we are pleased to share two important updates.

Gregory Forgues has recently joined BDRC as Executive Director. A Buddhist Studies scholar and translator, Greg brings organizational leadership and extensive experience working with Buddhist textual projects through his work with 84000, Khyentse Foundation, and Tsadra Foundation. He also offers a clear vision of how new technologies can responsibly serve Buddhist textual traditions.

Gedun Rabsal has been elected President of the Board. A scholar, writer, and translator at Indiana University Bloomington, Gedun brings deep expertise and lifelong dedication to Tibetan literature and Buddhist textual culture.

Together with BDRC’s staff and global partners, Greg and Gedun carry forward the vision of founder E. Gene Smith: preserving Buddhist literature and making it accessible to the world.

Read more:
Gedun Rabsal, President of the Board:
https://www.bdrc.io/blog/2026/06/25/gedun-rabsal-elected-president-of-the-board/

Gregory Forgues, Executive Director:
https://www.bdrc.io/blog/2026/05/18/gregory-forgues-appointed-executive-director/

03/21/2026

Two days ago in Thimphu, our delegation had the privilege of participating in this remarkable gathering. The turnout exceeded all expectations; monks who traveled hours from their monasteries, nuns, government officials, and scholars, all coming together around a shared commitment to preserving and sharing knowledge. For BDRC, this feels like a renewal of our deep ties with Bhutan, bonds first forged by our founder E. Gene Smith nearly six decades ago, and we look forward to building on the many connections made this week. Deep thanks to the Loden Foundation for hosting with such warmth and vision.
We also thank the sponsor of our eye-opening 2 week trip to Bhutan, the Ngawang Choephel Fellows Program.🙏

02/28/2026

🚀 BDRC Launches Major Initiative to Build Open Buddhist Datasets for AI

Artificial intelligence is rapidly shaping how people access knowledge — including knowledge about Buddhism. We believe that if AI is going to speak about the Dharma, it should be trained on authentic Buddhist sources.

With generous support from Khyentse Foundation, BDRC has launched a major new project to create a foundational open-access corpus of Tibetan Buddhist texts, fully prepared for integration into modern AI systems.

This initiative will produce the largest and most reliable open-access digital corpus of Tibetan Buddhist literature ever assembled — representing standardized, cross-validated editions of tens of thousands of texts. These materials will be made available on the platforms where major AI systems derive their training data, helping ensure that future conversations about Buddhism are informed by authentic primary sources.

This initiative is developed in partnership with Dharmaduta Services (“Dharma Emissary”), a Tibetan-founded technology organization working at the forefront of Tibetan-language OCR and AI, and in close coordination with Khyentse Foundation’s Wisdom and AI Committee.

Importantly, the datasets and OCR models will also be released into the public domain, supporting independent, community-led Buddhist and Tibetan AI initiatives around the world.

We are deeply grateful to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and Khyentse Foundation for empowering BDRC to contribute meaningfully to this transformative moment in technology.

📅 The grant runs through 2027 — and we look forward to sharing many milestones along the way.

01/23/2026

A provocative and timely lecture about the reasons "Why Translators in Training Should Avoid AI Tools." This will be of interest to many of BDRCs users.
Next Wednesday, 28 January at 5pm Nepal Time.
More info and Zoom link below⬇️

01/06/2026

Amazing free resource for Tibetan Studies: a remarkable collection of Tibetan fonts, many inspired by historical manuscript styles.

Posted on 07/10/202507/10/2025 by [email protected] Treasure Trove of Tibetan Fonts by OpenPecha OpenPecha, an initiative dedicated to advancing the study of Buddhism and Tibetan culture through modern digital technologies, has recently released a remarkable collection of Tibetan fonts. Many of...

12/24/2025

📜✨Resilience in Print: A Testament to the Revival of Tibetan Buddhism

Our previous post about the Tibetan woodblock printeries in India featured a copy of Tsongkhapa’s Golden Garland of Eloquence ལེགས་བཤད་གསེར་ཕྲེང. Remarkably the first volume of this text bears a colophon written by the highly revered Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, who served as the Ganden Tripa from 1965–1983. We offer a transcription of the text and a translation below to inspire you. Read them and tell us which lines inspire you most!
🖋️
Homage and faith I offer to Mañjughoṣa, the Moon among preachers,
Whose wondrous virtue and excellence arise from the mountain peaks in the East,
Who perfectly possesses the full measure of the Ten Powers of wondrous intelligence,
And who is renowned for marvelous erudition, discipline, and outstanding goodness.

Born from the deep oceanic mind of the Victor Maitreya,
the wish-fulfilling Jewel of this śāstra is replete with the two qualities of curing and protecting,
It is beautified by the many precious ornaments of the Abhisamayālaṅkāra,
Which reveals the hidden meaning of the Mother Sūtras, the essence of the Buddha's excellent teachings.

The Golden Garland of Eloquence brilliantly expounds the meanings
Of the Twenty-One Treatises of the Paṇḍitas and Accomplished Masters of the Noble Land.
Serving as a necklace for myriads of eminent masters,
Their music of manifest praise rings out everywhere.

Just as a hundred thousand reflections of Śakra, Lord of Gods,
Appear upon a spotless Vaidūrya surface,
By the great merit embraced by the smiling, pure flower of selfless aspiration,
So too do many copies arise from a single printing matrix.

May the great ocean of the excellent tradition of Mañjughoṣa remain majestic
Through the splendor of the courageous ones who vibrate their larynxes of erudition—
That flock of swans whose forms are beautified by flawless conduct,
And who transform at will the waves of activity generated by their wings of explanation and practice.

May the King of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels, fulfilling the Two Aims and granting all wishes,
Which is the flourishing spring churned from the milk-ocean of the compassion of all Victors, remain steadfast and majestic,
Bringing universal joy to the expanse of the Three Realms with the radiant light of enlightened activity.

May all connected sentient beings, headed by the patrons and sponsors,
Be enriched by the many kinds of supreme conduct
Of the Great Noble Ones, who establish countless beings
In the city of the ultimate, peaceful omniscience.

This poem was composed with devotion as a dedication of merit and aspiration at the time of publishing this great explanation called The Golden Garland of Eloquence, which is the extensive commentary on the Ornament for Clear Realization and its accompanying commentaries, spoken by the King of Dharma, Mañjughoṣa Tsongkhapa the Great.

It was composed with deep reverence by the one bearing the title of the ninety-seventh Ganden Tripa, Yongzin Ling Tulku, when monk Khyenrab Phagpa, a renunciant from Sera Je College, who is highly endowed with supreme selfless aspiration and profound faith, provided the material resources and sponsored its publication, for the benefit of all intelligent individuals seeking its meaning.
May virtue and excellence increase! Maṅgalam! May there be virtue! May there be virtue! May there be virtue!

༎ཨོཾ་སྲ་སྟི།ངོ་མཚོར་དགེ་ལེགས་ཤར་རིའི་སྤོ་ལས་འོངས༎རོ་མཚུར་བློ་གྲོས་སྟོབས་བཅུའི་གང་བ་རྫོགས༎ངོ་མཚར་མཁས་བཙུན་བཟང་པོའི་གྲགས་པ་ཅན༎འཇམ་མགོན་སྨྲ་བའི་ཟླ་བར་དད་ཕྱག་བརྩེགས༎
ལེགས་གསུང་རྒྱལ་བའི་དགོངས་བཅུད་ཡུམ་གྱི་མདོའི༎སྦས་དོན་མངོན་རྟོགས་རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱན་མང་གིས༎ཡོངས་མཛེས་འཆོས་སྐྱོབ་གཉིས་ལྡན་ནོར་གྱི་བུ༎མ་ཕམ་རྒྱལ་བའི་ཐུགས་མཚོའི་འཇིང་ལས་འཁྲུངས༎
གཅིག་ལྷག་བཅུ་ཟུང་འཕགས་ཡུལ་པཎ་གྲུབ་ཀྱི༎གཞུང་དོན་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པའི་གསེར་གྱི་ཕྲེང་༎དྲན་དབང་བྱེ་བའི་མགུལ་པའི་རྒྱན་ཉིད་དུ༎མངོན་པར་བསྔགས་པའི་རོལ་མོ་ཅི་ཡང་འཁྲོལ༎
ཇི་ལྟར་དྲི་བྲལ་བཻ་ཌཱུར་ས་གཞིའི་ངོས༎ལྷ་དབང་གཟུགས་བརྙན་འབུམ་དུ་འཚར་བ་ལྟར༎གཅིག་ལས་དུ་མར་འཆར་བའི་པར་གྱི་དངོས༎ལྷག་བསམ་ཀུན་དའི་འཛུམ་གྱིས་བསུས་པའི་དགེས༎
མ་སྨད་སྤྱོད་པས་ལུས་མཛེས་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི༎གཤོག་རླབས་འདོད་དགུར་བསྒྱུར་བའི་ལུས་དཀར་ཁྱུ༎མཁས་ཚུལ་མགྲིན་རྔ་འཁྲོལ་ལ་དཔའ་པའི་གཟིས༎འཇམ་མགོན་ལུགས་བཟང་ཆུ་གཏེར་བརྗིད་གྱུར་ཅིག།
རྒྱལ་ཀུན་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་འོ་མཚོ་བསྲུབས་པའི་དཔྱིད༎དོན་གཉིས་འདོད་འཇོ་བསམ་འཕེལ་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ༎འཕྲིན་ལས་འོད་སྣང་གྲོལ་བས་ས་གསུམ་ཁྱོན༎ཀུན་དགར་བྱེད་པས་སྙེམས་བཞིན་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག།
རྒྱུ་སྦྱོར་གྱིས་གཙོས་འབྲེལ་ཐོགས་ཡིད་ཅན་ཀུན༎ཀུན་མཁྱེན་མཆོག་རབ་ཞི་བའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ༎དུ་མའི་འགྲོ་རྣམས་འགོད་པའི་འཕགས་ཆེན་སྤྱོད༎སྤྱོད་མཆོག་རྣམ་པ་དུ་མས་ཕྱུག་གྱུར་ཅིག།
ཅེས་པ་འདི་ཡང་འཇམ་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཙོང་ཁ་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་གསུང་བསྟན་བཅོས་མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པའི་རྒྱན་འགྲེལ་པ་དང་བཅས་པའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བཤད་པའི་ལེགས་བཤད་གསེར་གྱི་ཕྲེང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་འདི་ཉིད་བློ་གསལ་དོན་གཉེར་བ་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་སྨན་སླད་དད་གཏོད་ལྷག་བསམ་མཆོག་གིས་མངོན་པར་ཕྱུག་པ་སེར་བྱེས་བྱ་བྲལ་དགེ་སློང་མཁྱེན་རབ་འཕགས་པ་ནས་རྒྱུ་སྦྱར་ཏེ་པར་དུ་བསྐྲུན་སྐབས་དགེ་བསྔོའི་སྨོན་ཚིག་ཏུ་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་གོ་བདུན་པ་ཡོངས་འཛིན་གླིང་སྐྱེ་མིང་པས་དང་བས་སྦྱར་བ་དགེ་ལེགས་འཕེལ༎མངྒ་ལཾ།དགེའོ།དགེའོ༎དགེའོ༎

12/21/2025

🪵 Resilience in Print: Rebuilding Tibetan Libraries Block by Block
This fall, we kicked off a major project: the publication of a large collection of texts from the personal library of the late scholar, Gene Smith. All winter long, we’ll be featuring individual works from this incredible collection that represent vital chapters in the survival of Tibetan Buddhism. 📚

Today, we're sharing a text that serves as a tangible artifact from a crucial—but now largely forgotten—chapter of the Tibetan diaspora: the revival of traditional woodblock printing in the 1970s and 80s. 🏔️

Beyond the Printing Houses of Tibet

When we think of woodblock prints (made from hand-carved woodblocks), we often think of the ancient printing houses inside Tibet, like Derge or Narthang. However, when the Tibetan community first arrived in India, they faced a desperate shortage of the books required for monastic training.

To provide students with the texts needed for Geshe and Khenpo degrees, several of the largest monasteries in India undertook massive efforts to carve thousands of new pages of woodblocks by hand.

Painstaking Detail: The Blocks and the Paper

The effort went far beyond just carving the wood. The monks sought to recreate the entire experience of a traditional Tibetan book. Notably, the paper used for this text closely resembles traditional Tibetan handmade paper. This detail reveals the extraordinary lengths the community went to—not only carving their own blocks from scratch but also sourcing or manufacturing paper that honored the tactile and spiritual quality of their traditional textual heritage.

The Story of Sera Jé

The text we are featuring today—Tsongkhapa’s Golden Garland of Eloquence ལེགས་བཤད་གསེར་ཕྲེང—is a direct product of this movement. In their history of Sera Monastery, scholars Jose Cabezon and Penpa Dorjee describe how this labor of love began:

“Geshé Ngawang Lekden... convinced the Jé College that rather than pursuing other printing options, it should carve traditional woodblocks for its textbooks. It was something of a godsend that a traditional block carver had managed to escape Tibet and was living in nearby Camp Four. The Jé College provided him with years of work... [M]onks were allowed to borrow the blocks and print their own texts, but the blocks started to get damaged, and starting in the late 1970s all the texts were printed by the library staff and sold to monks. What little profit was made was used to carve more blocks.”

Honoring History in a Digital Age

Today, modern technology—desktop publishing, ebooks, and scans—has largely left the physical labor of woodblock carving in South Asia in the dust. Yet, it is essential to honor this history.

These xylographic editions contain unique treasures that modern reprints often omit: specially-commissioned colophons and dedicatory verses from the most prominent lamas of that era. These compositions are unique historical records of faith and dedication that exist only within these hand-inked pages.

The woodblock from this bygone era are now housed in massive cabinets—a testament to the "skill in means" and unwavering faith of the first generation of exile lamas.

A sign on the cabinet lists the titles of the dozens of texts that were painstakingly carved to ensure the tradition would flourish in a new land.

BDRC is proud to digitize these specific editions, preserving not just the words of Tsongkhapa, but the extraordinary history of the people who recreated them by hand in exile. ✨

🔗 Access the Digital Library

The Golden Garland of Eloquence and other texts from the Gene Smith collection can be viewed for free on BDRC’s digital library, BUDA.

Photo credits: Geshe Tenzin Tsewang and Geshe Khedup of Sera Jé

Check the comments for the direct link to this text! 👇

11/19/2025

📢 A Scholar's Legacy Unlocked: New Archive of Rare Tibetan Texts on BDRC!

The heart of the BDRC archive is the personal collection of our legendary founder, Gene E. Smith, a scholar whose Mañjuśrī-like research shaped the field of Tibetan Studies.

This month, we are overjoyed to publish a massive trove of texts from his library, including over 150 rare manuscripts and woodblock prints, plus dozens of Gene's previously unavailable research papers and notes.

Preserving the Past, Inspiring the Future

Gene passed away 15 years ago, and we feel that this new release, comprising 45,754 pages of material, is a powerful way to honor his legacy. It will connect those who knew him with the new generation of scholars who started their work after his passing. This publication is especially significant as we celebrate BDRC’s 25th Anniversary! 🎂

What's Inside?

In addition to the rare manuscripts and woodblock prints, we've digitized a pile of Gene's early notebooks, typescript notes, and even his original seminar papers from his time studying under Dezhung Rinpoche at the University of Washington. These offer a unique window into the mind of a pioneering scholar.

Thank You, Donors! 🙏

We couldn't have done this without you. Our fundraising campaign earlier this year saw an overwhelming, heartwarming response! Your generosity allowed us to digitally preserve and share even more texts than we initially planned.

Dive in and explore this incredible new collection:

➡️ Links to the new publication are in the comments!

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