Buddhist Digital Resource Center

09/16/2026

Happy 25th anniversary to our dear friends at Khyentse Foundation, from all of us at BDRC! ❤️

For a quarter of a century, Khyentse Foundation has embodied the spirit of a jindak (སྦྱིན་བདག), a patron of the Dharma. Guided by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s vision, the Foundation has helped Buddhist wisdom reach people across traditions, languages, and generations.

At BDRC, we have felt that generosity from our earliest years. When Rinpoche learned that our founder, E. Gene Smith, was digitizing Tibetan texts, he recognized a mission the Foundation needed to embrace. And they have stood beside us ever since with a generosity and constancy that mean more to us than we can say. From Gene’s pioneering work with Tibetan texts to the preservation of fragile palm-leaf manuscripts from Southeast Asia, Khyentse Foundation has helped us protect and share precious teachings, ensuring that people who seek these seeds of wisdom and compassion could access them in the future. Behind so much of what we are able to share is their generosity, encouragement, and belief in this work.

To Rinpoche, and to the team, donors, and volunteers of Khyentse Foundation: thank you, with all our hearts. Thank you for standing beside us, thank you for helping us share Dharma and for all you make possible. May the goodness and auspiciousness you set in motion never cease to ripen far into the future.

Please join us in celebrating by watching the Foundation’s anniversary film, “Our Story,” and sharing your own wishes and thanks below.

To mark the 25th anniversary of Khyentse Foundation, a group of Khy...

08/28/2026

BDRC sends its heartfelt condolences to all those who have been affected by the devastating floods along the Nepal–Tibet border. Our hearts are with the families and communities of Rasuwa and Kyirong.

Hundreds of lives have been lost. Thousands remain unaccounted for. Families are grieving, waiting for news, and searching for those they love.

The Buddhist teaching on impermanence feels painfully close at a moment like this. So does the call to compassion.

For centuries, the Kyirong route carried traders, pilgrims, teachers, and books between the Kathmandu Valley and the Tibetan plateau. Milarepa meditated at Drakkar Taso, high above the river valley. The site later became an influential monastery and printing house. The people of these valleys cared for the textual heritage BDRC preserves today.

May those still missing be found. May survivors receive care, shelter, and support. May every grieving family feel the strength and love of a wider community around them.

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༎