Dharamshala: As a part of the ongoing Tibetan Digital Library Initiative, the Department of Religion and Culture (DoRC) completed the landscape assessment of the seven monasteries in and around Dharamshala.

The north zone landscape assessment began on 15 May at Ngagyur Shubseb Nunnery, followed by Zabsang Choekhorling, Gedhen Choeling Nunnery, Kyirong Tashi Choeling, Norbulingka Institute, Library of Tibetan Work and Archive and concluded at Men Tsee Khang on 21 May. On the final day of the landscape assessment at the Men Tsee Khang, USAID officials visited the library and observed the ongoing landscape assessment and digitisation process. During their visit, USAID officials had meaningful discussions with DoRC and the technical partners of this project.

During the course of the landscape assessment, the DoRC’s digital library team gave librarians training on the TLMS app and assisted in developing their library management system. The team also trained scanning process to the librarians and scanned the existing manuscripts and texts in the monasteries and institutions. To carry out the library management and digitisation process, DoRC provided the necessary equipments to these monasteries and institution.

This Tibetan Digital Library project is directly funded by the USAID through SARD under the program ‘Strengthening Cultural Resilience of Tibetan Communities’.