A Year in the Library

By Margherita Pansa, librarian

At the end of 2019, when the project “Working with the words and texts of Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and Tibetan Buddhism” was launched in the Library, no one could have imagined how much more complicated everything would be in the year to come. Yet, amidst difficulties and compromises, the project has gone ahead and the part co-financed with the 8 per 1000 contribution from the UBI (Italian Buddhist Union) has been completed.

The project on the one hand involved Shang Shung Publications for the training of new editors and the publication of works by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, and on the other the Library with the scanning and indexing of manuscripts, the cataloging of texts in Western languages ​​and the creation of cultural events such as the Library Talks.

Several projects have been undertaken in the library: the first two works concerned the unique and rare material in the Tibetan section. The library houses several manuscripts and rare texts: some manuscripts are the works of Changchub Dorje, while others were identified during the cataloging of the Tibetan section of the library and have very different characteristics.

The works of Changchub Dorje, handwritten and other, obviously have a particular value for the Dzogchen Community. The texts in this collection had already been scanned and indexed over the years, however, the Tibetan fonts used at the time of indexing were obsolete and had to be converted to Unicode to remain readable. Once converted, it was necessary to check the result. As foreseen by the project, the conversion into Unicode and the checking of the indexes and scans was done for 10 texts from the collection of Changchub Dorje, although the work will continue for the entire collection.

The volumes were dealt with in the order in which they were found on the shelf. To recall this order, the volumes have been assigned a new code (CCD 1, CCD 2, etc.) in addition to the input number, which generally they already have. For each text a new index was created in which both a Tibetan Unicode font and the Wylie transcription were used, considering the difficulties that still remain in searching Tibetan terms in different text formats. More details have been added to the index such as dimensions, uniformity or not of the paper, whether it is a manuscript, woodcut, or photocopy, any fingerprints for authentication / blessing purposes, seals or other, page references to different texts where the volume is numbered or the page number of the pdf if it is not. Where necessary, index corrections were made, missing scans were inserted and scanned pages reordered. The 10 volumes examined contain from a minimum of three to a maximum of 61 texts each.

As for the other manuscripts, the identification, scanning and indexing of 20 manuscripts was completed, as required by the project. The operation will continue for almost the entire collection of manuscripts, but it was decided to give priority to some texts that have been identified. 20 manuscripts were identified, checked, and reordered when necessary, then indexed and the contents examined, creating descriptive and index files that were included at the beginning of the PDF files containing the scans. Each volume of manuscript contains up to 50 texts. In some cases it was necessary to compare the works with other editions page by page to reconstruct where they came from and the correct order of the sheets.

The collection is very varied. The first volume examined, for example, features beautiful handwriting and splendid miniatures and contains a version of the famous Tales of the Golden Corpse, but also canonical texts, divination manuals and some works of which no information has been found. Another volume, on the other hand, contains 51 texts related to the gter-ma cycle of the Zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol of Namchö Mingyur Dorje, the collection which contain the text famous in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead; another volume contains 55 texts from the ye shes rab ‘bar by Longsal Nyingpo (1652-1692), a collection on on the wrathful manifestation of the Guru. There are also several ancient Bon texts, some medical works, an astrology text, prophecies and so on.

The high resolution scans (nearly 3000 images) were transferred to external hard drives. In addition to the 20 foreseen in the project, a further 10 manuscript volumes have been scanned, which will soon be indexed.

At the same time, the organization and cataloging of texts on Tibet and Buddhism in Italian, English and other languages ​​was also started. We began by including more than 300 texts from the section in Western languages in the catalog. It was decided to start cataloging the texts in English starting from the Nyingma and Dzogchen section, then continuing with the Bon texts and the Kagyu texts. The operation will be continued for the entire collection.

New bespoke shelving was also added in the reading room to accommodate the growing number of books.

Opening of the reading room, cultural visits and bibliographic research

The library was open until the end of January 2020 and was supposed to reopen in March, something that was only possible briefly due to the lockdown linked to the Covid-19 emergency. Even during the lockdown, in addition to carrying out cataloging and indexing projects, we also continued with bibliographic searches on request. Where possible, digital material was provided, otherwise it was digitized with special excursions to the library.

Since the beginning of the summer, the library has opened again to readers and visitors. The cultural visits mainly took place during the dates scheduled for the ‘Welcome to Merigar’ visits: participants received explanations on the format and origin of traditional Tibetan texts, methods of reproduction, different calligraphies used and short accounts of the sacredness of the texts and the Tibetan language.

To date, due to new restrictions to contain the pandemic, the library has been closed to the public again since 6 November. In this phase, however, unlike the previous lockdown, we have still been able to keep the book loan services active by appointment and delivery at the library entrance and home loan, as well as the reference service, which has always remained active. To use the services, write to [email protected].

Part of the project was also the third edition of “Library Talks”, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic we had to suspend it in March. However, we offered an online version of them consisting of short stories, readings and related reflections, such as the Library, Buddhism, Tibet and the East in general. We have already written about this online version in a previous article. The online version has two sections: the Reading Aloud section is made up of short Tibetan and Oriental stories, parables, and tales read and interpreted by professional actors to whom our heartfelt thanks go. The section on reflections and insights on issues related to Buddhism, Tibet and the East in general started on 29 May, thirty years after the official inauguration of the Gönpa and the Merigar Library. In this section the talks are in both Italian and English. You can find them on the Merigar website, on the YouTube channel and on the Library’s Facebook page.

We would like to thank those who participated in this project with enthusiasm. In writing these words, we cannot fail to mention Elio Guarisco, the most assiduous of the contributors to our events. His loss is enormous for many, even for our library of which Elio was a regular user and promoter. With his intervention on the “The Lives of the 84 Siddhas of Ancient India: an ethical contradiction in Buddhism?” in 2018, we inaugurated the first edition of Library Talks. His collaboration continued in 2019 with two talks, “Beyond the distracted mind” and “Infinite Ocean of Knowledge. Kongtrul Lodrö Taye: the eclectic Lama protagonist of the spiritual renaissance of Eastern Tibet of the 19th century”. Also in the online edition of 2020, Elio generously filmed two talks, of which only one is currently edited and published.

Donations to the Library

Also this year we have received many volumes as gifts. We therefore want to thank (in alphabetical order) Costantino Maria Albini, Cvetko Jovanovic, Fabio Andrico, Giacomella Orofino, Giorgio Dallorto, Jim Valby, Luca Villa, Martha Boyden, Michela Clemente and Peter Eisenegger for enriching the collections in the library! Special thanks also to Shang Shung Publications that always gives us new releases in different languages.

If you would like to donate books to the library, please write to [email protected].

The projects you have read about were only partially funded by UBI and above all they must be continued! For this we need your support, because a library, by its nature, does not create monetary income, but gives great cultural enrichment!

Support us financially by sending a contribution:

By Paypal:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3WY5BDHPRHE96&source=url

Or bank draft:

Dzogchen Community of Merigar – Loc. Merigar 58031 Arcidosso, Grosseto Italy.
UBI Bank, Castel del Piano GR Italy branch
current account no. 1718 ABI 3111 CAB 72190 CIN G
IBAN code IT65G0311172190000000001718
SWIFT / BIC code BLOPIT22XXX

The reason for the donation should be “donation for the Library project.”