LIBRARY CATALOGS

If you are looking for a specific title or author, or want to conduct a subject search, you should start with WORLDCAT—the single largest bibliographic database of library holdings around the world.  Be aware that most of Columbia University's East Asian holdings (including thousands of Tibetan records) have not been uploaded yet to WorldCat. If you find that a title in WorldCat displays no holdings icon for Columbia University Libraries, please search the University's online catalog CLIO. It is likely that the item is in our collection. If not, Columbia faculty and students can submit requests through Interlibrary Loan or BorrowDirect (a more rapid service drawing from a consortium of research libraries in the region.)

Of course, several key institutions with Tibetan Studies resources do not subscribe to WorldCat. Their catalogs must be searched separately, which can be done online for the following:

Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (New York City)

Latse Contemporary Tibetan Cultural Library (New York City)

Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Dharamsala)

Print catalogs of Tibetan collections in the United States and elsewhere may list additional holdings (often rare) that are not listed in WorldCat.  The following list of print catalogs is arranged by geographic location: North America, Western and Eastern Europe, East Asia, and South Asia.

North America

Tachikawa, Musashi, Tsultrim Kelsang Khangkar, Shunzo Onoda, Library of Congress, and Library University of Pennsylvania. A catalogue of the United States Library of Congress collection of Tibetan literature in microfiche. Bibliographia philologica Buddhica. Series major; 3, [a]-b. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1983.

Smith, E. Gene. University of Washington Tibetan catalogue, 1969.

Leonard Zwilling. Tibetan blockprints in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Wisconsin--Madison Libraries. [Madison, Wis.] : University of Wisconsin--Madison Libraries, 1984.

Asia Society. Himalayas, Council, and Joan Kutcher. Tibetan resources in North America, Occasional paper - Himalayas Council of the Asia Society; no. [1]. New York: Himalayas Council of the Asia Society, 1977.

Western and Eastern Europe

1. Royal Library in Berlin

Beckh, Hermann, and Bibliothek Preussische Staatsbibliothek. Handschriften-verzeichnisse der Koniglichen. Verzeichnis der tibetischen handschriften der Koniglichen bibliothek zu Berlin, Die handschriften-verzeichnisse der Koniglichen bibliothek zu Berlin. 24. bd., 1914.

2. Berlin

Taube, Manfred. Die Tibetica der Berliner Turfansammlung, Schriften zur Geschichte und Kultur des alten Orients. Berliner Turfantexte; 10. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1980.

3. Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek

Gronbold, Gunter, and Staatsbibliothek Bayerische. Die tibetischen Blockdrucke der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek: eine Titelliste. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1989.

4. Stuttgart Linden-Museum Library

Meisezahl, R. O., and Stuttgart Linden-Museum. Die tibetischen Handschriften und Drucke des Linden-Museums in Stuttgart, 1957.

6. Germany (general)

Taube, Manfred. Tibetische Handschriften und Blockdrucke, Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland; Bd. 11. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1966.

Schuh, Dieter. Urkunden und Sendschreiben aus Zentraltibet, Ladakh und Zanskar. St. Augustin : VGH, Wissenschaftsverlag, 1976-

5. Uppsala Univeristy Library

Uppsala universitetsbibliotek, and Helmut Eimer. Tibetica Upsaliensia: Handliste der tibetischen Handschriften und Blockdrucke in der Universitatsbibliothek zu Uppsala, Bibliotheca Ekmaniana Universitatis Regiae Upsaliensis; 66. Stockholm: distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1975.

7. Tibet-Institut Library

Dahortshang, Champa N. Lodro, and Rikon-Zurich Tibet-Institut. Tibetan manuscripts, blockprints, and modern editions in the library of the Tibetan Institute at Rikon/Zurich = Sud-si Ri-kon Chos-'khor Dgon du bzugs pa'i Bod kyi dpe deb rnams kyi dkar chag gzigs bder bkod pa blo ldan padmo'i dga' tshal zes bya ba bzugs so. Opuscula Tibetana; fasc. 5. Rikon: Tibet-Institut, 1974.

8. Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF)

Lalou, Marcelle. Catalogue du fonds Tibetain de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Buddhica; documents et travaux pour l'etude du Bouddhisme. 2. ser.: Documents, t. 4, 1931.

P. d Cordier, and Marcelle Lalou. Bibliotheque nationale. Departement des manuscrits, Repertoire du Tanjur. Catalogue du fonds Tibetain de la Bibliotheque Nationale. New Delhi: Sharada Rani, 1984.

9. Instituts d’Extrême Orient

See the on-line Chinese catalogue: http://dodge.grenet.fr:8001/ To log-on select <SIGXOR, Extrême Orient>

10. Centre de recherche et documentation sur le Chine contemporaine (=Centre Chine)

The largest collection of modern and contemporary works on China in France.

11. Leningrad Branch of the Oriental Institute of the Soviet Academy of Scienc.e

Vostrikov, A. I. Tibetan historical literature. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1994.

12. Oriental Institute of the Soviet Academy of Science, Moscow.

Savitskii, L. S., and vostokovedeniia Institut. Opisanie tibetskikh svitkov iz Dun'khuana v sobranii Instituta vostokovedeniia AN SSSR. Moskva: Nauka, 1991.

Dandaron, B. D., and institut Buriatskii kompleksnyi nauchno-issledovatel'skii. Opisanie tibetskikh rukopisei i ksilografov buriatskogo kompleksnogo nauchno-issledovatelskogo instituta. Moskva: Izd-vo vostochnoi literatury, 1960.

Uspenskii , Vladimir L. Prince Yunli (1697-1738: Manchu statesman and Tibetan Buddhist. Tokyo : Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1997. With a list of (mostly Rnying ma) texts from Prince Yunli's library held in Russia.

13. Library of the Oriental Institute Prague, Czech Republic

Kolmas, Josef ed, and ustav Orientalni. Prague collection of Tibetan prints from Derge; a facsimile reproduction of 5,615 book-titles printed at the dGon-chen and dPal-spungs monasteries of Derge in Eastern Tibet. Asiatische Forschungen, Bd. 36, 1971.

Orientalni ustav, Knihovna, and Josef Kolmas. Tibetan manuscripts and blockprints in the Library of the Oriental Institute Prague. Dissertationes orientales; vol. 16, 1969.

14. Hungary

The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has an online catalog at http://w3mtak.hu

Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia, Konyvtar, and Jozsef Terjek. Collection of Tibetan mss. and xylographs of Alexander Csoma de Koros. Oriental studies 3. Budapest: Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia Konyvtara, 1976.

15. Oslo University Library, Norway

Per Kværne. A Norwegian traveller in Tibet: Theo Sörensen and the Tibetan collection at the Oslo University Library. New Delhi: Mañjuśrī Pub. House, 1973.

16. Rome

Ramon Prats & Geshe Jampel Sanghe Ati. Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (presently ISIAO), Rome. Catalogue of the institute's Tibetan collection.

17. Dublin

Snellgrove, David L. The Chester Beatty Library. A catalogue of the Tibetan collection. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1969.

East Asia

JAPAN

Fukuda, Yoichi. "Toyo Bunko shozo Chibettogo kanpon mokuroku" sakuin = Index to the Catalogue of the Tibetan books in the Toyo Bunko, Studia Tibetica; no. 24. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 1992. Online search for at least one collection there: http://www.toyo-bunko.or.jp/ToyoBunko-E/Database/Kawaguchi-e.html This site was updated 2002.

Kanakura, Yensho; Tada, Token; Yamada, Ryujo; Hadano, Hakuyu (eds). Tohoku Catalog: a catalog of the Tohoku University collection of Tibetan works on Buddhism. Sendai: The seminar of Indology, Tohoku University, 1953.

Otani University -- Online Catalog

CHINA and TIBET

Sde dge par khang dang Dkar mdzes khul rtsom sgyur cus, ed. Sde dge par khang gi dkar chag zhib rgyas su bkod pa. 2 vols. Pe cin : Krung go'i Bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1994- (2000).

Sde dge par khang gi par shing dkar chag Bod Rgya shan sbyar. [Chengdu]; Si khron dpe skrun tshogs pa : Si khron mi rigs dpe ksrun khang, 2004.

China Library of Nationalities (Beijing) [5000 of 8000 texts repatriated to Lhasa, Tibet], indexed in 3 volumes, the first of which is described here: Sun, Wenqing. “Remarks on the Cataloguing and Classification of Tibetan Classics and Literary Texts: A Preliminary Survey of the Tibetan Collection in the China Library of Nationalities in Beijing.” SCEAR 1 (1988): 88-101. Includes a draft plan for the classification of Tibetan Classics and Literary Texts. A catalogue of this library's holding were published in the three volumes below.

Mi rigs dpe mdzod khang, ed. Bod gangs chen gyi grub mtha' ris med kyi mkhas dbang brgya dang brgyad cu lhag gi gsung 'bum so so'i dkar chag phyogs gcig du bsgrigs pa shes bya'i gter mdzod. Zangwen dianji mulu. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 3 vols. 1984-1997. List (given in Tibetan and Chinese translation) of all the collected works (many of them manuscripts) once held at the People's Culture Palace in Beijing. Each "Collected Works" entry is broken down into all the titles in each collection, and followed by a brief biography of the author in Tibetan and Chinese.

Bla brang Monastery catalogue: Bod kyi bstan bcos khag cig gi mtshan byang dri med shel dkar phreng ba = Zang wen dian ji yao mu. Xining: Mtsho-sngon mi rigs dpe skrun Khang, 1985.

Catalogues of the Potala (Zhol) collections:

1) Three karchacks: Lha ldan sprul pa'i gtsug lag khang gi dkar chag shel dkar me long (1645) by the Fifth Dalai Lama Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho. Grwa sa chen po bzhi dang rgyad [sic] pa stod smad chags tshul pad dkar 'phreng ba (1744) by Phur bu lcog Ngag dbang byams pa. And Gangs can gyi ljongs su bka' dang bstan bcos sogs kyi glegs bam spar gzhi ji ltar yod pa rnam nas dkar chag spar thor phyogs tsam du bkod pa phan bde'i pad tshal 'byed pa'i nyin byed; edited and reproduced by Ngawang Gelek Demo, with an English introd. by E. Gene Smith. New Delhi : [s.n.], 1970. Three catalogs which contain listings for one or both of the two Zhol printeries. The collection of these materials was compiled during the reign of the Tagdra regent in about 1957. This includes all printeries surveyed in the TAR excluding Chamdo Prefecture.

2)  Lokesh Chandra, ed. Tibetan works printed by the Shoparkhang of the Potala = Zhol spar dkar chag. New Delhi : International Academy of Indian Culture, [195-]. A catalog of the New Zhol printery. There is a catalog of the old Zhol printery, which Lokesh intended to publish but only got around to publishing the catalogs of the Dga' ldan pho brang at Drepung, Kathog, etc. (Comments by Gene Smith).

Bsod names don grub, ed. Bod kyi lo rgyus dpe tho/ Xizang shi xue shu mu. Lha sa : Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 2000. List of Tibetan historical books. Lists title, author, and whether it is a blockprint or manuscript.

MONGOLIA (texts listed in this catalogue not necessarily held in Mongolia)

Ragchaagiin Biambaa; D Ganzorig; L Sosorburam. Mongolchuudyn Tovd kheleer tuurvisan Mongol khelend orchuulsan nom zuin burtgel =The bibliographical guide of the Mongolian writers in the Tibetan language and the Mongolian translators. Ulaanbaatar. 2004. A collection of the titles of all the known Tibetan language works by Mongols. Vol 1: The collection of the nine Rje btsun dam pa incarnations. Vol. 2-3: Covers the first 51 authors whose names started with "Ngag" (these are the first three volumes of a set which proposes to document 500 authors). English translation of foreward, introduction & guide to use makes this easy to use.

South Asia

INDIA

Jampa-Samten-Shastri, ed.  Catalogue of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Manuscript Section), Volume 1: Historical Works.  Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1983.

Lobsang-Shastri, ed.  Catalogue of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Manuscript Section), Volume 2: Historical Works.  Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1990.

Jackson, David Paul. The "miscellaneous series" of Tibetan texts in the Bihar research society, Patna: A Handlist. Wiesbaden: F. Stiener, 1989.

Taikhang, T. Tsepal. Rare Tibetan historical and literary texts from the library of Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa. New Delhi: Taikhang, 1974.

NEPAL

Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project. Initiated in 1970 by the German Oriental Society to catalog and create microfilm images of ancient Nepalese and Tibetan religious and historical texts. Copies of the microfilm can be ordered.  Includes numerous historical documents from Samling Gompa (Mustang), including Tibetan and Chinese documents from early 19th century relaying orders of the Manchu emperor.

National Archives in Kathmandu (copies also held at the Oriental Department of the State Library in Berlin (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Orientabteilung)). The CDs with the Preliminary Title List (Part 1 and Part 2) can be ordered: http://www.uni-hamburg.de/ngmpp/order.html