April 2000: A Library is Born

Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, explained that the existence of a library is one of the five key resources for Buddhism to take root where it did not previously exist.

The mission of the Dhagpo Kagyu Library is therefore to preserve a unique Buddhist corpus faced with an uncertain future in its country of origin and to search for lost texts that are sometimes republished in very limited numbers in Tibet, India, China or elsewhere in the world. Though safeguarding is essential, it is not an end in itself—the aim is to make this knowledge available to as many people as possible.

In our Western context, few people are born Buddhists. We become so, step by step, by understanding the Buddha’s message and applying it. The Buddha lived 2,500 years ago. How did his message and method reach us? Through accomplished practitioners and their writings; a meticulous handwritten record of the teachings by the first disciples of the Enlightened One. These texts were then commented upon, translated, and published—in other words made accessible and transmitted.

In the Karma Kagyu lineage, the book is not an object of veneration but rather an instrument for understanding  the path and a reminder of it. The practitioner adopts a tradition, applies and deepens the teachings of a qualified teacher in order to be permeated by this heritage until it becomes his or her own. Human beings transmit the teaching and the book plays the role of support, of memory—the sine qua non condition for  transmission.

When was the Dhagpo Kagyu Library born? Everything truly began one day in April 2000 when a collection of Tibetan texts arrived in the form of 37,000 microfilms.

From the Cold War to Books for Peace

At the height of the Cold War, an American food aid program named Public Law 480 (PL 480) was created for diplomatic purposes in various countries around the world, including India. At the end of the 1970s, an American by the name of Gene Smith (1936–2010), was working in New Delhi for the Library of Congress in Washington. He spent most of his time seeking to recover Buddhist texts lost in China’s invasion of Tibet and making copies of the books that reached him. A program of the size and importance of PL 480 could certainly be leveraged to support the publication of collected Tibetan texts, but what’s the link between publishing ancient texts and food distribution?

Gene Smith proposed to capitalize on the growing reach of the PL 480 program and to expand this food aid program to food for thought,  namely to make it possible for the Library of Congress to acquire Tibetan texts through the PL 480 programme. Once the administrative challenges had been dealt with, Gene Smith, with the help of eminent Tibetan masters of the time such as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991), Düjom Rinpoche (1904-1987) and many others, was able to collect these endangered treasures of humanity from the Himalayas—from Tibet, Bhutan or Nepal. He organized the printing of these ancient texts by photomechanical means so that they could be turned into new publications available for purchase. By today’s norms and standards, it was quite a primitive technique but an undeniably brilliant solution. The goal was not only to save these endangered books from extinction, but also to encourage their publication for future generations.

These texts belonging to all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism were originally saved by Tibetan practitioners who carried them into exile at the cost of their lives. Gene Smith’s work and ingenuity made it possible to preserve them and make them accessible.

Then the texts were microfilmed by the Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions in New York for preservation purposes. Thanks to the immense generosity of a patron, Dhagpo Kagyu Library was able to acquire a copy of almost the entire collection—thirty-seven thousand microfilms comprising some three thousand titles in Tibetan, in Western or traditional Tibetan format. These microfilms can be consulted in the Library, on a scanner dedicated to reading and digitizing them.

When these microfilms arrived one day in April 2000, Lama Jigme Rinpoche said:

We can now say we have a library!

Although a semblance of a library existed, thanks in particular to the documentary holdings acquired from Erwan Temple, the arrival of these treasures marked an important step in its development.

Open to the public since June 13, 2013 following its inauguration by Mipham Chökyi Lodrö, His Holiness the 14th Künzig Shamarpa, the Dhagpo Kagyu Library counts more than fourteen thousand documents, in Tibetan and Western languages and thousands of hours of recorded audio or video teachings by masters who have since left us. All these documents can be consulted free of charge in our reading room that is open to all. The Library is not limited to a single location but extends to an international network of libraries in France, India, and Nepal. Don’t hesitate to consult its online catalogue on its dedicated application and website. The team of volunteers is currently focused on the main project that is underway—digitizing audio documents. These historic documents, which bear witness to the first steps of the Dharma in Europe, are being preserved and gradually being made accessible in the documentary holdings.

All readers are welcome to the calm and bright reading room. Guided visits provide an opportunity to discover the Library’s documentary holdings.

The Dhagpo Kagyu Library has been visited by many eminent teachers, from Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineage holders in the persons of Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, His Holiness the late Düjom Rinpoché, their Emininces Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche and Beru Khyentse Rinpoche and by many Tibetan and Western scholars, always curious to find out about new acquisitions or ancients texts that have been rediscovered.

The Library offers the magic of this dialogue with beings from other centuries in a timeless setting. Books enable us to meet and to continue learning from those who are no longer with us.

A book exists when it is in a person’s mind. Only then Dharma becomes alive.

Lama Jigme Rinpoche

These photos come from our archives or were collected as part of the research for Dhagpo Kagyu Ling’s 50th anniversary. We have not been able to identify all the authors. The use of these photos is solely for informational purposes within the context of Dhagpo Kagyu Ling’s 50th anniversary celebration. Their use is limited to this event and our website and is not for commercial purposes.