Recording of "Holding Community: The Social Impact of Tibetan Literary Archives in Canada and the USA" is now available!

The Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library is pleased to announce that the public can now access a recording of Dr. Rory Lindsay's lecture titled "Holding Community: The Social Impact of Tibetan Literary Archives in Canada & the USA", as part of the event celebrating the the University of Toronto Libraries and Columbia University Libraries 10 year anniversary for the Tibetan Studies Collection Development & Services partnership. 

• Access the recording on YouTube. 
• Access the recording on MyMedia (UTORid required). 

 ABSTRACT  

Holding Community: The Social Impact of Tibetan Literary Archives in Canada and the USA

– Discussion by Keynote Speaker, Dr. Rory Lindsay

This talk addresses the importance of Tibetan literary collections in university libraries in the USA and Canada, focusing on the ongoing partnership between the University of Toronto Libraries and Columbia University. It explores the social significance of these libraries' holdings, beginning historically with the role that Tibetan texts have played as repositories of knowledge, ritual actors, and even community members. The talk argues that these collections are essential for the preservation of Tibetan literary heritage and for communities of readers both local and global. 

ABOUT THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Rory Lindsay is Assistant Professor in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. He is also an editor at 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, and a visiting scholar at the Buddhist Texts Translation Initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His forthcoming book Saving the Dead: Tibetan Funerary Rituals in the Tradition of the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Tantra (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, 2023) examines the history of Kunrik funerary practices in Tibet and the intersecting forms of agency—human, nonhuman, and material—that are described in Kunrik ritual manuals. His second book, co-authored with Tibetan scholar Khenpo Tashi Dorje, will examine the life and writings of the twentieth-century master Drayab Lodrö Gyaltsen. 

Visit the event page for the Tibetan Studies Collection Development & Services: Celebrating 10 Years of Partnership.