Welcome!

Welcome to A Thousand Books of Wisdom, the fourth major release of data by the Asian Classics Input Project.  ACIP staff around the world have spent literally tens of thousands of hours over the past ten years to prepare for you the library of wonderful books found here.  Please take some time to look over this User Manual, which will help you get the most out of all the texts and tools provided on this release. 

The ACIP Mission

The mission of the Asian Classics Input Project is to save the disappearing books containing the great ideas of the Eastern half of humanity and then make these books and ideas accessible to the world at large.
Our mission is carried out in several steps. First we search the globe for 
the remaining collections of books and record their location and contents in catalog form.  Next we copy the books and send these copies to be input 
onto computer media at data entry centers that we have established around 
the world.
Almost all of these data entry centers are staffed by people who come from the countries where these great books were written and printed.  Many are refugees, or living in countries where economic or political problems endanger their great books, and even the right to read and study them.  The Project thus helps not only to preserve these rich cultural traditions, but provides many people with an opportunity to learn new skills for supporting themselves, while helping to save the great books of their heritage.
ACIP then makes these books and the important ideas they contain freely available to the world, especially to those people in the West who have not yet been exposed to them. Over the past ten years ACIP has released tens of thousands of pages of great books, on tens of thousands of computer disks and through the World Wide Web, completely free or for only the cost of materials and postage, to thousands of users in more than 50 countries.

A Tradition of Social Service

At the Asian Classics Input Project, we try to assure that the work we do has a positive effect on the world we live in: we seek to save and make the great books of Asia available not simply so they can sit in a library or database used only by a few specialists, but rather we hope to assure that the great ideas found in these books come to enrich the lives of ordinary people around the world. And we try to run the Project in a way that is compassionate and rewarding for all the people who work for ACIP from day to day, at various locations around the world.

The first ACIP data entry centers were set up in traditional Tibetan monastic universities in south India, where courageous survivors of the invasion of Tibet, teachers and students, worked to rebuild their great institutions of learning, far from their native land.  ACIP approached the heads of these institutions and together with them designed a program where young people who were not doing very well in the traditional course of study could be given a chance to learn to use computers, to help preserve the great books of their own culture.

Within a few years, a number of centers were up and running in several of the great monastic universities relocated in south India.  The under-achieving students who had been selected to work in these centers were touch-typing over fifty words a minute, and were inputting thousands of pages of ancient woodblock prints every year.  Their work was (and still is) limited to four hours a day, so as not to adversely affect their studies.

The work is designed in such a way that the participating students are paid for both their training and, later, their actual input work. For every dollar paid to the students, four dollars is paid into a food fund that helps feed all refugee students and teachers in their particular institution.  The more productive the students are, the more food is available for their whole village.  Everyone in the community, therefore, supports the students actively; their self-esteem has soared, and their grades as well.  Their work has drawn the attention of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who has kindly visited a number of ACIP centers, constantly encouraging the staff of each center.  We estimate that about 2,000 Tibetan refugees are fed primarily through the work done for the project by Tibetans themselves.

As the input centers in the traditional monastic colleges flourished, ACIP received requests from other refugee communities throughout south Asia, seeking to set up their own input centers.  At the Hunsur Tibetan refugee camp in south India, for example, the local representative of the Tibetan refugee government helped design a program that became a model for others throughout the area.

The local refugee settlement office took responsibility to locate and procure a suitable site on which to build a new input center, and the cost of the building was donated by His Holiness’s refugee council.  ACIP agreed to supply all the computers, pay training and input salaries for a specified period, and provide specialists to teach touch-typing, software use, and elementary hardware repair.

The Hunsur center is now one of the most productive, and is staffed almost entirely by members of farming families who use their input salaries to supplement their income.  A number of graduates of ACIP training centers have used their knowledge to obtain work in related fields, to start their own businesses, or even to do entry and cataloging work for institutions like the United States Library of Congress office in India.  Young people who touched their first computer at an ACIP center in India are now directing international projects such as the St. Petersburg cataloging effort at the Library of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Project has sought to assure that it provides an equal opportunity for men and women as it set up its input centers; in an open aptitude competition at the Hunsur center, for example, women secured about 90% of the available positions.  Two major Tibetan refugee nunneries in north India are also participating in the Project.  Over twenty ACIP input centers are now operating around the world.

As it seeks to preserve the endangered great books of Asian cultures, the Project has tried to lend a hand in preserving these cultures themselves.  ACIP advisors have spent the last ten years helping native Tibetan refugee institutions throughout southern Asia not only to input these books on computer, but also to print them for the use of the refugee community. Much of  the printing of traditional Tibetan literature in the refugee population of south Asia is now accomplished from ACIP data, supplied free of charge, for open distribution without copyright restrictions.  Thousands of Tibetan refugee students are now using books printed and published by their own input centers that were started and supported by the Project.

Over the last two decades staff working for the Project have independently raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funding to build elementary schools, design and construct water projects, provide student housing, raise public buildings, organize nutritional and medical projects, feed new refugees arriving from Tibet, introduce new agricultural techniques and programs, and institute and equip a wide variety of vocational training efforts.

Staff in the US over the last ten years have contributed thousands of hours of their time without pay; on more than one occasion it was the donation of their own salaries working at other jobs during the day that kept the Project going. All this was done in the spirit of providing information that is free in every respect: ACIP materials and software programs are all supplied to any party who wishes them, without charge.

Texts can be downloaded freely from our website, or requested from ACIP on CD-ROMs and other media.  (And even our request for donations to help cover our cost of the materials is waived for users for whom a donation would be a hardship, such as those living in countries at war, or Tibetan refugees themselves.)  Thousands of pages of ACIP data have appeared, both in the original Tibetan and in new translations, in readings used in classrooms throughout the United States and the world in general.  For an idea of who uses our data, see the two pie charts in the appendices, which give a snapshot of our user population, both in America and throughout the world.

Our operating principle is to obtain funds from foundations and other institutions and individuals who feel our work is important, and then to supply the results of our work free to the individuals who need to use it, many of whom would not be able to pay if we charged what it costs to produce these materials.

The ACIP South Asia Field Office near Mysore, India, supplies great books to the refugee community not only on computer diskette, but also in copies printed from ACIP data, upon demand.  The Project has reached a point where we have input a major portion of sacred Tibetan literature that got out of Tibet with the refugees, and we are now scouring the world for other important books that we can copy and send to the refugee community for input.  After they have been typed in, these copies go to a central library that ACIP has set up for the use of the Tibetan population in India, since in many cases they no longer have even a single copy of their own great books.

Whenever ACIP works with a library or similar institution, whether it be in Nepal, India, or even Russia, we try to make a contribution to the work of the library so that its efforts to preserve the great ideas of Asia can continue.  In St. Petersburg, for example, the Project makes an annual contribution for the upkeep of the Tibetan collection; in India, we often help small native publishers of the classics to find foreign sponsors of their printings.  A small but steady flow of ACIP-sponsored books even makes its way back to Tibet itself, for free distribution among the few Tibetans who  are allowed the freedom of studying the sacred books openly.

In the United States, the Project has attempted to institute a  “kinder” style of office and working policies, based on knowledge gained from the great books of Asia themselves.  The daily schedule at our home offices includes time for silent morning reflection on the goals of the day and lifetime; a period set aside each day for personal enrichment and study of the Asian classics; and two sustained leaves per year for personal retreats, special study, and introspection. We attempt to keep our activities strictly ethical, especially in tracking all the Project finances, and in dealing with our suppliers and staff.

ACIP has, finally, placed a great emphasis on the concept of personal service, providing opportunities for volunteers with a wide variety of skills the opportunity to make their own contribution to preserving these precious books and ideas.  A steady stream of dedicated, talented, and increasingly well-trained individuals, many of them young people, have already made meaningful contributions.

The contributions to the Project by the Tibetan refugees themselves have been extraordinary, continuing on without any regard to the amount of funds available at any given time, or the incredible difficulties of working in a refugee camp in a foreign land, or any of the personal hardships so common in these camps, such as bouts of  uberculosis, lack of communication with family and friends in Tibet, and poor housing or food.

The work of the Project is expected to require at least another hundred years, and we look forward to the continued growth not only of our activities, but of all the dedicated individuals involved with the Project.

What’s on the New Release?

This new release is a huge gold mine of exciting new materials.  The contents can be divided into six broad categories: the Kangyur Collection, the Tengyur Collection, the Sungbum Collection, Reference Materials, Sanskrit Study Tools, and the ACIP Graphics Collections. Please note that every new ACIP release includes all the material from past releases, so you have our entire database of hundreds of millions of bytes on just this one new CD-ROM.

The Kangyur Collection
The Kangyur Collection is a group of Sanskrit classics that trace their origin primarily to Gautama Buddha around 2,500 years ago.  It contains over a thousand different books in some 100 volumes of carved woodblock prints.  These books reached Tibet more than a thousand years ago; they were translated into the Tibetan language, and protected over the centuries by the natural barrier of the Himalayan mountains.

The Kangyur Collection covers a wide variety of subjects such as learning how to lead an ethical life; exploring great ideas such as compassion for others and social responsibility; studying spiritual arts such as contemplation, prayer, and meditation; and in general mastering the difficult task of finding lasting happiness.

ACIP has completed input of 8,000 pages of text from the Kangyur Collection.  (We still have about 50,000 pages to go, though.)  Below are some of the highlights of what you will find on this release from the Kangyur Collection:

•	  	Most of the section from the Kangyur Collection on the subject of ethical living, known as Vinaya.

•	The entire text of the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Verses, and the first two books of the Perfection of Wisdom in 20,000 Verses.

•	Other well-known books of the Mahayana sutra tradition including 	

		The Diamond-Cutter Sutra
The Heart Sutra
The Meeting of the Father and Son
The Sutra of Cosmic Play (Lalitavistara)
The Intent of the Sutras (Samdhinirmochana)
The White Lotus Sutra
The Thusness of All Who Have Gone That Way 
		(Sarvatatagata Tattvasamgraha)
The Journey to Langka
The Sutra of Vimalakirti

The Tengyur Collection
The Tengyur Collection is a large group of over 3,500 books written mostly in Sanskrit during the period from about 200 AD to 1000 AD, and later translated into Tibetan. These texts are often meant to explain the books of the Kangyur Collection, but also cover a very wide range of other subjects such as poetry, grammar, science, architecture, painting, and medicine.  We have focused much effort on this section over the past five years, and have finished exactly one quarter, including material from the following important sections:

•	 	The entire section on Middle-Way philosophy (Madhyamika), over 150 separate treatises in 10,000 pages that explain the nature of the world around us, and especially the important Buddhist idea of emptiness, which gives us the potential of changing the world for better.

•		Some 2,700 pages from the “Mind-Only” school (Chitta Matra) of ancient Indian philosophy, which helps to explain how much of our world comes from the way we think.

•	  Over 4,000 pages from the section on the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajna Paramita), emphasizing how a deeper understanding of where things really come from can help us to better lead our lives.

•	  Over 9,000 pages on the subject of Pramana, or how it is that we see the world; how to use reasoning to help us think clearly, and all about the common mistakes that we make in the logic of our day-to-day lives.

•	 Over 3,500 pages on the subject of how to lead an ethical life (Vinaya).

•	 The text of the Treasure House of Higher Knowledge (the Abhidharmakosha), along with a comprehensive explanation of it by its author, Master Vasubandhu (350 AD); the ideas contained in these books have molded the religious and cultural life of many of the countries of Southeast Asia for centuries.

ACIP has also completed input of 65 titles from the rGyud section of the Tengyur Collection, books about spiritual life that are normally passed down only through personal oral tradition.  The Project has made a commitment to respect this tradition, and so these particular texts are made available only to users who have completed the traditional requirements for studying them.

The Sungbum Collection
Over the last thousand years, the Tibetan people have studied and practiced the wisdom found in the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections. During this time they have also written more than 200,000 different sacred books exploring these same great ideas. One of ACIP’s principal goals is to find and preserve an entire stream of literature stretching from the time that the great books of India first arrived over the Himalayas, down through the tradition of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet, and to the great Asian writers of the present day.

To date we have input some 60,000 pages of native Tibetan classics, in about a thousand different treatises. Here are a few highlights of the books found on the new release:

•	We have input a huge amount of data relating to the great books that talk about the philosophy of how the world around us works: entire libraries on the great ideas of the Middle Way, the Perfection of Wisdom, the Mind-Only School, Logic and Theories of Perception, Higher Knowledge, and the Art of Ethical Living. (In Sanskrit these are known, respectively, as Madhyamika, Prajna Paramita, Chitta Matra, Pramana, Abhidharma, and Vinaya.)  Here you will find about 25,000 pages of woodblock prints with the contributions of ten centuries of great Tibetan writers.

•	Included also are the great summaries of Tibetan thinkers on all the schools of philosophy ever known to them: these collections are known in Tibetan as Grub-mtha’ and Drang-nges, and account for more than 4,000 pages on the new release.

•	Perhaps the greatest contribution made by the great lamas of Tibet to the sacred literature of the world has been an entire body of literature devoted to the spiritual arts of meditation, contemplation, and applying ancient wisdom to the everyday problems of life.  These books are divided into a number of groups in the database, including works on the complete steps to follow for a lifetime of spiritual practice (called Lam-rim); texts on meditation and other practical exercises (called Nyams-len and Cho-ga); and finally instructions for developing a good heart during the course of a normal day at home or at work (known as bLo-sbyong).  There are over 400 titles in over 9,000 pages devoted to these subjects on the new release.

•	The art of words has been a natural point of emphasis for the thousands of great Lama writers of Tibet, and there are about 75 separate works on the new release which treat the various topics of classical Sanskrit and Tibetan grammar, poetics, epistles, eulogies, and lexicography.  (Standard dictionaries and other such tools are included in a separate section below called “Reference Materials.”)

•	A large amount of traditional biographical material is found on this release. This is divided into separate sections that present the full biographies (or rNam-thar) of eminent figures in the history of the Asian classics; accounts (known as bLa-brgyud) of the lineages of teachers and students who have passed the books down from century to century; and spiritual biographies of ancient figures found in the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections (these are called rTogs-brjod).  There are over 50 such books here, with more than 3,500 pages of material.

•	Other sections of the Sungbum Collection are devoted to what are, compared to philosophy, considered “minor arts” in the Tibetan tradition of knowledge. Included here are treatises on astronomy; fine arts such as painting, sculpture, and architecture; and the art of government.

There is a final section of the native Tibetan works devoted to those teachings mentioned above, the rGyud, which is passed on only by oral tradition privately from teacher to student.  The Project is proud to report that we have input more than 1,000 separate titles devoted to this subject alone, covering each of the standard spiritual practices for a great many of the special beings from whom these teachings are said to have come down to us.  Because of the commitment that ACIP has made to respect this tradition, these works are not included on the public release. They are made available, upon application, to individuals who have completed the traditional requirements to study them.

Reference Materials
ACIP has made a concerted effort to input or license a large amount of reference material—dictionaries, book catalogs, history texts, and other types of documentation that will help us locate the important classical Asian books still left in the world, and also enable our users to study these books to the fullest.  Following is a summary of some of the tools we have created:

•	  Two completely new arrivals on this release are the St. Petersburg Catalogs.  Over the past five years, a team of refugee Tibetan monks has labored to create these electronic catalogs, with the help of experts from two of the world’s greatest libraries of Tibetan woodblock prints: the Library of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Library of the University of St. Petersburg.  Between them, these two libraries house roughly 200,000 Tibetan titles. On the CD-ROM you will find over 50,000 of these books cataloged in extensive detail, including the complete traditional information from the back of each book about where it was printed, who passed it down over the centuries, and so on.  Copies of these books can also be requested from the libraries, which makes them a tremendous resource sinceÑdue to political and economic problemsÑbooks from many parts of Tibet are still difficult to obtain.  You will find more information about these catalogs below.  

•	  The reference section includes the complete documentation of all ACIP releases, and Project policies and standards. Here you will find valuable tools for successfully searching  the database, utilizing the software used by the Project, more about its history, and so on.  Perhaps the most important reference document here is the ACIP Master Catalog, which gives detailed information about each book we have input to date. A very concise printed catalog, with only the author and title of each book (in Tibetan, English, and also Sanskrit where applicable) is found at the back of this User Manual.

•	  This section also contains major listings of the Tibetan and Sanskrit books held by the United States Library of Congress. Since many of these books were obtained under the PL480 and SFCP programs of the U.S. Congress, copies can be found in more than 15 public and university libraries around the country.
 
		Please be aware that due largely to the lack of sufficient funding for the Library’s distribution services there are some  gaps in the very new and much older data.  Perhaps a group of ACIP users in America could approach their representatives in Congress to urge them to provide more support for this valuable resource.  In the meantime, we have included here a very useful file called Handlist of PL480 Acquisitions, a brief personal list of almost all of the PL480 and SFCP works ever obtained, and supplied to the Project by the director of these efforts, Dr. E. Gene Smith.

•	  ACIP has input a number of good dictionaries for studying Tibetan, although not all of them are included on the public release, since they are still under copyright.   These are available only for the in-house use of scholars doing research directly related to the Project.  Perhaps the most important of these works is the Great Dictionary of the Tibetan Language, a three-volume Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary which is destined to become a classic. ACIP has also assisted the Tibetan 
refugee government in inputting a major new English-Tibetan dictionary, which is still in the editing stage and not yet publicly available.  The on-line dictionary of Mr. James Valby of the USA, finally, has been supplied to ACIP without charge for the current release; although written with the general user in mind, it will nevertheless be useful to scholars, supplying a helpful list of Tibetan words and their basic English equivalents.  A number of dictionaries which include Tibetan and Sanskrit are described further on.

©	The reference section has some very good native catalogs of the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections themselves, including those for the Lhasa and Derge editions of the Kangyur, and the Derge and Sertri editions of the Tengyur.  These catalogs are quite helpful for locating the older books, since their titles appear in a variety of different spellings and are most easily located with the help of a computer.

©	ACIP has devoted a lot of effort to inputting various printed catalogs of important native Tibetan books, since these are the most endangered; the catalog information helps us identify surviving copies of these books in various locations around the world.  There are more than ten major catalogs of this kind completed, although again some are copyrighted and available only for in-house use.  These catalogs include The Tohoku University Catalog of Native Tibetan Literature; The Treasure House of Knowable Things (Shes-bya’i gter-mdzod); Titles for Commentaries written by Tibetan Authors (Bod-kyi bstan-bcos khag gi mtsan-byang); The Catalog to the Collected Works of the Masters of the Sakyas (Sa-skya bka’-’bum); catalogs to important monastery collections such as the Library of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche; and a great number of other native catalogs to specific authors, including the majority of the lists found in massive Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature, edited by Dr. Lokesh Chandra.  A handlist to the Tibetan holdings in the Bernard Collection of Yale University has also been input, as have traditional lists (gsan-yig) of the great books passed down through major Lamas throughout the history of Tibet.
©	The Project has input a number of important historical works, including various indices to the early Tibetan chronicles known as the Blue Annals.  We have also received, from the American researcher Mr. Robert Lacey, a very rough, experimental version of the Blue Annals itself that was generated by digitally scanning the entire text of Roerich’s English translation.  (It is still very useful, and we would be thrilled to have some users volunteer to help correct it.)  The English translation of the excellent survey of Tibetan literature by the Russian scholar A.I. Vostrikov is also completed. Again some copyright restrictions apply in the case of these works.

©	Finally, the complete updated ACIP International Asian Scholars Database is included in this new release, listing the names and contact information for some 600 colleagues who have agreed to published in this directory.

Sanskrit Study Tools
An appreciation of the Sanskrit language is important for the study of the classic Tibetan books mentioned above, many of which were originally translated from the Sanskrit.  For this reason, the Project has input a number of important reference tools for studying and using Sanskrit when working with the Asian classics.  Here are some of the highlights:

©	As mentioned above, a listing of the Sanskrit-language books held at the Library of Congress.

©	The entire text of several editions of the Mahavyutpatti, an extraordinary traditional Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary, along with some attempted English translations by early Orientalists.  This work has again been compiled and provided free to the Project by Mr. Robert Lacey; it is rough and preliminary, but still very useful.

©	The complete study of Sanskrit verbs and the words derived from them written by the famed Sanskritist William Dwight Whitney, along with the entire text of his Sanskrit grammar, perhaps the greatest textbook ever written on the subject.
©	The Sanskrit and Tibetan portions of a recent trilingual dictionary by Namgyal Tsering; please note that copyright restrictions also apply to this work.

The ACIP Graphics Collections
The ACIP Graphics Collections, consisting of selected carved illustrations and traditional monastic seals found on the woodblock editions of the books and other resources which ACIP has cataloged or input, now includes the following:

©	More than 65 illustrations carvings of eminent Lamas and various sacred objects ready to import into any document using your favorite word processor.

©	A new collection of over 250 exotic monastic seals found on the woodblock prints in the collections of St. Petersburg.

©	Included in the 50,000 entries of the catalogs to the St. Petersburg collections is information about every one of an estimated 20,000 carved illustrations found in the books already cataloged; it’s exciting to realize that you can find them there and request directly from the Russian libraries a photocopy of a line drawing for just about any important classical Indian or Tibetan thinker, even when an ACIP digital version is not yet available.

Given that there are all these exciting, newly available materials on the latest ACIP release, how are you going to go about using it?  How do you view, search, or print the wonderful resources that are on the CD-ROM?   For these purposes, ACIP is proud to provide a powerful new user interface, AsiaView version 2.0, included free with this release.  Detailed information on how to use AsiaView begins on page 41 of this User Manual.

A Brief Summary of the cd-rom Contents for Tibetan Users

Capturing an Entire Tradition
ACIP  Release IV represents a big step forward in our goal of capturing one entire traditionÐan authoritative lineage of great ideas passed from teacher to student over the centuriesÐbeginning with the Kangyur Collection around 500 BC and stretching all the way up to our own time.
We have concentrated on the entire tradition of ideas that took their birth in ancient India and culminated in the best-known figures in Tibetan history: the Dalai Lamas and their teachers. 
The following very general chart then gives you a good picture of the CD-ROM in terms of one unbroken, exquisite continuation of thought from antiquity up to the present day.

500 BC
Original Sanskrit sutras
on subjects like ethics, human perception, the perfection of wisdom, and 
the subjective nature of reality; these are 
source texts for the great philosophical traditions of  Tibet, especially that of  the Dalai Lamas

author represented in the database: 
Gautama Buddha

200 AD
first wave of sanskrit Treatises
on ideas like the perfection of generosity, an ethical life, overcoming anger, 
developing contemplation and meditation; important 
early Indian sources for 
the traditions of Tibet

representative authors in the database: 
Masters Nagarjuna, Aryadeva

350 AD
second wave of sanskrit Treatises
expanding on ideas such as human psychology, the beginnings of the world, the measurement 
of time and space, and the question of life after death; important sources for textbooks of 
the Tibetan monasteries in the tradition of the Dalai Lamas

representative authors in the database: 
Masters Asanga, Vasubandhu

500 AD
third wave of sanskrit Treatises
refinement of the principles of ethical living, and the birth of the great logic traditions; further important sources 
for textbooks of the Tibetan monasteries in the tradition of the Dalai Lamas

representative authors in the database: 
Masters Gunaprabha, Dignaga

700 AD
Fourth wave of sanskrit Treatises
further clarifications of the role of the mind in perception and reality 
itself; great spread of the bodhisattva ideal of putting the concerns of others above our own; 
final early sources for the textbooks of the monasteries in the tradition of the Dalai Lamas

representative authors in the database: 
MasterS Chandrakirti, Dharmakirti, 
and Shantideva

1000 AD
final wave of sanskrit Treatises
birth of the native Tibetan philosophical traditions,
flowering of the great Tibetan lineages of intense spiritual practice,
in brief manuals of instruction; “grandfathers”  of the tradition of the Dalai Lamas

representative authors in the database: 
Master Atisha, Geshe Drolungpa,
and Kadampas such as Chekawa and Dorje Sengge

1250 AD
early tibetan classics of advancedphilosophy
on subjects such as vowed morality, episte-mology, psychology, 
and cosmology; philosophical refinement of those to become the teachers of 
the teachers of the first Dalai Lamas

representative authors in the database: 
Kunkyen Tsonawa, Chim Jampeyang

1400 AD
Great renaissance of advanced intellectual inquiry 
and monastic commentaryon the entire range of Sanskrit classics; 
the era of the teachers of the first Dalai Lamas, and of these Lamas themselves

representative authors in the database: 
nearly the entire collected works (over 300 separate titles in about 15,000 pages) 
of  Je Tsongkapa, teacher of His Holiness the First Dalai Lama

a major portion (3,700 pages) of the collected works of Gyaltsab Je, first holder of the throne of  Je Tsongkapa

a major portion (3,300 pages) of the collected works of Kedrup Je, another principal disciple of Je Tsongkapa

over 800 pages of important material by  the First Dalai Lama

1550 AD
First flowering of the great monastic textbooks
in the tradition of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet, covering subjects such as the 
perfection of wisdom, the philosophy of the Middle Way, perceptual theory, the art of logical reasoning, 
vowed morality, psychology, and the categories of existing things

representative authors in the database: 
nearly all the works (28 titles in over 2,500 pages) 
of Kedrup Tenpa Dargye, principal textbook writer for the Mey college of Sera Monastery,
 founded by a student of the teacher of the First Dalai Lama, and  one of the largest monastic institutions in history
most of the works (30 titles in over 3,500 pages) of Sera Jetsun Chukyi Gyeltsen, 
principal textbook writer for the Jey college of Sera Monastery
the Rato logic compendium of Chok-hla U-ser, the grandfather of the Buddhist logic lineages in the tradition of the Dalai Lamas

1650 AD
Wave of secondary Monastic Textbooks
refined manuals  for advanced spiritual practice
representative authors in the database: 
essentially the entire collected works (265 titles in 5,200 pages) of the First Panchen Lama, 
Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen (the Panchen Lamas became the resident heads of the monastery founded by the First Dalai Lama)

important works from Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup, another major author of text-books for Sera Mey Monastery

the entire collected works (over 100 titles in 2,200 pages) of the Lama to the Emperor of China, the First Changkya 
Rinpoche, Ngawang Lobsang Chunden (said  to be a former life of Pabongka Rinpoche, 
the principal teacher of one of the two principal teachers of the present Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso)

1775 AD
Beginning of the modern era 
of philosophical commentaries 
derivative works from the monastic textbooks, and practical manuals  for a wide variety of spiritual practices

representative authors in the database: 

the entire opus (600 pages) covering the schools of Asian philosophy by the Second Changkya Rinpoche, Rolpay Dorje

the entire collected works (over 600 items in 4,800 pages) of Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra, a major figure in 
the transmission of important teachings down to the principal teachers of the present Dalai Lama

selections from Panglung Lobsang Tukje, another author of textbooks for Sera Mey Monastery

1900 AD
final wave of classics before loss of tibet
highly refined derivative works on logic and philosophy,
modern evolution of manuals for the steps of a lifetime of spiritual practice (lam-rim),
great biographies and other documentation of the Tibetan tradition

representative authors in the database: 

Gyalwang Trinley Namgyal, famed biographer of the teacher of the First Dalai Lama
a major portion (40 titles in 600 pages) of the collected works of
Cheshu Rinpoche Lobsang Jangchub Tenpay Drunme,
the head of Kumbum, a major monastery located at the birthplace of the teacher of the First Dalai Lama
Yongdzin Purbuchok Jampa Tsultrim Gyatso, personal tutor to His Holiness the XIIIth Dalai Lama
a major portion (65 titles in 2,100 pages) of the collected works of
Pabongka Rinpoche Dechen Nyingpo, principal teacher of one of two principal teachers of His Holiness, the present Dalai Lama

1970 AD
Heroic intellectual efforts by survivors of 
the Tibetan Diaspora
representative authors in the database: 
a major portion (55 titles in 1,600 pages) of the collected works of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, a principal teacher of the present Dalai Lama 

pieces by Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, 
one of the principal students of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, and chief editor of the Asian Classics Input Project

modern philosophical classics of Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk 
of Sera Mey, and KHensur Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Wangchuk of Sera Jey

The Subject Structure  of the ACIP Text Database

One of the most challenging aspects of attempting to preserve an entire tradition of  thought as it has been passed down over more than 2,000 years is to organize it into categories that will make it easy for you, the user, to locate immediately the text you want to work with.  The sheer amount of sacred literature which exists in the Tibetan language (estimated at hundreds of thousands of titles) makes this a somewhat daunting task: we estimate that, by the time the Project or its successors have completed capturing the entire tradition of Tibet, several centuries will have passed.  We encourage you to now turn to the Subject Structure appendix immediately following page 224 in order to get a taste of the many different kinds of books input by the Project.

ACIP South Asia Operations

The core of the entire Asian Classics Input Project consists of a dedicated group of Tibetan refugees in south Asia who are accomplishing the great majority of the Project’s work: the input of tens 
of thousands of pages of Tibetan woodblock prints.  These inspiring people continue year after year, through extremely difficult conditions in the Tibetan refugee settlements that dot the Indian subcontinent, to preserve their culture and share it with interested persons in other countries of the world.  On behalf of the Project and all those who ever use our materials, we would like to acknowledge their efforts by listing some of their names here in this user manual.

ACIP’s efforts began in south Asia through the faith and support provided by Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University.  Important assistance in the very beginning came from the Venerable Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, former Abbot of Sera Mey and Chief Editor of ACIP, and by the Venerable Pomra Khensur Lobsang Ngudup, also a former Abbot of the Monastery. Abbot emeritus Venerable Kongpo Khensur Jampa Donyo also gave unflagging support to the Project, as did the founding Abbot of Sera Mey in south India, the Venerable Gyalrong Khensur Ngawang Tekchok.

The ACIP South Asia Field Office is now under the extraordinarily capable management of the Venerable Geshe Ngawang Rigdol, who has been with the Project since its inception.  Former directors 
have been Geshe Thupten Phelgye, who also helped establish the St. Petersburg Catalog effort, as well as Lhundup Sherab.

The following is a list of the major locations for ACIP entry centers in south Asia over the years, with just a few of the names of the key personnel at these centers.

© 	Sera Mey Monastic University Computer Center
		Ven. Geshe Jampa Dhadak, Assistant Manager
		Ven. Ngawang Gyatso, Input Operator
		Ven. Ngawang Jungney, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Kalsang, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Monlam, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Dhondup, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Jorden, Input Operator
		Ven. Ngawang Lhundup, Input Operator
		Ven. Ngawang Tharchen, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Namgyal, Input Operator
		Ven. Jamyang Gyatso, Input Operator
		Ven. Tenzing Sungrab, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Paljor, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Nyudup, Input Operator
		Ven. Lobsang Phuntsok, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Phakchok, Input Operator
		Ven. Ngawang Choelang, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Damey, Input Operator
		Ven. Lobsang Tenphal, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Dayoe, Input Operator

© 	Sera Jey Monastic University Computer Center
		Ven. Ngawang Namgyal, Manager
		Ven. Tenzing Dakden, Input Operator
		Ven. Lobsang Tender, Input Operator
		Ven. Lobsang, Input Operator
		Ven. Gyaltsen, Input Operator

© 	Ganden Jangtse Monastic University Computer Center
		Ven. Gedun Choepal, Manager
		Ven. Jegme Jenpa, Input Operator
		Ven. Tenzing Sopa, Input Operator
		Ven. Phuntsok, Input Operator
		Ven. Pema, Input Operator
		Ven. Lobsang Dawa, Input Operator

© 	Drepung Loseling Monastic University Computer Center
		Ven. Ngawang Tsultim, Manager
		Ven. Thupten Shakya, Input Operator
		Ven. Dakpa Tsegyal, Input Operator
		Ven. Ngawang Choeying, Input Operator
		Ven. Tenzing Leglam, Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Sonam, Input Operator
		Ven. Ngawang Sonam, Input Operator
© 	Rabling Tibetan Refugee Settlement Computer Center
		Ms. Kalsang, Manager
		Migmar Thakchoe, Input Operator
		Dolma, Input Operator 
		Migmat Tsamchoe, Input Operator 
		Tsering Samgmo, Input Operator
		Norzin Bhuti, Input Operator
		Tseten Bhuti, Input Operator
		Phurbu Dolma, Input Operator
		Yeshe Dolma, Input Operator 
		Yeshi Dolma, Input Operator 
		Passang Lhamo, Input Operator 
		Tsering Tsomo, Input Operator
		Kalsang Tsomo, Input Operator 
		Passang, Input Operator 
		Passang Bhuti, Input Operator 
		Lakpa Bhuti, Input Operator 
		Sonam Chedon, Input Operator
		Tsering Choedon, Input Operator

© 	Dekey Larsoe Tibetan Refugee Settlement Computer Center
		Ms. Dawa Dolma, Manager
		Tsering Doma, Input Operator
		Dhondup Lhamo, Input Operator
		Dechen Sangmo, Input Operator
		Migmer Phuntsok, Input Operator
		Khando Youdon, Input Operator
		Tseten Bhuti, Input Operator
		Kunsang Lhamo, Input Operator
		Tsering Choeden, Input Operator
		Tenzing Chokyi, Input Operator
		Tsewang Chokyi, Input Operator
		Penpa Lhamo, Input Operator
		Tenzing Kalsang, Input Operator
		Phurbu Dolma (A), Input Operator
		Kalsang Yangchen, Input Operator
		Tseten Namgyal, Input Operator
		Phurbu Dolma (B), Input Operator
		Dolma Choezom, 	Input Operator
		Chodon Lhuckyi, Input Operator
		Kunga Thinley, Input Operator
		
© 	Dakpa Tibetan Refugee Settlement Computer Center
	Lobsang Choepal Butia, Manager

© 	Sakya Monastic University Computer Center, Rajpur
	Ven. Ngawang Nyiney, Manager

© 	Drepung Gomang Monastic University Computer Center
© 	Rato Monastic University Computer Center
© 	Ganden Shartse Monastic Computer Center
© 	Gyume Tantric College
©	Tashi Hlunpo Monastic University
©	Drolma Ling Buddhist Refugee Nunnery
©	Ganden Choling Buddhist Refugee Nunnery
©	Education Department of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile
©	Sera Mey Monastic University Library
©	Bylakuppe Sakya Monastery Computer Center

The St. Petersburg Catalog Project

Two of the greatest collections of Tibetan woodblock prints exist far from Tibet, in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The first collection, at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, contains approximately 25,000 volumes, representing up to 200,000 titlesÑalthough we do expect a good number of repeat titles by the time we are finished.  The second collection is found at the Oriental Library, a part of the Library of the University of St. Petersburg.  It is a carefully selected treasure of 3,300 separate titles.

The books in each of these collections have been faithfully collected by generations of Russian explorers and scholars ever since the 
time of the tsars, and maintained with devotion by library staff 
even in the most difficult of times, such as the three-year siege of St. Petersburg during World War II.

ACIP staff first visited the collections of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s.  Many hours of work, in collaboration with the library directors and staff, went into the design of the project.  Russian and Mongolian scholars from a number of different institutionsÑthe Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg University, and the Kuntsechnoienei Datsang Buddhist SocietyÑhelped us with every aspect of accomplishing this kind of project: visa and immigration work for the Tibetan refugee scholars who would come and do the input of the catalog; housing and travel arrangements; preparing and equipping a working office; and hundreds of other details.

The cataloging project has been working now for some seven years, with devoted labors by a team of native scholars from Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery in south India, under the direction of the Russian library staff.  It has truly been an international collaboration of Russian, Tibetan, and American citizens working together with respect and affection, producing a work that we hope will be a lasting contribution to all those who study these great books and ideas in the centuries to come.  The catalog as it stands now contains more than 50,000 entries; the Tibetan input operators 
are typing in the entire colophon of each work, with valuable information on the Tibetan teaching lineages and other historical detail; the resulting catalog already contains over fifty times more material than the most famous Tibetan catalog to date, the Tohoku.

The massive size of the catalog has demanded that we divide it into one-megabyte “chunks” in the database, since ACIP has a policy that no single file in the database should be too big for users to share with each other on the current floppy-disk capacity of about 1.4 megabytes. Since this is also about the size of a thousand entries, we’ve made each file exactly this many titles.  As a service to users around the world, each of the organizations involved has kindly agreed that the Catalog will be supplied without charge on the ACIP CD-ROM; this is a precedent that we hope will continue among scholars of Tibetan literature throughout the world.

It is anticipated that the cataloging work alone (not to mention input or scanning, which could require a century) will continue for a decade or more.  ACIP has made a commitment during this time to assist the Tibetan Collection of the Institute of Oriental Studies in setting up reproduction facilities that will allow the Institute to fulfill orders from interested persons for copies of texts they need to work with.  It is hoped that the existence of this reproduction facility, and the fees paid to the Institute by scholars for copies, will help defray the considerable cost of maintaining this precious treasure for future generations.  Please contact ACIP if you are interested in ordering materials from either collection, and we will forward your request directly to the appropriate office.

As a final note, the Catalog Project in St. Petersburg has generated an intriguing side-effort, which is a growing graphics collection of all the exquisite monastic and other seals found stamped on the wood-block manuscripts of the collections.  The presence of a seal is recorded in the St. Petersburg Catalog, and the seals each have their own unique identification number under the “GSP” file series in the ACIP Graphics Collections.

The seals, as well as carved illustrations of eminent teachers throughout history located in both the St. Petersburg collections and in other texts input by ACIP, are indexed and cataloged in a format that allows them to be integrated into the ACIP Master Catalog.  To see if there is an illustration of a particular person or image available, check the graphics entries of the ACIP Master Catalog by clicking on the catalog number column in AsiaView and searching those that start with “G”.

We have not, by the way, made any extensive efforts to identify the various symbols in the seals of the St. Petersburg collections, nor have we made any attempt to relate particular seals to the original monastic library that used them. We would very much appreciate any help that specialists could offer us in identifying the symbols or relating seals to their original institution.

The following is a list of some of the dedicated individuals who have made the St. Petersburg Catalog possible:

© 	The St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies 			of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
		Prof. Yu. A. Petrosyan, Institute Director Emeritus
		Prof. Evgeni I. Kychanov, Institute Director
		Dr. Lev S. Savitsky, Catalog Director
		Geshe Michael Roach, Asst. Catalog Director
		Dr. V.L. Uspensky, Asst. Catalog Director
		Dr. E.A. Rezvan, Computer & Commercial Support
		Dr. I.G. Tikhonova, Computer & Software Support
		Ven. Ngawang Kheatsun, Senior Input Operator
		Ven. Jampa Namdol, Senior Input Operator
		Geshe Thupten Phelgye, Senior Input Operator

© The University of St. Petersburg:
		Dr. Natalja Sheshina, University Library Chief Director
		Dr. A. Shukovskaya, Oriental Library Director
		Prof. Badma M. Narmaev, Tibetan Specialist
		Ms. Tamara Petrova, Special Assistant

© The Kuntsechnoienei Datsang Buddhist Society:
		Ven. Buddha Balzhivich, Abbot
		Dr. Losetsering Wangyal
		Ven. Aleksander Morozov
		Asst. Munkuev Zorictovalzhivich
		and with special thanks to the invaluable Dr. Elena Kharkova
Standard Format of the St. Petersburg Catalog
The following is the standard format for the catalog of the Tibetan Collection of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Branch, and for the Tibetan Collection of the Oriental Library of the University of St. Petersburg, as of July 1998.

Please note that the catalog is, in its present form, a simple flat-file database: straight text in the universal ASCII code that can be read and searched on any computer.

Each title is treated as a separate work in its own right, and complete cataloging information is given for each one.  Since the catalog is computerized, it is possible to include a level of detail 
not achieved in any previous printed catalogs.  Therefore, a total 
of twenty-two different details of each title are recorded, including the entire colophon of composition and printing information.  
This colophon makes it possible for users of the catalog to conduct advanced research and come to their own conclusions about difficult items.

Where the colophon of a given title does not list particular items of information, these may be supplied from other sources, but are then enclosed in braces.  This applies even to an individual title in a single volume with multiple titles; i.e., information derived from the colophon of the final title is not assumed to apply to all other titles in the volume.

The raw data of the catalog is expressed mainly in single-letter codes.  This system allows the input operators to catalog more items per day; at present, two operators are completing approximately seventy-five titles each day.  The system also has the advantage of allowing the entire catalog to be loaded into a relational database, to enable multiple sorting on different fields.

Please note that the information in the “author” field especially represents a “best guess” by native Tibetan operators on site who are not highly trained students of philosophy.  Researchers should rely upon the colophon (which is always included), and upon the Institute’s own catalog number to place a particular title within the collected works of a particular author.
Here is a sample entry for a single imaginary title:

1) S:00001
(Serial number of item, which is simply the order in which the titles 
are entered into the catalog, with no other logic.)
2) N:B6388/1
(Number of the title currently, in the system of the library of the Institute or Library.  The number after the slash is new and represents the position of the work in a single volume of multiple works.  This number is being added in ink on the title page as volumes are cataloged.  In the case of a loose, random page located within a volume, a lowercase alphabetical letter will be placed after the slash in order not 
to disturb the total number of titles in the volume.  No attempt will be made to collate these random pages into their proper volume until the catalog is completed, since this will allow the collation to be performed accurately and quickly.)
3) T:RDO RJE GCOD PA
(Title in Tibetan as it appears on the title page, written in ACIP input code.)
4) K:BADZRA TZTSEDIKA
(Title in SansKrit as it appears on the title page in Tibetanized Sanskrit.  These titles are primarily ornamental and often appear with incorrect spelling, or divided into syllables illogically.  The native Tibetan operators entering the data onto diskette also have trouble reading these difficult stacks correctly, and we can anticipate additional errors on their part.  Nonetheless this data will be of some benefit to scholars seeking Sanskrit equivalents.)
5) E:LT
(Extra languages appearing either on the title page alone, or throughout the whole work [such as in bilingual dictionary in interlineal format].  Current code options are: LT [Lanycha script, title page only]; LW [Lanycha script, throughout whole work]; MT and MW [same for Mongolian]; DT and DW [same for Devanagari].  No attempt is made to input the entire extra language, but simply to indicate its presence.)
6) X:3
(X represents a seal or stamp that has been pressed onto the title page, 
a common monastic practice to identify the library or press from which the work has come.  Each time a new seal is encountered, it is photocopied and added to a master chart and given a number.  These seals have been scanned into computer files, and are included here 
on the CD-ROM; we have not yet attempted to relate the seals to particular institutions from which the texts were obtained. Some title pages have multiple stamps; these will be represented by numbers separated by commas.)
7) B:RDO GCOD
(Brief title of the work as it appears by tradition in a small box on 
the end of the woodblock.)
8) A:SH’AKYA THUB PA
(Author of the work, only as reported in the colophon to the parti-
cular title.  If the name of the author has been identified by other means it will be included in braces, for future verification.)
9) Y:SHING PHAG
(Year of publication or composition, only as reported in the colophon to the particular title.  If either year has been identified by other means it will be included in braces, for future verification.  This applies as well to attempted correspondence to the Western year.)
10) F:XYL
(Format of the book.  Current options are XYL [xylograph], MS 
[handwritten manuscript], or TYP [metal typography].)
11) M:T
(Material used, meaning apparent source of paper.  Current options 
are T (Tibet), R (Russia), I (India), or C (China).  The decision of the apparent source of paper will be somewhat inexact by nature, and will be made by the Tibetan input operators and Russian experts on site.)
12) H:W,Y
(Hue of paper.  The first letter refers to the color of the paper, which 
in almost every case will be white or off-white, both indicated by W.  Works on black paper do exist at the Library and will be indicated by B.  The letter following the comma gives the color of the traditional dye smeared on the side of the volume, which can aid in the identification of the source of a text.  Current options are original White, or else colored Red or Yellow.)
13) G:G
(Grade of paper.  A subjective decision by the operator about the strength and thickness of the paper.  Current options are Good, 
Medium, or Bad.)
14) R:G
(Readability of printing.  Subjective decision by operator about whether the printing is clear and easy to read, or whether for example parts are badly smudged and illegible.  Current options 
are Good, Medium, or Bad.)
15) V:KA PA
(Volume number, according to traditional Tibetan system of assigning letters in alphabetical order.)
16) P:1A-15B
(Page numbers of text, as they appear in text.)
17) Q:6
(Quantity of lines per page, taken from the front side of the fifth folio, if there is one.  Otherwise from any page typical for the majority of the text.)
18) O:5.2 x 20.6
(Outside dimensions of folio; the dimensions of the paper page.  Again taken from the fifth folio if available, otherwise from any typical page.  Expressed in centimeters to nearest tenth.)
19) I:4.3 x 19.4
(Inside dimensions, meaning dimensions of the printed area, normally the dimensions of the traditional line box carved around the text.  Again taken from the fifth folio, front side, or from any other, typical folio if it is not available.)
20) L:LHA SA
(Location mentioned in the colophon to the particular text. Normally the place of printing, but sometimes place of composition of the text.)
21) D:1AL-RJE RIN PO CHE, 1AR-RJE BTZUN BYAMS PA
(Drawings carved or painted on the folio, with location and identification of figure copied from accompanying caption.  In the above example, 1 indicates folio number; A front side of folio; and L the left side of the folio, with the caption for the figure following a hyphen.  When a certain ornament covers the entire folio this is indicated in the form of 1A-RGYAN.)
22) C:PAR BYANG SMON TSIG CHA TSANG,
(Normally the entire Colophon.)
ACIP in Mongolia

ACIP is pleased to announce that its preparations to catalog the great Tibetan-text collections of Mongolia are proceeding.  Project staff have made several visits to the two major collections of the country in the capital city of Ulan Bator, and completed agreements for cataloging their contents.  We estimate that there are approximately 1.4 million titles in the two collections, although a good number of these titles are, no doubt, duplicates.  The Mongolian collections are especially important for the Project, since we have discovered many texts here that we have not found anywhere else in the world.
		
The library of the main Buddhist monastery of the country, Gangdan Tekchen Ling, holds a vast collection of books that, during the religious persecution of the communist era Ñfrom 1937 until only recentlyÑwere not properly cared for.  We estimate that it will take many decades simply to put all the loose woodblock pages of the works back into order and catalog them properly.  The efforts by local Mongolian monk scholars to restore the Library are admirable, although they have a serious lack of material and financial support needed to complete their task.

ACIP has organized a team of about five input operators and managers to assist in this work, and they are expected to arrive in Mongolia late this year, with computers donated by various parties in the US.  We would like to thank the abbot of Gangdan, Khamba Lama D. Choi-Jamts, for his gracious help during our visits, and his serious interest in the cataloging project.  ACIP has also received a great deal of assistance from the Foreign Officer of Gangdan, Mr. Baatar Bazar.

The collection at the Mongolian National Library is in much better condition; it generally contains woodblock prints and manuscripts that the former communist authorities determined had monetary value, and was better cared for.  Here ACIP staff also received gracious welcomes and assistance from the Library Director, Mr. Jampaldorj Serjee, as well as from the head of the Tibetan section, and Mr. Ganjavin Gansukh.
We would finally like to express our thanks to several parties in Mongolia who greatly facilitated our trips there.  One was the Ven. Lama Guru Deva, whose efforts to save Tibetan literature over many decades have been equaled by few.  The Ven. Bakula Rinpoche, Ambassador of the Government of India to Mongolia, is a truly great scholar and thinker who has taken sincere interest in the cataloging work and pledged his assistance.  His assistant, Mr. Sonam Wangchuk, was especially helpful to Project staff during our visits.

Using the AsiaView Program 
to Get the Most from ACIP Release IV

With past ACIP releases, users of the Project’s materials could view, search, and print texts in native Tibetan letters only by using commercial software programs that had to be purchased separately.  We are pleased to announce that, with the new version of the AsiaView program found on Release IV, all of these functions are provided without cost, along with the data itself.  We would like to thank the author of the AsiaView program, Mr. Eric Colombel, for providing his efforts to ACIP users free of charge.  We would also like to express our gratitude to Mr. Gerry Wiener of Colorado,  USA, for licensing his Tibetan fonts to be packaged with AsiaView, as well as for his work in creating a convenient utility to convert roman input code to Tibetan letters.

This section of the user manual will first give a brief summary 
of the new capabilities of the AsiaView program, and then give detailed instructions for actually using it to research the tens of thousands of pages of material on the new release.

An Overview of  AsiaView
AsiaView is a free Windows 95/98 program on ACIP Release IV that you can install on your computer automatically from the CD-ROM.  First of all, it allows you to read on the screen any one of the more than a thousand important classical books on the CD-ROM, in either the roman letters of the ACIP text input system, or in the original Tibetan script.  A multiple windows capability allows you to have many different texts up on the screen at the same timeÑsay an important root text and three or four commentaries from different centuriesÑand to view each one of them easily.

A convenient, basic word processor in the program allows you to copy out any sections of a text or texts that you like, and create an instant study of whatever subject or concept you are working on.  You can print from this tool, and make use of all the standard features such as cut-and-paste, a wide variety of fonts and sizes, 
and standard text formatting and file operations.
A special “Preferences” menu option allows you to store the ACIP digital texts wherever you choose, and still gain complete access to them.  If you want portability, you can copy all or some of the texts to the hard disk of your laptop; if you are short on space, you can leave them on the CD-ROM.

The menu bar at the top of the screen in AsiaView allows you to immediately access important sections of the databaseÑthe Kangyur Collection, the Tengyur Collection, the Sungbum Collection, the Reference Materials, Sanskrit Study Tools, or the ACIP Graphics CollectionsÑall at the click of a single button.

With another click you can access automatic options such as seeing a list of all Tengyur texts by Sanskrit title, by Tibetan title, or by English title.  With a different click you can see another list of all Tengyur texts organized under their author’s names, either in Sanskrit or in Tibetan.  With yet another click you can access the texts by subject category, again in Sanskrit, Tibetan, or English.

After you select one of these options, you are taken to an operations window.  From here you can select any text you want by using a name search tool, and then view a preview of its opening sections in either Tibetan script or roman letters.  At this point you can also click on a “text info” tab that gives you various bibliographic details about the text.

If you, at this point, decide you want to work with still another text, you click on a button that lets you open the book either in Tibetan script or in roman letters, whichever you prefer.  After the text is open, you can even switch between roman letters and Tibetan letters, or open the same text in both at once.

From here too you can start to search the text for whatever you need to find.  When you press the “search” button, a special screen comes up giving you a wide range of options for searching: you can search for single or multiple items; ask the program to find two words near each other; find one word but not another word that is very similar; search only parts of the text; or run advanced routines such as “fuzzy” or “wildcard” searches.  

Most important, you can also run a “global” search of all the books on a certain subject, or all the books by a certain author.  Each 
of these tools is vital for finding valuable information within the 
Asian classics, and you will soon find yourself able to accomplish 
in minutes what used to require days, or even months, of manual research.

The results of searching come up in a variety of ways.  When you are in a single text, you can choose a “highlight” option and skip progressively through occurrences of what you are looking for.  With single texts or groups of texts you can choose a “hit-list” option, which builds for you a comprehensive list of all the lines that contain the string you are seeking.  When you highlight any line in the hit list, a special window displays a full three lines of context, as well as information about the total hits and the line your current hit comes from.

Once you have found the text or part of a text that interests you, a full “printing” option allows you to print out any part you like, in roman or Tibetan letters.  And although you cannot input Tibetan letters directly from the keyboard, you can create any Tibetan document you want by typing the roman input code from the word processor, and then converting it to Tibetan with a special free utility.

Aside from the texts, AsiaView also takes you to reference tools such as catalogs, dictionaries, and documentation in Tibetan, Sanskrit, or English.  All of the documentation from past ACIP releases, as well as several samplers of how ACIP data can be used to create sophisticated hypertext essays, are available here with complete links to jump between the subjects of your choice.

A graphics viewer tool included within AsiaView allows you to retrieve and view any one of the special carved illustrations or stylized monastic seals in the ACIP Graphics Collections.  You can also use this tool to print out a graphics image, or else use your own favorite word processor to import the picture straight into any document you are working on.

A special “Tools” option in the main menu bar takes you directly 
to a number of very useful tools.  The first is the ACIP Master Catalog, which gives you all the details about a book: the title in various languages, author, dates, source, pages, file name, and so on.  This window also allows you to preview the text either in roman or Tibetan letters.  Here too are the routines for adding more texts to the Master Catalog, even those you have typed in yourself, so that they can be accessed by the AsiaView program.

Another tool is the ACIP Input Code Chart, which gives you the corresponding roman equivalents for the various Tibetan letters.  This is important since, when you search for words or phrases even in the Tibetan-letter screens, you are still doing so from a roman keyboard.

Perhaps the most exciting tool included under the “Tools” option is called “tree management.”  This option allows you to create your own customized groups of texts for performing specialized searches.  For example, you could group your favorite works by century, or by specific geographic areas such as U-Tsang or Amdo, in order to do a study of the unique words of a certain period in history or section of the country.  AsiaView already includes a good number of pre-defined trees, and more will be provided with future updates.

Finally, a detailed “Help” option gives you information about every part of the AsiaView program and the Project in general.  
Also included is the latest information for contacting ACIP.
System and Disk Space Requirements
In order to install the AsiaView program on your computer, you may need as much as eighty megabytes of free space available on your hard disk, depending on how your computer is set up. The main reason for the amount of space required is the complex database system used by AsiaView to provide instant access to any ACIP text or graphics file.  This program works in both Windows 95 and Windows 98. Any computer that can run these versions of Windows, whether it be an IBM-compatible or a Macintosh, will run the AsiaView program.  AsiaView does not run under older versions of Windows.

However, the entire database on the CD-ROM can be fully accessed by users with older computers, who do not have access to the Windows program, or who are using an ordinary Macintosh without Windows emulation.  See the section of this user manual entitled “Shareware Programs: Using the ACIP Database with an Older Computer, or with Computers that Do Not Run Windows” on page 124.

Please note that the AsiaView program is optimized for super-VGA or higher resolution screens, and for “small fonts,” although it will also work on displays with less resolution.  (Super-VGA gives a resolution of 800 x 600, whereas the older VGA is 640 x 480.)

With the books themselves, you have an option either to use the data directly from the CD-ROM, or to load all or just parts of the data that you use frequently onto your hard disk.  In either case you will need to start with a CD-ROM drive, either connected externally to your computer, or included within it.  If you choose to leave parts of the data on the CD-ROM (for example, the Tibetan-letter files), you will have to study the documentation for file preferences carefully, for proper set-up. 

If you choose to put the entire database onto your hard disk, you will need up to 500 megabytes of free disk space.  This breaks down into the following space requirements for the various major sections (in addition to the space required by the AsiaView program itself):

As you can see, a lot of disk space can be saved by keeping only the roman-letter files on your computer, if you are comfortable with reading Tibetan this way.  In any case, you can always just leave most or all of the files on the CD-ROM and read them from there. 
Program Version
The instructions in this document pertain to Version 2 of the AsiaView program, which is the version included on ACIP 
Release IV, A Thousand Books of Wisdom.
Late Additions: the ReadMe File
As soon as you begin to work with the new ACIP data release, be sure to log onto the CD-ROM drive and study the “ReadMe” file located under the “ReadMe” directory.  This file includes information about last-minute changes and additions to the program that could not be included in this user manual, and which may be necessary for using the program effectively.  After the CD-ROM and this manual have been released, we will begin to post further late-breaking information on the ACIP website.  (See the section called “Contacting ACIP” on page 185 for the contact info.)
Installing AsiaView
In order to install the AsiaView program onto your own computer, log onto the drive where the CD-ROM is located by going to the “Run” option of the Windows “Start” menu item, filling in the letter for your CD-ROM drive, and then double-clicking on the icon marked “setup.exe”.  Continue to click on the “Next” button until installation is completed.

This will automatically put the AsiaView program on your computer and install the program with a convenient icon in the “Programs” section of the “Start” menu of Windows for starting up the program easily.  This new version of AsiaView is also designed to install the Sambhota Tibetan-script fonts automatically in Windows, so that you will be able to view and print all the Tibetan texts in the native script.

To test your installation, start the AsiaView program from the AsiaView icon in the “Programs” group under the “Start” button 
of the Windows opening screen.  A quick way to leave AsiaView, when you have finished your work with the program, is to hold down the alt key and hit F4.
Installing the Sambhota Tibetan-Script Fonts
As mentioned above, ACIP has licensed a Tibetan script font 
so that you can view and print the text material in the original Tibetan script.  Like any other font, this must be installed in your Windows system before it will work.  The routine that installs AsiaView on your computer is designed to install the font automatically, and so the following instructions are only necessary in the event that you have to install the font manually at some point.

An easy way to do this in Windows 95 is to click on “Start” in 
the opening Windows menu.  Then click on the “Help” menu option.  Type out the word “fonts” in the index screen, and under this subject double-click on “adding to your computer.”  This selection guides you through the process of opening the Fonts folder, clicking on “Install New Font,” clicking on the drive 
and folder that contains the Sambhota Tibetan fonts, and finally double-clicking on the icon of the font you want to add.

On the ACIP CD-ROM, the primary Sambhota fonts are located in the “Fonts” subdirectory under the “Sambhota” directory; a partial, alternate Sambhota font with a slightly different look is located in this directory under the subdirectory “Altfont.”  During automated installation, incidentally, the path where the font is placed is \Windows\Fonts.
Technical Details of Fonts
The following is some rather technical detail on the various Tibetan-letter fonts supplied with AsiaView.  There are slight variations of the basic Sambhota fonts that allow you to utilize the fonts in different applications and in different typesetting environments.

The ACIP CD-ROM is supplied with two different font families: “Esam” and “Sam”.  The first of these, Esam, is designed to align with roman letter fonts along a baseline; whereas the Sam family of fonts is designed to align the different sizes of Tibetan letters along a head-line.  Each of the families is contained in three groups of ligatures, divided into three font files due to a mapping limitation.  These three groups are indicated in the three font file names ending with the letters “a,” “b,” and “c”.

There is a TrueType version of each font and a PostScript version, due to the different applications that use these different versions to their best advantage.  PostScript, for example, is used in Adobe applications, whereas TrueType is the normal font type used by Windows programs.

Finally, ACIP has received an additional variation of one of the TrueType font groups, the “a” group (which contains almost all 
the basic letters and letter combinations needed) within the “Esam” family; this was supplied as a contribution to the Project by its creator.  In this version of the font, kerning is wider on the screen and page, making the Tibetan easier to read for some users.  
Other users find the original “Esam” easier to read since, although more compressed, it features a more pronounced tapering of the letters.  Try both and see which suits you better.  The alternate 
font is located in a subdirectory called “Altfont” under the main 
CD-ROM directory “Sambhota”.

PostScript and Macintosh versions of the fonts used by AsiaView are also available for general use under the “Psfonts” and “Mac” subdirectories of the “Sambhota\Fonts” directory on the ACIP 
CD-ROM.
Uninstalling AsiaView
AsiaView falls into that very useful category of Windows programs that can be easily uninstalled or removed from your computer, if you find that you need the disk space, or want to add a new version of the program.  Go to the “Start” button of your Windows program and select “Settings.”  Click on the “Control Panel,” 
and then double-click on “Add/Remove Programs.”  Click on 
the “AsiaView” program in the window, and click on the “Remove” button.  AsiaView will be entirely cleaned from your hard disk within a minute or so.
Copying the Texts to Your Own Computer
With AsiaView installed on your computer, you next decide where you would like to store the texts.  As noted above, they require a lot of disk space, and you may wish to just leave them on the CD-ROM where you can easily access them from AsiaView.  In some cases though it may be desirable to move the text files to the hard disk of your own computerÑif your laptop computer, for example, has no CD-ROM drive, or if your CD-ROM drive is noticeably slower than your hard disk for searching the data.  If you change or edit ACIP data, or if you obtain newer versions of ACIP files, these updated files will also need to be stored on your hard disk.

Note that the files with the texts in Tibetan script contain the letters “RTF” in the extension of their file name.  These take up the most space, and you may want to leave these or other files that you do not use frequently on the CD-ROM, moving the others to your hard disk.  Then you can give the AsiaView two alternate locations for the various texts, using the “preferences” option under the “file” menu.  This option is a little tricky and must be studied carefully.

Regardless of where you decide to store your texts, you must tell the AsiaView program where they are.  This step is described in the
section called “Specifying Your File Location Preferences” on page 50.
Adding New Texts at a Later Date
The AsiaView program has been designed with future expansion 
in mind.  The program is “data-driven” rather than “hard-coded,” which means that more texts can be added at a future date, and 
will still be recognized by the program.  ACIP anticipates making interim releases of additional text data at regular intervals, primarily through its website, and individual users may wish to add texts of their own.  In either case, a few steps are necessary.

You must first of all put the new text into the directory where it belongs, with other texts of the same type, according to your own preferences.  
If the text is a roman-letter version, it must, of course, comply with the standard ACIP input code system to be consistent with the other data for searching purposes.  (The ACIP input code system is described fully in the section entitled “ACIP Tibetan Input Code” on page 153.)
If you wish to view the text in the native Tibetan script, you must obtain or create a Tibetan script version, or “RTF” file, and this file too must be placed in the proper directory.  (Instructions for creating “RTF” Tibetan files are contained in the section called “Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files” on page 78.)  The directory for RTF files is normally a subdirectory named “RTF” under the directory in which the roman-letter version of a text is stored.
Specifying Your File Location Preferences
Please note: You must do this step properly, or the AsiaView program will not work.
When you call up a particular text to view, search, or print it, AsiaView has to know where to go to find it for you.  Therefore, 
an essential first step is to fill in your file location preferences.

Once the texts have been placed in the directories where you want them, or simply left on the CD-ROM, then start the AsiaView program, and click on the “File” option located on the far left of the menu bar at the top of the screen.  This and many other menu items throughout the program can, of course, be accessed through an alt key combination; 
in this case, by holding down the alt key and striking “F”.

Next click on the “Preferences” menu item.  Here you have two choices: a “primary location” screen and an “additional location” screen for each of the major sections of the ACIP database.  The paths to where the texts for each section are located must be filled in precisely for the AsiaView program to work.

The AsiaView program comes with pre-installed settings for these preferences, which are set for users who intend to keep their data on the CD-ROM, and whose CD-ROM drive is the “D:” drive.  
If your CD-ROM drive is a different drive, you will have to adjust this setting so that the drive specification is correct.  Here is a list of the pre-installed settings, so that in the event you accidentally change them, you can re-set them:
Catalog	C:\Program Files\ACIP\AsiaView 20\Catalog
Kangyur	D:\TEXTS\KANGYUR
Tengyur	D:\TEXTS\TENGYUR
Sungbum	D:\TEXTS\SUNGBUM
Sanskrit	D:\TEXTS\REF
Reference	D:\TEXTS\REF
Graphics	D:\GRAPHICS

All the files in the last six groups above must be placed in their own directory, and not in additional sub-directories under their own directory.  For example, in the file location preferences for the Kangyur Collection you cannot have additional subdirectories 
for “Perfection of Wisdom” or “Middle-Way Philosophy.”  These kinds of groupings are accomplished with the subdirectory tree management tool described below, and most of them are pre-set for you already.  Again, the Tibetan-script file (the “RTF” file) for each text should be loaded into a directory called “RTF”, which must itself be a subdirectory of the directory in which the corresponding roman-letter file is located.

The “Preferences” screen comes with a useful feature that helps you tell the program where your text files are located.  On this screen you will notice a button off to the right of the line where you enter your preferences.  If you click on it, AsiaView will take you to the directory structure of your own computer.  To specify the correct path that goes to your data, you simply click and/or double-click on the appropriate drive and directory, until you reach the directory you want.  Then click the “OK” button, and AsiaView will automatically record the entire path to your data.

Suppose you choose to keep some of the texts on your hard disk, and others on the CD-ROM, either because you have limited hard-disk space or because you have placed an updated version of a text on your hard disk.  In this case, you will need to use the “additional location” window for specifying the location of the files on the CD-ROM. Then, you need to use the “primary location” window for specifying the locations of the files that you have stored on your hard disk. This change is necessary since AsiaView will check first for a particular text in the primary location and then automatically go and look for the text in the additional location if it cannot find it.

This procedure is thus important when adding future interim releases of ACIP data, whether from a floppy disk, or through download from the ACIP website.  Please note that whenever you face a case where the primary and secondary locations both contain a file of the same name (one older and one newer), you will want to make sure that the newer version is in the primary location.

If you have problems viewing or searching text, be sure to check whether these file location preferences have been set correctly.
Viewing the Texts in Roman or Tibetan Letters 
from the Main Menu
When you want to view a text, either in roman letters or in the original Tibetan script, you can use several different methods to do so.  If you know which of the major collections the text is found in, click on that collection on the menu bar at the top of the screen; for example, click on “Tengyur” if the text you wish to view is an early Indian commentary.  This menu item will give you a variety of choices for how to locate the text; in the case of the Tengyur, you can call up a list of the texts either by title, author, or subjectÑall three with an option for viewing the list in the Sanskrit, Tibetan, or English versionsÑor you can call up a specific text by its catalog number, if you know it.

If you decide simply to choose the “by catalog number” option, you may want to confirm this number first.  The current catalog numbers for almost all texts are found in the abbreviated hard-copy catalog of available texts at the end of this user manual.  Alternately, you can search the ACIP Master Catalog to find the text you want, and note down its correct catalog number.  (The number must be typed in correctly or you cannot view the text this way.)

An explanation of how ACIP catalog numbers work is found in the section “ACIP File Nomenclature Conventions” on page 168; they are based primarily on the standard Tohoku University catalog.  If you choose to call up a text by its catalog number, it is very convenient to first call up the ACIP Master Catalog window from the “Tools” menu.  Then click on the “by catalog number” option under the type of text you want.  You will be able to search the Catalog and fill in the catalog number with precision, since both windows stay up on the screen at the same time.

Suppose you choose one of the viewing options other than the 
“by catalog number” option.  When you click on it and open the viewing screen, you then move automatically through the list of items simply by typing the first few letters of the text, person, or subject you are looking for.  The cursor will jump immediately to the right place.

The titles of these ancient texts though, as Asian scholars all know, often appear in a wide variety of spellings; or you may not remember the full name or how it starts.  We have, therefore, included a special tool for searching the list effectively for even a part of the name, whether it occurs at the beginning of the title or not.  This 
is also extremely useful with the names of authors, since these are often not standardized, and may or may not include an honorific title before the name; for example, the word rje (“the great”) or dpal-ldan (“the glorious”) may precede the personal name.

To get into this tool, either type alt-S (hold down the “alt” key and strike “s”), or else click in the box next to “Search for” in the upper left hand of the viewing screen.  Type in the part of the book or author name that you want to view, and then click on the button with the binoculars.  To repeat the search and jump to the next hit, click on the magnifying glass with the plus sign (+) in the middle.  

Within the item search utility you can also search for a title by its catalog number.  These numbers are either the famed Tohoku Catalog number orÑwhere the text was never cataloged by the authors of this workÑthe ACIP Master Catalog number.
 
Remember that when the title has a small box to the left of it with 
a plus sign (+), it means that there are multiple entries below the general title; for example, a large work might come in four different volumes, which are retained as separate files in order to keep single files from getting too large and unwieldy to work with.  Double- click on the small box to see the full detail of these multiple entries, or to view them.  The search tool, by the way, will locate a title or item in a multiple entry below a general title whether or not you have opened up the full detail by double-clicking on it; this is done automatically whenever you reach a hit in your search for a title or other item.

When you use the cursor to highlight a title in the left half of this window, you will automatically see a roman-letter preview of the text in the right half.  Since the ACIP input system retains the page and line numbers of the original text, you will see blocks of text
corresponding to the original lines, separated by blank lines.

Scrolling up or down in the preview with the arrow bar on the right side of the screen, you will also see the original page numbers, marked with an “at” symbol (@), and an “A” or “B” for the front and back sides of a Tibetan folio, following the page number.  This roman-letter preview gives you around ten lines of text, so you can confirm that this is the title you are looking for.

To get to the Tibetan-letter preview, click on that heading on the right half of the screen.  If the text comes up with nonsense letters or other problems, you have not loaded your RTF or Tibetan-letter files correctly, or not told the program where to find them properly with the “Preferences” option.

From this preview screen you can also view major fields from the ACIP Master Catalog entry for the text you have selected.  Simply click on the “Text info” option in the upper right hand corner, making sure your cursor on the left is placed on the text you wish.  It’s a lot of fun to just arrow down on the left side through different texts as this detailed information pops up on the right.  Please note that further details on each text can be found in the Master Catalog itself, which is a database accessed from the “Tools” menu item at the top of the opening screen for AsiaView.

When you are ready to view the entire text, either in roman or Tibetan letters, click on the “Open in roman script” or “Open in Tibetan script” options at the bottom of the screen.  Again, if there is a problem in viewing the Tibetan, this may be because you have not loaded the “RTF” or Tibetan-letter files properly, and you should check your “Preferences” under the “File” menu item from the ribbon at the top of the opening AsiaView screen.
At the bottom of the full viewing screen is a status bar with useful information about the text.  Here you will find the full name of the source file in the database; the total number of bytes or characters in the text; the current line and horizontal position in the line where your cursor is placed; and the “selection,” or number in the text of the character of your present cursor location.  The file name is especially useful, since you can then go into the database with any file manager and copy the particular book you are studying to floppy disk, to share with others.

Remember that AsiaView allows you to have a large number of viewing screens up at the same time.  You could, for example, have two windows up with the very same text in Tibetan script, comparing different sections of the text with each other.  Or you could have up a text from the Kangyur Collection, along with a commentary from the Tengyur Collection, and two or three Tibetan commentaries in separate windows at the same time, focusing on several different explanations of the same passage in the root text.

A powerful tool while you have several texts up at once is the “Tile” function under the “Window” selection in the bar at the top of the main screen.  This function puts all your texts side by side, allowing you to compare readings easily.  If you have a lot of texts up at once, you can choose the “Cascade” function, where one text is displayed in front of the others, and you shuffle through texts by clicking on the top of the box that shows just behind the text up front.

Another useful function of AsiaView is that you can always increase or decrease the size of either the roman or Tibetan letters in a window immediately and automatically, simply by clicking on one of the buttons with the two “A” letters on the tool bar at the top of the screen.  Yet another feature to note is that you can quickly close down most AsiaView viewing screens simply by typing Alt-C, rather than trying to click on the small “x” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

A final feature of all the AsiaView text viewing screens is that you can immediately call up Master Catalog details on the text that you have up at any time.  Make sure that the window of the text for which you want to see the Catalog details is the active window.  Then click on the open-book icon button in the main menu bar at the top of the AsiaView window.  A “Text information” screen will come up, with options for two pages of “Details” from the catalog entry; the “Notes” field for the entry; and the “Description” field as well. 
Moving through a Text
Once you have brought a text up in the AsiaView program, it acts like any other Windows document.  Move up and down in the text by putting your mouse arrow on the bar at the right, holding down the left mouse button, and pushing up or down.  Or else go to the very beginning or end of a text by holding down the Ctrl and Home keys, or go to the end of the document by pressing the Ctrl and End keys, simultaneously.  If you wish to block out the entire contents of a screen, hit Ctrl-A.  The copy, pasting, and other common Windows functions work the same as with any other Windows program; see the “File” and “Edit” selections from the main menu bar to familiarize yourself with all the pre-defined shortcuts available.
Note on Mixed-Language Files
Please note that a number of texts, especially reference materials such as Tibetan-English dictionaries, contain two or more different languages, and can only be viewed in the roman-letter option.  “Marking up” these files so that, for example, the Tibetan parts show up on the screen in Tibetan letters and the English parts 
show in roman letters, is extremely labor-intensive and beyond the current resources of the project.  We hope to address this in future versions of the AsiaView program, and would be happy for suggestions on funding or for volunteers who would like to help accomplish this.
Note on Sanskrit-Letter Stacks
In addition to the normal letters of the Tibetan alphabet, there are hundreds of special combinations of Tibetan lettersÑstacks of shortened and otherwise modified Tibetan symbolsÑthat are used 
to represent the Sanskrit language with Tibetan letters. When the Tibetans, over a thousand years ago, began to obtain great books from India and translate them into their language, they almost always added the original Sanskrit title, in Tibetan letters, at the beginning of the translation.
The Tibetan script incorporated into the AsiaView program was designed to handle many of the most common of these special letter stacks, but not all of them.  Users should be aware that when they try to view one of these combinations in the Tibetan-letter screen, some of the more unusual combinations may not show in Tibetan letters, but rather in roman. We would be grateful to receive lists of such combinations from users of ACIP data, and we will endeavor to continue to add new stacks of letters to the program in the future.
Viewing the Texts in Roman or Tibetan Letters 
through the ACIP Master Catalog
AsiaView is designed to allow you to get a preview of a text in an alternate way as well.  This is through the ACIP Master Catalog, and is meant to give you the option of immediately seeing what the first part of a text looks like, as you utilize the advanced database options of the ACIP Master Catalog to find the works you need.

To access this option, click on the “Tools” option in the main menu bar.  Select the first entry, “ACIP Master Catalog.”  The full use of this catalog is described below under “Using the ACIP Master Catalog” on page 83.  To see a preview of a particular text, use the database functions to find the one you are interested in, and click the cursor on the appropriate line.  Then click on the “Roman preview” or “Tibetan preview” option.  Again, be sure to note thatÑif you see nonsense characters on the screen or have other problems with the “Tibetan preview” optionÑit is probably because you have not specified the location of the Tibetan-letter or “RTF” files properly in the “Preferences” option of the “File” menu.
Viewing the ACIP Graphics Collections
ACIP graphics materials come in two parts: the ACIP Graphics LibraryÑa set of exquisite woodblock drawings found on a number of the texts that ACIP has input; and, a collection of the very interesting monastic seals found on the tens of thousands of texts cataloged by 
the Project in the great collections of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Items in both of these graphics collections can be viewed in the same way as the texts.  Click on the collection you wish to view, and then search through the list window that comes up for the item of your choice.  As you move the cursor down through the list, a preview of each graphic will appear in the right-hand window.  After selecting the desired item, click on the “view” button to open the graphic. Now you can resize the window in the usual way, or zoom in on the image using the magnifier buttons. You can also use the mouse to select a portion of the image to view in detail. Remember that all of these graphics files come in a standard format, which means that you can use your favorite word processor to bring these pictures into any document you want, and thus produce printed materials that incorporate high-quality graphic images. 
For details, see the next section entitled “Using ACIP Graphics in Your Own Documents”.
Using ACIP Graphics in Your Own Documents 
The woodblock carvings of eminent Tibetan authors and other personages and objects found in the ACIP Graphics Library can 
help a lot in making your own publications of related material more interesting and authoritative.  These images can be imported automatically into any major word-processing program, such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect.  First check the ACIP Graphics collections to find a suitable image; this is accessed from the “Graphics” menu item in the main menu bar at the top of the AsiaView window.

Once you have found the catalog number for the file containing 
the image you want, then go to the “Graphics” directory on the CD-ROM and from within your word-processor call it up. Almost every word-processor can additionally create an attractive box with a place for a caption below it, as in the examples you see here in the user manual.
Viewing Sanskrit Materials
At present, Sanskrit materials found on ACIP releases come only 
in roman letters.  Again we do not currently have the resources necessary to convert and display all these sections in the native Devanagari script, and we also recognize that the majority of Western students of Sanskrit are used to reading and using it in roman letters anyway.  Notes about the Sanskrit transliteration method used can be found below in the “Searching Sanskrit-Language Materials” section on page 71, as well as in the “ACIP Sanskrit Input Code Standards” section on page 161.
Viewing Partial, Incomplete, Copyrighted, 
or Restricted Texts
There are a great number of texts in the ACIP database that are either partial, incomplete, copyrighted, or restricted.  These are treated in special ways by the AsiaView program.  A “partial” text might first of all be a portion of a larger text that has intentionally not been input in its entirety at this stage in the Project.  An example would be the volume included with the Kangyur Collection that contains both a lengthy description of the history of its carving and a detailed catalog of its contents: we have input the catalog, but not yet the history.  Texts of this type include a “P” file-status letter in the database file name, and users should be aware that a search of the file will represent only a partial picture of the entire volume.  (The full details of the ACIP file nomenclature standards are described in a separate section of this name on page 168.)

“Incomplete” texts are frequently very large works, often in multiple volumes, which have not yet been typed in completely.  Sometimes the text verification software used by the Project has allowed us to isolate a few lines of a large work that have been corrupted, and texts marked “incomplete” often have only a paragraph or so missing.  (This is normally due either to nasty computer viruses that sometimes sweep through our Asian input centers, or to undetectable electrical power brown-outs during disk copying steps, when the copying goes on but the data of a few lines has, for a split-second, been corrupted.)

All texts with incomplete data include the letter “I” in the file name, and have a notice at the top of the text indicating that it is incomplete.  Users should watch the ACIP website for the full version of these texts as we receive the incomplete sections from 
our overseas data centers.  Incomplete texts are included in the database because, as any regular user knows, even a few available pages of a text can be extremely useful when looking for an explanation of a particular word or idea.

Copyrighted texts, in cases where ACIP has not yet negotiated with the owner of the copyright for permission to release the work to the general public, come up with a message that the item is copyrighted and available only for the in-house use of scholars immediately connected to the Project.  These files are included on the CD-ROM but are zipped with the popular “PK-Zip” program and encrypted with a special password; they can only be “unzipped” with this password, for in-house use.

There are about a thousand books in the ACIP database (above and beyond the “Thousand Books of Wisdom” on Release IV) that are, by tradition, considered restricted or secret: the “tantric” or esoteric works.  These are not contained in the CD-ROM at all, and when you attempt to access them a message comes up describing how to apply for them from the Project.  (This requires demonstrating that you have the traditional qualifications for reading these texts, and that you intend to honor our request to use the text only for your own personal study.)
Viewing the ACIP Input Code Chart
In order to perform searches successfully, you must be familiar 
with the ACIP input code standards.  The input code charts for both Tibetan and Sanskrit are found here in the user manual, and are also included in the AsiaView program so that they can be quickly accessed until you are completely acquainted with the roman-letter codes and can type them from memory when performing a search.

To access the input code chart, click on the “Tools” selection in 
the main menu.  Then click on “ACIP input code chart.”  Both Tibetan and Sanskrit standards are included in this one document.
Viewing ACIP Documentation
During the more than ten years that ACIP has been in existence, we have tried to be careful to document our work, so that users get the most out of the data.  You can view the entire documentation produced over the history of the Project, including this user manual, from within the AsiaView program by clicking on the “Reference” selection in the main menu, and then clicking on “ACIP documentation.”  Included in this selection as well are two hypertext essays authored early on in the Project; these give an excellent idea of how material can be searched, excerpted, and woven into a new theme for presenting the great ideas of Asia.  Please note that you can also access this same documentation from the “Tools” selection in the main menu by clicking on the “ACIP documentation” line there.
Printing the Texts in Roman or Tibetan Letters
You can print out selections either in roman or Tibetan letters.  Printing a text in AsiaView works the same as with any other Windows word-processing program.  Select the text you want to print from the preview screen.  Then block out the part you want to print, by holding down your left mouse button and moving the mouse down through the text to the end of your selection.  Then access the “File” menu option by typing Alt-F or clicking on it with your mouse.  Next print the selection by clicking on the “Print” option or by typing Ctrl-P.  You can print the entire text if you wish.

As described below, you have the option of moving selections from one or more texts to AsiaView’s own word processor; editing them; and then printing them from this window. (Due to a ug in the Windows operating system, cut and paste from Tibetan-letter files is not fully supported in this version of AsiaView.)

Please be aware that, as noted above, the more unusual stacks of Tibetan used to represent Sanskrit are not available in the free font supplied with AsiaView, and may not print properly.  If you are planning to print a lot of text, or hope to produce publishing- quality documents, you may want to look into one of the commercial, full-fledged Tibetan word-processing programs described in the section called “Update on Commercial Tibetan Word-Processing Programs” on page 133.
“	Text Search”: Searching Single English 
	or Tibetan-Language Text Files in Roman Letters
As we designed the AsiaView program, we took great care to assure that texts could be searched in a comprehensive and powerful way, since this is the most important single reason for the existence of the ACIP project and database.  You have a wide variety of options for seeking out the items you need, and these range from basic to highly sophisticated search tools.

The instructions here give you all the ways to use the AsiaView program to perform searches; a full tutorial on making searches that are powerful and highly effective, especially for the Tibetan language, is found below in the section entitled, “Tricks for Expert Searches of Tibetan Texts” on page 101. 

The most basic way of searching for a word or phrase is with the “Text search” function, which is performed on a single file in a single screen.  It is important to realize that the “text search” function is built to work with single text files.  In a case where you wish to search a very large text that is contained in two or more text files, you must either search each of them separately, or use the “global search” function, described in the section entitled “Global Search: Searching Groups of Tibetan or English-Language Text Files” on page 68.

Please note that you cannot search through a text with the “Text search” function until you have actually called it up with “Open in roman script” or “Open in Tibetan script” from the preview screen; or else brought it into the word processor.  Once the text is up, type Ctrl-S (which is the same thing as clicking on the “Edit” menu item and then clicking on the “Search” selection), or click on the “Search” button in the main menu bar. This brings you to the “Text search” screen.  Remember that the text search utility will search only the text displayed in the “active” window; you have to click on the desired text window to make it active before you can begin.

Take time to study the “Text search” screen, because you will not be able to execute a successful search unless it is filled in correctly.  To do the most basic kind of search, for any particular single syllable or group of syllables, type your string into any one of the boxes.

In Tibetan texts especially, it is often helpful to search for two variant spellings of the word or phrase you are looking for.  To do this successfully, you will need to specify one of the search operators in the “Relation” box.  Here there are four choices, that perform the following functions:

Search 
operator	Function

“OR”	Finds any one or a number of the contents of any of the eight  boxes in the text search window, whether or not contents of 		the other windows are also found in the text.

“nearby”	Finds the contents of any one of the boxes on the left if they  occur within a specified number of lines on the screen away 		from the contents of any of the boxes on the right, but only if the contents on the left precede the contents on the right.	
“AND”	Finds the contents of any one of the boxes on the left if they occur within a specified number of lines on the screen away 		from the contents of any of the boxes on the right, regardless of  whether the contents on the left precede the contents on 		the  right or not.

“NOT”	Finds the contents of any one of the boxes on the left unless they  occur as part of a string in any one of the boxes on the right.

It is very important to note that, if you are searching only for a single item (that is, if only one box is filled in with something), this option must be set on “AND”.  If instead it is set on “OR”, for example, the search program will begin finding any line with a blank space in it.

A line at the bottom of the search tool keeps you updated as to what percentage of text has already been searched.  AsiaView contains a powerful search engine and can look through a very large text in the Kangyur, 700 pages for example, in about five seconds, depending on the speed of your computer.

If in the “Results” section of the text search window you have specified “Highlight text,” then when you reach a hit the entire surrounding context is highlighted.  The number of lines of context highlighted is equal the number of lines to which the search tool has been set in the “Scope” option of the Text Search screen.  To repeat the search and go on to the next hit, simply press the F3 function key.  (But please note that if you use the F3 key to instruct the search tool to repeat a search when the “Direction” of the search is set for “Top down,” you will simply continue to get the first hit down from the top of the file!)

There is also an option built into the “Results” section of this window that allows you to quickly compile a list of all the hits in the entire text, by clicking on the “Build hit list” option.  When the search is executed this way, another screen comes up: the “Search results hit list” window.  This is a very exciting tool where every single hit is listed, with a small amount of the context in which it occurs displayed in the window, along with the screen line number in the text where the hit was found.

At the top of the window you will find highlighted the entire line 
of context in which the hit was made, along with a box summarizing the total number of hits, and the number of the hit being viewed currently in its greater context.  Please note that when a line has two hits in a single line, the counter only counts them as one hit, and only displays the line once in the hit list.  Therefore, you can not assume that the number of hits listed is the actual number of occurrences of a particular string, but only that these are the number of lines in which the string occurs.

When you find a particular hit in the hit list that seems especially interesting, you can automatically view the text where the hit occurred, either in roman or Tibetan letters.  To see it in roman letters, use your cursor to highlight the line you wish to see and click on the “OK” button at the bottom.  The roman-letter version of the text will come up opened to the correct line, which is highlighted.  To view the text at approximately the same line in Tibetan letters, then simply click on the icon with the Tibetan letter ka in the AsiaView main menu bar.
It is very important that, before you attempt a search, you specify the “Direction” in the text search window.  A complete search of the entire file, regardless of where the cursor is presently located, requires that the direction be set to the “Top down” option.  Sometimes though it is very useful to begin a search for a new word or phrase after finding another one first; for example, when you want to reach a specific section in a text and only then see if a concept is discussed within that section.  In this case the “Direction” would have to be set to the “Cursor down” option, meaning that the search begins from the current position of the cursor on down.

It frequently happens that you are moving quickly through 
your hits in a text (by striking the F3 key repeatedly) and skip an interesting hit because you couldn’t stop your finger in time.  Or you may notice that you have already moved beyond the chapter you wanted to study and wish to go back.  In either case it would be desirable to do a “reverse” or “backwards” search from the position of the cursor, by clicking on the “Cursor up” option in 
the “Direction” section of the text search window.  As of the writing of this user manual, we have begun the process of adding this function, and you will see a non-activated button for this in the text search window.  We will enable this function by the time of the next ACIP release.

Under the “Method” section of the text search screen, you have three options: “Normal,” “Wildcards,” and “Fuzzy.”  Most often, this section should be set on “Normal.”  A “Wildcard” setting allows you to look for two variants of the same word; for example, to search for the Tibetan phrases {SPONG} and {SPANG} at the same time, click on the “Wildcard” option and type {SP?NG} in the box.  The question mark stands for any single character, whether an alphabet symbol or a number, and so this search will hit on both variants.

This same “Wildcard” option comes with several other choices.  The wildcard operator “asterisk” (*) is used to represent zero or more characters, (including no characters) within the limits of the number of lines specified in your “Scope” option.  The characters represented can even include “white space” items like spaces and blank lines.  Thus you could execute a search for the single string {RDO*ZLAS} and hit all the following variations of the same Tibetan phrase: {RDO RJE BZLAS PA}, {RDO RJE’I BZLAS PA}, or {RDOR BZLAS}. 
The wildcard operator “number sign” (#) matches any one numeric character.  If you were curious to see how many of the Tibetan texts in the database mentioned the number of a Western-style year in this century, for example, you could search for 19## and find all of them.  On the other hand, the wildcard operator “at” or “each” (@) represents any single alpha character (letter of the alphabet or related symbols, as opposed to a number).

Please be aware that, since the symbols mentioned above (?,*,#, and @) represent search operators rather than normal symbols when the “wildcard search” is turned on, you cannot search for them as symbols when this option has been selected.  If you do have to search for any of these as characters in their own right, then re-set your “Method” selection to “Normal.”

The “fuzzy” search option allows you to look for a word when you are not sure of its spelling.  This can be very useful in Tibetan, for example, when you hear a word spoken, since it could be spelled in a wide variety of ways.  The option functions by working around a defined number of mismatches or other problems that prevent a match.  The current version of AsiaView does not allow the user to define the number of problems, but is set on a number (two) that is most effective for the number of characters in the average Tibetan syllable.

Suppose, for example, that you hear a Lama quote a phrase like gyagar ke du.  A search for {GYA GAR KE DU} finds the correct spelling, {RGYA GAR SKAD DU}.  But please be warned that the very nature of this kind of search very typically also brings up a large number of false hits, due to the wide ambiguity that must be allowed for any hit at all.

Note finally the “Search type” section of the text search screen in the lower right hand corner.  There are a number of options here: “text only,” “formatted text,” and “case sensitive.”  It is very important for most searches that this option be set on “text only.”  The “text only” option tells the program to ignore all the special formatting information in the text, such as line separators, page numbers, and editing comments.  If you do not set this option correctly, and search for a number of syllables that are separated by one of the formatting codes, you will not get a hit.
In a case where you wish to hit the formatting codes as well (for example, if you want to check a citation on a specific known page number by searching for this page number indicator), then set this option to “formatted text.”

The “case sensitive” option is vital for more sophisticated searches where a difference between an uppercase letter and a lowercase letter is important.  In the ACIP input code, for example, the retroflex dental row of Sanskrit-Tibetan letters is indicated by using the lowercase: the difference between a regular na and a retroflex na, to use one illustration, is that the first appears as {NA} and the second as {nA}.  A successful search for the latter then would require that the “case sensitive” option be turned on, in which case a checkmark appears in the box next to the option.  This option is especially important, therefore, for searching Sanskrit in Tibetan letters, where there are so many retroflex letters.
“	Text Search”: Searching Single Text Files 
	in Tibetan Letters
Developing methods to allow searching of text files as they appear on the screen in Tibetan script required some programming gymnastics, but the result is a very effective tool that will be especially useful for native Tibetan speakers, thus opening up the vast ACIP database even to those with almost no knowledge of English or computers.

First bring up a Tibetan-script window by clicking “Open in Tibetan script” at the bottom of the preview screen you use to select and preview your text.  Next hit Ctrl-S, or click on the search button, to open the text search window.  You will see a roman-letter version of the text open up briefly, followed by the normal text search window.

In order to tell the AsiaView program to search even a Tibetan-script document, you must still enter Tibetan from the regular QWERTY keyboard, using the ACIP input code.  Due to numerous considerations such as the technical problems and need for proprietary software that will soon be outdated, we have decided not to attempt to incorporate a separate Tibetan keyboard at this time.  Rather, AsiaView has been designed so that you can use any IBM-compatible computer keyboard in the world, without special software, to  access the Tibetan-letter search function.

Following the instructions in the section called “Text Search: Searching Single English or Tibetan-Language Text Files in Roman Letters” on page 61, define the search you wish to execute.  When you get a hit, you will see it come up in the roman-letter window.  Now go up to the bar of icons at the top of the full program screen, and click on the icon with the Tibetan letter ka.  The cursor will jump to the section of the Tibetan-letter text where your hit is located.  The section is not highlighted, and you may have to look for a line or two in either direction to find your hit.

To repeat a search, you must click back on the roman-letter version of the text, hit F3 to repeat the search, and then click again on the icon with the Tibetan letter ka.  Remember that the F3 key does not work to find the next hit when the “Direction” of the search is set at “Top down”, since you will simply continue to hit the first match from the top of the file.				
“	Global Search”: Searching Groups of Tibetan 
	or English-Language Text Files
The most powerful kind of search that can be done with the ACIP database involves searching entire sections of the database for a particular concept to access the wisdom of authors who lived thousands of miles or thousands of years apart, to gain a deeper understanding of the idea.  The AsiaView program has been designed to give you maximum power to search a wide variety of standard groups of texts such as the Kangyur or Tengyur Collections, and to actually design your own customized group searches, for example with your two favorite authors alone.  For this you must learn to use the special “global search” function.

The global search function is accessed either from the “Edit” selection in the main menu bar at the top of the screen, or else by simply hitting Ctrl-G from the main AsiaView window itself.  Alternatively, you can click on the “global search” button on the main menu bar. You will see two tabs in the global search window: “Text selection” and “Search criteria”.  The search criteria work exactly the same as the “Text search” function for looking through single text files, as described in the “Text Search: Searching Single English or Tibetan-Language Text Files in Roman Letters” section on page 61.

It is important that you define the text selection carefully; this will decide which group of texts is searched by the global search function.  Click first on the small arrow next to “Text type”.  Here 
you will find a number of pre-defined groups of texts that you 
can search: the Kangyur Collection; the Tengyur Collection; the Sungbum Collection; Reference Materials (in groups of Catalogs, Dictionaries, and Documents); and Sanskrit Materials.  Last in the list are the “User-defined Trees,” where you can define your own groups of texts for searching.  The instructions for creating these trees or customized groups of texts, by the way, are found in the section entitled “Creating Your Own Pre-Defined Groups of Texts, for Specialized Searches” on page 73.

Suppose you decide that you wish to search the entire Kangyur 
for a certain item.  In this case, you would click on the “Kangyur” option in the “Text type” box.  Remember first to click on the small arrow next to the “Listed by” box, in order to specify whether you want to see all the titles in Tibetan, Sanskrit, or English.

Selecting the “Kangyur” option from the “Text type” brings up, in the left half of the window, a list of every text in the database found in the Kangyur.  To start your global search, you must first move all the texts to be searched to the right half of window.  To do this, place your mouse arrow on the box with all the Kangyur texts listed, on the left hand of the screen.  Click on the righthand mouse button, which will bring up a little box that says gives you the option of “Select” or “Select all”.  Clicking on the “Select all” option highlights the entire list of Kangyur titles.

Next click on the highlighted section with the left-hand mouse button, continue to hold it down, and use your mouse to move the entire list over to the right half of the window.  Now release the mouse button, which drops all the texts into the “Text selection” part of the window.  These then become the texts that will be covered by the global search.

Alternately you can first click the “Select all” in the list of Kangyur titles and then click “Select,” both from the right-hand mouse button on the list, and all titles will be moved to the group to be searched, on the right side of the screen.  You can also very easily define two entire collections of texts to be covered in the global search; for example, both the entire Kangyur Collection and the entire Tengyur Collection.  Simply follow the instructions above for selecting the entire Kangyur, and then repeat these instructions for the Tengyur.  In the right-hand screen (the list of texts to be searched), you will find all the works of both collections.

There is a clever way to exclude a few texts from a larger list before moving it over to the “Text selection” part on the right half of the window.  First hold your mouse arrow over the left-hand section of the window and hit the right mouse button, and “Select all” the texts.  Then move the mouse arrow to the title you wish to exclude from 
the search.  Hold down the Ctrl key, and hit the left-hand mouse button.  You will see the highlight over this particular text disappear.

Now place the mouse arrow again over any of the remaining high-lighted sections, hold down the Ctrl key and, simultaneously holding down the left mouse button, move the entire remaining list over to the right hand part of the window: the “Text selection” area.  Then hit “OK” to begin your search.

If you wish to perform a global search only on a few selected texts from within a group, you can either make a temporary group or a permanent customized group; if you choose the latter method, you can keep the grouping you have defined for future searches.  This involves creating a new user-defined tree or group, and again you should refer to the section called “Creating Your Own Pre-Defined Groups of Texts, for Specialized Searches” on page 73 to learn how to do this.

If you simply wish to make a quick grouping of texts for a single search, then you must first locate the texts you want within a specific group.  For example, if you plan to search a group of two 
or three Mahayana sutras from the Kangyur Collection, then first select “Kangyur” in the “Text type” box.  Place the cursor one by one on the texts you wish to include in your search, click on the right-hand mouse button, and choose the “Select” option (not the “Select all” option).  You will see the title appear in the “Text selection” box on the left hand of the global search window.  Then choose the other titles you wish to include, in the same way.  Or you can hold down the Shift key to highlight a group of texts, then click the right-hand mouse button and click “select”.

If you make a mistake in your text selection, you can always remove one or more texts from the “Text selection” area, or even start over again altogether.  To do this, put your mouse arrow on the right-hand side of the screen, and click on the individual text that you wish to remove from the global search.  Then hit the right-hand mouse button and choose the “Delete” option; the title will disappear from the text selection.  If you want to empty the entire “Text selection” area, hit the right-hand mouse button and choose the “Clear all” option.

Remember, for example, that if you want to search a Kangyur text along with a related Tengyur commentary and a Sungbum commentary on that, you should select the “All” option in the “Text type” box, and then move the texts you want into the “Text selection” area.  Please note that at present the global search function builds a hit list of finds; there is no option, as with the 
text search tool for individual files, to skip through the text and view highlighted hits, since no single text file is up on the screen.  However, you can select one of the hits from the hit list, as described in the “Hit-list” option of the “Text search” function, view it in roman letters, and then switch over to the Tibetan-letter version of the same hit if you feel more comfortable reading Tibetan script. 
Searching Sanskrit-Language Materials
There are many different standards for representing Sanskrit letters, and ACIP policy to date has been to retain, as far as possible, the standard used by any particular text for the input of that text.  We hope later to go back and convert every Sanskrit word to a common standard that can be searched from a normal QWERTY keyboard without any special diacritics below or atop any letters.

In practice, these diacritics in the digital material available from even major libraries and other institutions in the West are simply stripped off, leaving the frustrated user faced for example with the sounds nya, na in its non-retroflex form, na in its retroflex form, and nga all represented by the same letter “n”.

Here are a few of the systems a user will encounter searching the Sanskrit-language materials, with typical examples of the texts input with each.  Please note that many of the Sanskrit-language materials are copyrighted and cannot be released to the general public; they are on the CD-ROM only in an encrypted form, for in-house use.

1) The following materials are formatted in ACIP Tibetan-language input code, in the same way that the Tibetans transcribed Sanskrit (this protocol is explained in the sections named “ACIP Tibetan Input Code Standards” on page 153 and “ACIP Sanskrit Input Code Standards” on page 161):
 	¥	Sanskrit titles, mantras, and other similar items within 				Tibetan-language texts
	¥	The Library of Congress Sanskrit listings
	¥	The Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary of Namgyal Tsering

2) The following are formatted in an ACIP Sanskrit input code that requires no diacritics above or below any other letters (this protocol is explained in the section “ACIP Sanskrit Input Code Standards” on page 161):
	¥	Whitney’s classic Sanskrit grammar
	¥	His famous Verbal Roots of the Sanskrit Language
	¥	Robert Lacey’s comparative edition of the famous 
		Tibetan-Sanskrit glossary, the Mahavyutpatti
	¥	The opening sections of Monier-Williams’ massive 
		Sanskrit-English dictionary

3) The following are formatted in a very simple coding with the normal diacritic mark simply placed just after the letter to which it refers; this was designed for the menus and catalog of the AsiaView program, to facilitate its use by persons who are perhaps not fluent in Sanskrit; futhermore, since the words are restricted to a very specific list of Sanskrit only, the diacritics cannot be confused with other formatting:
 	¥	All menus and other parts of the AsiaView program
 	¥	Specific fields of the ACIP Master Catalog where 
		no ambiguity is possible

4) Certain Sanskrit names and words are simply put into a simplified pronunciation, in ACIP documents that will be read or used by the general public.  These include the following:
•	Specific fields of the ACIP Master Catalog, such as the text titles, which will be read by the general public and where other formatting may be ambiguous
•	Similar parts of the ACIP release brochures and other printed materials

Creating Your Own Pre-Defined Groups of Texts, 
for Specialized Searches
One of the most important features of this new version of the AsiaView program is the ability to create your own customized groups of texts for repeated searching.  Here are some examples of the kinds of groups of texts that you might want to create:
¥	An original text from the Kangyur Collection, several early Indian commentaries from the Tengyur Collection, and a range of later Tibetan treatises, all relating to the same subject that you are researching
¥	All of the texts by three Lamas of the same immediate lineage, to compare their treatment of a certain subject
¥	 A group of texts from a particular geographic area, to isolate regional expressions or the like, in order to identify the source area for other materials
¥	A group of texts from a particular era, to identify peculiar usages of a certain historical period, in order to establish the source era for other materials
In order to create such a group, click first on the “Tools” selection in the main menu bar.  Then click on “Tree management,” since you will be creating a “tree” or group of related texts.  When the “Tree management” window comes up, click on the “Options” selection at the top of the window.  A screen will come up giving you nine different options for how to display the texts from which you wish to select your group.  For example, if you want to create a group of texts by a particular Tibetan writer, then you might want to set this screen on “Author (Tibetan)”.

Now go back to the top of this window and click on the “Display” selection.  Go to the right side of the screen that comes up, and click the arrow next to the “Text type” box.  This will give you a choice for the collection from which to select your texts: Kangyur, Tengyur, Sungbum, or Reference.  Click on the source for your texts, which will be listed according to the selection you have made in the “Options” window.

Now move the texts you want in your new tree over to the left side of the screen: to the area under the “Tree name” box.  One way to do this is to move texts over one by one, by moving your mouse to the appropriate text and clicking on it, and then holding down your left mouse button while moving the mouse arrow over to the left side of the screen.  Releasing the mouse button drops the text in the group you want to create.  Alternately, simply put the cursor on the text you wish to move, click on the right-hand mouse button, and hit “S” for “Select.”  The text then appears in the group to be searched.

You can also block out groups of texts from the right hand of the screen by holding down the Ctrl key and then your left mouse button, and moving the mouse down the list of texts.  Then place your mouse over the block of texts, hold down the left mouse key, hold down the Ctrl key, and move your mouse arrow to the left side of the screen to drop the entire block of texts. 

If you want to move a majority of the texts on the right half of the screen to the left, it’s easier to block them all out, and then exclude the ones you do not want to move by holding the mouse arrow over each one to be excluded, holding down the Ctrl key, and clicking on the left mouse button.  Then move the other texts over to the left side.
Now that all the texts you want to form a grouping have been moved over to the left side of the window, you can save this grouping by placing the mouse arrow over this side of the window and clicking on the right mouse button.  For a new group tree, choose the “Save as” option, and give your group a name.  In the future, this tree will then appear in the global search window, and you can search your new group.

The new group, by the way, is accessed within the global search window by calling up the global search function (Ctrl-G), clicking on the small arrow next to the “Text type” box, and next clicking on “User-defined trees.”  Then click on the arrow next to the “Listed by” box, and select the name of the tree that you created.  Please note that the AsiaView program gives your new tree its name by putting the name you have given it after several letters that the program needs to know how you like the tree displayed (for example, by Sanskrit title).

You can also modify an existing group tree, in order to add or delete texts from a group that you have already created.  Be very careful in choosing this tree, since you do not want to corrupt a tree that has been pre-defined by ACIP and which holds, for example, all Kangyur texts by Sanskrit title.  If you do accidentally corrupt an existing ACIP group tree, you can always copy it again to your hard disk from the CD-ROM.

To modify an existing tree, follow the steps above, with the addition of selecting the tree you want to work on by clicking on the arrow next to the “Tree name” box and clicking on the desired tree.  When you are finished modifying the tree, click on the right-hand mouse button and select “Save” (or “Save As” if you want to save it with a new name).

If you want to clear the contents of the left-hand side of the “Tree management” screen and start over again, click on this area with the right-hand mouse button, and then select “New tree.”  If you want to clear the right side of this same screen, go to the “Text type” box and change your selection to “<None>“.

Note finally that you can add or delete main groupings and subgroupings  (called “root” and “children”) in your group tree by highlighting the desired line, clicking the right-hand mouse button, and selecting “add root,” “add child,” “delete,” or “delete children,” as desired. The options for “add root” and “add child” will ask you to give a name to the new root or branch.
Excerpting Selections of Text
A very common use of the ACIP text database is the quick creation of a short selection of text for use in a class or discussion group.  The copy-and-paste functions built into AsiaView allow you to create such documents in a flash.

Go first to the main menu and select the collection where your text is located; then bring it up in a window as described in the section called “Viewing Texts in Roman or Tibetan Letters from the Main Menu” on page 52.  Move your mouse to the start of the part of the text you wish to select and click the mouse button, then hold down the Shift key, and move your mouse arrow down to the end of your selection, until it is all highlighted.  Next click on the “Edit” selection in the main menu, and click on “Copy”; or simply type Ctrl-C once you have blocked out the selection you want.  This stores your selection in the program’s clipboard.

Now click on the “File” option from the main menu, and click 
on “New” to open the AsiaView word processor.  (This can also be accomplished with the shortcut Ctrl-N.)  Click on the “Edit” option in the main menu, and then on “Paste.”  (There is also a shortcut for this operation, which is Ctrl-V.)  Your selection will automatically appear in the word processor.

Please note that, due to a compatibility problem in the Windows operating system, Tibetan-letter selections cannot be reliably copied and pasted to the AsiaView wordprocessor.  To modify or create a document that will show on the screen or print out in Tibetan letters, you should first move or create the selection in roman letters, and then use the Tibetan-letter conversion program to make it into a Tibetan-letter or “RTF” file that will show in Tibetan.  For instructions on how to do this, please refer to the section called “Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files” on page 78.

Also note that, depending on your screen option choices, you may not be able to view the buttons at the top right-hand corner of the word-processor screen that allow you to minimize it, maximize it, or leave it.  If this occurs, hold down your left mouse button on the header (the bar across the top of the window of the word processor) and, continuing to hold this button, move the entire word-processor window over towards the left-hand side of the screen.  Releasing the button drops this window where you wish.
Editing Selections of Text
With the selection of text appearing in the AsiaView word processor, you can edit it and do other basic, standard formatting such as bold or italics.  ACIP releases on CD-ROM are designed so that you cannot modify the original file.  In order to make any changes to a file, you will have to copy it to the word processor first, (as described in the immediately preceding section, “Excerpting Selections of Text.”)

If you do modify and save any file to your own disk, we ask that you change the name of the file, especially the three letters of the extension.  If you would like to use a file and are uncertain whether it is the original ACIP version or not, one way to confirm this is to compare the number of characters, or byte count, in this file with the number listed for the text in the ACIP Master Catalog.  The byte counts in the catalog, by the way, are rounded off to the nearest hundred.

If you wish to modify a file and either print it or display it on the screen in Tibetan letters, you must make your changes first in the roman version and finally convert this to a Tibetan-letter or “RTF” file.  This same rule applies whenever you have typed a new Tibetan text in, and intend to use it in the AsiaView program: 
start with a roman-letter version, and then create a corresponding Tibetan-letter version with the conversion program.

Our goal with the AsiaView program has been to provide you with a quick and easy way of viewing and searching Tibetan-language documents.  If you need to do any regular Tibetan word processing or editing, you will certainly find it easier to purchase one of the full-fledged Tibetan-language word processors on the market.  A brief guide to the programs available is found in the section entitled “Update on Commercial Tibetan Word-Processing Programs” on page 133.  All of the major Tibetan-language word processors on the market at present have the capacity to accept a standard ACIP roman-letter file and convert it automatically into a Tibetan-letter file.

To convert a roman-letter file to a Tibetan-letter file, refer to the following section called “Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files”.
Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files
A special utility for converting roman-letter files to Tibetan-letter files has been created for this release by Mr. Gerry Wiener of Colorado, USA, and we at the Project would like to express our thanks to him for the special effort he made to do so, on short notice.  This utility allows you to create your own Tibetan-letter text file for viewing and printing, and for insertion into the existing ACIP database so that you can include it in your regular database searches and so on.

To access this program, go to the “Samrtf” subdirectory of the “Convert” directory on the CD-ROM through the normal Windows method of clicking on “Start” and then clicking on “Run”.  
In the “Open” box that comes up, type the letter of your CD-ROM drive, followed by a colon, and then click “OK”.

Now double-click on the folder called “Convert” and then one called “samrtf”.  You will see one icon that looks like a “dorje” or diamond-bolt, and another like a small notepad.  Double-clicking on the diamond-bolt brings up the “Asian Classics Conversion” window, from which you actually perform the conversion.  Double- clicking on the notepad brings up a document written by Mr. Wiener with the instructions on how to run the conversion program.  Here is the full text of these instructions:

About the Conversion Program
This program converts text files that use the Asian Classics (ACIP) Tibetan transliteration scheme into Rich Text Format (RTF) files.  The resulting RTF files are placed in the same directory as the source files and are given the same name but with the new file extension “.rtf”.  Since the resulting RTF files encode Tibetan using the Sambhota fonts, you must have the chosen Sambhota font sets active in your system for the Tibetan to display properly.

Multiple fonts are needed in order to produce the many different Tibetan letter forms, and certain older software applications might not be able to process the RTF files correctly.  However, the WordPad accessory in Windows 95, along with most current versions of popular word-processing programs, are able to display these RTF files properly.

Microsoft Word Users:  Line-breaking, which normally occurs at a “tsek,” does not function properly in Word 97 but does work correctly in Word 6.0 and Word 95.  Typing of Tibetan or mixed Tibetan and English is made easy by special keyboard programs that run in either Word 6.0 or Word 95; check the Nitartha website (http://www.nitartha.org) for how to obtain these keyboards and for news on the availability of updated versions of Sambhota.

How to Use the Conversion Program
Standard Conversion
In order to convert any file using the ACIP transliteration scheme, you need to do the following:
1. Select the Tibetan font:
If the text contains both Tibetan and English, you should choose either Esama (TrueType) or Esamafont (PostScript).  Note that TrueType is directly supported by Windows, whereas PostScript will require Adobe Type Manager (ATM).
If the text only contains Tibetan and uses multiple point sizes, then you should choose either Sama (TrueType) or Samafont (PostScript).
2. Set the point size for the Normal Tibetan and Small Tibetan.
Usually 28 points is a good size for Normal Tibetan, and 24 points is a good size for Small Tibetan.  
3. Check “Keep Carriage Returns” for lists.
If the Tibetan text to be converted is a glossary or list requiring a carriage return at the end of each line, check this box.  For free-flowing text, do not check this box.
4. 	Click on the directory containing the file(s) to be converted 		and then click on the file(s). 
If you hold the Ctrl key down and click at the same time, you can select multiple files.  You can also use the Shift key and drag the mouse to select multiple files that are listed adjacent to one another in the file list.
5. Press the “Convert” button.
A window will pop up showing the status of the conversion. 
Wildcard Conversion
Wildcard Conversion can be used when you need to convert files in an entire directory subtree.  In order to use Wildcard Conversion, you need to do the following:
1. Follow steps 1Ð3 in the “Standard Conversion” discussion above.
2. Select “Wildcard Conversion” under the “File” menu.
3. 	In the drive/directory windows, click on the base directory of the 				directory subtree you are interested in converting.
For example, if you wish to convert all *.txt files on the C drive you should choose C:\ in the drive window.
4. 	Enter the file name pattern of the files to be converted in the 			“File Name Pattern” box.
For example, *.txt could be entered here.  
5. Press the “Select Files” button.
A file list will appear at the bottom of the dialog window. If you hold the Ctrl key down and click at the same time, you can select multiple files.  You can also use the Shift key and drag the mouse to select multiple files that are listed adjacent to one another in the file list.
6. Press the “Convert Files” button.
A window will pop up showing the status of the conversion.

The letters being converted into Tibetan can appear in two different sizes within the finished document, and you specify the two font sizes in the conversion program.  This allows you to include yik-chung, or sections of smaller Tibetan letters that are used for notes in Tibetan texts, by enclosing those portions in parentheses.  Any sections of the document that are enclosed by either curly braces or square brackets will not be converted by the conversion program and will remain in roman letters.  All the other sections will be converted into Tibetan.  This principle can be used to create bilingual documents, as detailed in the next section entitled “Creating Bilingual Documents”.

You should be aware that the installation for AsiaView also installs the conversion program on your own hard disk.  It is automatically placed in the following path, and can be accessed there as well as from the CD-ROM: x:\program files\Acip\AsiaView20\Sambhota (where “x” is the drive letter of your computer in which the “Program files” directory is located).

Please also note that there are three additional versions of the conversion program on the ACIP CD-ROM.  In the “DLL” subdirectory under the “Convert\Samrtf” directory of the CD-ROM you will find a version, written in C, that can be called directly from another program.  In the “Mac” subdirectory is a Macintosh converter for Sambhota.  Finally, there is a Windows 3.x version of the converter under the subdirectory “Win16”.

A final note in the conversion of roman-letter Tibetan documents to Tibetan-script documents: as described in the section entitled “Update on Commercial Tibetan-Language Word Processors” on page 133,  the fonts for Tibetan script that give perhaps the most attractive results for Tibetan-language publishing are those used by the Tibetan! program of Mr. Tony Duff.  Mr. Duff has been kind enough to write a special program that takes documents composed in roman-letter ACIP input code and converts them automatically to the format used in the Tibetan! program.

This conversion routine is in the public domain, and has been included here on the CD-ROM in the “Tccwp” folder under the directory “Convert”.  To use the converter, copy all the contents of the “Tccwp” folder to a folder on your hard disk, then simply double-click on the file named “Tacip.exe”.  (Note that the files output by this converter require WordPerfect for DOS version 6.x and the Tibetan! program.)
Creating Bilingual Documents
Another popular use of ACIP data is in the creation of bilingual documents; for example, a Tibetan text for a class cut up into paragraphs with the corresponding English interspersed in paragraphs, or a Tibetan prayer for public recitation interspersed with the pronunciation in roman letters for a Western audience.

AsiaView has a limited ability to help you create these documents.  First call up the roman-letter version of the text that will be the Tibetan-letter basis of your document.  Block out the part you 
want to use, and paste it to a new document in the AsiaView word processor.  Now type in the parts that you want to appear in English or other roman-letter languages, and enclose these passages in curly braces. Then run the file through the conversion program, as described in the previous section called “Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files”.

Any section that has been put in square brackets or curly braces will not be converted by the conversion program and will remain in roman letters.  All the other sections will be converted into Tibetan.  Remember that the letters being converted into Tibetan can appear in two different sizes within the finished document, and you specify the two font sizes in the conversion program.  This allows you to include yik-chung, or sections of smaller Tibetan letters, that are used for notes in Tibetan texts by enclosing these sections within parentheses.

Please be aware that the conversion program has some limitations 
and may add a few extra characters, which can be cleaned up from the file.  If you plan to do any significant amount of bilingual word processing, you might want to invest in one of the major commercial Tibetan word processors described in the section called “Update on Commercial Tibetan Word-Processing Programs” on page 133.

Using the ACIP Master Catalog
General Overview of the ACIP Master Catalog
ACIP staff have spent literally years of hard work making sure that the ACIP Master Catalog is a detailed wealth of information for users of the database.  It is important to know how to utilize the Catalog properly in order to get the greatest use out of the database.  An abbreviated version of the CatalogÑwith only the catalog number, Tibetan title, Sanskrit title, English title, and author’s name (in Tibetan, Sanskrit, or English as applicable)Ñis found in a printed form at the back of the user manual, for leisurely reference.  (This brief form of the catalog is also found in a WordPerfect computer file under the subdirectory “Briefcat” in the “Acipdocs” directory of the CD-ROM; an RTF version is found under the subdirectory “Rtf”.)

To access the full ACIP Master Catalog, select the “Tools” item from the main menu bar and click on “ACIP Master Catalog”.  In the window that appears next, you will find the entire catalog in a convenient database format.

This catalog contains information that drives the entire group tree system for the AsiaView program, meaning that it must be up-to-date and accurate for you to search and view text files successfully.  Be careful when attempting to modify the catalog in any way, since this can affect the operation of the entire program.  If you accidentally corrupt this file, you can always re-install the program from the Release IV CD-ROM.

As you use the ACIP Master Catalog, you will come across items marked with an “at” sign (@).  These represent data such as dates of authors or similar information which ACIP staff have not been able to locate, or about which we have some doubt.  We would greatly appreciate any assistance from users who can help us fill in this information.

ACIP Master Catalog Field Descriptions
Here is a brief description of the different kinds of information you will find in the full ACIP Master Catalog:
Catalog number
This is a unique serial number given to each separate work in the ACIP database.  A full explanation of the catalog number assignment standards is found in the section called “ACIP File Nomenclature and Catalog Number Conventions” on page 168.
Tibetan title
This field gives the Tibetan title of the work, if it has one.  Due 
to space limitations in this field, we have not included additional Tibetan phrases such as “Herein contained” (BZHUGS SO,) or “Authored by...”

Because this field is limited to 255 characters in order for the database structure to work correctly, there are also cases where we have had to abbreviate very long Tibetan titles.  Whenever a title has been abbreviated in any way, it is followed by elision marks (...) to indicate that this has been done, and the full Tibetan title has been included in the “Notes” field, which has no such limitation.  Please note that shortened titles in the abbreviated printed catalog at the back of the user manual follow this same convention.
English title
This is either a translation of the Tibetan title, or the original title in the case of works such as reference materials with English titles.  The “English title” field also is restricted to 255 characters, and so longer titles have again been abbreviated (to match the abbreviated Tibetan), and elision marks (...) added to the end of the title.  In such a case, the full English title will always be included in the “Notes” field, which has no size restriction.  The English titles 
have been translated from the Tibetan by Geshe Michael Roach; 
we would appreciate any feedback from users who catch any errors in them, or who have any suggestions for improving them.
Sanskrit title
This field gives the Sanskrit title as found in the Tohoku Catalog, 
or other authoritative sources.  There are many questions about the correct spelling of these titles, and this subject will occupy scholars for many years to come.  In general, we have stuck to the Tohoku version, corrected in the case of obvious errors by an expert Sanskrit consultant to the Project, Mr. David Reigle of Colorado, USA.  Because the titles are restricted to a specific field and there can be no possible ambiguity, we have treated the diacritics by simply placing them in the next space after the letter to which they refer.  Sanskritists will find this system very convenient when using the catalog or AsiaView program menus.
Author (in Tibetan)
This field gives the Tibetan name of the author.  As anyone familiar with Tibetan literature knows, single Tibetan authors may have a wide variety of different names: birth name, novice monk’s name, full monk’s name, secret initiation name, regional nickname, various honorific names, and so on.  We have chosen the most common, simple name by which the person is known, including brief initial honorifics where these are quite common.

We have made sure though that you can locate the author by using any piece of their name: you do not have to try to guess exactly how we chose to represent it.  Please refer to the instructions in the section called “Searching the ACIP Master Catalog” on page 93.  By the time of the next release, we hope to have finished an “authority” look-up table with all possible variations of any particular author’s name.

Please note that, for those authors whose original names were Sanskrit and who also have a translated Tibetan name, both names can be accessed under “Author (in Sanskrit)” and “Author (in Tibetan),” respectively.  Names of editors, translators, and contributors or the like are included not in the author field but, on occasion, in the notes or comment field.  This is important, especially in those fairly common instances where a close disciple of an eminent Lama has taken down and edited notes of an oral teaching; we have normally attributed the work to the person giving the lectures, and listed the student as an editor in the notes or comment field.  You should, therefore, remember to search these fields as well when looking for a particular person.
Author (in Sanskrit)
This field gives the Sanskrit name of the author, as found in the Tohoku Catalog, or other authoritative sources.  There is much research to be done on these names, for example, when deciding whether two similar names are referring to the same author or not.  Aside from some very basic work, we have not attempted to adjust these names, nor have we made any assumptions that similar names necessarily indicate the same author, since in many cases this would certainly be a mistake.  Nor have we attempted to consolidate even different known names of a particular author into one name, for the same reason.

We, therefore, encourage users who wish to search a group of texts that they know to be by the same author to create their own customized group tree, following the instructions in the section entitled “Creating Your Own Pre-Defined Groups of Texts, for Specialized Searches” on page 73.

Again, note that for those authors whose original names were Sanskrit and who also have a translated Tibetan name, both names can be accessed under “Author (in Sanskrit)” and “Author (in Tibetan),” respectively.  See “Author (in Tibetan)” section, just above, for a discussion of how we have treated editors, translators, and the like.
Author (in English)
The “Author (in English)” field is normally used for non-Tibetan or non-Indian authors of works, and gives the normal English spelling of the author’s name; last name first, and first name second.  Again, this field can be searched with even a part of the author’s name, so this order is not important.  When a Tibetan author has a generally accepted anglicized name, such as “His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama,” this is sometimes included in the “Author (in English)” field; in such case, the corresponding true Tibetan name in Tibetan spelling is included in the “Author (in Tibetan)” field.

Again, see the “Author (in Tibetan)” section above for a discussion of how we have treated editors, translators, and the like.
Author dates
This field gives the year of birth and of passing away for the author of the work.  As any scholar of this material knows, establishing the correct dates for persons over twenty centuries of time, in varying calendrical systems, can be a very difficult process.  We have not attempted to undertake any new research into these dates but normally only cite generally accepted authorities.  As a first choice for Tibetan authors, we usually go to the dates given by the United States Library of Congress (these are found in the ACIP database files R0007 and R0012).

We also avail ourselves of the dates given in Roerich’s translation of The Blue Annals (Deb-ther sngon-po, R0051); in the timeline section of The Great Dictionary of the Tibetan Language (Tsig-mdzod chen-mo, R0002); and in the biographical sections of the native Tibetan catalog The Treasure of Knowable Things (Shes-bya’i gter-mdzod, R0003 and R0010).  We also rely heavily upon the expertise of 
the incomparable E. Gene Smith, former Asian field director of 
the Library of Congress and currently head of Himalayan & Inner Asian Resources (HIAR) of New York City.  For the dates of Indian authors, we rely almost exclusively on the Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophy by Prof. Karl Potter.
In-situ Sanskrit title
In most cases, texts in the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections start off with the title of the work given in Sanskrit, written in Tibetan letters.  These are often very helpful in establishing the correct original title, and, incidentally, also provide a very convenient Tibetan-Sanskrit and Sanskrit-Tibetan glossary when digitalized.  These titles have each been laboriously re-checked in situ, from 
the actual text itself, by several members of the ACIP staff: especially Ven. Thupten Tsultrim (Serge Ledan) and Mr. Robert Chilton.
Common Tibetan title
Most major Tibetan works have a full formal title and a separate shorter title by which the text is popularly known.  The popular title is found in this field.  This is a relatively new detail added to the Master Catalog, and only a few of the texts have their common title listed.  Again, we would appreciate any help from users in filling in this information.
Margin or “End” Tibetan title
Tibetan woodblock prints often contained a shortened title in a small box at the left of the front side of the folio.  This field is reserved for titles of this kind.  Please note that this field is a new addition to the catalog and has not been completed for very many texts.
Languages
This field specifies, with a single letter, the language or languages in which the text is written.  At the present time, these letters are the following:

E = English
S = Sanskrit
T = Tibetan

In some instances, an “M” can indicate a mixture of languages such as Tibetan and Sanskrit.
Section or volume
This field specifies the location of the work within a larger collection.  In the case of texts from the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections, it gives you the major philosophical section (such as “Vinaya”) and the volume number (which is normally a Tibetan letter).  In the case of the collected works of a Tibetan author, this field provides not only the volume number but also the order of the work within the volume.

This is important since the ACIP catalog numbers are not serial; locating all the texts of an author is not done by any physical division as in a printed catalog, but rather by sorting on the name of the author in the database.  This is much more efficient, since often, for example, we are working with different editions of the same texts, which include them in different orders within the same volumes.

By using this field to compare the numbers of texts within a volume, you can also check whether the entire contents of a volume have been input yet or not.  We have further endeavored to assure that you have at your disposal the native catalogs which appear at the beginning of a volume in the collected works of a particular author.  You will find these in the “Reference” selection in the main menu, listed by author.
Folio or pages
This field is self-explanatory, except that users should be aware that we draw a distinction between “folios” and “pages.”  We use “folios” to refer to sheets within traditional Tibetan woodblock printings, where one number is used to refer to both the front and back sides together.  “Pages” means faces of printed material, as in a Western book.  One folio then has two pages, always marked “front” or “back” with the letters “A” and “B”.

When only a portion of a text has been completed, the beginning and ending page numbers of just the portion finished to date are included in parentheses to indicate that the count is not yet final.
Edition
Occasionally, the Tibetan colophon of a text will clearly indicate where it was printed.  If not, we have tried to include enough information either in this field or in the “Notes” field that would allow a user to confirm that a particular printed copy corresponds to the version used for entry.  This information would include, for example, names of sponsors, the name of the author of the printing prayer, persons requesting the composition, or the like.

When two different editions of a particular title have been input, a separate “edition” letter appears after the initial letter in the catalog number.
Published date
In some cases, though not very frequently, the year in which the text was printed is included in the native colophon at the end.  In the years since the Tibetan diaspora, this year has increasingly been given as the Western year.  In those cases where the year is listed with the animal and element of the traditional sixty-year cycle, we have taken the Western year from the timeline found at the end of The Great Dictionary of the Tibetan Language (Tsig-mdzod chen-mo, R0002); although users are, of course, aware that the correspondences are not precise, and the first few months of any given Western year may well fall within the Tibetan year prior to the one listed.
Input file name
This is a field primarily meant for ACIP in-house use.  It gives the 
file name that was assigned to a text or group of texts on the order form that was used to originally order their input from one of the ACIP overseas data entry centers.  The files that are submitted to the American offices are stored on archives with the original input file names, so that any sections that later develop problems can be recovered.
Byte count
This field gives the byte count of the current roman-letter, database version of the text, to the nearest hundred.  This is very useful in estimating the size of a work, and in determining whether an unknown file is the work in question.  In the case of an incomplete title, this number is given in parentheses.
Database file name
This field gives the full file name of the source file that corresponds to the given catalog number.  This is the file name you will have 
to use if you wish to copy any particular roman-letter text off the CD-ROM or your own hard disk, in order to share it with someone else.  The corresponding Tibetan-letter text, by the way, is the file with the same name and an “RTF” extension.
Status
This field gives the current editing status of the text, ranging from first typing to second typing, first comparison, second comparison, final overseas version, concatenated version, and a variety of edit levels established at different stages of domestic automated and final manual text verification.  A full description of the edit levels is found in the section called “ACIP Text Verification Procedures” on page 165.
CatRef
This is simply an index number that the database program needs to store the fields and has no relation to the catalog entries themselves; be careful not to confuse the contents of this field with the catalog number or the database file name.
Notes
Included here are special comments about the text.  Very typical 
are the full Tibetan and full English titles, when these would not fit into the limitation of 255 characters for these fields in the database itself.  (When a title has been shortened to meet this limitation, by the way, it is always followed by three periods to indicate an elision.)  The “Notes” field is accessed by clicking on the “Notes” tab within the ACIP Master Catalog window.
Description
This field gives a short description of the text to help a user identify it more exactly, especially in a case where the contents of the book may not be evident from its title.  This field is accessed by by clicking on the “Description” tab in the ACIP Master Catalog window.
Roman preview, Tibetan preview
These fields contain the beginning pages of the text, in either roman or Tibetan letters, to help the user determine if it is the one desired.  Click on the appropriate tab in the ACIP Master Catalog window to show either preview.

Created by, Date created, Time created 
Modified by, Date modified, Time modified
The amount of data coming into the Project from its various overseas centers has increased to the point where it is sometimes necessary for several staff members to be working on the ACIP Master Catalog at the same time.  This creates potential “version control” problems unless changes to the Catalog are carefully tracked.

These fields automatically record the name of the person who has either created or made the most recent modification to the particular ACIP Master Catalog entry, and also mark the date and time created or modified. 

Moving around in the ACIP Master Catalog
The ACIP Master Catalog includes the usual Windows scroll bars for horizontal and vertical movement through the catalog.  You will also find a number of movement buttons towards the top of the ACIP Master Catalog window, including “Go to first record”; “Go to prior record”; “Go to next record”; and “Go to last record”.

Because the database consists of a great number of fields and subsequent columns on the screen, you will have to use the horizontal scroll bar frequently.  If you prefer to have the fields display in a different order, you can always move an entire column to another location by clicking your left mouse button on the header of the column (“Tibetan title,” for example) and holding down this button while you use your mouse arrow to drag and drop the column in a different location.

Please note that when you have moved over to columns originally out of sight at the far right of the catalog screen and then click on a particular entry record, you “jump” back to the left-hand side of the catalog screen.  This is a peculiarity of the programming tool used to create the database and cannot be adjusted by our programmers.  Use the horizontal scroll bar to return to the proper column.  You can solve this problem somewhat by reordering the columns (as described just above) or by re-sizing the columns.  Or, you can avoid the problem altogether by switching to “Entry” viewÑwhich includes two screens of “Details” in addition to separate screens for “Tibetan Preview”, “Roman Preview”, “Notes” and “Description”.

Searching the ACIP Master Catalog
The ACIP Master Catalog includes a powerful search tool for helping you find the catalog entry you are looking for.  To search for any detail, click on the search button at the top of the “ACIP Master Catalog” window and fill in the information requested.  It is very important to make sure that the “Fields” box is filled in first, so you are searching the correct column.  Because of the great variety in accepted Tibetan spellings of titles and personal names, you will almost certainly want to check the “Partial match anywhere” option in the “Search the ACIP catalog” window.

There is one peculiarity with the search tool of the database program used for the ACIP Master Catalog that you may want to pay attention to.  Be sure to fill in the “Fields” selection at the bottom of the search window box first before filling in the “Field value” or string for which you are searching.  If you fill in these two boxes in the reverse order, the contents of the “Field value” box disappear after you fill in the “Fields,” and you have to type in your search string again. 

Also note that no matter which field you search on, the cursor will be placed in the far left field of the catalog entry where the hit is found; so you may need to scroll to the right to view the matching field. If you will be searching a particular field for a number of hits, you may find it convenient to “drag” that column to the left side of the table. To do this, simply click on the header of the column, hold down the mouse button and move the mouse to the left. It is possible to place the fields in any order by moving them left and right in this manner.

Sorting columns in the ACIP Master Catalog
The database function of the ACIP Master Catalog includes 
a very convenient sorting function that allows you to immediately sort any of the columns.  This can be very useful when, for example, you would like to see all the texts written by the same author.  Simply go to the header at the top of the column that says “Tibetan author,” for example, and click on it once.

The contents of the column will immediately be sorted.  (And, unfortunately, the database program will automatically jump you back to the first column of the screen; return to where you were with the horizontal scroll arrow.)  Please note that this function gives a very useful result when you are already any distance down into a column: it sorts the column and keeps you in the entry where the cursor was when you first clicked on the header.  When you go back and look at the field you sorted, you will find that all the entries with the same name or value are now clustered right around the one you started from.

The following columns in the ACIP Master Catalog sort automatically in the way described above: author (English), author (Sanskrit), author (Tibetan), catalog number, common title, database file name, section/volume, title (English), title (Sanskrit), and title (Tibetan).

Modifying the ACIP Master Catalog
You can modify or create information for an entry in your version of the ACIP Master Catalog by double-clicking on the desired item of the entry, which takes you automatically to the “Entry detail” screen.  Or you can simply click on the “Entry detail” tab towards the top of the screen.

Buttons at the very top of the ACIP Master Catalog window allow you to perform various operations on the catalog data, including: “Insert record”; “Delete record”; “Edit record”; “Post edit”; “Cancel edit”; and “Refresh data”.  This last button, by the way, updates the server version of the Catalog when you are working on a network.
Preview screens in the ACIP Master Catalog
The ACIP Master Catalog allows you a quick preview of the text you are interested in by clicking on the “Roman preview” or “Tibetan preview” screens.  Please note that if you have trouble getting the Tibetan preview screen to work or see nonsense symbols when you call it up, this probably indicates that you have failed to fill in correctly the “Preferences” screen under the “File” option in the main menu, or that you have failed to load the Tibetan font.  Please see the sections called “Specifying Your File Location Preferences” on page 50 and “Installing the Sambhota Tibetan- Script Fonts,” on page 47, respectively.

Exporting the ACIP Master Catalog
AsiaView includes a special feature that allows you to take your current version of the ACIP Master Catalog and convert it with the push of a button into a text file that can be read in any word processor or other common application, such as a database program.  This can be helpful, for example, if you want to take the ACIP Master Catalog along with you and check for titles you want to read without having AsiaView installed on your computer.  The button for this export utility is the one farthest to the right at the top of the ACIP Master Catalog screen; it shows a red arrow coming out of a text, to indicate export.

Adding New Texts to the ACIP Master Catalog
ACIP continues to input a large amount of data each month, and there will be more available by the time you read this user manual.  In order for you to successfully view or search any new files, they must first be added to the ACIP Master Catalog.  This also applies to any text that you type in yourself.

The file must first of all be included in the correct directory, the 
one you have specified in “File location preferences” under the “File” option of the main menu.  The file must have the correct name and extension, as specified in the ACIP file nomenclature conventions section.  And, of course, the file must be typed in correctly, using 
the ACIP input code, also described here in this user manual.

If you wish to be able to view your new document in Tibetan letters as well as in roman, you will have to use the conversion utility to create an “RTF” file.  To do this, follow the instructions found in the section “Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files” on page 78.  This file must then be placed in a subdirectory under the one containing the roman-letter file, and this subdirectory must be named “RTF”.

You must then modify the group tree for the group of texts in which your new text will appear.  This is done by modifying the existing tree, or creating a new tree, according to the instructions found in the section called “Creating Your Own Pre-Defined Groups of Texts, for Specialized Searches” on page 73.

Perhaps most important, you must complete the appropriate 
ACIP Master Catalog information for your new text; here, 
the catalog number and database file name are crucial for the program to be able to find your text.

Please note that future ACIP supplements to the current release, whether delivered on diskettes or through download off the Web, will include instructions and automated methods of making the necessary adjustments to the ACIP Master Catalog and AsiaView program itself for viewing, searching, and printing the new material.

Copying Files to Share with Others
ACIP data is designed to be shared with others; our data is free, and we want the information to be free, since almost all of it is specifically meant to bring happiness to the lives of the people who use it.  You are free to copy and share any of the text or graphics files on the CD-ROM.

Text files are kept to the size that will fit onto floppy diskettes of the size normally available at the present time: about 1.4 megabytes.  Whenever a single text exceeds this size (which is rather rare), it has been cut into multiple parts so that they can be copied without file compression.  This is to facilitate the use of ACIP data under the most primitive computer conditions in the world, since many of our users come from countries where modern computer equipment is difficult to find or prohibitively expensive for the general population.
To find out where a particular text file is located, find the title in the ACIP Master Catalog by following the instructions found in the section entitled “Using the ACIP Master Catalog” on page 83.  Then check for the full database file name.  Next go to your computer’s file management utility and check the appropriate directory of the CD-ROM, and copy the file either to your hard drive or a floppy, to give to another person.

Arranging Text Windows on the AsiaView Screen
A helpful windowing option in the main menu at the top of the main AsiaView screen can make your research of the Asian classics much easier.  As you become more familiar with the program, you will find yourself constantly moving between three or four windows with different texts up in each of them.  If there are few enough windows, you will find the “Tile” option very useful: this places all your windows side by side, so root text and a number of important commentaries can be up at the same time.  If your windows get too numerous to keep all up at once, turn on the “Cascade” option and click between them.

When you have multiple windows displaying, you can jump between them either by clicking on any part of the one you want 
to move to or, alternately, by clicking on the “Window” menu 
item and selecting the text to move to.  Here too you will find an “Arrange icons” menu item that arranges the window icons at the bottom of the screen, and a “Minimize all” selection that minimizes all the current windows.

Using the Help Feature
Need help using the AsiaView program?  We have built in a number of automated help tools to assist you.  First of all you 
will notice that many of the menu items have their own small help messages.  These come in two forms: a “balloon” type of message that comes up for example near a button as you pass the mouse arrow over it, and then a “status bar” message that appears at the bottom of the window as your mouse arrow either passes over an item or you click on it with your mouse.

Another source of assistance is the “Help” menu item at the far right side of the main AsiaView menu bar. The first selection here, “Contents”, gives you access to the documentation of all four ACIP data releases, organized in a hypertext help-utility format, where you move through all the details of the entire release by simple clicks of the mouse.  We suggest here that you concentrate on the documentation for the current release.

The “Search for help” option gives you an alphabetized index of help topics, largely selected from the current user manual.  The “How to use help” selection leads to the contents of the section 
you are currently reading.

The selection called “Contacting ACIP” gives you information on reaching ACIP for any of a variety of needs you might have for obtaining or using the data releases successfully.  Details for contacting us are included in a separate section of this user manual entitled “Contacting ACIP” on page 185.  The selection entitled “About AsiaView,” finally, gives you information about the specific version of AsiaView you are currently using, copyright information for the program, and comments about your version.

Troubleshooting Problems with AsiaView
In this section we try to present some of the common problems 
that users may encounter with the AsiaView program, including an explanation of the program’s various error messages.

Texts don’t come up when I click on them in the preview screen.
The most common cause of this problem is that the program cannot locate the text files where you told them they were.  Go to the “Preferences” selection under the “File” selection in the main menu item and make sure the path to your data is correct.  Refer to the section called “Specifying your File Location Preferences” on page 50.

Nothing comes up when I try to view the text in Tibetan letters.
The program cannot locate the special files used to view the data in Tibetan.  These have to be “RTF” files with same file name as the roman-letter text, and an “RTF” extension.  They must be located in a subdirectory called “RTF” under the directory where the roman-letter version of your text is located.  Refer to the section called “Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files” on page 78.

Nonsense letters come up when I try to view the text in 
Tibetan letters.
Your RTF files are located in the proper place, but your computer is not loaded with the proper Tibetan-letter fonts to view and print these in Tibetan script.  Refer to the section called “Installing the Sambhota Tibetan-Script Fonts” on page 47.

I can’t find the text I’m looking for in the ACIP Master Catalog.
Remember that Tibetan texts can have a wide variety of names.  Click on the binoculars button in the ACIP Master Catalog screen (accessed through the “Tools” menu item) and select the “Partial match anywhere” option, then search for unique parts of your title.  Remember that you must have made your selection for the “Fields” box correctly, most often by clicking on the “Tibetan title” option.  Failing this, try searching down through the author column for the person who wrote the text.

I can’t find the author I’m looking for in the ACIP Master Catalog.
Single Tibetan or Indian authors in the database can have many different names: a birth name, novice name, ordination name, initiation name, a name reflecting their residence or home area, a position, or some other kind of honorific.  A good way of finding an author is, again, to click on the “Tools” menu item, and then go to the ACIP Master Catalog screen.

Once there, click on the binoculars button to search the Catalog.  Remember to select the “Partial match anywhere” option, and then search for any unique pieces of any of the author’s names.  Then try their optional names, and consult expert references or people who can help you learn additional names that you may not be familiar with.

I get an error message that says, “There is no default printer currently selected.”
Default printers are normally defined in your Windows system itself.  See the Windows “Help” menu for selecting your default printer properly.
I get an error message that says, “Text not found.”
Check your preferences under the “File” selection of the main menu, and make sure the paths to your data are filled in correctly.

I get an error message that says, “You did not select any text 
to search.”
This message is especially common during a global search, and indicates that you have failed to fill in the “Text selection” screen properly.  See the section entitled “Global Search: Searching Groups of Tibetan or English-Language Text Files” on page 68.

I get an error message that says, “No search criteria defined.”
This message is also common during a global search, and indicates that you have failed to fill in the “Search criteria” screen properly.  Again, see the section entitled “Global Search: Searching Groups 
of Tibetan or English-Language Text Files” on page 68.

Suggestions for Corrections and Improvements 
to the AsiaView Program
The AsiaView program is an ambitious attempt by a small and overworked group of dedicated staff at ACIP to provide you with 
a powerful tool for getting the most out of the important books found on the release.  It is likely that there will be bugs with the program that are found only after the release ships out to our users, who will be using the program on a wide variety of computers and different system configurations that we do not have access to and could not test in advance.

If you find a problem with the program or have any other suggestion for improving it, please feel free to contact us at any of the contact numbers listed in the section called “Contacting ACIP” on page 185.  Please be aware though that we have very limited resources and staff to respond to a great many inquiries, and that we may not be able to address your concern immediately.  We really do value your ideas and comments and will try to respond as quickly and effectively as we can.

Tricks for Expert Searches of Tibetan Texts
No matter how comprehensive a database may be, it is nearly worthless unless one has the tools and methods to search it properly.  Perhaps the single most important goal of ACIP is to create a database that can easily be searched for the great ideas of Asia, so that these ideas in turn can find their way into people’s lives.  If you truly master the art of searching, the quality of your scholarship and research will increase substantially.

ACIP staff perform searches of the database hundreds of times every day, and we have tried to collect together here in this section some of the tricks we have learned through experience for getting the most out of the database.  We would love to hear from others about their own favorite techniques so they may be shared by being included on our web site and future releases.

Before reading this section, be sure to acquaint yourself with all the advanced search tools, such as Boolean operators and wildcard characters, included in the AsiaView program.  (See the “Text Search” sections of the AsiaView documentation on pages 61 and 68.)  Please note that some of the texts mentioned in the search examples that follow have copyright or other restrictions, and may not be included on the general release.  These are provided only to staff and scholars directly connected to the Project.

These guidelines for effective searches are divided into two sections: general tips and special tricks. 

General Tips for Successful Searches
Know your stuff
Perhaps the single most important advice for searching the ACIP database successfully is to put in the time required to learn the material well before you start using the database.  The data cannot replace the many years of intense study at the feet of a qualified master needed to truly grasp the depth of its contents.  Ideally, the use of the database becomes more of a confirmation processÑfinding a citation or discussion of a concept that you remember from a session with your teacherÑthan learning something from scratch.

With breadth of learning comes an ability to pinpoint the exact place in the database where you can find what you need to know at any given moment.  The section on Vowed Morality, the Vinaya, is a world of its ownÑwith its own language, rules, and lineage.  The section on Higher Knowledge, or Abhidharma, is similar, and requires years of study by itself to be familiar with the ins and outs.

They are like different countries, with their own tongues and customs and culture; and so too with the teachings on the Middle Way (Madhyamika) and the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnya Paramita)Ñeach of which requires that you live there and learn them for years as well.  With fluency, the searches really do become like the exhilarating experience of surfing, shooting along hypertext tubes to one treasure after another.

Then there are the lands of the Mind-Only School (Chittamatra); and the arcane language of the schools of logic and perceptual theory, the Sutrists (Sautrantika); and the worlds and older colloquialisms of the Kadampa lamrim and lojong; and finally a whole other universe in the secret teachings.  To surf well, to surf through worlds and galaxies of exquisite ideas and ways of living, you must first enter the sea at the shore, and learn to live in the water.
Keep your search strings short
Tibetan literature spans centuries; multiple spellings and other variants of even the most common citations are the norm, not the exception.  You will miss a variant reading if you make your search string too long.
Real example: 
Find the phrase in the Heart Sutra where one student of the Buddha tells the other to see that the five parts or heaps of a person are empty of any natural way of being.  Searching for {DE DAG KYANG RANG BZHIN} hits the appropriate line in the editions of this sutra found in several monastic liturgical texts (such as S0207 and S0212) in the Sungbum Collection, but misses the line in the translation of the sutra from the Lhasa edition of the Kangyur Collection (KL0021).  Search rather for {LNGA PO DE}, which hits both.
Don’t make your search strings too short
This is a fairly obvious point, but many people miss it, and get so many hits that they tire of trying to master searching, and their research lags behind that of others.
Real example:
Shortening the above search to {DE DAG} in the first monastic liturgy mentioned results in over 130 hits.  Good luck finding the line!
Look for unique words
Instead of trying to make a short string long enough not to get too many hits, try going for a very few unique, relatively unusual words or syllables.
Real example:
Searching the same monastic liturgy for the line from the Heart Sutra by using the single word {LNGA PO} results in only 4 hits, one of which is the desired line.
Learn to do proximity searches
Tibetan, like its philosophical mother Sanskrit, is fraught with contractions, abbreviations, and other variants of almost any common phrase.  Instead of typing in every variant of a typical phrase, get creative and think up a proximity search that accomplishes the same goal.  Remember to set the number of lines between the two members of the search carefully: too few lines apart will miss a hit; too many lines apart will result in too many hits.
Real example:
There is a wide variety of variants used for the Tibetan name of the special spiritual practice known as the “Diamond Recitation”.  Among others, you might find {RDO RJE BZLAS PA} or {RDO RJE’I BZLAS PA} or {RDOR BZLAS}.  Instead of typing all these out as “or” statements in the AsiaView or Gofer search program, just search for {RDO} near {BZLAS} within a single line, and hit them all.
Learn to do wildcard searches
The AsiaView search program has a special “wildcard” function, with three variations.  You can either type in an asterisk (*) to represent any number of other characters; a number sign (#) to represent any single number character; or an ampersand (@) to represent any single letter character.  Get creative in their use and you will save a ton of time, and reach a higher level of research.
Real example:
The search just mentioned, for the variants of {RDO RJE BZLAS PA}, can be accomplished more easily, simply by looking for {RDO*ZLAS}.  This single string hits all the occurrences mentioned above.
Know your variant words and names
Many Tibetan phrases, especially the names of persons and books, have a standard collection of different variants.  Make sure you learn them for the item you are searching for; most often, this involves learning the variants from a real Tibetan expert.
Real example:
Suppose we want to search one of the most famous texts of all Tibetan literatureÑthe Great Book on the Steps of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam-rim chen-mo, S5392) of Je TsongkapaÑfor the name of the famous lama, Lord Atisha.  Searching for this one form of his name, {AA TI SHA}, results in only 4 hits.  Searching under this and two other common variants of his name {JO BO} and {MAR ME MDZAD}, results in nearly fifty hits.
Eliminate mismatches
You can save a lot of time by using the “not” operator in a search; that is, searching for one syllable but eliminating a similar syllable.
Real example:
We are searching for occurrences of the word {RGYUD} in the sense of “mental continuum” within the Great Book on the Steps of the Path to Enlightenment.  Telling the program to ignore all the syllables {BRGYUD}, which means “lineage,” eliminates over sixty false hits, and saves your time and eyes!   
Learn to use a hitlist
Especially in a case where you cannot avoid a lot of hits to find what you needÑwhen there are no unique syllables to work with, for exampleÑa hitlist is a wonderful way to scan a large number of hits at once and immediately isolate the one or two that you are looking for.  The AsiaView program includes a hitlist option in all of the search functions; you immediately get the full context of the hit you place your cursor on, and can then go to the full text at that point.
Real example:
Suppose you remember a beautiful description by the future Buddha, Maitreya, of the entire process through which the suffering of the entire world begins.  You remember that it was in the Overview of the Perfection of Wisdom (S0009), a classic textbook used at Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University; and you remember that it mentions the word yid-byed, meaning “focusing on an object” or “thinking about something in a certain way.”  When you build a hitlist looking for this word in the text, more than thirty hits come up.  The correct hit is obvious in the hitlist, and you can go directly to it in AsiaView.
Start designing customized groups of texts
Quite frequently, a scholar is using a whole family of texts from the database that tie together in the “onionskin” metaphor: some early works from the Kangyur (500 BC) at the core; with an Indian commentary or two from the Tengyur (about 200 AD to 1000 AD), and often a few more Tengyur commentaries on these commentariesÑfirst skin of the onion out from the core; and several succeeding generations of Tibetan explanations to all of the preceding (from about 1000 AD to the present): more and more layers of onion out to the outer skin itself.

Because the works are constantly referring each to the earlier, it can be very useful to have them all in one group for searching the parallel citations between them.  AsiaView has a special function to allow you to design and store your own search groups; instructions for using it may be found in the section entitled “Creating Your Own Pre-Defined Groups of Texts, for Specialized Searches” on page 73.
Real example:
We are studying a late Tibetan commentary on vowed morality (the Vinaya) by Chone Drakpa Shedrup (1675Ð1748), at S0057.  He refers constantly to the Sutra on Vowed Morality (ÔDul-ba mdo rtza-ba), a work that is not a sutra at all in the normal sense, but rather comes from the Tengyur, at TD4117.  So we throw that into our search group too.  One of the foundations for this piece itself is the Sutra on Individual Freedom, a much earlier work by the Buddha himself, at KD0002.  This too goes into group.  Finally, we add a versed summary on the subject by another late Tibetan author, Sharchen Kongpo Ngawang Tsultrim, at S0058, since this piece itself contains references to yet another versed summary favored by Chone Lama in the principal work we are studying.
Take advantage of the ACIP Master Catalog
A lot of time and effort has gone into the ACIP Master Catalog, and it is a treasure-trove of information.  Each entry contains twenty-two different fields with many details about the particular text and its author, as well as Tibetan and Sanskrit equivalents, and notes about the work.  A lot of what you are looking for can be found here.  Remember you can either view the Catalog in database form through AsiaView, or else search the Catalog as a flat ASCII file from the Reference Collection, at R1000.
Real example:
Where can I get my hands on a printed paper copy of a good commentary on the Lamp of the Path, the famous early lam-rim text by Lord Atisha?  A search for the Lamp’s title in the ACIP Master Catalog brings up a superb commentary by Chone Drakpa Shedrup (1675-1748) at S0304; the notes field gives you the catalog number of the root text at T3947, and also tells you the serial number for ordering the text from the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
Searching for Sanskrit
A detailed explanation of how to search the Sanskrit study materials is found in the AsiaView documentation under the section “Searching Sanskrit-Language Materials” on page 71, and will not be repeated here.  For searching Sanskrit in Tibetan texts, such as mantras, keep in mind that there will be a tremendous variation in the spelling and phrasing of the syllables.  Searching these materials requires a great deal of ingenuity and patience; search for many different pieces of your string, and try many variant spellings.

The hitlist function of AsiaView is very useful here since, in about one out of thirty or forty cases of a mantra, for example, you will hit an exquisite commentary in Tibetan on the meaning of each syllable.  These sections are often prefaced by the expression {SNGAGS DON} or {SNGAGS DON NI}, and can be located by searching for one of these expressions near the individual elements of the mantra or other Sanskrit phrase.
Real example:
Searches for a common mantra of protection including the syllable {SUMBHA} come up with about eighty initial hits in the {RGYUD} section of the database.  Searching for {SNGAGS DON} near this same syllable hits a detailed explanation of every syllable of the mantra at S6412, an explanation of the secret practice of the Angel of Diamond (Vajrayogini) by the Tibetan master Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra.
Finding the Sanskrit equivalent of a Tibetan word
Since a great deal of Tibetan sacred literature is translated directly from Sanskrit, and all the rest is deeply influenced by Sanskrit, scholars of Tibetan often need to know the Sanskrit original that a Tibetan word was used to translate.  There are a couple of works in the ACIP database which are especially useful for this purpose: 

¥	The ACIP Master Catalog itself, at R0001, where you can find the Sanskrit equivalent for almost every one of the hundreds of Tibetan titles in the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections;

¥	The comparative edition of the Mahavyutpatti prepared by Mr. Robert Lacey (at R0061)Ñwhich, despite a good number of typing errors and some atrocious English equivalents from the early days of Tibetology, gives repeated Sanskrit originals for many Tibetan words; and

¥	The Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary of Namgyal Tsering at R0058, although there are some problems in the phrasing and typing of the Sanskrit.
Real example:
There is a line in the commentary to the Treasure House of Knowledge (Abhidharma Kosha) by His Holiness the First 
Dalai Lama (at S5525) where he explains that “angels derive their name from the fact that their homes are in the sky” {KHYIM NAM MKHA’ LA YOD PAS...LHA}.  Is this an explanation that depends on a Sanskrit etymology?  A search for the Tibetan word “angel” {LHA} comes up with the Sanskrit deva in Namgyal Tsering’s work; and a search for the word “sky” {NAM MKHA’} in the same source gives us the Sanskrit root div, source of the derivative dev.  His Holiness’ explanation is explained!
Important additional information on Sanskrit and Tibetan equivalents, and on pronouncing and phrasing Sanskrit words properly, can be found in texts included in the “classical Sanskrit” or {SGRA} section of the database.
Driving around the formatting
The ACIP input methodology retains the original line breaks of the Tibetan woodblock prints, by placing a double hard return (a blank line) between these lines.  We also do a tiny bit of “mark-up,” most often in the form of page numbers at the beginning of the first line of the folio face, or an occasional correction in square brackets.  All this extra stuff, formatting, can appear in the middle of the string you are searching for, and cause you to lose a hit that you need.

To deal with this problem, the AsiaView search programs contain a special button called “Text only,” which tells the program to skip all the formatting.  If on the other hand you are looking for a particular page number or other format material, you will want to tell the program to turn the formatting back on.  Remember that you can also use a proximity search of two elements of your search string to avoid this problem, most of the time.
Real example:
We are looking for a beautiful verse in a work on developing the good heart (lojong) entitled The Wheel of Knives (mTson-cha Ôkhor-lo, at S7007).  The verse in English goes:
The breadth of his spiritual learning
Is about zero,
But his talk is big,
And meaningless.
The breadth of his spiritual study
Is about zero,
But still he’s had
A million realizations,
Of realizing nothing.
Smash now the skull
Of my misperceptions,
The ones who have wasted my life;
Bring your death
To the heart of this butcher,
My greatest enemy.

The lines refer, of course, to the destruction of one’s own negative states of mind.  If we were searching for the original Tibetan of the last section, we might ask the program to find the string {CHEMS SE CHEMS}.  Since in the original there is a line break in the middle of this string, we might never find itÑunless the AsiaView search function were set to “text only”.
Searching texts on secret practice
The language of the Tibetan literature on secret practice is so unique that it is practically useless to attempt to find much information about these terms and concepts in any other part of the database.  Conversely, many searches that you do for less esoteric, philosophical words and ideas will never “hit” in the section on secret practice, although this contains more than a thousand separate treatises.  If you have the traditional qualifications for studying this literature, you can order it from ACIP as described in the section entitled “Obtaining ACIP Materials” on page 190.

Special Tricks for Special Searches
Finding the dates of persons
It is very common for Asian scholars to be looking for the dates of 
a historical figure mentioned in their research.  There are several good sources for these in the ACIP database:
¥	The bibliographical data of the Library of Congress at R0007 and R0012 (for prolific authors especially);
¥	The Great Dictionary (Tsig-mdzod chen-mo, at R0002, especially the time-line at the end);
¥	The Blue Annals at R0051 (even in its incredibly rough condition at present, especially good for Kadampa and other pre-Je- Tsongkapa Tibetan authors);
¥	The Treasure of Knowable Things native Sungbum catalog (Shes-bya’i gter-mdzod, R0003 and R0010, for major writers); 
¥	And, last but not least, the ACIP Master Catalog, either in its flat-file form at R1000 or as a relational database in the AsiaView program itself.
Real example:
Looking for the birth year of Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra, we hit “1772” in the ACIP Master Catalog; in the Library of Congress listings; and in the Treasure.  We also get an interesting hit in the Great Dictionary that says “Some people say he was born in 1772.”
Finding the Western years that correspond to Tibetan-style years
A common problem in Tibetological research is to find the Western year that corresponds to one of the years of the Asian system of 60-year cycles.  Bearing in mind that the years don’t overlap exactly and that you can always be a year off, use either the Chronological Tables of Alaka Chattopadhyaya at R0050, or the timeline found at the end of the Great Dictionary (Tsig-mdzod chen-mo, R0002).
Real example:
You are reading the colophon of a Tibetan book and it mentions the “Fire-Bird Year of the Sixth Cycle.”  Searching the Great Dictionary timeline gives you the year 1357.
Finding biographical information for an important figure
It’s often very useful to have at your disposal a brief biography of a historical person who comes up in your research.  There are several fine works in the ACIP database to satisfy this need:
¥	The Blue Annals (at R0051), even in its partial condition, is useful for biographies of Lamas of the various lineages from the early centuries of Tibetan Buddhism back to the time of the historical Buddha.
¥	The Treasure of Knowable Things native Sungbum catalog (Shes-bya’i gter-mdzod, R0003 and R0010) has excellent, original, brief biographies of all the major authors covered in the catalog.
¥	The Great Dictionary (Tsig-mdzod chen-mo, R0002) has very brief but useful sketches of many important writers.

ACIP is now completing input of the renowned History of the Buddhist Teachings in Amdo, Tibet (mDo-smad chos-’byung), and this will be an important source of biographical information.

Complete biographies of twenty-two eminent Lamas are found in the “Biography” (rnam-thar) section of the ACIP database.
Real example:
Where can I find a brief biography of His Holiness the First Dalai Lama?  A search brings up a very short one of five lines in the Great Dictionary, and a nice one of seven pages in the Treasure of Knowable Things.
Finding texts in the Kangyur and Tengyur
Finding a particular text in the Kangyur or Tengyur Collections used to be extremely difficult.  Many of these works have several completely different names, which made the indices in a printed catalog like the Tohoku almost useless.  ACIP has made it a point to input a wide variety of native catalogs for both collections.

When looking for a printed copy of a particular text in the Kangyur, for example, we suggest that you use the native catalog to the Lhasa edition, since it gives not only volume but also page numbers.  When using some of the other native Kangyur and Tengyur catalogs, you may have to scroll up to find the catalog number or letter.
Real example:
Where can I find a printed copy of the Diamond-Cutter Sutra?  A search in the native catalog to the Lhasa edition of the Kangyur tells us to look on line 4 of the front face of folio 215 in Volume {KA} of the {SHER PHYIN SNA TSOGS} section of the collectionÑthe exact location.
Finding books in American libraries
The PL480 and SFCP efforts of the Library of Congress, under the direction of Dr. E. Gene Smith, brought full sets of about 8,000 Tibetan titles each to eighteen different American libraries, spread nicely around the United States.  In the New York area, for example, collections are held at Columbia University, the New York Public Library, the Institute for the Advanced Studies of World Religions, and for the most part in the private collection of Dr. Smith at Himalayan & Inner Asian Resources.

When you want to find the actual printed paper copy of a book, you can use the Library of Congress biographical listings at R0007 and R0012 to do so.  Please note though that the listings are incomplete due to problems with the Library’s databases, so the fact that a book is not listed may not necessarily mean that it is not in the collection.  We have added Mr. Smith’s own handlist of Library acquisitions at R0001 to catch some of the items that may not be in the listings.

As a final note, the Project has input a rather brief, “unofficial” listing of the Tibetan books in the Bernard Collection of Yale University, found at R0031.  This collection was one of the few in the entire US prior to the PL480 effort, and contains some very high-quality and well-printed texts.
Real example:
You need a paper copy of the exquisite commentary by His Holiness the First Dalai Lama on the Treasure of Higher Knowledge (Abhidharma Kosha), at S5525.  A hit comes up at the Beinecke Library of Yale University, under the collected works of the First Dalai Lama; and another copy of the collected works comes up in the PL480 listings.  In neither case are all the separate titles within the collected works broken out; and you will have to go and look!
Finding technical definitions of important 
philosophical concepts
The choice of texts for the ACIP database has emphasized those that give a structured presentation of important philosophical concepts, and which provide clear, technical definitions of these ideas; in short, the methodology of the tradition of the Dalai Lamas.  You can find these definitions in the yig-cha or monastic textbooks of the great monastic universities of Tibet, and we have input a lot of them.

Although you will have to do some creative thinking to catch all of these definitive occurrences of an important concept, a generally effective method is to simply do a proximity search for the concept near the word “definition,” or {MTSAN NYID}.  The different divisions of an important concept are frequently just as important as its definition, and these can often be located simply by searching for the words {DBYE BA} or {DBYE NA} (“divisions”) near the concept desired.
Real example:
What is the technical definition of the concept of “nirvana,” and what are the different types of nirvana?  A search for “nirvana” {MYANG ÔDAS} near the word “definition” {MTSAN NYID} brings up the definition in a famous textbook from the great Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University, at S0009-1: “The permanent ending of all the obstacles related to negative thoughts, due to one’s realization of each one of those true facts perceived by a person who has just seen emptiness directly.”  A search of the word “nirvana” near “divisions” results in a hit in the same text, with no fewer than six different kinds of nirvana discussed.
Compiling statistics for textual study
It is often important to know how many times a particular term occurs in a text.  This and other types of statistical analysis of a text, when used properly, can help determine the author or geographic source of a text.  For example, if we know that Arya Nagarjuna uses certain terms at a certain rate in the works that we are sure can be attributed to him, we get an indication of whether another work of uncertain authorship might be his, based on the relative frequency of various expressions (assuming, of course, in this case that the same Tibetan translations of the terms have been used).

The hitlist function in AsiaView gives you a count of the number of lines or groups of lines in which a term appears, although two occurrences of a particular term in a single line are only counted as one in the statistics.  One way of getting an individual count is to call up the text file in your favorite word processor and using the “count” function; alternately, you can use either the GOfer or MultiLingua programs provided free on the ACIP CD-ROMÑthey perform the same function quickly and easily.  For information on how to use these programs, see the section entitled “Shareware Programs” on page 124.
Real example:
How many times does the word “diamond” {RDO RJE} actually appear in the text of the Diamond-Cutter Sutra?  A statistical analysis using the GOfer program gives the surprise result that it does not occur at all in the text, only in the title.
Searching alternative sources of quotations
When looking for the correct spelling of a particular citationÑor else an explanation of it, or perhaps an alternate Tibetan translation of a piece from an older workÑthe entire family of later commentaries can be a valuable source of help.  Remember, therefore, to search not only the Kangyur Collection for a citation from the Kangyur, but also the Tengyur and Sungbum Collections.  You may, in fact, find quotations in very late Tibetan treatises from very early works that never made their way into the Kangyur and Tengyur. 
Real example:
There is an intriguing quotation from the Buddha himself that very frequently appears in the opening lines of Tibetan works on formal logic; in the oral tradition it sometimes starts out as {NGA DANG NGA ÔDRA BA MA YIN PAS GZHAN GYI TSOD BZUNG BAR MI BYA STE, NYAMS PAR GYUR TA RE,}: “Unless you are an omniscient being like me, or someone close to that, you should be sure never to judge another person; for if you do, you will certainly fail.”
The written version of this citation, as found for example in a famous work on logic by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at S5528, reads {NGA ÔAM NGA DANG ÔDRA BAS GANG ZAG GI TSOD BZUNG GI, GANG ZAG GIS GANG ZAG GI TSOD MI BZUNG STE, NYAM PAR GYUR TA RE,}: “Omniscient beings like me, or someone close to that, can judge other people; but normal people should never try to judge other normal people, for they will certainly fail.”  Now, can we find the original statement by Lord Buddha in an older work?
Our answer is found not in the Kangyur (or at least not yet, since we haven’t input the entire collection), where we might expect it, but in the Tengyur, within a compendium of selections from sutra prepared by Lord Atisha, at TD3961.  Here we find a much older version of the lines, and many pages of context for the quote, as {GANG ZAG GIS GANG ZAG GI TSOD GZUNG BAR MI BYA’O, ,GANG ZAG GIS GANG ZAG LA TSOD BZUNG NA, RMA ÔBYUNG BAR ÔGYUR TE, NGA ÔAM GZHAN YANG NGA DANG ÔDRA BA DAG GIS GANG ZAG LA TSOD BZUNG BA’O,}: “No normal person should judge another normal person.  If a normal person were to judge another normal person, they would come to grief.  Only omniscient beings like me, and others who are close to that, can judge people”.
Watch those Sanskrit prefixes
Remember, especially when you do searches that involve philosophical terms that originally came from Sanskrit, to search for the contractions and other variant forms of Sanskrit prefixes.  Real examples would be {MNGON BRJOD} for {MNGON PAR BRJOD PA}; {NYER BSTAN} for {NYE BAR BSTAN PA}; and {SO THAR} for {SO SOR THAR PA}.
Finding the Sanskrit names of authors and books
Scholars working with Tibetan materials often need to find the original Sanskrit names of authors and books.  Several resources exist in the ACIP database which can be of help, including the Blue Annals at R0051; the ACIP Master Catalog both at R1000 and as a database in AsiaView; and the Library of Congress Tibetan listings at R0007 and R0012, which often mention the original Sanskrit title or author name.
Real example:
What is the full name of the Diamond-Cutter Sutra in Sanskrit?  A search of the ACIP Master Catalog brings up our rather long answer, ÞryavÝjracchedikÝnÝma praj–ÝpÝramitÝmahÝyÝnasñtra.
Help with Sanskrit conjugations and declensions
A lot of Tibetan specialists know but a little Sanskrit, including a lot of us at ACIP.  Sanskrit grammar is complex, and few can remember all their conjugations and declensionsÑwhich are however very helpful in deciphering a Tibetanized Sanskrit mantra or two.  The premier Sanskrit grammar of all time, that of Dwight Whitney, is found in the ACIP database at R0011; and his exquisite Sanskrit Roots is located at R0013.  Between these two works, you can resolve just about any Sanskrit grammatical question you’ll ever have.
Real example:
We’re studying a text where the Sanskrit word dharma appears in a mantra, in Tibetan letters, as dharmÝs. We don’t remember what grammar case this ending represents.  We go to the AsiaView viewing function, and look in the table of contents of Whitney’s grammar for the declension chart of stems ending in a short “a”.  This refers us to page 112, and then down to the chart on page 115, where the ending is listed as the nominative plural.
Searching for members of specific lineages
It is often important for scholars to find out the details of a lineage through which a particular teaching has passed over the centuries.  There is a great wealth of lineage information in the ACIP database, and here are some of the resources you can consult:

©	The Blue Annals at R0051, even in its partial condition on this 
CD-ROM, gives detailed descriptions of many major lineages.
©	All the various sections in the database devoted to these lineages, or {BLA BRGYUD} and {RNAM THAR}.  In the part of the database devoted to the secret teachings, these appear under each of the separate sections related to a particular holy being.
©	The gsan-yig, or records of teachings received by eminent Lamas, are a good source for this information, and are all placed together in a separate part of the Reference Collection.
©	The St. Petersburg Catalog, including as it does the complete colophons for over 50,000 texts, is a vast store of information on lineages that will require decades for scholars to decipher.  It is especially strong in the Mongolian lineages.
©	You can also simply look for the names of several known Lamas of a lineage near each other in a proximity search, which often brings up a list of all the others.
Real example:
There is some confusion about who actually composed the Instructions for Developing a Good Heart in Seven Points (Blo-sbyong don bdun ma).  What does tradition say is the actual lineage?  Since we know some of the Lamas who might be involved with this lineageÐLord Atisha and Geshe ChekawaÐwe look for the Tibetan names of both within, say, five lines of each other.  And we come up with an excellent hit in a part of the record of teachings received by Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, tutor of His Holiness the present Dalai Lama, at S0238; surprisingly, it gives a lineage for the oral teaching stretching all the way back to the historical Buddha.
Establishing the general geographical source of a text
As more research is done with the ACIP database, it will become possible to identify words, expressions, and syntactic patterns that are specific to particular localities, and then load them into a program that is able to establish the general area or institution from where a text has come.  This, in turn, will aid in the identification of its author.
Real example:
Suppose we have a text of unknown authorship that contains the relatively rare construction {PHYIN ZIN}: roughly translated, “done gone”.  A search of the current ACIP database gives us hits in only 8 different works out of over 2,000 titles searched, and at least six of the eight were written by Lamas from Sera Monastery.  This certainly provides a “lead” on the identity of the author.
Establishing the general historical era of a text
Again, as more research is accomplished with the ACIP database, it will become possible to identify words, expressions, and syntactic patterns that are specific to a given historical era.  This too will help identify the author, whenever this is in question.  Obviously too it will become very easy to place any particular author historically with much greater accuracy than before, simply by doing computer searches for the authors that he or she quotes in their work.
Real example:
We have a text by an unknown author that we want to attempt to date.  It contains the word {BSDUS GRVA}, the name of a particular genre of logic text.  In the entire database to date, this word does not occur prior to the time of the author of the progenitor of this type of literature, Chok-hla User (who is thought to have lived around 1500); and it does not occur again until the writings of the first Changkya Rinpoche, who was born in 1642.  It is very likely that the book was written after this date.
Finding numbered groups
As every scholar of these things knows, Tibetan and Sanskrit literature abounds with numbered groups of things.  There have even been dictionaries written of these groups, although we have not input them yet.  In the meantime, the Great Dictionary at R0002 is a good place to look, although you should be aware that sometimes the groups here are listed differently in other authoritative sources that you will “hit” in the database.  In either case you can look for the name of the group itself, or else search for two elements of the group within a certain number of lines from each other.
Real example:
What are the “Eight Qualities of the Lord of Power” {DBANG PHYUG BRGYAD}, as opposed to the Eight Attainments {DNGOS GRUB BRGYAD}?  A search of the database using proximity methods brings up a hit in the Great Dictionary, which lists eight qualities and briefly describes them as “worldly attainments.”  We get an exciting hit at S6370-38, where Master Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra replies to a specific question from a student and lists the eight differently, as qualities of an Enlightened Being, and adds some explanation.  With a subsequent hit, in a text by Je Tsongkapa at S5316, we find an even more detailed treatment, discussing the differences between several different sets of the eight, according to alternate sources.
Finding lists of the collected writings of a particular author
Tibetan Lamas are known for being prolific in their writing; in the ACIP database, for example, you will find over 300 different treatises by Je Tsongkapa alone.  A scholar of Tibetan studies often requires a list of all the treatises found in the collected works of a particular writer.  These are best found in the native catalogs, or dkar-chag, and the Project has made a point of inputting a good number of these.

Some good general catalogs are, of course, the Tohoku Catalog of native Tibetan works at R0016; the Treasure of Knowable Things (Shes-bya’i gter-mdzod) at R0003 and R0010; the catalogs in the massive work of Prof. Lokesh Chandra at R0077, R0079, and R0089; and the “Commentaries” Catalog of Tibetan Collected Works (Bod kyi bstan-bcos khag gi mtsan-byang) at R0004.  More specific native catalogs, especially the tables of contents found at the beginning of the separate volumes of a particular Lama’s works, can be found under the name of each author in the Reference Collection.
Real example:
There is some confusion about the organization of the collected works of the Tibetan master Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra. Where can I locate some information on this problem?  One organization of the collected works can be found in the Tohoku catalog, and the Treasure catalog too.  A different organization is found in the edition printed for the Library of Congress’ PL480 program, reflected in the tables of contents for this master found in the Reference Collection of the database: here we find two different volume 5’s, with the second one matching neither volume 4 nor volume 5 of the other editionÑit’s a whole extra volume.
Finding a woodblock illustration of a particular author
Good woodblock illustrations of some of the authors that you are working with in your research can really add some spice to a paper.  In preparing the St. Petersburg Catalog, we have taken care to record the names of every single author in many thousands of illustrations found in the more than 50,000 texts cataloged to date.  There are also a modest number of illustrations already scanned and edited for clarity in the ACIP Graphics Library.

To find the former, search for the name of the author you seek in the multiple files of the St. Petersburg Catalog listed in the ACIP Master Catalog.  To find the latter, simple click on the “Title” field of the ACIP Master Catalog database and do a non-restricted search for the figure’s name.
Real example:
Where can I find a woodblock illustration of Master Drakpa Gyeltsen, one of the greatest forefathers of the Sakya tradition?  We do a proximity search of the flat-file database of the 
St. Petersburg Catalog, searching for the “Drawing” field (D:) within a few lines of this great Lama’s name.  We get a hit at serial number 19574; and the catalog tells us that a woodblock illustration of the Lama is found on the front face of the first folio, on the right side.
Finding rare words, archaisms, poeticisms, medical terms, 
astrological terms, and words peculiar to local dialects
The undisputed champion for all of these items is the Great Dictionary at R0002, although there are some more traditional native treatments of specific difficult and archaic words found in the tsig or “lexical” subject category of the Sungbum Collection.
Real example:
We’ve come across an expression in a text, “directions and the moon”; it seems that it could represent a number.  The word “directions” {PHYOGS} in the Great Dictionary comes up in an alternate definition as symbolizing the number ten; the word “moon” {ZLA BA} comes up as a poeticism for the number one: so our expression refers to the number eleven.
Place names: what does “Kansas” mean?
One of the most frustrating items that a translator can ever encounter in a text is the name of a small town in a small county in some obscure district of Tibet.  Place names are also often attached to the beginning of personal names: “The Virginian.”  If you’re trying to confirm that what sounds like a place name really is, there are several good sources in the database: the Great Dictionary and Prof. Wylie’s Place Names in the “Blue Annals” at R0027.  (You will want to study the transcription system of the latter though before you search it; some work has been done to convert it to ACIP input code, but it is not  yet complete, and the file is classified as a raw, “A”-level file.)
Real example:
The word {MCHIMS} comes up in the names of an author of a commentary to the Treasure House of Knowledge at S6954, and of an author of instructions for developing the good heart at S0400.  It sounds like a place name; how do we confirm it?  A search locates the word and confirms it as a place name in the Place Names; and the locality itself is described in more detail in the Great Dictionary.
Contacting fellow Asian scholars
Lost the address and phone number of a colleague?  Check the ACIP International Asian Scholars Database at R1001, simply by calling it up in AsiaView and searching for the particular person or institution you want.
Real example:
I need to get in touch with the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in India.  What is their address and other contact information?  A search of the ACIP International Asian Scholars Database gives a number of hits for several of the Library staff, and its director.
Finding sources for purchasing Tibetan books
ACIP has taken much time to try to locate for you many of the publishers and printers of native, Tibetan-language books in South Asia today.  Staff of the Project assisted the Library of Congress in identifying institutions throughout South Asia that could act as suppliers for the Library’s revived Tibetan acquisitions program.  For ordering information refer to the relevant files at R0022-1, R0022-2, and R0008 in the ACIP database.
Real example:
Where can I purchase a paper copy of the very rare commentary by Jampel Gendun Gyatso on the Logic Primer of Rato?  A search of the files mentioned above gives a hit at the Library of Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University in file R0008, with an address for ordering the book in file R0022-1.
Locating information about the history of specific monasteries 
and other Tibetan institutions
There are a number of places in the ACIP database where you can find historical information about specific Tibetan monasteries and other institutions; these include histories and historical documents such as monastic constitutions.  The best way to find these is simply to do a global search of the Sungbum and Reference Collections for the specific institution.
Real example:
I’m trying to find out how many colleges there were in Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery before it was destroyed during the Chinese invasionÑwhen several colleges were lost because there were no surviving monks to help start them over again.  
A search for the word {KHAM TSAN} or “college” in the constitution of Sera Mey, written by His Holiness the Eighth Dalai Lama and located at S0052, hits an description of the eleven colleges that existed at that time.
Locating information about major philosophical traditions 
of Asia other than Indo-Tibetan Buddhism
Almost every page ever written in the Tibetan language concerns itself with the great ideas of the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism.  There are however important sources in the ACIP database for locating authoritative information about the beliefs of other major philosophical traditions of Asia.  The most important of these are the texts found in the grub-mtha’ or “Survey of Philosophy” section of the database, and certainly the premier work here is the four-part Survey of the great Changkya Rolpay Dorje (1717-1786), at S0060-S0063.
Real example:
What information do we have on those rare Asian schools of thought which did not believe that the mind was indestructibleÑand that it continues on to another life after death?  By searching for the expression “past and future lifetimes” {SKYE BA SNGA PHYI} in the Survey of Changkya Rolpay Dorje, we find an entire discussion of this point, starting on folio 14A of the first part.

Shareware Programs included on the CD-ROM

Using the ACIP Database with an Older Computer, 
or with Computers that Do Not Run Windows
What to do if your computer cannot run Windows 95 and AsiaView?  Because all ACIP materials are input using universal ASCII letters, users who have an older computer without much hard disk space, or even a computer with no hard disk at all, can still make good use of the data.  This applies also to those who use computers that run on different operating systems, such as the Macintosh.  You have a choice either of using your own favorite word-processing program, or of utilizing special free programs that we have included for you on the CD-ROM.  Since many of our users have in the past used Macintosh computers, we have created a separate “Mac” directory on the CD-ROM, with programs and information especially relevant to the Mac.
Using Your Own Favorite Word-Processor
Even without using the AsiaView viewing program, you can view and research ACIP materials in roman letters with your own word-processor, using an IBM-compatible or Macintosh computer.  Simply log onto the CD-ROM, go to the “Texts” directory, and call up the text you want from the appropriate section, by opening the file having the catalog number of the desired text as part of its file name.  To find the catalog number, check the ASCII (plain-text) version of the ACIP Master Catalog at catalog number R1000 in the reference materials (the “Ref” directory under “Texts”).  
Or you can browse through the abbreviated printed version of the catalog at the end of this manual and find the catalog number there.

You can use all the search features of either your own program or the programs supplied on the CD-ROM to find the items of interest to you.  If you do not have a CD-ROM drive either built into your computer or attached to it, then find a friend or local computer store that can move the needed files from the CD-ROM to floppy diskettes, or directly to your hard disk, and access them from there.
The List Viewing and Searching Program
List is a roman-text viewing and search program for DOS which is generally considered one of the best pieces of shareware ever written.  The program is extremely fast and intuitive, and the search function is flexible, including a case-sensitivity option.  ACIP requests that any user who finds the program of value read the accompanying instructions for registering their copy; this also brings the benefits of a detailed manual and phone support.  Start the program by going to the “List” subdirectory in the “Programs” directory of the CD-ROM, and then typing “LIST” followed by the “Enter” key.  Or you can copy all the files in the “List” subdirectory to a directory on your hard disk and run the program from there.
The GOfer Search Program, for Both IBM-compatible 
and Macintosh Computers
The GOfer search program (not to be confused with the Web tool Gopher) is a powerful utility which is still one of the best search programs ever written; many ACIP users, in fact, still prefer to run the DOS version of this program and search the data with it, rather than depending on bulky Windows programs, running in the Windows operating system that still “crashes” frequently on many computers.  This program can fit on a single floppy diskette, and once invoked stays in your computer, ready to pop up in your DOS program, or be called from a DOS window if you are in Windows.  GOfer is also perhaps the best way to conduct searches of the ACIP database on a Macintosh computer that lacks Windows emulation.

ACIP has permission to distribute a limited number of copies of this program, and it can be found under the subdirectory “Gofer” in the “Programs” directory of the CD-ROM, in separate subdirectories for the DOS and Mac versions.  To start the DOS version of the program, go to the “Gofer” directory and type “GF”, then the “enter” key.  Follow the various menu items presented.  

To call up the GOfer program from another program, once it has already been put in memory, simply press alt-G.  The Mac version installs as a desk accessory.  The Boolean search operators in GOfer are very powerful and quick, and the “Directory” option allows you to quickly search whole collections of texts immediately.
For those who do not have the computing resources for Windows and the AsiaView program, GOfer can be an excellent way to utilize ACIP data.  The full, original documentation for both DOS and Mac is available with registered versions of the program (see the order form on the CD-ROM).

The SeekEasy Search Program
Also included on the CD-ROM is the SeekEasy DOS program for IBM-compatible text searches, courtesy of Correlation Systems of California, USA.  We have selected it for several important reasons.  Although it displays only two lines of the context surrounding a search string, the program is capable of executing a “fuzzy” search: it will locate what you request even if you have spelled it wrong or typed it incompletely.  Very importantly, it can therefore locate a string broken by a carriage return.  Finally, the program is unusually fast and simple: just go to the “Seekeasy” subdirectory of the “Programs” directory of the CD-ROM, type Seekeasy followed by “enter”, then follow the easy instructions for finding your string.  Help is available in a short screen that appears whenever you type “Seekeasy ?” from the Seekeasy directory DOS prompt.

Again this is a shareware program, and if you find it useful we encourage you to submit the requested registration fee to Correlation Systems, 81 Rockinghorse Road, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA 90274.

Graphic Workshop
The Graphic Workshop program from Alchemy Mindworks allows viewing, conversion, and printing of the ACIP graphics files containing woodblock carvings of various images, monastic seals, and important personages in the philosophical tradition of Asia.  You can start the program by logging  to the “Grafwork” subdirectory under the “Programs” directory of the CD-ROM, and then typing “GWS” followed by the “Enter” key.  Press the “?” key for helpful information on using the program.  Please submit the requested registration fee to the developers of the program if you find it useful.

The TibEasy Tibetan Text Viewer 
The TibEasy program was developed early in the Project as a method of viewing and searching ACIP data in basic Tibetan characters on low-cost, low-tech computer equipment.  The program is primarily designed for viewing and searching classical Tibetan script, although you can also view the roman-letter input code along with the Tibetan letters if you wish, by using the “transcription” option.  Although TibEasy is technically a DOS and not a Windows program, it comes up on the screen with an attractive look like Windows, and also utilizes a familiar command format.  Since the program was purposely designed to run even on old, outdated computers, it requires very little memory or disk space.

The program can be used either with a mouse, by clicking on the appropriate selections, or with a keyboard only, by using the various commands clearly outlined in the “Help” screen.  To begin TibEasy, just go to the “Tibez” subdirectory of the “Programs” directory; then type “TIBEZ” followed by the “enter” key at the prompt.  Follow the directions to use the program.  Note that the filename default of “*.ACI” must first be changed to “*.*”.

The author of the program, Mr. Ed Softky, has included in it a very useful search function which can find both exact matches of text and also “fuzzy” or approximate matches, whichever the user requests.  A “Go to” function takes you automatically to a particular page according to the woodblock folio number of the original text.

The Xtree File Management and Viewer Tool
Also included on the ACIP CD-ROM, without charge, is a demonstration version of the Xtree file management and viewer tool.  This is a quick and easy way to copy files to floppy disks or to other directories, or to perform other file management chores, and works perfectly as a quick viewer when you want to check the contents of ACIP data files.  Although the company that produced Xtree is no longer in business, this and especially the full version (which you can usually find by asking around) are among the most useful programs for ACIP users with older computers. 

Free Screen Savers
The Mani Graphics File
Pema Software has made a very attractive animated clip of the six-syllable Mani mantra, and supplied it free of charge for ACIP users.  It runs in DOS and can also be made into a nice Windows screen saver by following the instructions provided with the program.  Call it up from the “Mani” directory (under “Programs”) on the CD-ROM.

The Dharma4 and Dharma5 Screen Savers
The Project has received permission from Oh My Goddess!, a 3D- animation company, to include two beautiful Windows screen savers on the CD-ROM (see the “Mani” directory under “Programs”).  For additional screen savers and more information, check their website at http://www.efn.org/~rayo.

The ACIP Input and Research Tools Suite
One of the goals of the Asian Classics Input Project is to give as much help as possible to other, similar projects around the world, and our staffÑespecially in south AsiaÑhas been successful in many cooperative efforts of this type.  To this end, we have included here free on the CD-ROM a number of the programs that we use in-house.  These programs can be grouped into two basic categories: programs for input and programs for research.

Input and Verification Tools
The Norton Editor
For data entry at almost all of its overseas centers, ACIP uses a simple yet highly functional text editor, Norton Editor, that can run off a floppy disk; this makes it ideal for use with the inexpensive computer equipment and difficult conditions in the parts of Asia where Tibetan data entry might be accomplished.  This editor is a commercial program and can be ordered from the makers of the popular Norton utilities and antivirus software, found in almost any computer store.
The AFC Comparison Programs
ACIP is extremely fortunate to enjoy the volunteer services of Mr. John Malpas of San Francisco, USA, in developing sophisticated programs for performing the various comparison stages so necessary for the proper verification of the data input by the Project.  These programs will be very important for any similar input project hoping to attain the accuracy provided by duplicate input and comparison, a method of data verification far more efficient than manual proofreading of a single typing.  Here you will find two different versions of Mr. Malpas’ AFC Verification Program, under the “Programs” sub-directories “AFC91” and “AFX93”.  The programs are very space-efficient, and can be run from a floppy disk.
Typing Tutor
In the “Programs” subdirectory “Typtutor”, users will find a basic shareware program for teaching typing.  This is also designed as an easy-to-use, “hardy” program running off a floppy disk, ideal for the low-cost equipment and difficult input conditions of south Asia.  The Project has trained several hundred entry operators using this clean and simple program, normally getting a totally untrained person up to 50 words a minute within a few months.
Statistical and Verification Programs
With the help of a number of dedicated volunteer programmers, including Mr. John Malpas and Mr. Robert Knight, a manager at the Princeton University Computer Center, ACIP has developed a variety of programs for statistical analysis and verification of Tibetan texts.  These programs check, for example, whether all the woodblock folios input have the same number of carved lines of text; whether the fronts and backs of the folios are numbered properly; whether there are any illegal characters; and whether any of the lines exceeds an allowed variation from an average number of characters per line.

The principal program here is Mr. Malpas’ Eval program, found under the “Eval” subdirectory in the “Programs” directory. There are also programs under the subdirectories “Count” and “Tibstats”.

The PKZip File Compression Utilities
In a directory called “Pkunzip” on the CD-ROM you will find the famous PK-Ware shareware programs for compressing or zipping files down to a much smaller size, and then decompressing or unzipping them back to normal size.  These have been very useful within the Project for moving data between locations in Asia and the US headquarters on floppy diskettes.
The UC2LC Case-Conversion Utility
Every once in a while the Project has been called upon to convert its input code to one of the more than 10 transcription systems that exist for Tibetan.  This is a piece of code written by ACIP assistant director Dr. Robert J. Taylor that does part of the work, converting the ACIP uppercase letters to lowercase.  Look under the “Programs” directory in a subdirectory called “UC2LC”.
The LCDecode Conversion Utility
Data licensed by the Project from the Library of Congress needs to be put through several filters before it can appear on a normal computer screen without a lot of unusual characters.  This utility, written by Mr. John Malpas, does the trick.  Find it under the “Programs” directory in a subdirectory called “LCDecode”.

Research Tools
The MultiLingua Spell-Checker and Research Tool
In the early years of the Project, ACIP modified a very useful shareware program, MultiLingua, for automated checking of spelling in the documents prepared by the project.  Isolating both wrong and unusual spellings with an automated spell-checker saves much precious time of the few qualified proofreaders and editors available.

MultiLingua is a product of Concepts Info, a Canadian firm, headed by Mr. Sined Nossam.  They have allowed ACIP to include a demonstration version of their program here on the CD-ROM, customized by ACIP staff to provide a good basic Tibetan spell-checker.  (Useful English and French spell-checking capacity is also part of the demonstration version.)  Serious researchers will want to order the expanded program directly from the company at the following address:
                             	Concepts Info
	b.p. 1270
	Chicoutimi, Quebec
 	Canada G7H 5H1
 	fax: (418) 543-6713

Users should be aware of the purposeful limitations of the demonstration spell-checker included on the CD-ROM.  It is based on a small number of texts from the first ACIP release and may not include some common words not found there; for a basic checker, it is advisable to limit the number of allowed words since oftentimes (especially in a monosyllabic language) a word which is actually a misspelled common word can be spelled identically to an actual but rarely used word.  If all the rare words are included in the glossary of the spell-checker, it will therefore be less effective.

By following the instructions provided with the program, it can be utilized to perform word-counts or similar linguistic analysis, as well as historical checks that help date and place a text, or establish its author, by loading in words from texts for which this information has already been established.

Please note that the glossary provided with this demonstration version cannot be expanded much beyond its present capacity; for this, the complete program must be ordered from Concepts Info.  If you do chose to add or delete a word in the glossary directly with an ASCII text editor, be sure to review carefully the documentation concerning the required word order, since a mistake can cause a malfunction in the checker.  This can sometimes “freeze up” the program, at which point the only option is to restart the computer.

We will not include here a detailed description of how the program operates, since this can be found in the program’s own on-line documentation.  Users should however note that the checking process for this version of the glossary views ACIP data in lower-case letters, so that errors involving those infrequent Sanskrit symbols which in ACIP transcription use the lower case may not be located.  Please note too that the command for starting up the demonstration version here on the disk is “ML-D”, rather than the “ML” used for the full version.  The program is located in the “ML” subdirectory under “Programs” in the CD-ROM.
The Acrobat Text Reader
Included on the ACIP CD-ROM are Windows and Mac versions of the free Acrobat text reader and document viewer program.  Selected ACIP documents that involve extensive graphics or formatting, such as some of the transcription standard documents found on the CD-ROM under the directory “Translit”, can be viewed with this standard program.  The files that are read by Acrobat end in the extension “.pdf”.
Lexical Research Files and Tools
Under the directory “Lexical” on the CD-ROM you will find a number of data files that ACIP has utilized in its work.  The “Ligs” subdirectory under the “Sanskrit” subdirectory here contains an extensive list of Sanskrit ligatures culled from some preliminary typings of the Rig Veda and similar works.  These are very useful for Tibetan font-makers trying to capture all the possible Sanskrit “stacks” in Tibetanized Sanskrit.  Under the “Tibetan” subdirectory there is some preliminary research data on Tibetan initials and finals.

Under the main “Programs” directory you will also find a subdirectory called “Cvowels” which contains a program that was used for stripping syllables of their vowels in order to create lists of ligatures.
Update on Commercial 
Tibetan Word-Processing Programs

The following is a brief update on some of the major commercial Tibetan word-processing programs available at present and known to the Project; we would be happy to hear from other suppliers of such products for inclusion in our future documentation.  Please note that our use of the term “word-processor” is very general, 
and most of the programs are technically a combination of fonts, keyboard routines, and viewing utilities that ride “piggyback” on a widely available commercial roman-letter word-processor such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect.

As noted above in the documentation for the AsiaView user interface program, you will need to purchase a commercial program of this type if you want to do any significant amount of typesetting or layout of documents in Tibetan or in a combination of Tibetan and roman letters.  All of the major commercial programs allow you to convert ACIP data into the proprietary Tibetan fonts that they use.  Please note that the concise information given here is provided as a service only, and not as an endorsement: users should contact each software supplier themselves to determine the product that best suits their particular needs.

As with all computer software, users should pay special attention 
to the history, ability to provide service, and innovativeness of the source of each product.  Like everything in the computer world, 
the ability to type, view, and print foreign languages like Tibetan 
is constantly improving and changing.  We can soon expect great strides in the compatibility and universality of the various products, but in the meantime the reality is that there are a variety of often incompatible products, most frequently produced by dedicated individuals rather than larger companies that will support a product for decades and assure that it conforms to the latest computer environments.  This is a serious weakness of the Tibetan software market that can only be overcome by better funding, probably in the form of endowments that will assure the continuity of needed software upgrades and end-user support.

Sambhota
The Sambhota Tibetan program is distinguished by its ease of use; almost all the users we have talked to mention how simple it is to get up and running in the program.  The full version runs under Windows in Microsoft Word version 6 or higher.  Stand-alone Rich Text Format (RTF) files can also be created using the Sambhota fonts together with the Asian Classics to Sambhota conversion program.  The resulting RTF files can include both Tibetan and roman script and can be used by any program that can read RTF files, such as WordPad and Corel WordPerfect 8.  There is also a Macintosh version of Sambhota.

The program contains attractive Tibetan fonts (both TrueType 
and PostScript) designed by a Tibetan calligrapher, Ugyen Shenpen.  A version of these fonts is the one used in the AsiaView program included without charge on the ACIP CD-ROM, and we would like to thank Nitartha International and the program’s designer, Mr. Gerry Wiener, for licensing the Project this excellent work for public distribution.  Please note that the commercial version of the fonts and program give you much greater flexibility in creating documents, either in Tibetan letters only or in mixed Tibetan and roman letters; and so we encourage our users to obtain the full-fledged program for any substantial Tibetan word-processing.

Sambhota supports more than 200 custom-designed character stacks for showing Sanskrit in Tibetan letters.  You can enter Tibetan letters and stacks directly from the keyboard in Microsoft Word, or easily convert documents from ACIP input code or the common Wylie transcription method; you can also convert between these two systems themselves.  The converter, a version of which Mr. Wiener has kindly allowed the Project to include here on the CD-ROM for public use, is extremely fast.  For information on its use, please see the section entitled “Converting Roman-letter Files to Tibetan-Letter Files” on page 78.

Future plans for this program include the creation of more than 200 additional Tibetanized Sanskrit character stacks that have been extracted from a Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary.  The various fonts are being re-encoded to better support both document exchange between Macs and PCs, and Web publishing.  Plans are in the works to provide support for Microsoft Word 8 on the Macintosh.
The Sambhota program currently sells for $80, plus $8 shipping and handling within the US, or $16 shipping and handling outside of the US.  The program can also be supplied to users by e-mail in a 1.3MB self-extracting zip-file attachment.

For more information on the Sambhota program, or to order it, please contact:
Nitartha International
100 Spruce Street
Louisville, Colorado
USA 80027
telephone: +1 303 661-9332
fax: +1 303 926-0330
e-mail: RobertFors@aol.com
contact person: Mr. Robert Fors

The Tibetan Computer Company and Tibetan!
The Tibetan Computer Company (TCC) has been in existence for a considerable time, and produces a fine Tibetan word-processor known by the name of Tibetan!  The look of the fonts used by Tibetan! are among the best available; Tibetans themselves find them to be very attractive, and we at ACIP use one of them (TibetanMachine) in the majority of our publicationsÑfor example, in the abbreviated catalogs found in this user manual.

The Tibetan fonts include an excellent range of customized letter-combinations for handling Sanskrit represented in Tibetan letters.  An optional item, Diacritics!, makes use of an attractive diacritic Palatino font which contains all the extra symbols you need for typing Sanskrit words in roman letters with the usual diacritical marks.

Both programs run on IBM-type computers within the popular WordPerfect word-processing program; and so users will have to purchase this as well to run Tibetan!  At the present time, the program requires an older version of WordPerfect (version 6.x for DOS), although a version that runs under Windows is expected.  The program is optimized for use with an HP LaserJet PostScript printer, though it can also work with a non-PostScript printer.
Tibetan! requires some investment of time to learn to use properly, but this is well worth the superior results that you can get from it.  Since TCC is currently located in Kathmandu, Nepal, user support by telephone is rather difficult, but the staff of the firm are readily available by e-mail and have a good record for assisting users of their materials.  For additional information about the Tibetan! program and various add-on products, please contact TCC directly at the numbers listed below.

The Tibetan Computer Company has been kind enough to write a separate conversion program that allows you to convert ACIP data automatically into their Tibetan letters.  This conversion program is free of charge, and is found here on the ACIP CD-ROM in the subdirectory “Tccwp” under the directory “Convert”.  To use the converter, copy all of the contents of the “Tccwp” subdirectory to a directory on your hard disk, then simply double-click on the file named “Tacip.exe” and follow the directions.

TCC is also working on a new product, called TibetD, which will serve as an electronic viewer (like AsiaView) to allow users to view, search, and print materials prepared either in the Tibetan! program or in the TibetD program itself.  TibetD is designed to automatically handle Tibetan, Sanskrit transliterated into roman letters, and most Western European languages; it can also be adapted to other languages.  TibetD is expected to incorporate the Unicode standard for Tibetan as soon as this becomes a reality.  All of the various functions of the program will support both Tibetan and roman scripts, with a common interface.  The data that can be used in this program will be available from the Padma Karpo Translation Committee, and is described further in the section entitled “Update on Other Computer Projects Dealing with Tibetan Texts” on page 143.

The Tibetan Computer Company works closely with its sister project, the Drukpa Kagyu Heritage Project, which is described more fully in the update on other Tibetan computer projects.  The contact information for TCC is as follows:
Tibetan Computer Company
P.O. Box 4957
Kathmandu, Nepal
telephone: +977 1 480-779
company site: http://www.tibet.dk/tcc
additional software purchase site: http://www.chopa.com
contact person: Mr. Tony Duff
e-mail: tony@duff.wlink.com.np

Tibetan! version 4.41, which includes three different Tibetan fonts with Tibetan-Sanskrit extensions, is currently priced at $195.  Diacritics! version 2.0 sells for $250.

Tibetan on the Macintosh
Another fine program for Tibetan word-processing is Tibetan on 
the Macintosh.  This program has been around for some time and faithfully reproduces almost every Tibetan-letter combination.  It runs on Macintosh operating system 7.0 or higher (older versions work with Mac system 6.x), and requires about 3 megabytes of hard disk space for installation.

The Tibetan on the Macintosh package includes several TrueType fonts, which contain most of the characters required for Tibetan and for Sanskrit in Tibetan letters.  It also contains roman fonts that allow you to produce Sanskrit in roman letters, with the required diacritical marks.  The package includes special software that allows you either to input Tibetan letters directly through a special Tibetan-letter keyboard layout, or to create Tibetan letters by typing in either the ACIP input code or in Wylie transliteration.

Also incorporated into the package are complete conversion utilities both for converting ACIP data into the program’s Tibetan font, LTibetan, and for achieving the reverse conversion.  There is also a special sorting routine that allows you to alphabetize Tibetan items for use in dictionaries, glossaries, and the like.  The font data produced by the program is, finally, compatible with the Tibetan for Windows program described below.

Future plans for this program include conversion to Unicode, and a calligraphic Tibetan display typeface for headings.  The Tibetan on the Macintosh package sells for $70 US, and can be ordered direct from:
Snow Lion Publications
P.O. Box 6483
Ithaca, NY
USA 14851
telephone: +1 800 950-0313 or 607 273-8519
web site: http://www.snowlionpub.com/

For more technical detail on the program, or other questions, you may wish to contact its author:
Mr. Pierre Robillard
200 Balsam Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M4E 3C3
telephone: +1 416 699-5718
e-mail: pierrer@interlog.com

Tibetan for Windows
The Tibetan for Windows program works under Windows 3.x, Windows 95, or Windows 98.  When used for Windows 95 or higher, it requires another word-processor such as Microsoft Word for Windows or WordPerfect for Windows.  The program occupies about 3 megabytes of hard disk space.
Tibetan can be entered from the keyboard in a number of different methods: either in Wylie transcription, phonetic, Tibetan typewriter, or user-defined.  A conversion program included with the program runs under either DOS or Windows, and converts between any combination of Wylie, ACIP, or the Robillard fonts.  (These last were originally developed as part of the Tibetan on the Macintosh program described above and were subsequently converted to run under Windows.)  A document in approximate phonetics can be generated from each of the other formats.
Tibetan for Windows is designed for maximum compatibility, and you can transfer Tibetan files created with it onto a Macintosh equipped with Robillard fonts, and vice versa, with a minimum of trouble.  Documents created with the program can be printed on almost any printer supported by Windows, including dot-matrix, laser, and ink jet.  At the present time, there are no major enhancements planned for this program, although any bugs will continue to be corrected.

Tibetan for Windows currently sells for $60, and is available through the following outlet:
Snow Lion Publications
P.O. Box 6483
Ithaca, NY
USA 14851
telephone: +1 800 950-0313 or 607 273-8519
web site: http://www.snowlionpub.com/
note: the Snow Lion item code for the program is (TIWIN)

For more detailed information on the program, please contact the following:

Tibetan for Windows
1311 W. Arthur
Chicago, Illinois
USA 60626
telephone: +1 773 743-7135
company site: http://users.aol.com/tib4win
e-mail: MarvMoser@aol.com
contact person: Mr. Marvin Moser

TibKey
The Tibkey program is a keyboard utility that allows the user to enter Tibetan text into most Windows applications which support TrueType fonts, including word-processors, database programs, spreadsheets, and drawing programs.  The package includes a Tibetan TrueType font, but users should be aware that it lacks many of the more complex letter combinations needed to represent Sanskrit in Tibetan letters.  Tibkey is however quite sufficient for normal Tibetan typing needs.

The program requires less than a megabyte of disk space, and runs under Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows 98.  The designer of the program, Mr. Christopher J. Fynn, hopes in the future to expand its character set, and to enable it to work with Windows NT 4 and 5.  Tibkey is a free program, and can be found on the Internet at:
ftp://ftp.ptc.spbu.ru/pub/tibet/software/windows/tibkey10.zip
For more detailed information about the program, please contact:
Mr. Christopher J. Fynn
4 Chester Court, 84 Salisbury Road
London, UK NW6-6PA
e-mail: cfynn@dircon.co.uk

Tibetan Language Kit for Macintosh
The Tibetan Language Kit (TLK) is a Tibetan script system for Macintosh.  TLK potentially has greater functionality than many of the Tibetan programs mentioned in this section since it is designed for use in a multi-script computing environment.  In conjunction with WorldScript, TLK allows the user to type and print Tibetan script along with text in multiple other scripts in the same document, and also to build database applications that include Tibetan.  The newly upgraded version 7.5 of TLK works with the Macintosh WorldScript I system 7.5, and can also be run under MacOS 8.
For optimum performance, TLK should be used with applications that are WorldScript-compatible.  Unfortunately, many popular Mac programs are not specifically designed to work with WorldScript.  Nevertheless, previous versions of TLK have been used successfully with several database and word-processing applications including AllScript, 4th Dimension, and HyperCard.
TLK is distributed free of charge as a public service by Otani University Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute.  Two attractive Tibetan fonts, Kailasa and Kokonor, are included in TLK, with others available from third-party vendors.  These fonts include ligatures for many of the Tibetanized Sanskrit stacks.  Free programs are available for converting between ACIP, Wylie, and TLK Tibetan encoding.
To obtain futher information or to order a copy of the program, please contact:
Tibetan Works Research Project
Otani University Shin Buddhist 
	Comprehensive Research Institute
8 Tsuruyamacho, 2-chrome Teramachi-Imadegawa-agaru
Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-0802, Japan
fax: +81 75 212-5501
e-mail: TLK@cri.otani.ac.jp

Jamyang
Jamyang Software, based in Germany, offers a number of attractive Tibetan TrueType fonts along with a Tibetan keyboard that works in almost any Windows program that supports multiple fonts.  The keyboard accepts Wylie-transliteration input and automatically converts to the appropriate Tibetan letters and stacks.  
There are four Tibetan script styles to choose from (each sold separately), including a nice basic cursive script (dbu-med) font and a Bhutanese cursive script (mgyogs-yig) font.  Users from European countries report that Jamyang is very easy to use.
The basic program package, which includes a single Tibetan font, the Wylie-Tibetan keyboard, and templates for printing Tibetan-style books, costs $269.  Additional Tibetan script fonts are priced at $169 each; extension fonts for Tibetanized Sanskrit sell for $149.  All prices are inclusive of shipping.  Further information about the program can be obtained from:
Jamyang Software
Ubierstr. 34
53173 Bonn, Germany
tel: +49 228 365507
fax: +49 228 359452
Web site: http://home.t-online.de/home/0228359452-			0001/hallo.htm
contact person: Mr. Gregor Verhufen
e-mail: UZS34B@uni-bonn.de

GIST-CARD and ISM
The GIST-CARD is a PC add-on card that was developed by the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives (LTWA), at the seat of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, north India, in collaboration with C-DAC, a firm of the Gist Group in Pune, India.  The card is attached to the computer and allows the use of Tibetan scripts along with Latin scripts in text-based applications running under DOS.  It is currently in use at LTWA and at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi, India.

ISM (which stands for ISFOC Script Manager) is a software solution to Tibetan word-processing also developed through the same parties.  It can be used to create both Tibetan-only and bilingual Tibetan-roman documents, and runs under Windows 3.x and Windows 95.  It allows automatic font switching for MS Word, and has cross-platform compatibility between the Mac and PC.

The fonts supplied with the program are TrueType and Type I PostScript, and there is an option for a phonetic keyboard or a user-configurable keyboard.  There is also a version available for professional video-animation titling and special effects.  The program can also be run on Novell Netware, and requires about 
1.2 megabytes of free space for installation.

For more information on these products, or to order them, contact:
The Library of Tibetan Works & Archives (LTWA)
Gangchen Kyishong
Dharamsala 176 215, Kangra District
Himachal Pradesh, India
telephone: (91-1892) 22467
fax: (91-1892) 23723
contact person: Mr. Jigme Tsering, Computer Section

Update on Other Computer Projects 
Dealing with Tibetan Texts

This brief article is meant to acquaint you with some of the other Tibetan-related computer projects that are known to the Project at the present time.  Computing has truly entered the Tibetan world, and we are quite sure that there are projects going on which are not covered; we would be grateful to receive information on these from our correspondents.  Please note that the descriptions below are provided as a service only, and are not intended as an endorsement: ACIP has had no opportunity to review the accuracy either of the typing or of the content of the materials listed here.

As a general note, almost all of the projects reviewed for this article have made concrete steps towards the preservation of Tibetan texts, but often do not have any specific products available for public distribution yet.  Frequently, Tibetan-related organizations are seeking not so much to produce digital data for textual research, but rather produce data as a by-product of computerized typesetting of texts which they are seeking to publish for monastic universities and similar centers.  As such, whatever data is available is often in a proprietary and quickly outmoded format that cannot be effectively searched with generally available computer tools.

For the time being, users will have to get used to maintaining a number of different programs on their computers for using the various materials available.  As with the Tibetan-language word processors, the projects currently going often revolve around one or two dedicated persons, and are correspondingly vulnerable to ups and downs in funding or other support.  Hopefully a number of the projects can make the transition into endowed organizations that can continue on for the several generations that will be necessary for fully preserving the great treasure of Tibetan sacred literature.  Here then are some of the efforts of which we are aware:

The Padma Karpo Translation Committee is a computerized project based in Kathmandu, Nepal, and is closely related to the Tibetan Computer Company.  The ultimate goal of the Committee is to make available highly accurate translations of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist materials, and to create the electronic tools that will help make this work more efficient and precise.

The Committee plans very shortly to come out with an electronic edition of the famous Tibetan-English Dictionary of Sarat Chandra Das.  The dictionary will be presented in mixed Tibetan-script and roman letters, and will be viewable with the new TibetD software described in the previous section entitled “Update on Commercial Tibetan Word-Processing Programs”.  Like any other printed dictionary, the Das dictionary will be much more useful in electronic format, since this will allow searching of any word within the definition, and not just the main entry.  Although this dictionary is rather old, it still remains the best available hardcopy Tibetan-English effort to date, and its availability in digital form should prove a boon to scholars.

The Padma Karpo Translation Committee reports that it has also completed input and verification of the Great Dictionary of the Tibetan Language (Bod-rgya tsig-mdzod chen-mo), and is considering making it available, along with other lexical works and a number of important Indian treatises in Tibetan translation.  (This dictionary has also been input by ACIP.) Some of the data produced by this effort will be offered for free download, and other data will be available for purchase.  For more information, please contact PKTC at http://www.tibet.dk/pktc.  Or you can also contact Mr. Tony Duff, P.O. Box 4957, Kathmandu, Nepal; telephone (9771) 480-779; e-mail: tony@duff.wlink.com.np.  Incidentally, we would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Duff for also providing information on a number of the other projects mentioned in this section.

The Drukpa Kagyu Heritage Project is a sister project of PKTC.  It aims to collect, preserve, correct, and re-publish a large portion of the written heritage of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.  The finished product of DKHP is expected to encompass approximately 120 volumes; the current plan is to print these on paper in 500 sets, to be supplied without charge to centers and institutions of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition throughout the world.  Sets will also be offered to public libraries and similar organizations throughout the world for purchase; and an abbreviated set of the most common works, about 20 volumes, will be offered as well.  As of this writing, none of these products is yet ready for distribution, but DKHP reports that good progress has been made, and that great care is being taken to assure the accuracy of the typing.

The Drukpa Kagyu Heritage Project also intends to publish, both on paper and electronically, other works not included in the volumes mentioned above.  These include the entire collected works of Padma Karpo and Phagmo Drupa, from rare older editions, and texts such as the Tibetan original of the Jewel Ornament of Liberation.  To find out more about DKHP, please contact Mr. Duff at the information given above, or at http://www.tibet.dk/dkhp.

An input effort of the Drikung Kagyu tradition is Drikung Kagyu Text Project of the Drikung Kagyu Institute in Dehra Dun, India.  This project was started by Mr. Michael G. Essex of the USA in the late 1980s, primarily for the purpose of publishing bilingual Tibetan and English documents for practical application at spiritual study centers.  Mr. Essex reports that the India institute has input a large number of rare works; the principal software and format of the data is the Tibetan! program mentioned in the section on commercial word processors.  For more information on materials available, please contact:
Drikung Kyobpa Choling
1768 Sheridan Avenue
Escondido, California
USA 92027
telephone: (760) 738-0089
e-mail: mgessex@yahoo.com
contact person: Mr. Michael G. Essex

Computer work for the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is being accomplished at several locations.  Ven. Matthieu Ricard of Shechen Publications, Kathmandu, Nepal, has directed the input and subsequent publication of the entire collected works of the late head of the Nyingma tradition, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.  The data from this effort has been saved and is made available to interested individuals; it is stored in an older version of the Tibetan! program.  For information, contact Ven. Ricard in care of Shechen Monastery, P.O. Box 136, Kathmandu, Nepal; or send e-mail to: shechen@wlink.com.np.

The Nyingmapa Institute and Nyingma Monastery at the seat of the current head of the Nyingma tradition, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, in Bylakuppe, south India has a very active computer department under the energetic direction of Tulku Ngedon Rinpoche and Tulku Ajam Rinpoche.  They have input about 60 different books needed for study at these institutions, although as yet no method has been worked out for public distribution of the data.  They are also engaged, incidentally, in some very sophisticated digital video projects, featuring a re-creation of the life and times of Guru Rinpoche.  For more information, contact Tulku Ngedon Rinpoche at the Nyingma Monastery, P.O. Bylakuppe, Mysore Distt., Karnataka State, 571-104, India; or via e-mail at: tnr@mailcity.com.

A well-organized input effort is being undertaken by Nitartha International, an organization headed by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of literature of both the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.  Many aspects of the Nitartha project draw upon the work of ACIP, and have been enhanced in several important directions.  Nitartha has an excellent website at http://www.nitartha.org, which now features a fine on-line Tibetan-English dictionary called the Rangjung Yeshe Tibetan-English Dictionary.  It is said to contain some 85,000 entries, and can be utilized either on-line or ordered on diskette.  Orders for the dictionary, which currently costs $50, can be directed to:
Dharma Dictionary
Attn: J. Wagner
P.O. Box 4796
Boulder, Colorado
USA 80302

Further information on this dictionary can also be obtained from the following e-mail address: cdd@ryp.wlink.com.np.

Nitartha is currently focusing on 35 different titles, and the current status of each work can be viewed on their website.  The work is being accomplished at the Nitartha International Document Input Center in Kathmandu, Nepal, and the work plan laid forth by the project seems strong, with careful verification based upon multiple entry and automated comparison of texts.  More information can be obtained from:
Nitartha International
250 West 99th St., Suite 2A
New York, NY 10025-5441 USA
contact person: Mr. Martin Marvet

Representatives of the Sakya tradition are also working on inputting their important works.  Under assistance from ACIP, the Sakya Monastery of Bylakuppe, south India, accomplished input of the catalog to the Collected Works of the Masters of the Sakya (Sa-skya bka’-’bum).  The Sakya Center of Rajpur, north India, which is the seat of His Holiness Sakya Trizin, one of the heads of the Sakyas, has recently opened an input center with the help of ACIP, and has already begun input of other sections of the same collection.  For more information on this effort, please contact:
The Director/Secretary
Sakya Center
187 Rajpur Road
P.O. Rajpur 248 009
Dehra Dun (U.P.) India

General information about the Center can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/ Tokyo/Pagoda/4595CENTER.html
(“CENTER” must be typed in uppercase letters).

The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi, north India, has been computerized for some time, and has produced a number of texts in printed form.  The Institute has a good library of Tibetan texts, and is planning to input them in the coming years, although no data is available for ordering at present.  CIHTS also hopes to put their catalog on-line to help overseas users order items needed for their study.  For more information about the CIHTS computer efforts, contact:
Computer Section, Shantarakshita Library
Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies
Sarnath, Varanasi
Uttar Pradesh, India 221 007
telephones: (91-0542) 387-756, 386-515
fax: (91-0542) 385-150
e-mail: directorcihts/varanasi@dartmail.dartnet.com
contact person: Mr. Jitendra Kumar Singh, Technical Officer

The Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, at the seat of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, north India, has completed entry of a number of items in various proprietary formats, but has no current public distribution of digital text.

Mr. Peter Gilks of the Gomang Press in Kathmandu, Nepal, has input a good number of Tibetan texts for publication.  For more information on this effort, please contact him at P.O. Box 8525, Kathmandu, Nepal, or e-mail: peter@gomang.wlink.com.np.

An important project under development, and well worth mention here, is the Tibetan Studies Database (TIBSTUD) of Himalayan and Inner Asian Resources (HIAR) in New York.  This tool, which is being implemented for Web use, basically contains the accumulated knowledge of one of the greatest Tibetologists of all time, Dr. E. Gene Smith, and has been culled from over 30 years of research.  It will include biographical materials for teachers of all of the Tibetan traditions, with links to alternative names and epithets, family lineages and relationships, teachers, students, lineage, and monasteries.  The entry for each person will then be linked to the actual writings for which they are best known, whether from the ACIP database or from other input efforts.  Here is the contact information for HIAR:

Himalayan and Inner Asian Resources
102 Charles Street
New York, New York
USA 10014-2653
telephone: (212) 367-8490
fax: (212) 367-8479
e-mail: hiar@ibm.net
contact person: Dr. E. Gene Smith

The Electronic Buddhist Text Initiative is an important clearing-house for information on Asian input projects in many languages and countries.  It is a loose affiliation of groups and individuals involved in the work of preserving and using materials from Buddhist culture and Asian classical literature within a digital environment.  The group meets every 18 months to discuss issues of mutual interest such as character encoding, text markup, standardization and interchange of data, and electronic resources.  Their most recent meeting was held in October 1997 at Otani University in Kyoto, Japan.

The area coordinators for the Initiative are Prof. John Lehman of the University of Alaska (Fairbanks, Alaska, USA) for the Americas; Prof. Urs App of Hanazono University (Kyoto, Japan) for Asia; and Prof. Christian Wittern, University of Gšttingen (Gšttingen, Germany) for Europe.  Information about EBTI can be found at its website:  http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/ebti.htm.
The following, finally, are a number of useful websites for constantly updated information on various Tibetan-oriented input projects: the Buddhist Studies WWW Virtual Library at http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Buddhism.html; and the Tibetan Studies WWW Virtual Library at http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-TibetanStudies.html. A brief summary of a number of additional, smaller input projects for Tibetan can be found in Mr. Leigh Brasington’s home page, located at http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/6774/.  Another good source is Coombspapers archive, the Australian National University Social Services Research Data Bank, which includes some of the ACIP database and others.  This is an FTP site from where files can be downloaded, and is located at coombs.anu.edu.au.
Towards a New International Standard: 
Update on the Unicode Effort

Some progress has been made on creating an international standard for Tibetan that will become part of the letters available on any computer.  Unicode is an effort by a consortium of computer vendors and other institutions to create a standard way of encoding most of the languages of the world within a single digital character system.  Unicode is a subset of ISO-10646, an international standard for representing all scripts in digital form.  All of the “Basic Tibetan” characters are defined in Version 2.0 of Unicode, and various “Extended Tibetan” characters have been proposed for the next version.

It is expected that Unicode/ISO-10646 will soon replace ASCII/ANSI plain text (which is what all ACIP data is now expressed in) as the universal standard encoding for digital textual information.  ACIP was one of the groups that provided advice to the Unicode consortium during the formulation of the Tibetan character set, and all ACIP texts are designed to be easily converted to Unicode format.

Documents relating to the Unicode effort can be found on the ACIP CD-ROM under the directory “Unicode”.  For updates on Unicode and its Tibetan component, consult the following publication:

The Unicode Standard, Version 2.0 (Addison Wesley, 1996)
ISBN: 0-201-48345-9   Paperback with CD-ROM   Price: US $59

General information on Unicode is available at:
	http://www.unicode.org/

The Unicode character chart for Tibetan is found at:
	http://charts.unicode.org/Unicode.charts/normal/U0F00.html

ACIP Input Code Standards

The following is a summary of the ACIP Input Code Standards.  We distinguish between a “transcription standard” and an “input code standard” in that ACIP input code standards, both for Sanskrit and Tibetan, are meant to be the most efficient, cost-effective, non-ambiguous methods of entering massive amounts of textual data, in a format which can easily be converted by users to their favorite transcription standard.

Please note that, in this user manual itself, we use ACIP input code for Tibetan when referring primarily to how an item is to be entered from the keyboard in a search, or the like.  In these cases, the Tibetan is found in curly braces, and the braces themselves are not to be entered on the keyboard in the examples.  We use a lowercase, italic version when we are not referring principally to material to be typed in, so that it can fit more attractively into the English of the manual.

Any ACIP document can, within a few minutes, be converted to any transcription standard that a user desires.  Because there are so many competing transcription standards (around 15 for Tibetan, last we counted), and because specialists are often passionately attached to their favorite one, we have seen our role as simply providing a base input code that can be converted to any other standard immediately.

Note also that this document refers to ACIP input code standards, and not to the representation of pronunciation.  ACIP treatment 
of Tibetan pronunciation in written materials is described in a separate document entitled “ACIP Standards for Simplified Tibetan and Sanskrit Pronunciation,” on page 173.  A number 
of files documenting the ACIP Input Code conventions can,
 incidentally, be found under the directory “Translit” on the ACIP CD-ROM.

ACIP Tibetan Input Code Standards as of July 1998
ACIP Sanskrit Input Code Standards
The following document presents the Asian Classics Input Project standards for the input of Sanskrit.  Whenever inputting Sanskrit items to date, the Project has generally simply followed the system found in the particular document; that is, we have not attempted to modify every document input in order to bring it into an ACIP standard.  This section of the manual is, therefore, meant first of all to describe the variations that one may expect in ACIP documents, and then finally to describe the input code standard which we have developed for general future use.

Please note that this document refers to ACIP input code standards, and not to the representation of pronunciation.  ACIP treatment of Sanskrit pronunciation in written materials is described in a separate document entitled “ACIP Standards for Simplified Tibetan and Sanskrit Pronunciation.”

Sanskrit with standard diacritics
In ACIP printed materials which we anticipate will be read mainly by specialists, and where we have typeset the material ourselves and can utilize the special fonts available to us, we use a standard set of diacritics which will immediately be clear to such specialists.  One example would be the word pramÝûa.

Sanskrit with standard diacritics in next letter position
In applications intended primarily for specialists, but where the fonts available for the application do not allow all needed diacritics above or below the letter to which they refer, ACIP simply places the particular diacritic in the next letter position; for example, you will see prama-n.a for pramÝûa. This method of representation is used only in situations where there could be no ambiguity possible about the system used; for example, in the menu trees of the AsiaView user interface or in the “Sanskrit title” field of the ACIP Master Catalog, where no other hyphens or periods appear.

The following is a summary of how combinations are treated in this manner.

These letter combinations appear in the standard romanization of Sanskrit:
Ý	‘	ñ	ü	ü	ù	ù	ú		ø	¼	–	þ	÷	û	s	ý

They are represented, respectively, as follows:
a-	i-	u-	r.	r.-	l.	l.-	m.	h.	n*	n~	t.	d.	n.	sh	s.

Sanskrit in Tibetan letters
The method traditionally used by Tibetans to represent Sanskrit in Tibetan letters is effective, but can initially be rather difficult to read when transliterated into roman letters.  Wherever we are rendering such a caseÑfor example, when in a Tibetan translation of a Sanskrit classic the original Sanskrit title has been given in-situ by the translator in Tibetan lettersÑwe simply retain the Tibetan conventions of the normal ACIP Tibetan input code.  (For a complete explanation of this code, please see the section entitled “ACIP Tibetan Input Code Standards”, given just above).

Most important, we make no attempt to correct any spellings or phrasing: the Tibetanized Sanskrit in the database is a massive tumbleweed that will have to be sorted out by scholars of later generations; we simply type what’s there.

ACIP input code for the Tibetan rendering of our example word would thus be given as {PRA M’A nA}.  In ACIP’s experience, the only standard conventions here that scholars may find difficult are two:

©	The representation of the sub-joined a-chung (“small ah”) used for indicating long Sanskrit vowels is rendered as an apostrophe (‘) immediately preceding the roman letter for the Tibetan vowel, as in the case of {PRA M’A nA} above. This works because, in this position, it can never be confused with ‘a, the 23rd Tibetan letter, in suffix position (which is typed as an apostrophe following the roman letter for the vowel).
©	The representation of Tibetan transliterations of, for instance, the Sanskrit vocalic r through a combination of a sub-joined Tibetan ra and a reversed giku vowel: thus the word for Sanskrit itself is rendered: {SAm SKRi TA}.
The ACIP Sanskrit Input Code Standard
One of the most important goals of the entire ACIP effort is to allow scholars to search a large amount of material digitally, and find immediately the items they are looking for.  Until a standard such as Unicode is universally built into computers by manufacturers around the world, there will be no universal method for displaying on a computer screen, or typing in conveniently from a computer keyboard, the combinations of letters and diacritical marks that are used by Sanskritists everywhere to represent certain Devanagari letters.

In the meantime, efforts like ACIP are forced to develop interim standards that will allow users to search Sanskrit documents easily from a normal keyboard.  The following is a summary of the ACIP Sanskrit Input Code Standard.  We distinguish between a “transcription standard” and an “input code standard” in that ACIP input code standards, both for Sanskrit and Tibetan, are meant to be the most efficient, cost-effective, non-ambiguous methods of entering massive amounts of textual data, in a format which can easily be converted by users to their favorite transcription standard.

Any ACIP document can, within a few minutes, be converted to any transcription standard that a user desires.  Because there are so many competing transcription standards, and because specialists are often passionately attached to their favorite one, we have seen our role as simply providing a base input code that can be converted to any other standard immediately.

We hope to convert all of our Sanskrit materials gradually to this ACIP input code standard, for easy searching, but will maintain a parallel version in our database where a different standard was used in the original input or publication.  In some cases, the resulting ACIP standardized version will be the only easily searchable one; whereas the original version will include more detailed information, such as accents and so on, that would interfere with most kinds of digital searching.
The International Transliteration System for Sanskrit is as follows:

a	Ý	i	‘	u	ñ	ü	ü	ù	ù	e	ai	o	au	aú	aø
ka	kha	ga	gha	¼a	ca	cha	ja	jha	–a
þa	þha	÷a	÷ha	ûa	ta	tha	da	dha	na
pa	pha	ba	bha	ma	ya	ra	la	va
sa	ýa	sa	ha

The problematic letters are those which employ diacritical marks:

Ý	‘	ñ	ü	ü	ù	ù	ú	ø	¼	–	þ	÷	û	s	ý

In the standardized electronic versions of Sanskrit reference works, ACIP employs the following character sequences for these signs, respectively:

a#	i#	u#	r%	r%#	l%	l%#	m%	h%	n*	n~	t%	d% 	n%	sh	s%

When needed, the special lingual consonant l is represented by l~.
ACIP Text Verification Procedures

ACIP texts go through a stringent verification process.  Each text is entered, in its entirety, two times, by two different input operators.  There are a good number of different Tibetan letters that look almost the same, and this system is meant to prevent one person from misreading a syllable the same way twice.

The text then goes to the first automated verification operator.  ACIP has developed a special comparison program that reads through both of the two initial typings at the same time, alerting the operator any time a single letter position of the two versions does not match.  The verification operator chooses one of the two versions, or else types in a different manual correction, and this is written to a third file, which becomes the first “compared” file.

Now a second automated verification operator repeats this process on the first two typings again.  This results in a second “compared” file.  Finally, a fifth operator comes and compares the two “compared” files, producing a final overseas version which is, in theory, 
a completely true representation of the original Tibetan text.

What if the original text itself has mistakes?  ACIP has a strict policy that input operators and automated verification staff are not allowed to correct even what appears to be an obvious error in the original text.  This is because many such “obvious” errors may not be errors at all, but rather just a relatively rare word.  Operators are encouraged though to make a mark in the text to alert proofreaders at a later stage that there may be an error, and that the reading should be checked more carefully.

Just inputting what is written in the original texts, without attempting any editing or corrections, will require some 150 to 200 years for the single tradition we have focused upon: the lineage of great ideas from ancient India through the Dalai Lamas, and down to the present day.  The Project does not have the staff or financial resources to undertake substantial editing work at this time, and we seek only to “capture” the texts as they now appear in the wood-block editions.  Unless the Project is endowed at a substantial level in the near future, this final editing workÑwhich to be done with total accuracy requires a scholar possessing two to three decades of intense trainingÑwill be left to future generations.

As ACIP staff use a text, however, we come across readings that we judge to be surely or possibly mistaken.  In these cases, the original reading is left untouched, and the suggested correction is placed next to it within square brackets; if the reading is ambiguous and the suggested correction is not certain, we follow it with a question mark within the closing bracket.  

Whenever the text itself is torn, faded, or badly smudged, the input operator makes his best attempt at interpreting it and then marks the area with a question mark placed in brackets.  Please note that the AsiaView program has a setting in its search screens (called “Text only”, as opposed to “Formatted text”) which tells the program to ignore the material in brackets, so that a string of syllables is not interrupted and missed by the search program.

In the near future, ACIP intends to reverse this convention, and to put “certain” corrections in the text, followed by the original, mistaken reading in square brackets, preceded by a < sign.  This  will signify that the corrected reading has replaced the original.  It is extremely risky even for very qualified, native scholars to attempt to correct the wide range of variant readings that appear in Tibetan texts, covering as they do many centuries of literature, styles, and spellings.  Again, we see our primary task simply as capturing the current state of each text.

Once the text has gone through the dual-entry and triple comparison process described above, it is normally shipped to the US head-quarters of the Project for further statistical and spelling verification, and concatenation into discrete texts.  Special programs check the page and line information, run statistical average analyses of line lengths, perform basic spell-checking, and check for common entry errors.  These are then manually corrected, by ordering replacement pages from the overseas entry centers if needed.

The extremely erratic electrical supply common at most ACIP refugee input centers (many of the centers work off diesel engines all or some of the day) means that “brownouts” are common.  During a brownout, computer data is often corrupted, unbeknownst to the operators.  The final statistical verification programs also check for “illegal” or non-standard characters for Tibetan texts, and then these are noted and re-ordered.  Since the remaining, uncorrupted text (which for example could be 999 lines out of a thousand-line text) can still be of immense research value to scholars, ACIP does release such files, clearly marked “incomplete,” on its various releases.

When a particular text is needed immediately for the use of native Tibetan monasteries, translation projects and similar institutions,  it is put through a manual proofreading process, usually by one of a very small handful of truly qualified senior Lamas available.  The result of this proofreading is upgraded to a higher verification level.

ACIP File Nomenclature 
and Catalog Number Conventions

A great deal of thought has been put into the ACIP file nomenclature and catalog number conventions.  The Project has had to plan ahead to a future where there may be many tens of thousands of files in the database, each at its own verification level, and different editions of the same texts, yet all designated with an easily identifiable, unique file name and catalog number.

The basis of ACIP text file names is the Tohoku University catalogs of the Kangyur, Tengyur, and native Tibetan works.  Whenever a work has already been assigned a number in one of these catalogs, this becomes the basis of the file name.  When a work has not been assigned such a number (normally for a text in the Sungbum Collection), it receives the next available ACIP number.

No attempt is made to assure that even successive titles in the collected works of a single author receive successive catalog numbers, since this becomes a moot point once we are released from the limitations of a printed paper catalog.  All the catalog entries are loaded into the AsiaView catalog database, and can be sorted on author with a single click of the mouse button.  The “Volume/section” field in the database then tells you where the work was originally located within a particular volume, even if the volume was not sequentially paginated.

Technically speaking, ACIP file nomenclature can be divided into “file name” (the part of the entire file identifier that appears before the period) and “extension” (the part appearing after).
ACIP File Names
The core of an ACIP file name is a 4-digit number, either from the Tohoku catalog or, where not in this catalog, the ACIP catalog number. Since Tohoku numbers for the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections go from 1 to 4569, these numbers can never be confused with a Tohoku Sungbum work, and so ACIP will also be using these numbers for other collections.  For example, there will be separate works under K0001, S0001, and R0001, even though only the first refers to a Tohoku number.

The very first position, and often the second position, of the file name is a letter, which at the present time represents one of the following:

G = Image from the ACIP Graphics Collection
GS = Separate series of “G” numbers for the seals that appear 
on books found in the St. Petersburg Catalog
GSP = St. Petersburg seals in PCX graphics format
GM = Graphics file in Macintosh format
GP = Graphics file in PCX graphics format
GT = Graphics file in TIF graphics format 

K = Work from the Kangyur Collection
KD = Work from the Derge edition of the Kangyur; please note that, at the beginning of the project, we sometimes utilized the “Delhi” version of the Derge edition of the Kangyur published by His Holiness the Karmapa and included in the Library of Congress PL480 Program; this was later found to contain many errors introduced during the printing process, and we later moved to the Lhasa edition.
KL = Work from the Lhasa edition of the Kangyur
KX = Work from the Kangyur that has been published by itself as a separate text (such as a local monastery’s edition of the Diamond-Cutter Sutra); edition information is then included in the “Notes” field of the ACIP Master Catalog entry

R = Work from the Reference Materials Collection (including Sanskrit Study Tools)

S = Work from the Sungbum Collection
S followed by any other letter = specific edition or typing of a work from the Sungbum, as explained further in the “Notes” field in the ACIP Master Catalog entry for the particular work

T = Work from the Tengyur Collection
TD = Work from the Derge edition of the Tengyur; please note that, at the beginning of the project, we utilized the “Delhi” version of the Derge edition of the Tengyur published by His Holiness the Karmapa and included in the Library of Congress PL480 Program; this was later found to contain many errors introduced in the printing process, and we later obtained an original Derge blockprint for input.
TS = Work from the Serdri edition of the Tengyur

Thus the initial letter indicates the primary collection in which a work is found.  Please note though that some works may occur in more than one collection; for example, the gsan-yig or “record of teachings received” for any particular Lama will be given an initial “S” letter since it appears as a part of his or her collected works, but may still also appear in the “Reference” collectionÑstill with the initial “S”Ñdue its unique value as a reference work.  Please note also that native catalogs which are printed as an attached volume in any particular publication of the  Kangyur or Tengyur are given “K” and “T” initial letters, but only to indicate their source, and not to identify them as an actual work within these collections.

After these one or two letters come the four digits of the core catalog number.  For texts, this is then normally followed by a “status” letter, which gives a quick indication of the editing or verification level of the text.  These status levels, at present, are 
as follows:

A = first typing of a text
B = second typing of the same text
C = result of first automated comparison of the “A” and “B” typings
D = result of second automated comparison of the “A” and “B” typings
E = result of third automated comparison, of the “C” and “D” comparisons
F = expert manual proofreading, normally for hardcopy publication
G,H = text converted to various older, proprietary Tibetan-script formats for publishing
I with an “INC” extension = text is incomplete, in the sense of lacking 4 or more lines, but the complete part is up to “E” level
I with an “ACT” or similar extension = “E” level text with 3 or fewer lines missing in the entire text
L = “E” level text which has gone through automated page and line statistical checks successfully, and has no incomplete sections at all
M = “L” level text that has passed through automated updates and checks for common typing errors
N = “F” level text that has gone through same checks as an “M” level text

These status letters can sometimes be followed by another number or letter.  Numbers indicate multiple volumes, or sections of a very large work.  When these numbers reach the number of digits that would make the file name longer than eight positions (many of our users are still working under operating systems that cannot handle longer file names), we begin to use letters to represent tens: for example, S5977MA1 is the 101st title in a compendium that has been verified to an “M” level, and which was only given a single catalog number by the authors of the Tohoku catalog.

When the letter “P” appears at the very end of a file name, this indicates that we have purposely only typed in a portion of the text, such as the catalog only in a long work which contains both a catalog and an extended historical discussion.  This is to be distinguished from an “incomplete” text, which we are normally hurrying to complete, but have released as incomplete so that scholars can utilize the amount of data already finished.

ACIP File Extensions
The following extensions may be found after the dot in the ACIP file nomenclature:

ACE = 	English-language text approved for release by Asian Classics Input Project
ACM =	Text with mixed languages, and approved for release by ACIP
ACS = 	Sanskrit-language text approved for release by ACIP
ACT = 	Tibetan-language text approved for release by ACIP
INC =	Text lacking 4 or more lines
GIF = 	Graphics file in GIF format
MAC =	Graphics file in Macintosh format
PCX = 	Graphics file in PCX format
PDF = 	File in a format readable by Acrobat viewer
RAW =	A now obsolete extension once used to represent texts released by popular demand but not yet manually proofread
RTF =	Text (most often Tibetan-letter text) in RTF format
TIF =	Graphics file in TIF format

ACIP Catalog Numbers
This is how a text is called up in the AsiaView program.  The title of the text appears in a menu list, followed by its catalog number in parentheses.  This catalog number is distinguished from the full file name in that it only identifies the text, and does not give additional information as to verification level, edition version, language, and so on.  The AsiaView program then goes to the ACIP Master Catalog, obtains the file name that is currently listed for that catalog entry (which is the one with the highest verification level), and then calls it up for viewing or searching.

As a final note, there are currently three special marks that may follow the catalog number; these have the following meanings:

# (number sign) = text is copyrighted, and not available for public release; it has been input for in-house use only

^ (caret) = all of the text, or incomplete parts of it, are currently on order and can be expected soon

* (asterisk) = text is considered restricted by tradition and will be released only to qualified individuals upon written request

The catalog number of a text will not change over the years, but the file name may change, as the text moves up in verification levels.  Catalog numbers at present only give the initial “Collection” letter(s), the core Tohoku or ACIP 4-digit ID number, and then 
(if the work has multiple volumes, sections, or file parts) a hyphen followed by the part number.
ACIP Standards for Simplified Tibetan 
and Sanskrit Pronunciation

The following overview of ACIP standards for simplified Tibetan and Sanskrit pronunciation has been drawn from a document prepared by the Asian Classics Institute of New York and included in the ACIP database at R0060.  It is important to recognize that these standards have been created primarily to assure some kind of consistency in how the names of persons and similar items are represented in ACIP materials, such as the ACIP Master Catalog.  Reference is made primarily to preparing materials for English speakers, since this is the Western language selected for the Project’s materials.

A great many systems have been attempted to represent Tibetan pronunciation especially, and it is not our goal to impose such a standard, but rather simply to explain the Project’s own in-house standards.  We also admit here quite frankly that we have not yet had sufficient resources to go back and bring all our previous cataloging and other materials into strict conformance with the guidelines given here, but hope to do so as ACIP’s work continues.
General Comments on the Concept 
of Simplified Pronunciation

©	The goal of simplified pronunciation is to allow a normal, uninitiated English speaker to make the sound which most closely approximates the original word, without the use of special marks which are not utilized in normal written English.  Here, “normal written English” is defined as the English found in everyday books, magazines, and newspapers read by the general English-speaking population, and not technical works restricted to specialists.

©	It is important to distinguish pronunciation from transliteration.  The sole object of a pronunciation system is to approximate 
a sound most closely.  A transliteration system, in contrast, 
must represent every written symbol used in the original word. As such, the present document refers to ACIP standards for simplified pronunciation of Tibetan and Sanskrit, and not to the romanization or transliteration of these languages.  The Project’s standards for transliteration are presented elsewhere in two separate documents entitled “ACIP Tibetan Input Code Standards” and “ACIP Sanskrit Input Code Standards,” (see pages 152-164.)

For normal English-speaking audiences, the use of Sanskrit transliteration for pronunciation is unnecessary and often misleading; it causes, for example, many uninitiated readers to mispronounce words such as shunyata (mispronounced as sunyata due to ignorance of the diacritic’s function) or bodhichitta (pronounced bodhikitta due to misunderstanding of the single c used in transcription for a non-aspirated palatal).  Virtually no Westerner, specialist or not, pronounces the short and long Sanskrit vowels differently from each other, so the use of macrons in simplified pronunciation is meaningless.

The transliteration is thus converted to pronunciation following the rules outlined in the chart below.  We should note though that technical transliteration is, of course, appropriate in glossaries (in conjunction with pronunciation), and in bibliographies, which are intended primarily for the specialist.
  
Summary Chart of Simplified Tibetan 
and Sanskrit Pronunciation
The following practical guide for simplified Tibetan and Sanskrit pronunciation is presented in Tibetan alphabetical order.  The letters are organized in their common native groupings, to aid in locating them.  Tibetan letters are given in ACIP input code, within curly braces.

Consonants
{K} = k
	example kawa for {KA BA}
{KH} = k
	example Tsongkapa for {TZONG KHA PA}
{G} as a main letter, except in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = g
	example gawa for {DGA’ BA}
{G} as main letter, in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = ng
	example renga for {RE ÔGA’}
{G} as suffix letter = k
	example Gelukpa for {DGE LUGS PA}
{GH} = gh
	example Maghada for {MA GHA DA}
{NG} except as ambiguous beginning letter of a subsequent syllable = -ng
	examples nga for {NGA} and lang for {BLANG}
{NG} as ambiguous beginning letter of a subsequent syllable = -ng
	example ka-ngel for {DKA’ NGAL}

{C} = ch
	example chungse for {CUNG ZAD}
{CH} = ch
	example chu for {CHOS}
{J} except in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = j
	example jarin for {JA RIN}
{J} in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = nj
	example tanjuk for {MTHA’ MJUG}
{NY} except as ambiguous beginning letter in a multisyllabic word = ny
	example nyelwa for {DMYAL BA}
{NY} as ambiguous beginning letter in a multisyllabic word = -ny
	example cha-nyam for {CHA MNYAM}

(Sanskrit retroflex series:)
{t} = t
	example tikchen for {t’IK CHEN}
{th} = t
	example kota for {KO thA}
{d} = d
	example damaru for {dA MA RU} 
{dh} = dh
	example uttarashadha for {AUTTA RA shA dhA}
{n} = n
	example panchen for {PAn CHEN}; note here that 
the a is not e due only to convention

{T} = t
	example ten for {GTAN}
{TH} = t
	example tarpa for {THAR PA}
{D} as main letter, except in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = d
	example den for {GDAN}
{D} as main letter, in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = nd
	example Ganden for {DGA’ LDAN}
{DH} = dh
	example sindhura for {SINDHU RA}
{N} = n
	examples ne for {GNAS} or len for {LAN}

{P} = p
	example pawo for {DPA’ BO}
{PH} = p
	example pentok for {PHAN THOGS}
{B} as main letter, except in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = b
	example bardo for {BAR DO}
{B} as main letter, in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = mb
	example chumbep for {CHU ÔBEBS}
{B} as suffix letter = p
	example raptu tsawa for {RAB TU TSA BA}
{BH} = bh
	example Sambhota for {SAM BHO tA}
{M} = m
	examples menpa for {DMAN PA} or rimpa for {RIM PA}
{TZ} except as ambiguous beginning letter in a multisyllabic word = ts
	example tsukpu for {GTZUG PHUD}
{TZ} as ambiguous beginning letter in a multisyllabic word = -ts
	(this is so rare as to be a nearly unnecessary distinction, since almost no Tibetan syllable ever ends in a t sound)
{TS} except as ambiguous beginning letter in a multisyllabic word = ts
	example Tsarchen for {TSAR CHEN}  
{TS} as ambiguous beginning letter in a multisyllabic word = -ts
	(equally rare)

{DZ} as main letter, except in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = dz
	example dze for {RDZAS}
{DZ} as main letter, in a prenasal, subsequent syllable = ndz
	example sandzin for {GZA’ ÔDZIN}
{W} = w
	example wa for {WA}

{ZH} = sh
	example shenpa for {ZHEN PA}
{Z} = s
	example sampa for {ZAM PA}
{‘} as main letter = vowel alone (see vowels below)
	example oma for {‘O MA}
{‘} as suffix letter in a dipthong = subsequent vowel alone, except when {I}
	example yinpao for {YIN PA’O}
{‘} as suffix letter followed by genitive additive = y
	example lamay tuk for {BLA MA’I THUGS} 
{Y} = y
	example yarwa for {G-YAR BA}

{R} = r
	examples rimpa for {RIM PA} and tsarwa for {TSAR BA} 
{L} = l
	examples lelo for {LE LO} and selwa for {GSAL BA}
{SH} = sh
	example shepa for {BSHAD PA}
{S} = s
	example sipa for {SRID PA}

{H} = h
	example hla for {LHA}
{A} = vowel alone (see next)

Vowels
{A} except before umlauting suffix letter = a
	example rangwang for {RANG DBANG}
{A} before umlauting suffix letter = e
	example lenpa for {LAN PA}
{I} = i
	example yi for {YID}
{U} = u
	example lu for {LUS}
{E} = e
	example leppa for {SLEB PA}
{O} except before umlauting suffix letter = o
	example gongpa for {DGONGS PA}
{O} before umlauting suffix letter = u
	example sunam for {BSOD NAMS}

Note: “umlauting” suffix letters are defined as: {DA} {NA} {RA} {LA} {SA}.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some frequently-asked questions about the Asian Classics Input Project, collected together in one place:

Is ACIP connected to a particular institution or university?
ACIP is an independent group of dedicated individuals around the world who have come together with the common vision of locating, preserving, and disseminating the great books and ideas of Asia.

We enjoy the support and cooperation of a number of great institutions but are not formally connected with any of them: Princeton University has been a great help from the beginning, and continues to provide a complimentary Internet site; Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University has been incredibly kind through the years with every form of support; Rashi Gempil Ling Kalmyk Mongolian Society of New Jersey has always given us space to work and the expertise of her staff; and the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center, under the direction of ACIP Chief Editor, the Ven. Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, has kindly provided us with both technical support and our federal and state non-profit tax exemption status.

How do you decide what books to input?
As set forth in the ACIP Mission Statement at the beginning of this manual, the primary goal of the Project at present is to locate, preserve, and disseminate “as a public service” books containing the great ideas of Asia, especially those which we believe will have the most profound and beneficial effect on Western civilization.  At present we are concentrating on Tibetan literature, since it is seriously endangered by political and economic events.  Within Tibetan literature, we are focusing on capturing one entire tradition: the wisdom of the lineage of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet, stretching back from its roots in ancient India, 25 centuries ago, and continuing up to the present day.  We estimate that just digitalizing these texts alone, not even attempting to translate them, will require 150 to 200 years.  Although ACIP provides substantial technical and material assistance to similar preservation efforts, it is far beyond our project philosophy and financial ability to input or include other materials not directly related to this goal.

How do you decide what to input first?
The priority of input is determined by a number of factors.  In general, high priority is given to the collected works of major authors whose works have had the greatest impact on the tradition of the Dalai Lamas, and which may be expected to have a corresponding impact on Western civilization.  Whenever we are presented with an opportunity to input a particularly rare or endangered text, we push it ahead in line.  We continually dedicate a certain percentage of our input capacity to the ancient canonical collections, the Kangyur and Tengyur, which are actively studied by all traditions of Tibetan thought; and any time that we receive support in the form of public funding (such as from the US National Endowment for the Humanities) we allocate it to the input of these two collections.

Not infrequently, we receive special requests from native Tibetan scholars and institutions to input texts which are urgently needed in printed form for use by refugee Tibetan students, and these receive a high priority.  At the behest of the private office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Project has in the past committed a great deal of its resources to the input of an English-Tibetan dictionary meant for use in the Tibetan school system.

American, European, and East Asian scholars have, on occasion,  requested that we input material which they require for their personal research, and where the text in question is within the scope of the Project goals we move it up in the queue.  The input centers at specific monasteries and similar institutions are always encouraged first to concentrate on the important books of their own curriculum, since these will be of immediate use to the refugee Tibetan students.  As the Project covers more of the tiny amount of material that was actually carried out of Tibet by refugees, the decision of what to input is increasingly decided by what copies of material we are able to acquire in other countries such as Russia and the United States. 
How much do ACIP materials cost?
Since the beginning of the Project, it has been our goal to distribute the great ideas of Asia to the world community completely free of charge, since this is in every way the very spirit of these great ideas: they cannot be owned, only shared and used to benefit mankind.  Any user anywhere in the world can therefore obtain all of our materials without any cost at all, simply by requesting them.

From those who can afford it, we do request a donation to help cover the cost of materials and shipping, but again we do not require this.  
Of course, all our data can also be downloaded from the Internet, or freely exchanged between ACIP users, without any cost at all.

How do you pay for the Project?
For many years, the primary funding for the Project was the personal salaries of the founders; we worked from our homes at night, and no one was paid.  During the last several years we have been able to put together temporary funding that pays a handful of staff a small salary, and we are still working out of makeshift quarters.  We believe strongly in the value of the literature we are saving, and we are determined to continue even if more stable funding cannot be obtained.  The method of text inputÑdouble-entry and three-pass verificationÑis expensive, but we refuse to compromise on this point in order to save money.

Funding is perhaps the most crucial need of the Project, and we strongly encourage our users to bring to us any creative suggestions for either grants, endowment funding, collaborations with other institutions, or in-kind donations such as used computers. 

Does the ACIP CD-ROM contain only Tibetan materials, or are there any translations into English, or other English materials on it?
The Project’s primary goal is to provide original Tibetan texts in their original form.  It is not our intention at this time to provide translations or similar materials; we see this as an entirely separate task that will be accomplished by many individuals, utilizing ACIP materials, in the future.  Therefore, although there are a few translated materials in the lam-rim section of the database, there are no other formal textual translations on the CD-ROM.

There are however many valuable materials on the CD-ROM for those who cannot read Tibetan.  A number of works in the reference section, such as Roerich’s translation of the Blue Annals or Vostrikov’s treatise on Tibetan historical literature, make interesting reading.  The files in the ACIP Graphics Library are fascinating and can be imported into any word processor and document that you create.  The translated titles in the abbreviated printed catalog, and the section on the subject structure of the database, give any interested person an easy and unprecedented overview of the contents of this vast body of sacred literature.

It is, of course, our long term goal to facilitate the transfer of this entire body into English and other Western languages, through tools such as the special digital dictionary described in the section called “The OCD: Asian Classics’ On-Line Contextual Dictionary” on page 197.

Why don’t you use my favorite transcription method or Tibetan letters for the Tibetan?
There are currently about 15 competing systems for showing Tibetan in roman letters, and a whole handful of competing, proprietary systems for displaying Tibetan in the native script on a computer.

At the beginning of the Project, we carefully looked into the future and saw that we would have to input many tens of thousands of books over the next 150 to 200 years.  We designed an input code in standard roman letters that could be easily entered from any computer keyboard in the world, which could immediately and easily be shared on all computers and through any electronic network without any special programs, and which would represent Tibetan without ambiguity in the fewest number of keystrokes, thus saving thousands of hours of work over the length of the Project.  The result is the ACIP input code described in the section “ACIP Tibetan Input Code Standards” on page 153.

Another reason for choosing the standard international ASCII for our input code is that it will certainly last longer, and conversion from it be supported for many years more, than any proprietary system which depends on the continued work of one or two individuals.  Our goal is that our input code should be such that any person, on any computer in the world, should be able in a few minutes to convert it to whatever system they happen to favor.  This goal has been accomplished: not only can ACIP input code be converted to any other romanization system in a few minutes, but every major Tibetan word processor in the world includes an automatic conversion routine for ACIP data.

Our primary reason for choosing, at present, the Sambhota Tibetan script for use in the AsiaView program is that its creator, Mr. Gerry Wiener, has been so generous in supplying it and in making special efforts to assure that it works smoothly with the program.  We would be thrilled to include other Tibetan-font systems in the future, and encourage any font designers who would like to contribute a font to contact us.

If your input process is so strict, why are there still mistakes 
in the data?
It is important first of all to realize that the goal of ACIP is to capture the information in Tibetan texts exactly as it appears there.  As explained more fully in the section entitled “ACIP Text Verification Procedures” on page 165, it is not within the current financial capacity of the ACIP to actually edit the classics of Asia as we input them: our primary input goals will take many decades, and editing the texts as we go would increase this much more.  That said, here are the most common reasons for mistakes in the data:

1) The primary reason for mistakes in the data is an actual error in the original carving, or else the fact that a piece of the original woodblock has broken off, changing the appearance of the letter.  This is very common and frustrating in prints from the older blocks.

2) Remember that most Tibetan books of the past were carved, not printed from metal print or similar methods.  Every letter is slightly different, and several letters look a lot like each other.  ACIP input operators are instructed to type the letter just as it looks, even if they feel that it might be another letter.  (Though they are encouraged to note unusual readings with a question mark for later checking by a qualified person.)  Without this restriction, the input process would be chaos, with each operator inserting whatever spellings he or she thought were correct.  Tibetan is an ancient and very tricky language, with many very subtle differences in meaning and spelling throughout the centuries; it would be a disaster to allow anyone but highly-trained and experienced scholars to attempt to correct the data.

3) Sometimes our input operators, mostly young refugee Tibetans, simply make a mistake, and the error escapes all the cross-checks we have created to catch it.  This is especially the case in difficult materials such as Sanskrit written in Tibetan letters.

4) The very erratic electrical supply to our centers in refugee communities of south India means that brownouts frequently occur, sometimes corrupting whole sections of data into a not-so-amusing mishmash of smiley faces and such.  We have programs that catch this, and then we re-order the data, which explains why there are incomplete texts in the database: those waiting for their replacement lines.  Please be patient.  This is the nature of our attempt to be a socially responsible effort, among those who most need Tibetan literature saved.

I’ve tried to contact ACIP, and either didn’t get an answer 
or got one very slowly.  What’s up?
Again, we are running on a very slender shoestring.  We get hundreds of inquiries, especially soon after a release like this, and we have almost no staff to handle them.  More than 90% of our domestic staff are volunteers working on their own time at night after their regular jobs.  The only way to answer your concerns as quickly as we would like to would be to hire new domestic staff, and this would force us to charge a pretty stiff fee for the data, which we don’t want to do.  We are also hesitant to dedicate our best people to fund raising, and lose the quality of our content.

So please be patient with us, and please don’t take it personally.  Repeat your correspondence or other request to us at decent intervals; the Project exists to serve you, and we will respond.  The ACIP Washington DC Area office is, by the way, the one designated to respond to most correspondence and to all orders for material, so please contact them first for these items.
Contacting ACIP

The various functions of the Asian Classics Input Project are divided between a number of domestic and overseas offices.  This section is meant to help you contact the correct office for your particular needs.
New York Area Office
The New York Area Office of the Project is located in Manhattan and can be reached as follows:

The Asian Classics Input Project
New York Area Office
P.O. Box 20373
New York, NY USA 10009

telephone: (212) 475-8935
fax: (212) 477-7176
e-mail: acip@well.com

This office is responsible for the following functions, and you should contact the numbers above if you have any concerns or questions relating to them:
¥	Locating and obtaining texts worldwide for input
¥	Text input ordering and priority scheduling
¥	Coordination, staffing, and financing of overseas offices
¥	Overall project finances and fundraising
¥	Sponsorship of text input
¥	Personnel issues, including volunteering and internship 			opportunities
¥	Policies and standards
¥	Domestic data verification
¥	Maintenance of the ACIP Master Database
¥	Maintenance of the ACIP Master Catalog
¥	Coordination of project volunteers
¥	Computer programming
¥	Tibetan and Sanskrit font and word processing
		development and licensing
¥	Data purchasing and licensing
¥	Domestic and foreign government liaison
¥	Preparation of contracts with overseas and domestic contractors
¥	Project planning
¥	Project publicity
¥	Establishment and enforcement of quality control standards

At present, the principal staff of this office are:

The Venerable Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin Founder and Chief Editor

Geshe Michael Roach, Project Director
John Stilwell, Project Manager
Robert Chilton, Technical Manager
Ora Maimes, Domestic Operations Manager
Christie McNally, Overseas Operations Manager
Fran Dayan, Financial Officer
Eric Colombel, Volunteer Programmer, author of AsiaView
John Malpas, Volunteer Programmer

Washington DC Area Office
The Washington DC area office fulfills a number of specific functions for the project; please contact this branch if you have any questions or concerns about the following issues:

¥	Fulfillment of all orders for CD-ROMs or other Project materials
¥	Oversight of the ACIP Graphics Collections
¥	Selected fundraising, especially in the Washington DC area
¥	Maintenance of the ACIP International Scholars Database
¥	Management of the ACIP mailing list
¥	Preparation of informational materials about the Project

The contact information for the Washington DC Area Office is 
as follows:

The Asian Classics Input Project
Washington DC Area Office
11911 Marmary Road
Gaithersburg, Maryland USA 20878-1839

telephone: (301) 948-5569
fax: (301) 349-2623
e-mail: r.taylor@ix.netcom.com

At present, the principal staff of this office are:

Dr. Robert J. Taylor, Assistant Project Director
Barbara Taylor, ACIP Graphics Collections Manager
ACIP South Asia Field Office
The ACIP South Asia Field Office directs the activities of over 20 ACIP data input centers in South Asia; this is where the bulk of all input for the Project is accomplished.  The specific activities of the office are:

¥	Locating and obtaining texts in Asia for input
¥	Oversight of all input and initial automated verification 
		of data
¥	Planning new centers and executing contracts as necessary
¥	Overseas personnel issues
¥	Input center policies and quality control performance
¥	Training throughout South Asia
¥	Assistance to native institutions in publishing from 
		ACIP data

This office is especially involved in outreach to other projects in South Asia, and in helping organizations of any affiliation in setting up data input centers in order to preserve important classical texts.  The contact information for SAFO is as follows (please note that phone service to this area of India is inconsistent, and you may have to call repeatedly; unfortunately, viable e-mail service is not yet available):

The Asian Classics Input Project South Asia Field Office
The Computer Center
Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery
Bylakuppe 571-104, Mysore District
Karnataka State, INDIA

telephone: (91-8276) 73094
contact person: Ven. Geshe Ngawang Rigdol, SAFO Director

ACIP Japan
In recognition of the special interest and expertise of Japanese scholars in the Tibetan and Sanskrit classics, the Asian Classics Input Project maintains a special contact office in Japan, under the capable direction of Mr. Kelsang Tahuwa.  This office can be contacted directly by our Japanese users for any information, or to order ACIP materials such as Release IV:

ACIP Contact Office, Japan
Kawachen
7-11-10 Ueno, Taito-ku
Tokyo 110-0005
Japan

telephone: 090-471-21940
fax: (03) 3204-8029
e-mail: DZD11010@nifty.ne.jp
contact person: Mr. Kelsang Tahuwa

Users in Japan who receive materials through this Contact Office are requested to make a donation, as specified by the Contact Office, to help cover the additional shipping and other costs involved.

ACIP on the Web
ACIP materials have been distributed via the Internet since early 1994.  In addition to various other archive sites that have posted ACIP data for public access, Princeton University Computing Center has kindly provided a website to the Project at:
	http://acip.princeton.edu

ACIP materials are available for download from the Princeton FTP site at:
	ftp://acip.princeton.edu/pub

As this release goes to press, ACIP is in the process of establishing a new website at:
	http://www.asianclassics.org.
Obtaining ACIP Materials

Most ACIP materials should be ordered from the ACIP Washington Area Office, at the contact information found in the section entitled “Contacting ACIP” on page 185. Users in Japan are requested to order materials from ACIP’s contact office in Tokyo (see preceeding page). We also encourage ACIP users to share the data freely among themselves via computer disk or the Internet.

ACIP has a policy of supplying all of its materials freely, without charge.  We do ask for a donation towards the cost of material and shipping; nonetheless, we will supply, as long as we can afford to do so financially, all our materials free of charge to any person who honestly cannot afford to help us with a donation.  This is particularly true of those Tibetans who would like to use our materials, anywhere in the world.

All released ACIP materials can be downloaded from our FTP site at Princeton University, listed above.  The contents of Release IV will appear on this site shortly after the publication of the release.  The entire database, and important new updates both to the data and to the AsiaView program for using the data, will also be available from the new ACIP website at:  
http://www.asianclassics.org.

Please note that a number of the items in the ACIP database are restricted and do not appear on our public releases.  In respect of the centuries-old tradition of the Buddhist lineages of Tibet and India, and in particular out of respect for the current holders of these lineages who work closely with ACIP in locating and preserving these materials, ACIP has a policy of not releasing to the general public those texts which are by tradition considered secret.

Users who have received the necessary initiations to study these materials may submit a request to ACIP for a particular text stating the details of their initiation, and pledging their cooperation in not releasing this data to the general public.  Please be aware that files supplied on this basis may include a special code identifying the user, and future data may be withheld from users whose copies are found to have reached the general public, either through the Internet or other avenues.  Texts which are distributed only in this manner are marked in both the abbreviated printed catalog and in the full ACIP Master Catalog with an asterisk (*).

A certain number of copyrighted texts, primarily reference materials such as dictionaries, have also been input by ACIP for the exclusive use of both its in-house staff and scholars directly related to the project.  These materials are not supplied to the general public in ACIP data releases, but are included on these releases in an encrypted form, so that they can be used by authorized staff around the world without pressing a separate CD-ROM.  For more information about obtaining copies of these works, please contact ACIP.  Texts which are copyrighted are marked in both the abbreviated printed catalog and in the full ACIP Master Catalog with a number sign (#).

Users will notice a number of items in the ACIP catalogs that are marked with a caret (^).  These are texts which are currently on order from our overseas data input centers, and are expected back shortly.  Oftentimes these are the final pieces needed to complete the collected works of a particular author, or a volume of one of the canonical collections.  For updates on the status of these texts, and of new data, please visit the ACIP website.

Would You Like to Help Us?  Working with ACIP

Much of the work of the Asian Classics Input Project depends on volunteers.  We have a substantial and dedicated number of volunteers serving the Project all over the world, and in fact much of the work involved in preparing each release is accomplished by members of this group.  

The technical areas in which volunteers have helped ACIP are programming; website creation and maintenance; database management; text scanning and imaging; optical character recognition; video and sound digitalization; and graphic design.

Logistically, we could use help in locating used computers for our refugee input centers overseas; transportation and shipping to get these computers to the people who need them; and volunteers who can help visit our overseas centers and assist them with their training, either in administration, accounting, spoken and written English, or computer hardware and software skills.  We also have a great need for private individuals, especially in the New York or Washington DC areas, who could donate their time in helping with general office work such as typing, bookkeeping, mailing list maintenance, and the like. 

In the area of textual and linguistic specialties, the Project needs volunteers for helping to program Tibetan word-processing; assisting in font design and execution; and in locating, cataloging, scanning, inputting, and editing Tibetan manuscripts.  We have ongoing programs for volunteers with an artistic background to help clean up the images of woodblock illustrations in the ACIP Graphics Collections, as well as opportunities for skilled editors to assist in proofreading our English-language research materials and the like.

In the administrative area, the Project is in great need of funding, whether in the form of private donations, grants, or corporate contributions.  We expect our work in locating, preserving, and disseminating the great classics of Asia to continue for 150 to 200 years, not to mention the centuries that will be required to translate these great works into English for the benefit of the public at large.  We would very much like to find an individual or organization that would be willing to endow the Project, so that this important work could continue well beyond the lifetimes of its founders.

To this end, ACIP has developed a detailed proposal for the entire scope of the work that must be done, and which will continue for a number of generations to come; this plan is contained in more than thirty notebooks of text, graphics, and budget materials that have already been presented to a number of interested parties.  We would be more than willing to travel and make a formal presentation to any person or organization that appreciates the importance of continuing the work you find here.

If you are interested in any of the above, please contact our New York Area Office:

The Asian Classics Input Project
New York Area Office
P.O. Box 20373
New York, NY 10009
USA
telephone: (212) 475-8935
fax: (212) 477-7176
e-mail: acip@well.com

What the ACIP Database Can Do for Your Study, 
and What it Can’t

As the use of computers has spread around the world, we have begun to learn not only what they can do for us, but what they cannot do for us; and this distinction seems especially important when we use the ACIP database.  What follows are a few reflections from the ACIP staff, things we have come to know from surfing in the database hour after hour, day after day.

Sometimes we go to a new part of the country,  and see as we pass in our car on the side of the road a different kind of flower, one we haven’t seen before.  It has its own beauty, its own unique shape and colorÑit gives us pleasure, even if we don’t know its name.  But then we have this urge to know what it’s called, and we ask those who live in that place, and once we have learned the flower’s name we feel that somehow it is more ours; that once we can name it, we possess the flower more certainly.  And when another person from back home comes to visit, we take some pride in referring to the flower with its proper nameÑin letting them know that we know.

It can be the same with the great ideas that lie in the great books of the ACIP database.  The books are filled with every kind of jewel from the heart of thoughtful living beings from Asia over the last 25 centuries: compassion, meditation, contemplation, learning, reasoning, caring, analyzing, looking within ourselves and looking after others.

The presentation of these ideas, as opposed to the reality of experiencing them, is in itself an exquisite thing as wellÑa thing of beauty, a tantalizing construction of exotic words and sentences, a challenge calling to the specialist, a code to be broken, an inner structure to be discovered.  There is a story in the Tibetan sacred books of a sincere seeker of knowledge whose contemplations were so holy that they drew the attention of the demons; they succeeded in attracting him away from the inner life to the study of the intricacies of Sanskrit grammar, and he died empty, his life spent in nothing of great meaning or benefit to the millions of fellow beings suffering around him.
As we use the database, we must use it first and foremost for the real advancement of real peopleÑto learn, and preserve, and to pass on to others great ideas that will help and uplift humankind; and even, if we are to believe the authors of these very books, to actually reach a place which is beyond all suffering and the state of death itself.

There is a difference between reading the name of a flower in a book, and seeing the flower as we fly by in a car, and stopping to smell it, touch it to our cheek, and be silent with it in its home.  Knowing the name is not to know the flower.  The database is an extremely powerful tool, it can take you to unimaginable treasures in a constant stream, and organize your knowledge of a particular concept in a way that was never before possible.  But even the best organized group of bits of information drawn from thousands of books can never replace the sincere study and contemplation of even a short single book; it can only enhance it.

In modern Tibetan monasteries, as in their predecessors for the last two millenia, students at the age of 13 have already memorized short, ancient books which they will live with, and which will be a part of them, for their entire lifetimes.  The first course in the Perfection of Wisdom consumes twelve full years of life, in the study of a book with 50 pages.  A book is not something to be read once, from cover to cover, and then relegated to a shelf.  It is not a computer file that you skip through, looking for hits.  It is like another world that you enter, and are guided through by your great teachers, and come to live in, and be a part of.  Throughout your life the words of the book return to your mind’s ear, repeated continually even at the oddest moments, the gentle words of masters long past whispering knowledge as you wake and sleep.

The database is not meant to replace this world, it is meant to bring you new and beautiful and special paths that lead even deeper into the world.  Those of us who have labored and spent a good deal of our lives to create the database are not doing so only for the sake of textual research; this would be travesty of the great ideas that live in the database.  We hope rather that it becomes an extension of the inner lives of our users; to inform, and enrich, and fulfill their lives, and the lives of those they meet.
Computers themselves must be approached with caution, we have become aware.  Life is so short and ruthless, and we can only have so many thoughts during our time here.  Users of the ACIP database have to learn to identify a particular great idea for their study, and then move thoughtfully and selectively through the information they find, being constantly mindful of the actual application of these ideas to the welfare of living beings.

Perhaps more difficult than learning to use the database is to master the art of leaving it: of turning the computer off once we have found what we need, and then turning back to our selves and the people around us, to use what we have learned to enrich livingkindÑso that the knowledge becomes true wisdom.

The OCD: Asian Classics’ On-Line Contextual Dictionary

ACIP project staff are working hard on what might be considered the last important tool which is missing from the database: an on-line Tibetan-English and English-Tibetan dictionary that will appear in a “pop-up” window whenever the user needs to know the meaning of a specific word.  We estimate that the inclusion of a good on-line dictionary would open the database to hundreds or thousands of additional users, both Tibetans and non-Tibetans, going both ways between the two languages.
ACIP staff and a group of volunteers have, therefore, been working on 
a special on-line dictionary which will include hypertext links between Tibetan words and their equivalents in a large database of alternating paragraphs of Tibetan and English, for a broad range of the most important subjects found in the database.
When an ACIP database user hits a “hot-key,” the word or words near the cursor will automatically be looked up in the database of alternating languages.  When the relevant Tibetan word is hit, for example, its English translation in the entire corresponding paragraph will light up, as will the Tibetan.  The user will then be able to see not only how the word is normally translated, but also how it appears in a typical context.
Special flags will take the reader directly, upon request, to an actual native definition of the term; to a definitive explanation of the term 
(a locus classicus); to any literal explanations of the components of the term (common in Tibetan); and to any special lists or enumerations 
(also popular in Tibetan).
Another hot key will access a sound file, to give the pronunciation of 
the word or phrase, and still others will jump to authoritative modern explanations.
The work to create the database of alternating Tibetan and English paragraphs necessary to drive this dictionary has already been going on for six years, and approximately 2,800 pages have been completed, with a careful mix from every major subject of traditional Tibetan literature.  ACIP staff and volunteers have just begun creating the necessary hypertext links, and some 4,000 of the contextual links have been completed.  Look for this dictionary soon on our website.

The ACIP Imaging Division

An exciting new part of the Asian Classics Input Project is the ACIP Imaging Division.  Whereas digitalizing texts by typing in the words allows them to be searched for the valuable information they contain, and to be printed out easily into books for refugee scholars and others, the scanned images of the books have their own special value.

For example, a scholar who wanted to see the original page that a particular section of data was input from could call it up automatically from AsiaView, to confirm whether a doubtful reading were correct.  Many of the woodblock pages also contain special illustrations of historical figures and other subjects of great value, and these will, by the way, be preserved as the folios of text are imaged.  Finally, imaging is much faster than input; by undertaking to produce images of every page in the major Tibetan collections around the world, we can truly assure that they will never be lost during political or economic upheaval, long before the end of the 150 to 200 years that will be required to input them all.

The ACIP Imaging Division has worked with a number of imaging experts in the United States to develop advanced techniques for creating microfilm images of Tibetan text, and then converting these to digital images.  Archival-quality microfilm has a lifespan which exceeds that of CD-ROM’s by about ten-fold (say several hundred years, as opposed to the several decades it takes for the lamination of a CD-ROM to dry and split).

This approach also allows for paper printing of the original images; it is critical sinceÑas the treasure of Tibetan literature is digitalized, and more and more people use these computer files for their researchÑsupport for the native and Western libraries which hold the original printed copies of these texts may well dwindle, as have the printed book collections of public and other libraries around the Western countries.  The nature of digital media, though extremely powerful, cheap, and convenient for research, is that it is particularly fragile: the machinery to read it ages and breaks down easily, and unless digital media are updated frequently they can be “passed by” for a whole generation of technology, becoming unreadable by the next generation of machines.
It is not at all beyond the imagination that a global-scale political or economic disruption, if it continued for more than a few years, could result in the complete loss of an electronic database such as ACIP’s.  And as the distribution and storage of more and more information depends on the Internet or similar electronic networks, we become increasingly vulnerable to accidental or malicious disruption, or interference and control of this information by governmental or special-interest groups.  It is therefore important that the images, and not only the digital form, of these texts are preserved; and that repositories of printed paper copies are created and supported.

The imaging of the texts slated for input by the Project has a final, major benefit.  The Project has successfully entered, manually, many tens of thousands of pages.  As the corresponding images are created, artificial-intelligence programs can be written that will be quickly able to correlate even the most unusual carvings of letters to their correct representation in ACIP input code.

This will lead to the successful development of the first optical character recognition (OCR) programs for carved woodblock Tibetan texts, which have not been viable to date because of the wide variation in how a single letter is carved in separate works.  We will then be able to create searchable file versions of the various images, simply by feeding them into the OCR program.  This in turn will shorten the time required take to input the entire body of Tibetan sacred literature, perhaps by many decades.  

Users are directed to a special “scans” directory on the CD-ROM that contains sample scans done with normal scanning technology, and also sample scans that utilize special new techniques that result in greatly enhanced image sharpness. A “read me” file in that directory gives further information.

The Future: A Cyberspace City Knowledge Tool

We were sitting around the other day reading William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the book that invented the word “cyberspace,” and we had a look at the ACIP Tibetan text database of the future.

As you enter the computer, you take on the identity of an eagle.  You are flying towards New York City in search of knowledge.

From the air, you see the five boroughs below you.  In the middle is the island, Manhattan, and this is where you can find all the texts that explain the ultimate meaning of emptiness: the higher school of the Middle Way, or Madhyamika Prasangika.  The majestic buildings in midtown are the great classics of the Middle Way: the writings of Arya Nagarjuna, Master Chandrakirti, and Je Tsongkapa.

To the west are the shores of New Jersey, New York’s little brother, the Perfection of Wisdom texts of the “Independent” Middle-Way School: the Madhyamika Svatantrika.  I’m not picking on New Jersey; I lived there two decades and learned most of my Tibetan there.  We’re talking about the free association of ideas, in the mind of a single individual who is building their catalog cyberworld, so he or she can find the great ideas of Asia in the way that is most natural for them individually.

Right down below, a touch off to the right as we approach in the sky from the south, is Staten Island: the only really orderly borough of New York, and home of vowed morality; that is, the great texts on Vinaya.  Just above it, to the east of the island, is Brooklyn: a melting pot of just-arriveds and up-and-comers, the starting point, the foundation of Tibetan philosophyÑHigher Knowledge, or the Abhidharma.  

Out to the east and north of Brooklyn is Queens, and Long Island as an extension: the up-and-comers who have made it, an evolution from the entry gate of BrooklynÑthe logic schools of the Sutrists, the teachings on reasoning and perceptual theory found in the books of Pramana.

And then finally there is the Bronx, above it all to the north, bleeding out gently over the bridges from the slums of Harlem and Spanish Harlem (which are still in the island land of the highest Middle Way), and landing in the bombed-out destruction that stretches itself on to the north, transforming into the paradise lands of Westchester and Connecticut.  Ah the Bronx; this has to be the country of the secret teachings, Tantra, never what it seems.

What would I like to read today?  How about some Middle-Way?  We slide down towards Manhattan, carefully avoiding the jet traffic lined up for Newark and JFK.  Right over the uplifted arm of the Statue of Liberty, a beacon for those who suffer.

The Empire State Building is the most obvious roost perhaps, Je Tsongkapa’s Illumination of the True Thought, the ultimate book on the Middle Way.  Too tough for today, a hot muggy summer evening.  Down around it are the PanAm Building and the Chrysler, forerunners of Je Rinpoche: the founding works of Arya Nagarjuna (Root Text on Wisdom) and Master Chandrakirti (Entering the Middle Way).  A more manageable landing than the Empire State Building for sure, but still a little high for a light visit.

I could just drop back and check out the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center, Je Tsongkapa’s presentation on the literal and the figurative: how to interpret the Buddha, home of the Mind-Only School.  Or maybe drop a little east of there to Wall Street, where they keep those little precious jewels of the lojong, learning to develop the good heart.  Or maybe up to the West Village, neat little brownstones with all those beautiful stone stairways leading up to them: the “Steps on the Path,” or lamrim.  No, it’s Saturday, night is drawing near, and I’m in the mood for something a little differentÑthe East Village.

Coming down near St. Mark’s Place, headed towards a little haven I found on Sixth Street a while back, near all those Indian restaurants.  I take a stop at a window sill on the second floor, but nothing happening there yet.  Fly into a little-known but very special window on the third.

I settle in on some fluffy pillows in the middle of the room, on some intricate Tibetan carpets, and gaze towards the wall to the east.  Yeah, this is the one I was looking for: the presentation on the Great Seal, Mahamudra, by the First Panchen Lama.  I sink down into the words as they pass by on the wall, the entire surface a huge illuminated screen.  Ah, I should have expected it: the Great Seal is nothing more, and nothing less, than the direct perception of emptiness itself.

When I need it, the west wall lights up with the same great Lama’s famous Dispute Between Wisdom and the Tendency to Hold Things as Self-Existent, addressing every wrong idea I could ever have about emptiness and meditating on emptiness.  I go there for comfort sometimes and then come back to the Great Seal.  When I’m not sure what a word sounds like, I nod at the screen, and it pronounces it for me.  To spice things up, I can make a different nod and go into a lecture on the text by a great modern Lama.  When I get tired I fly out the window, down to Michael & Zoe’s smoothie shop on Second Avenue, to pick up a few lines of inspiring verse from The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, by Master Shantideva.

If I need cross-references or have to look up a word I’m not sure about, I can always hop the subway up to the reference collection at Central Park: check on the spelling of a word, see how they say it in English or Sanskrit, or check out one of the graphics images with an illustration of the Lama whose book I’m reading.  Then back to the Village.

Yeah, like most birds I like to hoard little valuable things I find.  I usually don’t tell people where I keep them, but you’re OK.  Down towards Little Italy, or sometimes over on Broadway around Chinatown.  Take all the greatest of the greatest ideas I find on the walls up at Sixth Street and hypertext them down to these other quiet places, where I can go back and read up on them later, and then meditate on them.

Sometimes I forget where I put them, and discover them later, it’s always a pleasure.  After a while, every nook and cranny of the City is full of some kind of sacred knowledge; and I’ve also loaded a lot of stuff into the people just walking around, into the waitresses in coffee shops and the newspaper hawkers.
They’re set to go off whenever I fly by close, slow enough; to give me some little tidbit from the Middle Way or one of the other boroughs up north, and then just go on their way, like normal people.  This is how I’ve set up my database, a virtual reality of the great knowledge contained in the ancient books of the ACIP collections.  The red light of the dawn is just beginning to break through the window by the time I come off the Great Seal; time for home, and a touch of sleep.  Up again to the sky, and off the computer.

This is certainly how the ACIP database, and most other digital collections of knowledge, will be organized and accessed by future generations. . . Thank you, Mr. Gibson.

Acknowledgements

It is frankly quite difficult even to remember the names of all the hundreds of people who have given of their lives and resources to help create the one small CD-ROM you hold in your hands.  The Project is not so much an organization or an institution as it is the lives of many dedicated people, coming together and sharing a common vision of saving the great ideas of Asia, and making them available, especially to people of the West.  Here we thank each of you in groups, and we apologize in advance for those we miss.

Our Sponsors
The Asian Classics Input Project has enjoyed substantial and heartfelt support of a great number of individuals and organizations.  Some wish to remain anonymous, and we thank you here again.  And our gratitude:

To His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, for His active encouragement and moral support of the ACIP overseas input centers throughout the Tibetan refugee community of India.

To Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University of south India, for the help of its leaders, and teachers, and monk students in starting the ACIP entry centers, and providing facilities and expertise for many years.

To Rashi Gempil Ling Kalmyk Buddhist Temple, New Jersey, USA, for office space, utilities, texts for input, and the unparalleled expertise of her resident monk scholars, most especially the incomparable Venerable Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, former abbot of Sera Mey.

To The Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Centers of New Jersey, Washington DC, New York, and Connecticut, founded and directed by Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, for substantial administrative, financial, and technical support.

To The Asian Classics Institute of New York for substantial material, administrative, financial, equipment, staffing, and endless other assistance.

To The Three Jewels Bookstore and Outreach Center and its director, the Venerable Ani Thupten Pelma (Debra Ballier), New York, for office space and administrative support.

To The Diamond Abbey, Buddhist Monastery and Nunnery, of New York, for extensive use of office space, and for technical expertise.

To Princeton University for a permanent Internet site from which ACIP materials can be downloaded without charge, and for introducing ACIP staff to the pioneering work of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, the entire Greek classics on disk.

To Dr. David W. Packard, the Packard Humanities Institute, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Palo Alto, California, for grants that opened the first ACIP entry centers and offices; special thanks to the past and present staff including Dr. Colburn Wilbur, Dr. John Gleason, Dr. Stephe V.F. Waite, and Dr. Brigitte Comparini.

To the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington DC, for years of support for the input of the Kangyur and Tengyur Collections of classical Asian literature, shared by all traditions of Tibetan thought (please see the copyright page at the beginning of the user manual for the full text of the NEH acknowledgement); especially to past and present staff including Ms. Helen AgŸera and Ms. Adrienne Lo.

To Andin International Diamond Corporation; Mr. Ofer Azrielant, Chairman;  and Ms. Aya Azrielant, President, for continued financial support of the Project from the very beginning to the present date, for support of the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers, and for wise and inspiring guidance and advice.

To The Institute for the Advanced Studies of World Religions, Carmel, New York, and to its extraordinary founder and leader, Dr. C.T. Shen, for support, guidance, and the use of valuable texts; please note that the input of the collected works of selected Tibetan authors was sponsored with a Yang Teh Sheng Grant from the Woo Ju Memorial Library of the Institute, also located in Carmel, New York.

To The Gembel NV Diamond Corporation of Belgium, and its founder and president Mr. Prabodh Mehta, for support towards the input of the Sanskrit materials found on this release.  Mr. Mehta would like to dedicate this good work to the memory of his respected and beloved father.

To Kubera & Dancer of New York for the magnificent financial and philosophical support.

To our anonymous sponsor in Tokyo, Japan, for the purchase of badly needed Tibetan texts, for Tibetan fonts and other technical assistance, and for kind and generous support of the St. Petersburg Catalog Project.

To Ms. Wendy vanden Heuvel of New York for generous financial assistance, and wise advice and dedicated work in fund-raising efforts.

To The Library of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and to its late director, Kungo Pelden, for technical expertise and access to rare Tibetan texts.

To Geshe Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, founder and director of the Tibet Center of New York, for financial assistance in editing and producing rare Tibetan texts.

To Geshe Tenzin Dawa, Geshe Lobsang Gyatso, and the Venerable Tenzin Dakpa of New Jersey, USA, for financial support of the input and publication of monastic textbooks.

To the Venerable Jigme Palmo (Elizabeth van der Pas) of New York, for her kind support of the input centers of the Buddhist refugee nunneries of north India.

To The Frederick W. Richmond Foundation, and to its founder, Mr. Frederick Richmond, for generous support of the preservation of the great Tibetan books of the libraries of Mongolia.
To Dr. Genevieve Cerf of Bell Atlantic Corp, New York, for immediate, whole-hearted, and generous financial and technical support of the ACIP imaging effort when the need came.

To Overseas Gems of Bombay, India, and to its founder 
Mr. Dhiru Shah and son Mr. Vikram Shah, for endless support and assistance in starting and maintaining the ACIP input centers of South India.

To The Maurice Pate Institute for Human Survival and its president, Ms. Joan Dydo, for administrative assistance, and for assistance in utilizing the Godstow Retreat Center; special thanks too to Mr. Stephen Dydo and Mrs. Susan Altabet Dydo.

To The United States Library of Congress, both in Washington, DC and in New Delhi, India, for substantial administrative assistance, data licensing, use of important texts, and staff expertise.  Among the past and present staff assisting the Project have been 
the Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington; and Dr. E. Gene Smith, Mr. Louis Jacob, Ms. Susan Meinheit, Mr. E. Christian Filstrup, Ms. Lygia Ballantyne, Ms. Alice Kniskern, Mr. Frederic Protopappas, Mr. Christopher Wright, Ms. Susan Tarr, 
Ms. Deborah Ramsey, and Mr. Lloyd Lewis.

To The Library of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, for years of extraordinary assistance and expertise, office space, and logistical help in preparing the St. Petersburg Catalog, and for access to extremely valuable Tibetan texts (a full list of all the Library staff who have contributed is found in the section entitled “The 
St. Petersburg Catalog Project” on page 32).

To The Library of the University of St. Petersburg, for dedicated and professional assistance over the years, for office space, staff expertise, and access to the Tibetan Collection of the Oriental Library (again, a full list appears in the section called “The 
St. Petersburg Catalog Project” on page 32).

To The New York Public Library, for the expertise of its staff and for the use of important texts; especially to past and present staff including Dr. John Lundquist (Susan and Douglas Dillon Chief Librarian of the Oriental Division), and Mr. Francis Paar.
To The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, and especially its Tibetan specialist, the late Wesley Needham, for access to important Tibetan texts of the Bernard Collection, and its handlist.

To Godstow Retreat Center, Redding, Connecticut, for providing facilities for extended ACIP work sessions.

To Nina Reynolds, MD, of New Jersey, USA, for generous financial assistance and facility use.

To Kawachen Book Distributors, Tokyo, Japan, for providing office space for the ACIP Japan Contact Office.

To The Monmouth County Public Library, New Jersey, for obtaining needed Tibetan texts.

To The Chemical Bank, The Chase Bank, The Bank of 
Paris, Franco Steel, Stilwell Associates, Bruno DiNardo Esq, 
Mr. Michael Wick, Nina Reynolds MD, for donations of used computers, and special thanks to Ms. Vera Albataew for expediting such donations.

To The Honorable Bill Bradley, former United States Senator from the State of New Jersey, for assistance in the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

To Mr. Harrison Ford and Ms. Melissa Mathison Ford, New York, for assistance in the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

To Mya Thanda Poe, Chief, Asian Division, Library of Congress, for assistance in the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

To Mr. David Abraham of David Abraham Diamonds, New York, for assistance in the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

To Mr. Richie Havens for his special talents, donated to the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

To Ms. Fran Periello, Esq, for quiet, repeated, and generous donations of both major time and funds to the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.
To Mr. John Brady for his generous donations of time and funds to the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

To Angela Cummings, Eminent Gems, Giovane Ltd Jewelry, Lauren B. Jewelry, and Robert Lee Morris for donations of jewelry to the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

To The Margaret LeFleur Foundation and Mr. John Stilwell for generous administrative and financial support.

To Mr. Leon Sauke, New York, for generous financial assistance, and for the extensive use of office space.

To Mr. Moke Mokotoff and Mokotoff Asian Arts, New York, for generous support of the “Diamonds for Classics” fundraisers.

Our Suppliers
ACIP has enjoyed almost a family relationship with our various suppliers over the years.  Here we would like to give special thanks to just a few:

To McNaughton & Gunn printers, of Michigan, USA, for their fine work on all the Project brochures, manuals, and other publications.

To Apollo Computer Co Ltd and founder Mr. Ajay Patel, of Bangalore, south India, for years of dedicated hardware, software, and computer training support, by dozens of staff members.

To King’s Copies, of Manhattan, and especially director Moustaffa, for countless urgent last-minute printing jobs, all done with grace and good humor.

To Kingate Ltd, Hong Kong and New Delhi, and its founder 
Mr. Ngudup Gyatso, for years of office and administrative support.
To Ms. Namgyal Dolkar, government liaison in New Delhi, for countless trips to the offices of the governments of various countries, to arrange visas and passports for ACIP staff.

To Classics of India publishers, New Delhi, and its founder, Mr. Pravin Sareen, for years of dedicated assistance for ACIP printing efforts in south Asia; and for invaluable assistance in getting an entire Tengyur Collection out of Derge, Tibet.

Our Stars
There are a number of persons around the world who have devoted a good part of their lives and efforts over a decade or more, often without pay or with very little pay, to assure that the work of the Project in finding and preserving precious Tibetan books can continue.  We would like to acknowledge and express our gratitude:

To Ari Geshe Lobsang Chunzin (Michael Roach), ACIP Founder and Director, whose vision gave birth to the Project; whose brilliant, selfless, and unceasing efforts have nourished it and shaped it for more than a decade; and who has devoted every last ounce of his energy, talents, and personal resources towards preserving and carrying forward the tradition of these great ideas.

To Dr. Robert J. Taylor, ACIP Assistant Director, for over ten years of selfless work, nearly every hour of the day, without regard to any recognition or compensation, often using his own funds, to bring the Project into this world, and help it along to the present day; always with good humor, patience, and expertise, an inspiration to all who have ever worked with him.

To Dr. Lev S. Savitsky, St. Petersburg Catalog Director and Head of the Tibetan Collection of the Oriental Library of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, for decades of devoted service to the Collection, and for shouldering responsibility for the success and continuation of the Catalog and the Collection.

To the Venerable Geshe Ngawang Rigdol, Director, ACIP South Asia Field Office, for devoting every hour of his life over the last ten years to the preservation of the literature and culture of his people, travelling constantly around India and Nepal, in the most difficult conditions, to help refugee Tibetans everywhere build their centers and save their books.

To Mr. Robert Chilton, ACIP Technical Manager, for nearly a decade of devoted work, always gentle, always considerate, a conscience for the Project, assuring the integrity of our work and mission.

To Mr. Kelsang Tahuwa, Director, ACIP Japan Contact Office, also nearly ten years of quietly finding the Project support in every corner, constantly liaisoning between parties, finding ways for people from opposite ends of the world to work together to save the great ideas of his native Tibet.

To the Venerable Ngawang Kheatsun and Venerable Jampa Namdol, born in refugee camps in the heat of the plains of India, who had the courage to travel to the coldest major city in the world, St. Petersburg, Russia, and have lived there working on their own, nearly day and night, to successfully catalog over 50,000 of the lost books of their people, and thus endeared themselves to Russians of every walk of life.

Our Text Experts
ACIP has received a great deal of help in proofreading and checking texts and manuscripts for entry, both in the United States and abroad.  We would like to express our thanks:

To the Venerable Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, former abbot of Sera Mey, Geshe of the First Hlarampa Rank at the Potala Palace, and ACIP Chief Editor, for his extraordinary kindness in training nearly every ACIP staff member over the past two decades, resolving countless textual questions, and providing invaluable advice and expertise in every facet of the Project.

To Dr. David W. Packard of the Hewlett-Packard Corporation of California, USA, for early assistance in the standards and input systems of the Project.

To Professor Theodore Brunner, former director of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, California, USA, for kind assistance in creating the first standards and input methodology of the Project.

To Prof. Samuel D. Atkins, chairman emeritus of the Classics Department of Princeton University, for his kind and generous service as Project advisor for years, and for his expertise in Sanskrit language issues.

To Prof. William LaFleur, formerly of the Department of Religion of Princeton University and currently with the University of Pennsylvania, for serving as Project advisor for years, and training Project staff in Asian traditions of philosophy and translation.

To Prof. Ngawang Thondupnarkyid, Tibetan linguist extraordinaire and official Tibetan government biographer of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for his very early support of the goals of the project, and for introducing it to His Holiness.

To Ms. Barbara Taylor of Maryland, USA, for year after year of work in creating and maintaining the ACIP Graphics Collections.

To the Venerable Tenzin Dakpa of Tashi Hlunpo Kalmyk Mongolian Temple, New Jersey, USA, for proofreading many files.

To the indomitable Venerable Geshe Thupten Rinchen of Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University, for proofreading many texts, suggesting works for input, and giving great moral support.

To the Venerable Gyalrong Khensur Rinpoche Ngawang Tekchok, the Venerable Pomra Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Ngudup, and the Venerable Geshe Thupten Tenzin, of Sera Mey, for their extraordinary expertise in resolving textual questions, proofreading countless texts, and teaching thousands of students with absolutely no material reward, for decades.

To the late Venerable Kachen Lobsang Supa Khen Rinpoche, Abbot of Tashi Hlunpo Tibetan Monastic University, south India, for his good humor and extraordinary editing of very rare texts.

To the Venerable Geshe Jampa Thekchok, Serjey Khen Rinpoche, Abbot of Sera Jey Tibetan Monastic University, south India, for his text expertise, and for his active and kind support of ACIP’s efforts in south India.
To the Venerable Geshe Dorje Tashi, Gyumey Khensur Rinpoche, Abbot Emeritus of Gyumey Tantric College, south India, for editing and financial support of important modern philosophical works.

To “Sir” Dr. E. Gene Smith, former Director of Asian Operations for the Library of Congress and current Director of Himalayan 
and Inner Asian Resources, New York, for his good-natured, unmatched expertise in obtaining texts, resolving textual questions, providing impossible-to-find information about historical figures, and legendary generosity to all who approach him for help.

To Dr. Artemus Engle of New Jersey, USA, for loaning needed books and advising the Project on every sort of question requiring Tibetan and Sanskrit expertise.

To Mr. David Reigle of Colorado, USA, for years of work in resolving Sanskrit language issues for the Project.

To Mr. Robert Lacey of New York, USA, for thousands of hours of work in collating different editions of the Mahavyutpatti glossary, scanning the Blue Annals, and donating each to the Project; and for typing in the entire catalog to the Lhasa edition of the Kangyur Collection at the very beginning of the Project.

To Mr. Gordon Aston of New Zealand, for massive efforts to proofread the entire Eight Thousand Verses on the Perfection of Wisdom and the “Chim” Commentary to the “Treasure House of Knowledge”.

To Prof. Jeffrey Hopkins, Prof. Robert Thurman, Dr. E. Gene Smith, Prof. Janice Willis, Dr. John Lundquist, Mr. Gordon Aston, Dr. Anne Klein, Prof. David Jackson, Prof. Donald Lopez, Dr. John Powers, and Prof. Joe Wilson for kindly agreeing to act as reviewers of the applications that the Project has submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities over the years.

To Prof. Matthew Kapstein of Chicago University, for helping find support of the Project for text input.

To the Venerable Thubten Tsultrim (Serge Ledan) of Diamond Abbey, New York, for hour after hour of proofing Sanskrit and Tibetan texts and catalogs.

To Mr. Roy Yoshimoto of New York, for expert oral and written Japanese translations of Project materials, and for representing the Project at international conferences.

To Mr. Bruce Wilson of Indiana, USA, for locating and reproducing needed Tibetan books.

To Mr. Pema Bhum of Himalayan and Inner Asian Resources, New York, for obtaining and duplicating needed texts at a moment’s notice.

To Mr. Paul Hackett of Virginia, USA, for valuable assistance in the preparation of ACIP documentation, and in obtaining bibliographical material on-line.

To Mr. David Strom of Wisdom Publications, for preparing manuscripts on Tibetan literature to be input overseas.

The Unsung Geniuses
The entire ACIP effort revolves around computer programs that help make the data perfect and allow our users instant and expert access to it.  The Project has been the beneficiary of countless hours of volunteer computer programming and expertise, and we would like to express our thanks:

To Mr. Steve Bruzgulis of Maryland, USA, one of the founders of ACIP, for inventing the world’s first Tibetan word-processor way-back-when; for typing in some of the first texts single-handedly; and for selfless efforts on many a late night to create the standards and methodology of the Project.

To Mr. John Malpas of California, USA, for hour after hour of last-minute programming to create all the input software used at ACIP overseas entry centers; for actually living at the entry centers in the early years and helping train and equip Tibetan refugee operators; for hypertext work and software; for verification software; and for his efforts to document the early history of the Project in pictures and words.

To Mr. Robert Knight of Princeton University, for years of devoted programming help amidst his thousand other duties and responsibilities as a manager at Princeton University Computer Center; for creating and maintaining the ACIP Internet download site at Princeton; for organizing groups of programmers to help the Project; and for great, original verification programs that help us make the data more perfect.

To Mr. Reid Fossey of California, USA, for early work in developing the first Tibetan fonts for ACIP, slaving away in a small back room the whole summer that year.

To Mr. Thomas Kiely, New York, for helping the Project much in the early years to define its tools, research new commercial programs for many tasks, and getting us on our early financial software.

To Mr. Ed Softky of Massachusetts, USA, for designing most of the ACIP software for viewing and searching Tibetan during much of the Project’s history.

To Mr. James Valby for his Tibetan-English dictionary, complete with user interface and other computer tools.

To Mr. Eric Colombel, New York, for bringing the technology of the ACIP user interface to a whole new level with his AsiaView software, the result of many hundreds of hours of work, stolen in his “free time” in odd places around the world, and donated freely for the advancement of the great books and ideas of Asia.

To Mr. Michael Wick, New York, for help with all kinds of computer needs and advice including repairs, scanning, software, fonts, printing, and everything else under the sun.

To Mr. Gerry Wiener of Colorado, USA, for his kind-hearted cooperation and support in supplying fonts and conversion programs for the AsiaView user interface, and for years of fine work in supplying the world with Tibetan-language software.
To Mr. Tony Duff of the Tibetan Computer Company of Kathmandu, Nepal, for years of labor in creating Tibetan-language software used by the Project, and for assisting native Tibetan refugee publishing and input efforts throughout India and Nepal.

To Mr. Pierre Robillard of Canada, for creating Tibetan-language software and conversion programs for Macintosh users of ACIP data, and for kindly sharing his expertise with all who need.

To Dr. Leonid V. Andreyev and Dr. Sergey V. Andreyev of the Computer Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, for their early Tibetan word-processing and other programs.

To Mr. Sergei Malykh of Yekaterinburg, north Russia, for his work to design a TSR “pop-up” program for using the Tibetan-English Dictionary of James Valby.

To the Venerable Paul LeMay of California, for assisting the Project immensely in the acquisition of needed computer equipment.

To Those Who Bring Water from a Rock
Trees need water and big projects need moola.  We would like to express here the Project’s thanks to all those who have helped us in grant-writing and fundraising over the years.  Special gratitude:

To Ms. Fran Periello, Esq, Director at Bell Atlantic, New York, 
for the many all-nighters organizing fundraisers, especially the “Diamonds for Classics” efforts.

To Ms. Lee Mason, New York, for many hours of work to help organize the “Diamonds for Classics.”

To Mr. John Brady, National Sales Manager, Lillian Vernon, for tons of work on the layout, printing, and financing of the brochures for the “Diamonds for Classics.”

To Mr. Jay Siller, Mr. Scott Bramlett, Ms. Kay Merrick, Ms. Judy Hummel, Ms. Amy Krantz, Ms. Marie Placide, Ms. Laura Segal, Ms. Helen McHayle, and Mr. Michael Wick of New York, for hours of dedicated work on the “Diamond for Classics.”
To Ms. Robyn Brentano of the New York Association for New Americans, for preparing fundraising pamphlets and making fund-raising contacts for the Project, over the years.

To Ms. Annaliese Soros, New York, for visiting and supporting the Project’s work in St. Petersburg, and introducing the ACIP staff to fundraising sources.

To Ms. Nancy Carin of the Business Outreach Center, New York, for countless hours of expertise in writing and preparing major presentations for sponsors, over the last six years.

To all those who helped with ACIP Endowment Project Proposal, more than thirty notebooks of budgets, schedules, and plans: 
Mr. John Stilwell, Ms. Nancy Carin, the Venerable Thupten Phuntsok (Irnst Norgaisse), Mr. Robert Chilton, Ms. Margaret Weinrich, Ms. Fran Dayan, Mr. Michael Wick, Mr. Eric Mendlow, Ms. Elizabeth Heimburg, Mr. Kevin Laughton and Ms. Debra Karstadt.

To Ms. Elizabeth Heimburg, New York, for organizing fund-raisers to support the Project.

To Mr. Robert Haggerty, New York, for liaison with sponsors supporting ACIP efforts in Mongolia and Russia.

The Financial Wizards
No major project can exist without people to track its finances.  ACIP has been fortunate to receive help from a number of highly qualified financial wizards, and we would like to express our thanks:

To Mr. Dieter Gewissler of New Jersey, USA, for his help acting as institutional representative for ACIP’s various grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

To Mr. Alex Sampson, CPA, of the Andin International Diamond Corporation of New York, for kindly donating his services in preparing official audits for various government agencies and private foundations.
To Ms. Judith Hummel, CFO, Patricia Underwood Corp, for her expert oversight of Project finances, and many late nights doing budgets and financial reports, with no compensation, over the last several years.

To Ms. Janis Braden of New Jersey, USA, for years of keeping the books and preparing financial reports for the Project, weekends and late nights after work.

To Ms. Fran Dayan, financial recordkeeper and magic money maestro extraordinaire, for years of ever-joyful, super-competent, all-over-New-York efforts.

Legal Beagles
Managing the ACIP effort has meant a lot of legal workÑsetting up non-profit organizations, getting various government approvals, and all the rest.  The Project has been fortunate in having the voluntary support of several expert lawyers, and we would to express our thanks:

To Ms. Fran Periello, Esq, for uncounted corporate and other government applications and documents.

To Mr. Thomas Berner, Esq, for complimentary and expert legal advice.

Meet The Press, and Other Supporters
Over the past decade, the Asian Classics Input Project has received a great deal of free and unsolicited support from various parties and members of the press; we would like to express our thanks:

To Ms. Jeneane Butler, director, and crew from Cronkite & Ward Television, for the great weeks of fun trucking around India, filming the ACIP segment of Understanding Computers, a popular piece that has been shown repeatedly on The Learning Channel and The Discovery Channel over the years.
To Mr. John Malpas for his excellent articles on the project in the Whole Earth Magazine and Tricycle magazine.

To Mr. Eric Davis for his great early piece on ACIP in Wired magazine.

To Time Magazine and their photographer Mr. Rafael Fuchs for a recent bit on the Project.

To The New York Times and reporter Ms. Barbara Stewart for a fun article on the late-night efforts of Project staff, collating and translating texts in East-Village coffee houses.

To Japanese National Television for a wonderful show on the preservation work of the Project.

To Mongolian National Television and Newspapers for shows and articles on our efforts to save and catalog rare Tibetan books in Mongolia.

To The National Television Network of Poland and their New York representatives for a fine program on the extended work of the Project.

To Tricycle magazine for repeated pieces and updates about the Project; for donations of free space for announcements; and for sharing mailing listsÑespecially the Editor-in-Chief, Ms. Helen Tworkov, and staff writer Carole Tonkinson.

To The Voice of America, for a great Tibetan-language show on the Project that was beamed into Tibet, and throughout the Tibetan refugee community in India.

To Gelek Rinpoche, Nyakre Kentrul Ngawang Gelek, founder and director of the Jewel Heart Centers, for composing a classical Tibetan eulogy of the ACIP database and offering it to the Project.

To Lama Zopa Rinpoche, director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, for his extensive expressions of support for the Project.
To Mandala magazine, and its indomitable editor, the Venerable Robina Courtin, for numerous descriptions of the Project’s work, especially in Mongolia.
The Jet-Lag Team
There is a special group of individuals who over the years have traveled to incredibly difficult places of the world to help find endangered books for input, and to assist in setting up data entry centers in the most unlikely venues.  We would like to acknowledge their thousands of miles, and express our thanks:

To Dr. Robert J. Taylor, ACIP Assistant Director, for weeks in the mud of the monsoons of south India, getting the first ACIP computers and programs up and running.

To Mr. John Malpas, ACIP volunteer programmer, for getting across that river down near Kushalnagar and training the very first group of operators, who in their turn have trained hundreds more.

To Mr. Robert Chilton, ACIP Technical Manager, for successfully traveling to India and creating quality controls and input standards while alternately baking in the Mysore sun and drowning in the mini-floods of the unpaved Indian roads.

To Ms. Maria Montenegro, former ACIP Administrative Manager, for her single-handed all-night efforts to acquire and ship box after box of computers, parkas, boots, and every imaginable necessity for the St. Petersburg Catalog Project, without which it never would have happened.

To Mr. Dieter Gewissler of New Jersey, USA, for sitting with some of the first teams of input operators and drilling them, over and over and over (how many times was it?), in the intricacies of input code and QWERTY, when they had never even seen a typewriter.

To Mr. Daniel Kiely, New Jersey, USA, for valuable translation help during the initial visits of the Project to observe the methods of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae data entry centers in Seoul, Korea, and in early negotiations for data input in Bangkok, Thailand.

To Dr. Betsy Napper of Dharamsala, north India, for administering the input effort among refugee Buddhist nuns.

To all the financial directors and administrators of Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University who helped with the management 
of the first entry centers: the steadfast Venerable Thupten Peljor, and all the members of the original Sera Mey Scholarship Fund: Venerable Jampa Rabgye, Ven. Geshe Konchok Palden, 
Ven. Supa, Ven. Geshe Lobsang Thardo, Ven. Thupten Pelgye, and Ven. Ngawang Rigdol.

The Late-Night Crew
ACIP could never survive without the efforts of a large and dedicated team of volunteers, most of whom work for the Project late at night, or after their regular jobs, often in crowded quarters with whatever cranky computer equipment we can scrounge up for them.  And so we would like to give a special thanks to:

The Venerable Jigme Palmo (Elizabeth van der Pas), for every kind of text, catalog, pizza, and smoothie assistance . . . the 
Venerable Thupten Chudrun (Teresita Davies) for squeezing Tibetan bibliographical entries off the Web, and typing in the Heart Sutra and other works . . . the Wonderful Margie Weinrich for countless rides in that big black car, beautiful smiles, and typing her fingers off . . . the Indefatigable Fran Dayan for visas, passports, photocopies, bills & checks, and everything anyone ever needs . . .the Exquisite Maia Farrell for roses that smell like wine and the extraordinary graphics and layout for the Release IV manual and CD . . . the Ever-Joyful Venerable Jampa Lungrik for the bottomless Tibetan teapot, unending smile, late-night calls to India and Russia, and helping anyone and everyone who appears at the door. . . the Resourceful Ngawang Thupten, who can fix anything, for translating directions to the overseas centers at the oddest hours . . . to the Sparkling Elizabeth Heimburg, for thousands of hypertext Tibetan links, and a last-minute mad-rush incredible catalog to the ACIP Graphics Collections. . . to the Beatific Anne Lindsay, hey do you remember that all-nighter on the Catalog out in NJ, or was it the one in NY, or? . . . to the Irrepressible Robert “Shunnu Pawo” Haggerty for scrounging up all those funds for overseas, and the salads, and all the catalog work . . . to the Great Bodhisattva Michael Wick, who cannot refuse a request for help . . . to our Serene Venerable, Thupten Phuntsok (Irnst Norgaisse) for days and months in the darkness of the basement office, trips to Post Office in rain or snow or shine, and fielding endless inquiries and calls . . . to Dejung Gewissler, our first Shipping Manager (hey, do you remember when we bought the thousand 5.25-inch diskettes? “They’ll never be replaced”) . . . the Great Artiste, Vincent Montenegro for photos and proofreading 5 minutes before the CD goes to press . . . the Capable Janet Brighenti, who found our first CD company and got it done . . . the Masterful Marie Placide for years of incredible graphics and mailing lists, quietly flowing from her Mac . . . to Laura Gewissler for finding us bibliographical stuff on-line before there was an on-line . . . to Gina Toricelli for standing in front of a three-foot high Tibetan letter projected on a wall for hours at a time and filling in dots on graph paper, when this was the only way to make Tibetan letters on a computer . . . to Vera Gugajew for patiently typing in all the appendices to the Blue Annals . . . to Faith Kiely for keeping track of all those bidders at the Diamonds auction . . . to Ariel Holdsworth for the garden, and for finding all those texts up at 
Dr. Shen’s . . . to Mary Oberdorf for answering countless letters and inquiries . . . to Sherrill Kratenstein for answering all the calls in the early years . . . to Christoff Spitz for digging up last-minute computer equipment in Germany to go to St. Pete . . . to Dido and Axel Roggatz for relief missions to take coats and equipment to the young Tibetan refugee monks in St. Petersburg . . . to Thomas Olson for happy trips for all kinds of things . . . to Amber Moore for help at Sixth Street . . . to Dr. David Sykes for cheerful tasks 
in most of the states of the Union, and being the emcee at the 
St. Petersburg reception . . . to LaTasha Harris for dragging huge bags of rare texts to Newark Airport and all kinds of work  . . . to Ian Thorson for finding the cheapest, farthest air tickets in the universe . . . to Anne and Bill Cabrerra for organizing support of the CD-ROM.
Beacons in the Night
Due to the unfortunate fact that days have only 24 hours, we often end up working most of the night wherever we travel, and scrounging for places where ACIP staff can work or sleep in the wee hours.  We would like to thank:

The Venerable Thupten Chonyid (Carmen Kichikov) and Ms. Janis Braden, for countless nights putting up staff on beds or floors and feeding all at all hours . . . Mr. Leon Sauke, Diamond Abbey, and all the Venerables for putting up with late nights and turning every corner into office space . . . Three Jewels Bookstore and Outreach Center, and the Venerable Thupten Pelma (Debra Ballier) for all the borrowed reference books that you never got back, loans of the video for watching clips about the Project, and shipping volunteers over to help . . . Andrea and Winston McCullough for turning their house into a huge warehouse and office and motel, and for all the long drives while we worked in the back . . . Don Brown, MD, and Robbie Watkins, MD, for converting their homes too into ACIP hostels and computer centers . . . Margaret Brenner and the late Cecil Brenner for free use of their home and hospitality, throughout the years . . . Land of Medicine Buddha Retreat Center for the tent we turned into a cataloging center . . . Vajrapani Institute for the kindly use of the sacred Geshe House . . . Sivananda Yoga Retreat Center of the Bahamas for the houseboat they let us turn into a text verification center during a visit to give lectures . . . the fantastic lovely greatest mom in the world Mrs. Edith Roach for her house in San Diego
. . . and last, but not least, Nicholas Tinne and mum.
Help from the Arizona Desert
A couple of times a year, ACIP staff run away to the desert in Arizona and finish a few hundred more pages, which could never be done without the help of:

Jacques and Veronica Seronde and family, Jake & Jean, the Bakers, St. Francis’ Church, the Flagstaff Public Library, Bookman’s Cyber Cafe and the crew (Jason, Joshua, Geoff, Brigetta, and all the rest), Elizabeth and Irene at the Chinese Restaurant, Walmart & Target, the Las Vegas Airport, and the Garden.
Our Hangouts
Where do you go at 2:00 AM in New York to work when you don’t have a regular office?  If you’ve got laptops, and they have a power outlet, it’s gotta be:

Cooper Square Diner, Limbo Coffee Shop, Michael & Zoe’s, Caravan of Dreams, Siam Square, Cafe Colonial, Theresa’s, Veselka, AltCoffeeÑor somewhere on a New Jersey Transit Bus in the middle of the night: thank you all.
Our Inspirations
Thanks finally to those special people and so on who give us our greatest inspiration:

Little Michael & Caz . . . Sage and Kori . . . Sandra Stratten-Gonzalez . . . Mary McFadden . . . Kieran McCullough . . . the Poet, Hector Malacaria . . . the lovely master Ze’eva Cohen . . . Dr. John (Mamma Roux!) . . . James Brown (eeeeeoooowww) . . . Emer Moyock . . . and the fuzzies Nickie, Poncho, Rusty, Drolma I and II, Tundruk, Khadira, Tsering; the handsome Tibetan Spaniel, Phoekyi; the beautiful Himalayan, Shi-mi; and the Flag Chippie.