Modern technology is coming
to the rescue of thousands of pages of historic Mongolian documents.
Mongolia’s National Archives
and the Gandan Tegchenling Monastery are being assisted by UNESCO in
digitizing their collections to guarantee their being preserved as well
as distributed to wider audiences.
The center of Mongolian Buddhists,
the Gandan Tegchenling, contains a unique collection of scriptures by
Mongolian and Tibetan scholars such as Je Zong Kha Pa and his two disciples,
Khaidup Je and Gyaltsapa Je, the Dalai Lamas, the Panchen Lamas and
Mongolian philosophers Agvanbaldan, Agvantuvden, Damtsagdorj and Zava
Damdin, as well as others. The scriptures cover a wide range of disciplines
such as philosophy, medicine, astrology, traditions of sutra and tantra,
linguistics, history, and poetry.
As many of these scriptures
are the last known copies, the monks sought to save their priceless
collection. As the young generation of lamas speaks good English and
uses the internet, they agreed to creating an of e-library of digitized
documents. UNESCO began holding training workshops on the preservation
of documents in Ulaan-Baator in May 2006.
UNESCO also assisted Mongolia’s
National Archives in digitizing the technical plans of the palace museums
of Erdenezuu, Megjid Janraisag, Amarbayasgalant and Bogda Khaan and
their engineering and geological references. The biggest record, 231
x 87.07 cm, is now available in its original size. Valued by the historians
and archaeologists, those collections total 1,545 documents which are
now accessible through computers.
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