Some of Dhagpo Kagyu Library’s activities are not always visible to the public. For example, cataloguing takes time and precision in order for a book to be properly entered into the online catalogue and digital document database.
The library is one of the five elements that the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje explained are necessary to establish Buddhism in a lasting way in a place where it did not previously exist. Therefore, the primary mission of the library is preserving a unique Buddhist corpus in order to make it accessible to as many people as possible.
Numerous donations by private individuals have allowed the library to gather a treasure trove of several thousand audio cassettes primarily made up of recordings of teachings and practices given by the first masters to the come to the West. These historical documents from the Dharma’s first steps in Europe are conserved in the stacks, and we have begun processing them in order to make them accessible to all.
This requires several steps: sorting and inventorying, digitization, and making them available...
We have a team that carries out this meticulous work, which we are happy to share with you through a series of articles in which the team members share their experience.
If you have recordings of eminent masters of the past, don’t hesitate to contact the library by stopping in for a visit or sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
The First Step: Sorting Cassettes and Establishing a Detailed Inventory
Sylvia, in charge of this step, shares her experience:
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“The cassettes come from all over, in different kinds of recipients, from plastic bags to metal cases. Sometimes (rarely), they are impeccably documented: teacher’s name, teaching name, location, date, translator…more often, they are nevertheless vaguely annotated with a few more or less legible scribbles and sometimes they are completely anonymous. These holdings constitute a somewhat miscellaneous corpus that arouses curiosity when your eye falls on names like 16th Karmapa, Kalu Rinpoche, Lama Gendun Rinpoche… |
I wondered where to begin…I started by sorting the cassettes according to whether the teachers were Tibetan or Western. Then, I tried to identify the teachings, or what seemed to be teachings—for the moment setting aside rituals, chants, and book readings. Those will come later.
With the help of a cassette player, I tried to find the beginning of the teaching, which rarely coincides with the beginning of the tape. Then, I listen closely and investigate: what is the subject of the teaching? Can we make out any indication of the location or context? Unexpectedly, great emotion overtakes me. I hear a voice from the past, long departed—that of Kalu Rinpoche, and it comes back to life in my ears. After days spent focused on these auditory investigations, I often dreamed of these precious masters at night…
Following several months of painstaking work, as of today 289 titles are now inventoried and precisely listed in a file. This corresponds to more than 1,200 cassette tapes. Among the teachers, there are eminent master from various lineages of Tibetan Buddhism—including the 16th Karmapa, Shamar Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Lama Gendun Rinpoche, etc., as well as khenpos and lamas such as Lama Teunzang. The period covered extends from the mid 1970s to the early 2000s.”
Galery (Click to enlarge the pictures)
In the next feature: the second step—digitization.