Alexander A. Stolyarov
(Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS, Moscow)

Buddhist Collections and Buddhological Studies in Russia:
Prospects for Electronic Forms Creation

Here a brief survey of principal Buddhist collections kept in the official depositaries (museums, libraries, archives) of different regions of Russia and some CIS republics is given. The material is grouped in six main parts: books, xylographs (or blockprints) manuscripts, images (icons and sculptures separately) and artefacts (including inscriptions). The effort is made also to estimate both the capacity of each collection, the degree of it's description and treatment, the potential of scientific group working over it and the possibility of it's computer treatment. The main question is: what is the ground for the EBTI activities in Russia? The Table 1 is a partial answer to this question.

Table 1: Buddhist Collections in Russia and (partly) CIS

1. European Russia
1.1. Moscow

Organisation

Resources:

Structure, level of presentation

Equip
ment

Research groups

  1. Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS
    Library, Roerich's memorial collection
  1. Books in European, South Asian languages and Chinese - some 5000 items; catalogued
  2. Xylographs:
    Tibetan and Mongolian - some 250 items (catalogued)
no yes
  1. Moscow State University
    M. Gorky's Scientific Library
  1. Xylographs:
    Tibetan, Mongolian and Manchurian - 5 (described)
  2. Manuscripts:
    Chinese - 8 (described),
    Chinese-Manchurian - 2 (described)
n.k. n.k.
  1. Moscow State University
    M. Gorky's Scientific Library
  1. Sculpture
  2. Artefacts
n.k. n.k.
  1. Russian State Library
    Centre of Oriental Literature
    Manuscripts Department
  1. Books in South Asian, South-East Asian languages, Chinese, Japanese and European languages (partly catalogued)
  2. Xylographs:
    Tibetan and Chinese (partly catalogued)
  3. Manuscripts:
    Japanese
yes yes
  1. State Museum of Arts and Crafts of Peoples of the East
  1. Sculpture (Mathura-Gandhara-Baktria, India, Tibet, Mongolia, Buryatia) - some 500 items, catalogued
  2. Icons (tankas):
    Tibetan (13-19 cent.) - 460,
    Mongolian (17-20 cent.) - 450,
    Buryatian (18-20 cent.) - 700,
    all catalogued
  3. Artefacts (Mathura-Gandhara-Baktria), masks, Tsam dress, catalogued
no yes
  1. State Museum of Fine Arts (Pushkin's)
  1. Sculptures:
    Indian (Pala)
  2. Engarvings:
    Japanese
yes n.k.
  1. State Historical Museum
  1. Sculptures
  2. Icons (tankas)
yes n.k
  1. Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts
    Oriental Collection
  1. Manuscripts (former State Foreign Ministry Archive) - described (mentioned in published description)
yes n.k.
  1. State Research Institute of Restoration
  1. Artefacts (Termez collection)
n.k n.k

1.2. St.-Petersburg

  1. Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS, Saint-Petersburg's branch
    Library
  1. Books (including ancient and rare) in South Asian, South-East Asian languages, Chinese, Japanese and European languages (catalogued)
  2. Xylographs:
    Chinese - some 50000 (catalogued),
    Mongolian - 3825 (catalogued),
    Tibetan - over 200000 (M.Roach)
  • Manuscripts & xylographs:
    Chinese:
    a) Dunhuang - some 12000 (4-11 cc.; near 1/4 catalogued),
    b) Khara-Khoto - some 460 (11-14 cc.; catalogued),
    c) fond "Nova" - several hundreds (partly catalogued),
    Japanese - 2702 (described),
    Korean - 1329 (catalogued),
    Manchurian - 900 (catalogued),
    Tanghut - 8325 (partly catalogued),
  1. Manuscripts:
    Chinese - 41 (catalogued),
    Khotan-Sakh - 297 (catalogued),
    Mongolian (including documents) - 4067+526 (catalogued),
    Prakrits - 3 (catalogued),
    Pali - some 35 (catalogued),
    Sanskrit - over 400 (catalogued),
    Soghd - 36 (catalogued),
    Tibetan - 66 (catalogued),
    Tokharian B - 33 (catalogued),
    Uighur (including documents) - 4046+50 (partly described)
    Vietnamese - 6 (not catalogued),
  2. Impressions: Chinese - some 1035 (partly catalogued)
yes yes
  1. Institute of the History of Material Culture of the RAS
    SPb branch of RAS Archive
  1. Photo archive - 700000 items (photos & negatives): archaeology, architecture, ethnography, etc. concerning in particular Russian scientific expeditions to Central and Eastern Asia
yes yes
  1. Research Institute "Peter the Great Museum of Ethnography and Anthropology" of the RAS (former Kunstkamera)
  • Several dozen collections (N.M. Yadrintsev's, Ptitsin's, Nicolas's the 2nd, Ukhtomskyi's, Osokin's - 12 collections, also some collections from Moscow State Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Russian Language of the RAS - Pushkin's house), catalogued
n.k. n.k.
  1. St. Petersburg University
    Oriental Dept of M. Gorky's Scientific Library
  1. Books in South Asian, South-East Asian languages, Chinese, Japanese and European languages - 300000 items, 185000 titles; catalogued
  2. Xylographs:
    Japanese - over 4000,
    Manchurian - 386 (catalogued)
  • Manuscripts & Xylographs:
    Chinese - some 35000 (roughly catalogued),
    Mongolian - over 400 (partly catalogued),
    Tibetan - some 350
  1. Manuscripts:
    Chinese collection - 90,
    Japanese - 11000,
    Indian - 26,
    Manchurian (including documents) - 78+5 (catalogued),
    Kalmykian (Oirat) collection - 109
yes yes
  1. State Hermitage
  1. Sculpture, catalogued
  2. Icons, catalogued
  3. Artefacts, catalogued
yes (IBM
-SH)		 yes
  1. Russian Ethnographic Museum
    "Special Treasury"
  1. Sculpture, catalogued
  2. Icons, catalogued
n.k. n.k.
  1. State Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism
  1. Xylographs:
    Chinese - several dosen,
    Tibetan - several dosen
  • Manuscripts & xylographs:
    Mongolian - 21 (described)
  1. Kushan (Termez) Sculpture
  2. Artefacts
n.k. n.k.
  1. State Public Library (Saltykov-Schedrin's)
    Manuscripts Dept
  • Manuscripts & Xylographs:
    Chinese - over 179 (partly catalogued),
    Japanese - 57 (described),
    Manchurian - over 17 (partly catalogued),
    Mongolian - over 34 (catalogued),
    Tibetan - 153 (described)
  1. Manuscripts:
    Indian - 242 (catalogued),
    Kalmykian - 10 (described),
    Pali - not described,
    Thai - 4 (described)
n.k. n..k.
  1. St. Petersburg Buddhist Temple
  1. Tibetan xylographs
  2. manuscripts
  3. sculpture
  4. icons
n.k. n.k.

1.3.Republic Kalmykia

1.3.1. Elista

  1. Kalmykian Institute for Humanities and Applied Studies
    Scientific Archive
  • Manuscripts & Xylographs:
    Oirat and Tibetan - some 500 (partly described and catalogued)
yes yes
  1. National Archive of RK
  • Manuscripts & Xylographs:
    Oirat and Tibetan
n.k. n.k.
  1. Kalmykian Museum of Ethnography
  • Manuscripts & Xylographs:
    Oirat and Tibetan - some 400 (partly described and catalogued)
  • Sculpture and icons - some 4500, (partly described)
  1. Artefacts (dresses)
no yes
  1. Kalmykian Museum of Arts
  1. Icons (Including collection of Buryat late painter Donzan Dondukov)
no no

1.4. Republic Tatarstan

1.4.1. Kazan

  1. Kazan State University
    Lobachevsky's Scientific Library
    Manuscripts and Rare Books Department
  1. Manuscripts:
    Chinese, Mongolian, etc - about 12 (described)
no no

1.5.Stavropol

  1. Stavropol State Museum
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
 no no

2. Asian Russia

2.1. Republic of Buryatia

  1. 22 datsans
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
  3. artefacts
no no

2.1.1. Ulan-Ude

  1. Buryat Institute of Mongolian Studies, Tibetan Studies and Buddhism
    Manuscripts Department
  • xylographs & manuscripts - about 200.000 items
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
yes yes
  1. Buryat Historical Museum (Hangalov's name)
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
  3. artefacts (masks, dresses)
no no
  1. Buryat Museum of Arts
    (Sampilov's name)
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
 no no
  1. Buryat Ethnographic Museum in the Open Air
  1. artefacts
    architecture
 n.k. n.k.

2.2. Irkutsk

  1. Irkutsk Regional Museum
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
  3. artefacts
no no
  1. 3 datsans
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
  3. artefacts
no no

2.3. Chita

  1. 3 datsans
    Aginsky datsan
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
  3. artefacts
  • collection from Kunstkamera - 2000 items - described
no no

2.4.Tomsk

  1. Tomsk Regional Museum
  1. sculpture
  2. icons
  3. artefacts
no no

2.5. Republic of Tuva

2.5.1. Kyzyl

  1. Tuvinian Republican Regional Museum of 60 Heroes
  1. Xylographs:
    Tibetan - full Kangyr (Beiding edition)
  • Manuscripts & Xylographs:
    Mongolian - 938 (catalogued)
  1. Documents:
    Chinese
  2. sculpture
  3. icons
  4. artefacts (masks, dresses)
no no
  1. Tuvinian Research Institute of Language, Literature and History
  • Manuscripts & Xylographs:
    Mongolian (not described)
no no

2.6. Vladivostok

  1. Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the peoples of Far East of Far Eastern Dept of the RAS
  1. Xylographs:
    Chinese - several hundreds (roughly catalogued)
n.k. n.k.

3. CIS

3.1. Ukraine

3.1.1. Kiev

  1. Central Scientific Library of the ASU
  1. Xylographs and impressions:
    Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan (not described)
  2. Manuscripts:
    Sri-Lankan on palm leafs - 1
n.k. n.k.

3.1.2. Odessa

  1. Odessa's State Scientific Library
  1. Manuscripts:
    Kampuchean on palm leafs - 1
n.k. n.k.

3.2. Kazakhstan

3.2.1. Alma-Ata

  1. Central Scientific Library of the ASK
  1. Xylographs and documents:
    Chinese - several thousand (catalogued)
n.k. n.k.
  1. State Library of Kazakhstan
  1. Xylographs:
    Korean and Chinese - some 2500 (catalogued)
n.k. n.k.

3.3. Uzbekistan

3.3.1. Samarkand

  1. Samarkand Museum
  1. artefacts (including Stupa) from Termez
n.k. n.k.

The picture reflected by this Table, of course, is not full. The Table is to be filled with more pieces of information. Meanwhile with some certainty the picture of ongoing activities can be drawn. Let these activities be listed in the sequence of enumerating the Institutes in the Table 1:

  1. a) (see No 1 of the Table 1) Yuri Ya. Tsygankov, the keeper of Roerich's memorial collection of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS is ready to create its bibliographical database;
    1. Victoria V. Vertogradova is ready to create the database for Indian Inscriptions from Old Termez;
  2. (see No 4 of the Table 1) Centre of Oriental Literature of the Russian State Library - their server is under construction at the moment;
  3. (see No 5 of the Table 1) State Museum of Arts and Crafts of Peoples of the East - Tigran K. Mkrtytchev, head of the Museum's Archaeological subdivision applied to the Russian Scientific Foundation for Humanities to support financially the work to create the database for the Museum's collection of Central Asian artefacts;
  4. (see No 6 of the Table 1) State Museum of Fine Arts (Pushkin's name) - has its own computer diivision;
  5. (see No 7 of the Table 1) State Historical Museum- has its own computer diivision;
  6. (see No 10 of the Table 1) Saint Petersburg's branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS is taking part both in Asian Classics Input Project and in International Dunhuang Project;
  7. (see No 11 of the Table 1) Galina Dlujnevskaya, head of Saint Petersburg's branch of RAS Photo Archive, situated at the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the RAS is ready to create database for the photo images of Russian expeditions to Central Asian Regions;
  8. (see No 13 of the Table 1) Computer department of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of St. Petersburg University is ready to create database for its Scientific Library's Buddhist collections;
  9. (see No 13 of the Table 1) State Hermitage has the Hermitage-IBM Project, the 1st part of it is to finished at autumn 1998;
  10. (see No 19 of the Table 1) Keemya N. Orlova, head of the Manuscripts' Division of Kalmyk Institute for Humanities and Applied Studies applied to the Russian Scientific Foundation for Humanities to support financially the work to create the database for the Institute's collection of Oirats' Manuscripts;
  11. (see No 26 of the Table 1) Tsymjit P. Vanchikova head of the Manuscripts' Division of Buryat Institute of Mongolian Studies, Tibetan Studies and Buddhism of the Siberian Branch of the RAS is preparing the database for the Institute's collection of Tibetan Xylographs

Supplement

Table 2: Buddhist Collections in Baltic States

1. Lithuania

1.1. Vilnius

  1. Vilnius University
    Scientific Library
  1. Manuscripts:
    Chinese, Manchurian, Mongolian (Mongolian - catalogued)
n.k. n.k.

2. Latvia

2.1. Riga

  1. Latvian State Library
  1. Manuscripts (P.P. Schmidt collection):
    Chinese (described)
n.k. n.k.
  1. Latvian University
    Scientific Library
  1. Xylographs (P.P. Schmidt collection):
    Chinese - 68,
    Manchurian - 38
n.k. n.k.

3. Estonia

3.1. Tartu

  1. Tartu University
    Scientific Library
  1. Xylographs:
    Chinese - 312 (catalogued)
    Mongolian - not described
n.k. n.k.

Literature

  1. Goreglyad V.N. Yaponskiye rukopisnye i ksilografichheskie kollektsii v Sovetskom Soyuze (Japanese Collections of Manuscripts and Xylographs in the Soviet Union - in Russian) // Archaeographia Orientalis. - M., 1990. - P. 73-78.
  2. Lebedev V.V., Vasilyeva O.V. Vostochnye rukopisnye fondy Gosudarstvennoi publichnoi biblioteki im. M.E. Saltykova-Schedrina (Founds of Oriental Manuscripts in the M.E. Saltykov-Schedrin's State Public Library - in Russian) // Archaeographia Orientalis. - M., 1990. - P. 93-119.
  3. Polosin V.V. Fondy rukopisei i staropechatnykh knig, aktovykh i epigraficheskikh materialov na yazykakh narodov sovetskogo i zarubezhnogo vostoka s SSSR (USSR Founds of Manuscripts and Old Printed Books, Act and Epigraphical Materials on the Languages of Peoples of Soviet and Foreign East - in Russian) // Archaeographia Orientalis. - M., 1990. - P. 178-204.
  4. Usmanov M.A. Kazanskoe vostokovedenie i stanovlenie, razvitie vostochnoi arkheografii (Oriental Studies in Kazan: Raising and Development of Oriental Archaeography - in Russian) // Kazanskoe vostokovedenie: traditsii, sovremennost', perspektivy. - Kazan, 1997. - P. 5-7.
  5. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya M.I., Tyomkin E.N. Tsentralnoaziatskii fond rukopisnogo sobraniya LO IV AN SSSR (Central Asian Found of Manuscripts Collection of Leningrad Dept of the Inst. of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR - in Russian) // Archaeographia Orientalis. - M., 1990. - P. 49-55.

Note

Author is grateful to Natalia L. Zhukovskaya, Ivan M. Steblin-Kamensky, Tzymzhit P. Vanchikova, Sergey V. Kukushkin for valuable information given to him while working over this paper