Geshe Lhakdor is the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. Here he describes the destruction of Tibetan texts and Monasteries during the Chinese cultural revolution and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives preservation of Tibetan culture.

The TEXT Program, or "Tibetans in Exile Today," is an oral-history program designed to record the stories of Tibetans currently living in refugee settlements in India. The program focuses on the Tibetans who left their country in 1959, but still have vivid memories of traditional Tibetan culture. For more on the TEXT Program please visit
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Oral-history interview transcript: "This preservation important texts, it's not something Tibetans experienced only at the time when the Chinese invaded. Even before that, in the Tibetan history, there were occasions when some of those who are against the Buddhist practice and so forth, undertook that step of destroying many manuscripts. In those time of history also, there were many monks and other thinkers, intellectuals and practitioners, who at the cost of their life, preserved many rare texts, hiding them in the caves, in the mountains, things like that. So there are many stories like that. So likewise, during the invasion of the Chinese, in Tibet also, unthinkable destruction has been done. Unthinkable destruction, because in the ancient times, there was a Tibetan saying, which says that even if the external wall of the house collapses, the internal wall of scriptures will not collapse. There was [a large] amount of collections of holy scriptures in almost each and every monastery. But with the coming of the Chinese invaders, intentionally they burned houses and houses of those valuable scriptures. Various individuals, risking their lives, managed to bring a number of rare texts, and the offered them to His Holiness. His Holiness keeps many of those in the [Library of Tibetan Works and Archives]. Out of more than 6,000 monasteries, hardly 100 remain today. Now you can imagine the destruction that has taken place. So every time I guide people who are visiting the Tibetan museum, here in the library, I tell them that our collection is not great, we don't have much. But I tell them that it is a very precious collection, because I tell them, with a little exaggeration, I tell them that each of the statues that we have in the museum represents one monastery that was fully functioning. All those are gone, so now you have these lone representatives, in one of the corners of a museum, you see."


A Special Note from the Dalai Lama

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama was pleased to have been able to visit the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and to know about The TEXT Program. He feels involving the students in this program that records the life stories of elderly Tibetans in exile will enable them to understand the challenges faced by Tibetans and how these are met. Through the process, the students will have a better understanding of the impact of the Tibetan Buddhist culture of nonviolence and compassion on the lives of the Tibetan people through the ages. He wishes your project all success."

Chhime R. Chhoekyapa
Secretary to His Holiness the Dalai Lama
May 27, 2011

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