Published: December 11, 2024
by: Alison Lang, UTL News
Growing up in the 1960s in Delhi, India, Samphe Lhalungpa had always known that his father - the eminent Tibetan scholar, translator, radio broadcaster and former monk-official Lobsang Lhalungpa – had maintained a significant library of traditional Tibetan texts and manuscripts. In their family home, some of the precious oblong-shaped texts – known as pechas – lined a shelf on their altar. But it wasn’t until 1971, when the Lhalungpa family moved from India to Canada, that Samphe got a full understanding of the vastness of his father’s collection.
“He had something like 15 wooden trunks specially constructed so he could bring his collection to Canada,” Samphe recalled. “It was a huge enterprise – my mother had to go order these trunks, and in various sizes. They didn’t bring any household goods when they emigrated – but they brought the pechas.”
Lobsang Lhalungpa continued to collect pechas and other rare texts, some dated as early as the 15th century, as part of a living library that informed his teaching, translation work and scholarship right up until his death in 2008. Now, thanks to a generous donation from Samphe and his brother Tenzin, a sizeable portion of this incredible collection – over 800 items, amassed over 60 years – has now found a home at the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library (EAL).
“Lobsang Phuntsok Lhalungpa was a towering figure who shaped our understanding of Tibet in the twentieth century,” said Professor Rory Lindsay, Department for the Study of Religion at U of T. "His translations include foundational works such as The Life of Milarepa and Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā, and his collaborations with leading Western scholars like George Roerich and David Snellgrove helped bridge Tibetan and Western intellectual worlds. Having used his masterful translations in my own teaching, I can personally attest to his exceptional skill in making Tibetan literature accessible to English-speaking audiences. His carefully assembled library reflects this unique position, housing precious texts on religion, history, and other fields, some of which exist nowhere else today. Having direct access to these materials is extraordinary, as they will fundamentally advance our grasp of Tibet’s rich intellectual and political heritage."
Lhalungpa was born in Lhasa in 1926. His father, Gyeltsen Tarchin, was an eminent monk and the former chief state oracle of Tibet. At age eight, Lhalungpa became an ordained monk and continued his studies related to Buddhism and Tibetan history. This put him on a path of learning, teaching and scholarship engaging with all aspects of Tibetan culture – he worked frequently with lamas, political luminaries and many leading scholars.
Lhalungpa’s vast understanding of Tibetan philosophy, religion and culture served him in a variety of important positions, including as a government official working with the 14th Dalai Lama. In the late 1950s, Lhalungpa pioneered Tibetan language broadcasts at All India Radio, connecting Tibetans in India and Tibet to the outside world. Later in his life, Lhalungpa taught Buddhist philosophy at the University of British Columbia and even had a brief foray into the world of Hollywood cinema, acting as a technical advisor for Martin Scorsese’s 1996 biopic of the 14th Dalai Lama, Kundun.
Photo courtesy of Samphe Lhalungpa.
Like many Tibetan refugees, Lhalungpa’s life was marked by political upheaval and a long period of separation from his family. One imagines this may have made his growing collection of rare materials all the more important and meaningful. This can be clearly seen in the many hand-copied texts in the pecha collection, along with the meticulous notes he folded within them - many written in his beautiful script on tiny scraps of paper carefully placed inside.
“This was his life’s work – not just the collection, but his close involvement with the collection,” said Samphe. “Some people collect books and never read them, but these were not just books to be collected – they were texts to be read, learned from and interacted with.”
EAL director Hana Kim said the opportunity for scholars to examine a collection like this – gathered and curated by a Tibetan polymath with deep connections to the region’s cultural and political landscape – is singularly rare, and will be critically important for research, both now and well into the future.
"The Lhalungpa Collection provides deep insights into indigenous Tibetan scholarship and perspectives,” Kim explained. “It represents a transformative addition to our holdings, further enhancing the largest Tibetan collection in Canada."
“This is a tremendously important gift,” said Frances Garrett, Associate Professor, Department for the Study of Religion. “Through his work with many of the most renowned Buddhist scholars and with the Dalai Lama’s government in Tibet and later in exile, Lhalungpa was able to amass a collection of very carefully curated, diverse Tibetan texts on a wide variety of topics. It’s hard to overstate the impact that this collection will have on our continuing development of knowledge about the Tibetan intellectual and political world."
The Lobsang P. Lhalungpa Collection’s journey to the East Asian Library is still ongoing, with many exciting updates to come. Most of the pechas have been delivered to the library through a careful moving process from Santa Fe (where Lhalungpa spent his final years) to Toronto. There is now the matter of bringing Lhalungpa’s other manuscripts to the library, which will take several months.
The plan is to formally present the collection at a celebratory event at the EAL, later in 2025, with an event open to religious and Tibetan scholars at U of T and beyond, as well as the broader Tibetan diaspora in Toronto. There is also a plan in the works to digitize some materials in the collection to further expand their academic reach.
The EAL’s highly engaged stewardship of Lhalungpa’s materials will ensure the collection remains alive and active in the hands of academics, students and the broader Tibetan community. This legacy of scholarly value and cultural significance was one that Lhalungpa held dear throughout his life – no matter how far away he lived from his roots.
“Tibet was always in his heart,” Samphe said.
A note regarding the East Asian Library and Columbia University Tibetan Studies partnership:
Over the past decade, the U of T Libraries has collaborated closely with Columbia University Libraries to support Tibetan Studies in North America, through joint acquisition trips, streamlined processing, and shared research services. This partnership culminated in the 2023 celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Tibetan Collection Development and Services at the East Asian Library. As part of this partnership, Kristina Dy-Liacco, the Tibetan Studies Librarian at Columbia University, also serves as the Tibetan Studies Librarian for the U of T Libraries. Further updates regarding the Lobsang P. Lhalungpa Collection and the EAL/Columbia partnership will be shared in this space in 2025.
All photos of the Lobsang P. Lhalungpa collection are credited to Kristina Dy-Liacco. All Lhalungpa family photos are courtesy of Samphe Lhalungpa.