(11 March 2014) The Buddhist archive of photography, Luang Prabang, Laos, is the largest online photobase documenting the recent history of Buddhism in Laos, reports the SEALG website.
The digitisation of the original photographs found in Luang Prabang was supported by the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme.
Coming from more than 20 distinct monastery collections, this unique view from inside documents 120 years of monastic life and ritual, pilgrimage, monks’ portraits, history and social life. Work started in 2007 with Pilot Project EAP086, followed by Major Research Project EAP177 – since then 33,933 photographs have been discovered in 21 monasteries of Luang Prabang and have been digitised, identified and safely stored. Most of the original photographs (prints and negatives) are now stored in specially designed wooden archive cabinets at the Sala Thammiviharn, Vat Khili, Luang Prabang – an historic monastic building in one of the monasteries, now entirely used by the Archive. Some minor collections have been restituted to their respective owners.
Read the announcement here.
