Jonang Sites Database
We thought to share with you some of our preliminary findings on an ongoing research database to map the geographical history of Jonang monasteries and sites. Since 2004, we at Jonang Foundation have conducted textual and field research on places and institutions affiliated with the Jonang Buddhist tradition. This is enabling us to track the historical migration and spatial presence of the Jonangpa across the Tibetan plateau.
There are at present almost 50 sites located on the map out of the nearly 100 sites that we have documented to date, a considerable set for an institutionalized Tibetan order that was thought by many to be extinct. Each site is marked on Google Earth with an exact co-ordinal location, providing a resource to researchers and interested members of the community.
Further iterations of this Jonang sites project include a digital 3D replica of Taranatha’s Takten Phuntsok Ling Monastery as well as of the Dzamthang Monastery complex in Amdo, extensive galleries of wall mural paintings and local features extent at Jonang monasteries, and a fully populated interactive satellite map of Jonang sites with historical descriptions. All of this is integrated online with our biographical database of Jonang lineage masters and an online museum of Jonang material culture with galleries of artifacts including art, relics and ritual implements.
The project can be visited at these urls,
*This project is working in collaboration with students at the University of Alabama under the supervision of Professor Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa.