China - Derge County Cultural Relics Administration Center (Derge Printing House)
Ancient texts and works housed at the Derge Printing House are mainly compendiums ofclassical Tibetan Buddhist texts, as well as the collected works of various scholars. All texts are block printed. Block printing at the Printing House has continued at least since 1703. The extant printing blocks consist of some 325,552 texts blocks, including 228,814 precious ancient blocks carved before 1958. There are also 550 image blocks, 752 illustrationson front pages and in texts of major classic series such as Kanjur, and 3,272 drawings in The Collection of Minature Drawings of Initiations (tsakalis) in the Treasury of Precious Termas. These texts comprehensively express people’s values, religious beliefs, culture, art, science and technology from different historical periods. Reflecting the excellent traditional culture inherited by Tibetan people from generation to generation, they have had an important impact on efforts by local community groups, inheritors of the legacy of the Printing House, and practitioners to maintain their cultural identity. These texts also embody the great creative spirit of the Chinese people and have made outstanding contributions to the development of human civilization.
2024