The Tibetan Rare Book Collection in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress contains about 4,500 volumes of rare books and other unique items.

Religion plays a central role in Tibetan society, and the Tibetan Rare Book Collection’s holdings of Tibetan Buddhist scriptures are especially strong. The Tibetan Buddhist canon is contained in the Kanjur, in over a hundred volumes of sutras, and the Tanjur, most editions totaling some 225 volumes of commentaries. Of special value to scholars, these Tibetan canonical texts are accurate translations of the original Buddhist texts, written in Sanskrit between 500 BCE and 900 CE. The Library has several rare woodblock printings of the Kanjur and Tanjur, including:

• Bon-po Kanjur (Bon Bka’ ‘gyur) and Bon-po Tanjur (Bon Bstan ‘gyur) — These are the scriptures of Tibet’s pre-Buddhist religious tradition. The first edition of the Bon-po Kanjur was published in Chengdu and acquired by the Library in 1990, and the third edition of the Bon-po Kanjur was published in Lhasa in 2004 and acquired in 2008. The first edition of the Bon-po Tanjur was acquired by the Library in 1999, and the second revised edition of the Bon-po Tanjur (Bon Katen, or Bon Bka’ brten) was published in 380 volumes in Lhasa in 2001 and acquired by the Library in 2008.
• Choni Kanjur (Co-ne Bka’ ‘gyur) and Choni Tanjur (Co-ne Bstan-‘gyur) — Joseph F. C. Rock’s acquisition is especially rare since the printing blocks at Choni monastery were later completely destroyed in 1929 during conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in Gansu province. See this guide's Digital Collections to learn about online access to these works.
• Derge Kanjur (Sde-dge Bka’ ‘gyur) — This was acquired by William Woodville Rockhill at the Derge monastery in eastern Tibet in 1908. See this guide's Digital Collections to learn about online access to these works.
• Narthang Tanjur (Snar-thang bstan ‘gyur) — This was printed in the 18th century at the renowned Narthang monastery, taken to Beijing by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1908, and later acquired by Berthold Laufer.

Also accessible to researchers is the Derge xylograph collection. In 1990, the Library acquired 340 volumes of woodblock texts, recently printed in monasteries in Tibet. A special Library of Congress Madison Council-funded project enabled the purchase of some 300 volumes of newly-printed xylographs from the 18th century Derge printing house. Use this link to browse the Library's online catalog for bibliographic records of items in the "Derge Xylograph Collection."

Three scholars in particular were responsible for the Library’s early development of its Tibetan collection. During his travels in Mongolia and Tibet between 1888 and 1892 and again in the early 1900s, the American diplomat and Tibetologist William Woodville Rockhill acquired a large number of Tibetan books. In 1901 he presented the Library with 57 xylographs and 8 manuscripts which have recently been cataloged. Use this link to browse the Library's online catalog for bibliographic records of items in the "Rockhill Tibetan Collection." Additional information is available on the following research guide:

Berthold Laufer, another leading Tibetologist of his time, collected books during visits to Tibet for two libraries in Chicago: the Newberry and the John Crerar. In 1928, the Crerar Library transferred an important group of Laufer’s Tibetan books to the Library of Congress, including the Narthang Tanjur.  

The third important collector was Joseph F. C. Rock, the colorful Austrian-American explorer, adventurer, and scientist who lived and traveled in China’s rugged west for twenty-seven years and whose adventures are chronicled in ten articles he wrote for National Geographic magazine between 1922 and 1935. In 1926, Rock purchased a complete set of the Kanjur (108 volumes) and Tanjur (209 volumes) for the Library of Congress from the famous Tibetan monastery of Choni in China’s Gansu province.  The printing blocks used for this set were destroyed by a fire in 1929, making the Library of Congress’ copy extremely rare.