The University of Vienna

The Research Library for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies holds some 50,000 volumes relating primarily to the intellectual and cultural history of ancient and medieval South Asia, Tibet, and the Buddhist world. It also contains collections on the Himalayan countries (e.g., Nepal), on the intellectual and cultural history of ancient Iran, and on Mongolia. The expansion of the holdings on modern South Asia is in full swing. The Library holdings are supplemented by a valuable off-print collection of the Department pertaining to Tibetan and Buddhist studies, an off-print collection with the main topic of the Indian history of science, collections of microfilms (e.g., of manuscripts from Tabo in the Western Himalayas) and microfiches (of out-of-print Sanskrit text series and rare manuscript catalogues), and historical, linguistic and geographical maps. A section of the Library is constituted by the precious library of Erich Frauwallner, endowed to the previous Department of Indology after his death, which contains primarily sources for the study of the history of South Asian philosophy. The voluminous slide library documenting Indo-Tibetan art was given on permanent loan to the Department of Art History in 1997. Since 1986 the Library has housed, on permanent loan from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the De Nobili Research Library (Bibliothek der Sammlung De Nobili), a library relating specifically to the dialogue between Christianity and the religious traditions of South Asia, especially the Hindu traditions. The Singhalese library bequeathed by Heinz Bechert in 2005 enriches the Department's collections.

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