Tibetan Civilization Course Guide: Articles

The International Associaton for Tibetan Studies convenes once every three years. The proceedings of the Seminars, which now bring together nearly six hundred scholars from around the world, are often published in edited volumes.  While Brill Publications in the Netherlands has published many of these volumes, it is not always the case.

Search/Browse Options

1. The best way to search the contents of the many and various proceedings, which date back to 1977, is to use the interface provided by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL), a rich online resource hosted at the University of Virginia:

Proceedings of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (PIATS) (THL Index for the 1st-9th IATS Seminars)

The THL Index, however, includes only proceedings up through the 9th Seminar, which was held in 2000. Since then, the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th seminars were held in 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013, respectively. 

2. To browse the contents of all proceedings, to the extent they are published and held at Columbia University, it is best to search in CLIO for "International Association for Tibetan Studies" . This will generate records for more than 60 volumes, each containing a dozen or more, articles pertaining to a certain panel-theme or discipline. You many then use facted searching (in left column) to narrow the results, if you wish.

For additional assistance, contact the Tibetan Studies Librarian at lh2112@columbia.edu.

Bya-ra Database
Online database of more than 10,000 Tibetan-language research articles published in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  Many English abstracts provided. Also includes contents of Rig gnas lo rgyus series and the English-language journals, Tibet Studies and China Tibetology.

China Academic Journals
Thousands of journals in the humanities and social sciences since 1994, including periodicals from national universities throughout the PRC, Qinghai Minzu Yanjiu, China Tibetology, etc. Full-text in both CAJ viewer and PDF.  English abstracts for most articles.  May search in Chinese or English. Also includes Century Journal Project database, covering articles prior to 1994, as well as full-text databases for dissertations and core newspapers.

Superstar Journal Database
By using it, you can search for some articles which are not provided at the China Academic Journals site (especially before 1994). The limitations of this site are that you must use simplified Chinese characters for searching, and you cannot download or print articles directly.

National Index to Chinese Newspapers & Periodicals
This database 全国报刊索引数据库 contains the most comprehensive citation data of Chinese newspapers, journals and magazines in humanities, social sciences, and science and technology from 1857 to current. It includes 10 packages divided by years and by two general categories of social sciences and science & technology. Its pre-1949 packages are considered to be especially useful. The supplier (an affiliate of Shanghai Library) limits access to much of its pre-1949 data to subscribers only.

Index to Chinese Periodical Literature of Taiwan
This database 中文期刊篇目索引 covers over 4,000 periodicals in Chinese and Western languages published in Taiwan, HK, and Macao from 1970 to current. "It includes general works; philosophy, religion; natural science; applied science; social science; history, geography, and biography; language and literature; art. New data are added each month with retroactive archiving."Some full texts are available.

Taiwan Electronic Periodical Services (TEPS)
Contains about 250 titles on humanities and social sciences.

Chinese Electronic Periodical Services (CEPS)
Contains about 1,600 titles on humanities and social sciences from Taiwan and China; from 1991.

Information provided by Chinese Studies Librarian, Dr. Chengzhi Wang, cw2165@columbia.edu.