Contacts
David Helliwell (Research Collections)
tel: +44 (0)1865 277032
email: david.helliwell@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Minh Chung (Teaching Collections)
tel: +44 (0)1865 280432
email: minh.chung@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Charles Manson (Tibetan and Himalayan Collections)
tel: +44 (0)1865 277083
email: charles.manson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Searching the Libraries (via SOLO, Oxlip+ & ORA)
Guides to PCAS: printing, copying & scanning facilities in the Bodleian Libraries
Other links
WISER workshops (Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources) - These workshops are aimed at researchers, academic staff, research students and librarians from across the University.
Research and Resources Guides - a wide range of research, resource and library guides are available from our LibGuides service.
Collection overview
The Chinese and Inner Asian collections contain material on the languages and cultures of China, Mongolia and Tibet.
Chinese books were among the Library's earliest acquisitions after its foundation in 1602 and numbered over 100 volumes by the end of the 17th century. By the 1920s, following the acquisition of key collections in the 19th century, including 1,500 Protestant missionary publications, Oxford had one of the finest Chinese book collections outside the Far East. The modern sinological collection, which began to develop after the Second World War, concentrated on traditional literature, history, philosophy and religion. More recently, the Library has begun systematically to acquire materials relating to the study of modern China, including local gazetteers, reproductions of 20th century newspapers, subscriptions to over 800 current Chinese periodicals and a wide range of electronic resources in Chinese. It is now one of the largest and fastest-growing Chinese collections in Europe.
The Library has a handful of Mongolian manuscripts. Printed resources are more numerous and include works produced in China, Inner and Outer Mongolia and other areas with Mongolian-speaking populations, together with a wide range of supporting material.
The Bodleian Library has a significant collection of Tibetan manuscripts, many of which were acquired in the 19th century. In recent years, substantial bequests from two Tibetologists, Michael Aris and Hugh Richardson, have greatly strengthened resources for modern Tibetan and Himalayan studies, in terms of both archival and printed materials.
See more information about Oriental Manuscripts & Rare Books at http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/oriental-sc
Libraries and reading rooms
The main reading rooms are the Bodleian Chinese Studies Library (mostly in support of teaching), and the Eastern Art collection of the Sackler Library (third floor). The research collection is held in closed stacks in the Bodleian's book storage facility and readers may request materials to the reading rooms.
The pre-modern Chinese collections which include many rare and interesting works from the late Ming to the end of the Qing (late 16th to early 20th centuries) are consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room. No part of this collection is borrowable.
Teaching material for undergraduate and initial postgraduate study is kept in the Bodleian Chinese Studies Library. This collection aims to provide a solid foundation for all study and course work on the University's curriculum, and most of the material may be borrowed, as can China-related social science materials in the Social Science Library.
The location of particular items can be determined by SOLO in the case of western language materials, and the allegro catalogue in the case of materials in Chinese. Parts of the Chinese language teaching and research collections are still catalogued on cards only, so the absence of an entry in the allegro catalogue does not necessarily indicate that the item is not held. The card catalogue is available in the Bodleian Chinese Studies Library. Items which are held off site and are listed either in the allegro catalogue or in the card index can be requested using green slips available from the Bodleian Chinese Studies desk.
The teaching collection relating to Tibet and the Himalayas is currently housed in the Oriental Institute Library.
The Tibetan research collection is stored in Swindon, and those books can be ordered through SOLO to be read in the Oriental Institute Library, or other reading rooms. Please note that the transliteration system used on SOLO for Tibetan is Library of Congress, not Wylie.
Information on the Tibetan manuscripts collection is here , and a descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts is here
The Bodleian Library has full access to the Tibetan texts in the TBRC digital collection (Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center), see here for further details.
Teaching and research materials relating to Chinese and Tibetan art and archaeology are kept in the Eastern Art collection at the Sackler Library and may not be borrowed.
Important eResources
Please see Chinese language e-resources.
and for Tibetan Buddhist texts, TBRC
and Srid pa rgyud Bon-po manuscript scan [PDF, 10.5MB]
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