I N T H

I S I S S U E

Powerful W

omen

Snow

Moun

tainon the

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N

E W S L E T T E R

Th

e Asian

Legacy Library

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 1

Th

e Asian

Legacy Library (ALL) w

as created 33 years ago in th

e U

nited States w

ith a gran

t from th

e Hew

lett Packard Foundation

. A

LL was founded to preserve the tim

eless cultural wisdom

heritage, central to many

Asian cultures, m

uch of which is located in extrem

e locations and in danger of decay and being lost forever.

And thanks to countless supporters over three decades, we have been successful!

ALL now

has five preservation centers located in M

ongolia, India, and Nepal. T

hese centers digitize and catalog the cultural w

isdom heritage of China, India, N

epal and M

ongolia. Projects currently include a massive collection of B

uddhist manuscripts

in Tibetan language and several large collections of yogic m

anuscripts in Sanskrit.

Our operations are funded by an enthusiastic global patron base on fi

ve continents. Som

e of them have partnered w

ith us from the outset, and others have com

e to us m

ore recently. In both cases, the understanding and passion for supporting ALL is

undeniable and provides a sustaining, resilient foundation.

Our focus is educating global entrepreneurs on the benefi

ts of philanthropy and preserving their cultural legacy for future generations.

If you are interested in learning more about our m

ission, please contact us and w

e would be happy to answ

er any of your questions.

Sincerely,

John Brady

Executive Director, A

sian Legacy Library

info@asianlegacylibrary.org

A S I A N L E G

A C Y L I B R A R Y

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 2

New

scanning equipment arriving at

the National Library of M

ongolia.

At A

LL, we are very proud of our w

ork to discover an

d preserve rare, endan

gered text of ancien

t wisdom

, w

hich

we h

ave been doin

g for over 33 years.

ALL director John B

rady compares our w

ork to snow on

the mountain, because the texts w

e find are often w

ritten in ancient languages that m

odern people find hard to

understand–like frozen snow

on a high mountain peak

that melts and trickles dow

n, nourishing the rest of the w

orld with precious w

isdom.

Once the texts–

the snow–

are preserved and translated, people all over the w

orld can use the wisdom

they contain. N

ow, they are like a refreshing m

ountain stream that com

es from

the snow m

elt, quenching the thirst of millions.

Wh

at actually is Snow on the M

ountain?

One of A

LL’s most im

portant projects is at the National Library of M

ongolia, w

hich houses the largest and most signifi

cant uncatalogued collection of B

uddhist texts in existence in the world today. H

ere is one of the most

important exam

ples of snow on the m

ountain that can feed the streams of

our future generations and children with this precious w

isdom.

Please click on the image to the left for m

ore information on how

w

e can Keep W

isdom Alive at the N

ational Library of Mongolia. A S I A N

L E G A C Y L I B R A R Y

Tw

o amazin

g wom

en leadin

g ALL’s N

ational Library of M

ongolia

Project and h

ow th

ey are workin

g to Keep W

isdom Alive!

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 3

Powerful W

omen

Christina in the Hall of M

ongols, our scanning room

at the National Library of M

ongolia.

ALL’s very ow

n Ch

ristina K

asica, Chief Strategy O

fficer,

has worked for us for over four years. O

ne of her main roles

for ALL is to m

anage the digital preservation of one of the largest collections of T

ibetan and Mongolian m

anuscripts and block prints at the N

ational Library of Mongolia. A

LL, in 2018, requested a grant from

Khyentse Foundation to fund this

massive project. T

he work involves digitally scanning

the library’s vast collection of 41,000 ancient volumes, as

well as digitally cataloguing every title w

ithin these volumes.

We estim

ate, within a seven-year period, A

LL will scan nine

and a half million pages of rare B

uddhist texts.

ALL offi

cially began the project at the National Library of

Mongolia in July of 2018. Christina headed a team

of B

uddhist scholars and technology specialists and began the w

ork with the N

ational Library’s staff.

Mongolia is fam

ous for its powerful w

omen. T

he director of the N

ational Library, Ichinkhorloo Bayarkhuu, is a

nationally acclaimed poet. T

he deputy director, Terbish

Bayarlakh, is also a pow

erful wom

an. Along com

es another very special young w

oman, D

r. Sainbileg, a Buddhist scholar,

who w

as officially appointed O

perations Manager of the

National Library’s Project.

We are so blessed to have these brilliant w

omen and delighted

to feature Christina and Dr. Sainbileg in this m

onth’s news-

letter so you can also meet the brilliant m

inds behind our historic project at the N

ational Library of Mongolia.

Greetings from

ALL’s Ch

ristina K

asica and D

r. Sainbileg of th

e Nation

al Library of Mon

golia

Christin

a Kasica has a very interesting background. She spent

ten years in a Ph.D. program

at Harvard. H

er early career was

spent working for start-up softw

are companies and social

justice not-for-profits. W

ith that amazing background,

Christina discovered Buddhism

in 2009, which im

pacted how

she viewed herself and the w

orld.

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 4

A S I A N L E G

A C Y L I B R A R Y

These com

ments from

Christina say it all:

“The Greek philosopher Socrates, who’s a personal favorite of m

ine, used to go around telling everyone “O

uk oida.” That means “I don’t

know” in ancient Greek. I alw

ays thought I’d want that carved on

my headstone. But since becom

ing a Buddhist, I don’t want that

anymore. Thanks to the teachings, I know

what to do in every life

situation. It’s just living it, that’s challenging! So it’s very precious to m

e to be able to spend my days w

orking to preserve this ancient cultural tradition in very concrete w

ays. I’m truly fortunate.

Many of the 300,000 volum

es in this library have not been opened for hundreds of years. W

e literally discover new

texts every day. It’s so exciting! This year, in 2020, w

e are entering Phase Three of the four-year grant and have firm

ly established operations. In 2020 w

e want to off

er our sponsors an opportunity to help us so w

e launched the K

eep Wisdom

Alive campaign.

Dr. Sainbileg and I share this reliance on Buddhism

. I remem

ber w

hen I first met her in U

laan Baatar. She was w

orking part-time

at the library for the director. She welcom

ed us and was very, very

helpful and I remem

ber thinking, even before we m

ade her the off

er to work for ALL, She’s the one to m

anage the team on the

ground here.

Christina, Dr. Sainbileg and Bayarlakh enjoying

fermented m

are’s milk in U

laan Baatar.

She’s one of only two English speakers in the w

hole place. She w

ent off to Korea to get her Ph.D

at a young age. Last tim

e we w

ere in Mongolia, w

e gave her roses as a small

token of our esteem and appreciation for her great w

ork. W

e even shared fermented m

are’s milk —

a traditional M

ongolian delicacy!”

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 5

A S I A N L E G

A C Y L I B R A R Y

Dr. Sainbileg show

ing American am

bassador to Mongolia M

ichael Klecheski a detail of the project. D

irector Bayarkhuu is to his left.

Dr. Sain

bileg is the

Operation

s Man

ager of th

e Nation

al Library of M

ongolia. She plays a key

role in ALL's success in

preserving one of the largest rem

aining uncatalogued and unscanned collections of T

ibetan and Mongolian

manuscripts in the w

orld.

Dr. Sainbileg earned her Ph.D

. in Buddhist Studies in the

Departm

ent of Philosophy at the Academ

y of Korean

Studies in Seongnam, South K

orea. She received her B.A

. and M

.A. degrees from

the Departm

ent of Philosophy at the N

ational University of M

ongolia in Ulaan B

aatar.

Dr. Sainbileg gives us som

e insight on her involvement

with the library.

“I always loved classical literature and w

as always

interested in philosophy. Through this, I discovered Buddhism

, which changed m

y life. I am

a researcher by profession. I have a strong interest in Buddhist culture, particularly w

ritten treasures. M

ongolia has a long history of Buddhist literature in the M

ongolian and West Chinese languages back to the

fourteenth century. We have lots of treasures!

For me, this w

ork is preserving not only treasure that belongs to the M

ongols, but also to humankind.

I’m very happy to be opening access to this m

aterial for other researchers around the w

orld. It’s not easy to do research in this field. So it m

akes me very happy to help others do better research and have

the ability to access the required materials w

ith no difficulty and no

limits. I am

so enthusiastic about being able to contribute to this, and it m

akes me appreciate every single page of every single book.

Preserving cultural heritage is one of the most im

portant things in my

life. I’m involved, for exam

ple, in a number of U

NESCO

activities that aim

to safeguard cultural heritage. So I am grateful for ALL’s support

in safeguarding our treasure here in the National Library of M

ongolia.

I really enjoy welcom

ing visitors to the project and showing w

hat w

e do here. Last summ

er, the American am

bassador to Mongolia,

Michael Klecheski, dropped by. And w

e recently played host to the fam

ous Professor Vesna Wallace of the U

niversity of California, Santa Barbara, w

hen she was visiting U

laan Baatar.

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 6

A S I A N L E G

A C Y L I B R A R Y

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 7

There’s a lot of other things that are important to m

e —

health, well-being, fam

ily, and so on. According to Buddhist theory, w

e will be reborn in this cyclic

existence until we achieve enlightenm

ent. But we can

only feel the mom

entary unification of body and mind

that is “Today’s I.” So every mom

ent of life is precious. I w

ant to spend it meaningfully.

Like many people today, I have concerns about the

future. I hope the world w

ill be ok, but ecological change is a big danger that people m

ust pay more

attention to. All human beings should take care of the

earth and mother nature. Another of m

y hopes is that in the future m

any more people w

ill get interested in Buddhism

and will w

rite about our Mongolian

collection and make it know

n around the world.

I love music, m

editating and hiking in my spare tim

e. I like all positive things that m

ake people happy.”

Our M

ongolian staff. Standing left to right: Zolzaya M

unkhjargal, Khongorzul Sumiyabayar,

Munkhnyam

Tumen, U

uriintuya Munkhjargal, Tsagaantsetseg D

orjoo. Sitting left to right: M

anal Adiya, Dr. Sainbileg, G

erelmaa D

agii, Otgonbayar Torguud, O

chir Batbaatar.

To date, A

LL has digitized 1,533 volumes com

prised of 473,188 pages and cataloged 24,100 titles com

prising 1,929 volumes at

the National Library. W

e still have another 39,467 volumes to

go. We anticipate it w

ill take until 2026 to finish. T

hat’s why w

e have initiated our K

eep Wisdom

Alive cam

paign to help us fund the com

pletion of preserving the entire collection at the N

ational Library of Mongolia. Stay tuned for m

ore to come on

our Keep W

isdom A

live campaign in our next new

sletter.

“But w

e can only feel the mom

entary

unification of body and mind that is

“Today’s I.” So every mom

ent of life is precious.

I want to spend it m

eaningfully.”

A S I A N L E G

A C Y L I B R A R Y

Dear Friends,

I would like to w

elcome all of you to our fi

rst Asian Legacy Library new

sletter. Each m

onth you will receive a new

feature story about one special project or special person w

ho expresses the ALL vision and our com

mitm

ent to preserve the literary legacy of A

sia.

Those of you w

ho have supported Asian Legacy Library, I thank you. W

e have grown

with you. W

e have expanded our preservation work in new

countries with your help.

I know our relationship w

ill continue because you understand the value of what w

e do to preserve the ancient w

isdom of A

sia.

The m

anuscripts we are preserving can truly hold inside of their pages the answ

ers to the problem

s and challenges we are facing in our m

odern world today.

Tim

e is of the essence.

May w

e see each other soon, dear friends.

John Brady Executive D

irector A

sian Legacy Library

a

A special message from

John Brady,

Executive Director of ALL

A S I A N L E G

A C Y L I B R A R Y

A P R I L 2 0 2 0 N E W

S L E T T E R • 8

Please click on the ALL logo for the video on how w

e can K

eep Wisdom

Alive at the National Library of M

ongolia.