Curator Tibetan Collections

About the role


An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Curator of Tibetan Collections to join a team of specialist curators in the Asian and African Collections department at the British Library.


The British Library holds a culturally and historically significant collection of printed books and manuscripts in Tibetan. The collections include some of the earliest surviving manuscripts in Old Tibetan, rare and unique works that are part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon and official letters and documents from Dalai and Panchen Lamas.


The role involves working with manuscripts and printed material in the major languages covered in the Tibetan collections: Tibetan both Classical and Modern (including Amdo and Khams variants). Additionally, the role has responsibility for material in Old Tibetan and for languages that are part of the Sino-Tibetan or Trans-Himalayan language family.


The successful post-holder will be responsible for developing, managing and making accessible the Tibetan collections at the British Library. They will also be responsible for exploring innovative ways of presenting, interpreting and promoting the collections through engagement activities with diverse communities, academic and general audiences through contributions to online resources, documentation, digitisation projects, research, cultural programmes and media.


The Tibetan Curator will also make a personal contribution to Tibetan studies based on individual specialist knowledge of the Tibetan collections. The post-holder will have a good working knowledge of both Classical and Modern Tibetan and a degree level qualification in a discipline of central relevance for the Tibetan collections.


Knowledge of Old Tibetan and other Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan languages would be useful, and further to these languages, it would be an advantage to have had experience of working in a research library, academic or other relevant environment.

Museum Website: https://ce0752li.webitrent.com/ce0752li_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC179GF.open?WVID=5071482BMD