The video recordings of Chögyam Trungpa are an incredibly precious resource. For many students, the ability to see him presenting the teachings is very powerful.

The Video Recovery Project – preservation Of the collection of 261 early B/W videos, with over 95% is now converted to professional digital video formats, was the initial focus of analog media preservation in the Archives. Although a relatively small collection of material, these video recordings are extremely important.

• All of the seminars given by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the first three years of Naropa University (1974 -1976), were recorded on black and white video, and the material in the early 1990s was in excellent condition.Between 1992 and 1995, over 200 of these video tapes were copied to more robust analog formats. Half of the converted videos have since been published on video cassette then DVDs with study guides for classes.
• Additionally, there are other early seminars given in Boulder, Colorado and at Karme‐Choling in Vermont, and a small number of talks at other locations, including two seminars in California. A detailed archival level description of this fonds is found at the link below. A number of these seminars have also been published.

The color video collection, which is about one third of the whole, includes two Shambhala Training public talks, a seminar on visual dharma from 1978, a vajra assembly conducted by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and a number of other ceremonies and talks.

The further migration of the Archives’ video collection began with equipment being funded by the Shambhala Trust in the early 2000s. Playback/capture of the VRP videos into DV25 video format files enabled the Archives’ staff to begin migration of the entire analog video collection into industry recognized digital file storage and then publishing in DVD format. Today these files are also beginning to make their way to the online library of Shambhala Online.

All of these digital files, (audio and video), are stored on RAIDs (bundled hard-drive servers), a storage protocol of choice for audio-visual collections. Our continued digital migration activity necessitates the need to acquire more RAID servers.

Most of the program documentation data we need to back up now includes born-digital media files, the best example being the teachings of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. His teachings have been recorded digitally since 2005 (through Kalapa Recordings and affiliates at all teaching programs), and stored in original digital form on our hard-drive servers. Our holdings of Sakyong Mipham comprise over 15 Terabytes (15,000 GB) of audio and video files. Given this volume, Centre East has played a complementary role in stewarding digital assets over the last few years.

To learn more:

• View our online video offerings – Link

Our collection of photos contains extensive documentation of the activities of the founder of Shambhala, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his family. This collection, received from 1969 to 1988, includes images from the visits and teachings of Tibetan Buddhist teachers such as His Holiness 16th Karmapa, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In addition there are images of the exhibitions of visual Dharma art including Ikebana and room installations by Trungpa Rinpoche, calligraphy, Japanese tea ceremony, drama, dance and music

All 20,000 photos have been digitized and entered into our database. Some, notably contact sheets and photos of buildings and land centres, need further digitizing to complete the documentation for this time period.

In addition, there are several thousand more photos that were not in the original collection, containing documentation of the teachings and activities of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, including his trips to Tibet, Kasung events, as well as the establishment of the land centres in Nova Scotia and Europe. These need to be digitised and catalogued.

Trungpa Rinpoche’s family and several photographers have donated large collections of material related to Trungpa Rinpoche’s life and teachings. We are grateful for all these donations and we welcome donations and/or bequests of personal and professional collections.

To learn more:

• Visit our photograph portfolio – Link

The VCTR Collection, or Ladrang, is a treasury of the belongings of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, consisting of over 1,700 artifacts. It includes robes and religious relics that were hand-carried out of Tibet, as well as many objects—both secular and religious—that Trungpa Rinpoche purchased or received as gifts

It is traditional for students to maintain these belongings as sacred objects, viewing them as revealing the enlightened activity of the teacher. During his lifetime and for several years after Trungpa Rinpoche’s death, students who personally attended Rinpoche were the caretakers of these objects. In the mid 1990s responsibility for the Collection was transferred to the Shambhala Archives. They are maintained through donations of time and funds by students of Shambhala.

In his will, Trungpa Rinpoche stated:

“The monumental objects should be cherished and kept. The household articles should be treated as special…. I have never conducted myself frivolously, so all my collections should be regarded as objects of learning.”

The inventory and appraisal of the artifacts within the VCTR Collection was completed in 2018 and all are safely stored in new archival quality boxes and tissue paper. The storage space is environmentally controlled for temperature and humidity with a heat pump installed in 2018, and monitored twice weekly. The space is kept clean on the same schedule.

All of the objects have been professionally photographed by Marvin Moore and catalogued with unique numbers, then described and entered into our database, a museum quality software called Past Perfect Museum Software.

As a result, each item’s location and condition is fully searchable. Reports can be made describing the many fields on each record, in order to locate and review the condition of each item, add to the description and provenance, or add stories about the item. We also keep records and biographies of contributing people, e.g. the attendants and family members who handled many of these objects when the Trungpa Rinpoche was alive.

To avoid damage, Trungpa Rinpoche’s Buddhist robes are stored on rolls; his chubas padded with archival materials and stored flat; his Japanese robes folded along the seams with archival tissue interleaving. Rinpoche’s western clothing, suits and uniforms, are on handmade padded hangers and stored on racks, covered in muslin. Lacquerware, rupas and ceremonial objects such as vajra and ghanta are wrapped in archival tissue and kept in sectioned archival boxes.

This summer, we hope to have the assistance of an intern by means of a government grant to assist in an inventory and new condition report for each item.

To learn more:

• View items of VCTR Collection – Link 
• View VCTR Ladrang Exhibit – Link 
• View VCTR  Parinirvana Day Exhibit (2022) – Link – each year, on April 4th, Shambhala Archives displays a selection of the VCT collection at the Halifax Shambhala Centre.
• View items of The Surmang Treasures – Link  – objects brought out of Tibet when Trungpa Rinpoche and his party escaped in 1959.

Shambhala Archives holds all the paper records of the correspondence and planning meetings, Board and Practice information from Shambhala International offices from 1970 to 2005.

• Correspondence – addressed to various Centres and individuals, including Practice materials, newsletters, meeting notes, notices and program records.
• Administrative and Practice Offices – Archives holds approximately 60 bankers boxes full of paper records from the Administrative and Practice offices of Shambhala International. These have been inventoried and entered into our database, however they require more detailed recording and scanning to make them accessible. Archival paper records are usually described in linear feet, so these records are approximately 80 linear feet of records.
• Recent Administrative Records – In addition, there are approximately an additional 20 boxes of records from more recent administrative offices that have not been accessioned yet and will need to be numbered, described, scanned and stored offsite.