1Tibet is a digitizing and archiving initiative that maps and digitally unites materials of historical, political and socio-cultural importance; and involves the development of a digital platform that will make accessible and disseminate knowledge about Tibetan history and identity to a broad audience with a focus on Tibet’s past as an independent nation and civilization. 1Tibet is an initiative of the Asia Freedom Institute.

1Tibet is a crowdsourced and partially crowdfunded initiative.  You can support by contributing content or making a financial donation. Content contribution includes documents, images, videos, objects, etc. The materials and objects should relate to Tibet’s history, politics and identity. Financial donations can be made either to the 1Tibet GoFundMe campaign or on the Asia Freedom Institute website.100% of funds donated will go towards the project. 1Tibet also welcomes your sharing of information on existing archives and directing the project to individuals, families and organizations that may have archives or information related to 1Tibet.

Materials and content can be uploaded online by completing the 1Tibet form. The project will also set up drop-off points in various locations across the globe where anyone who has relevant materials and objects can drop off their contributions. All images uploaded online should be in TIFF or JPEG format. Videos in MPEG and MP4 and documents in PDF or JPEG. Please ensure that you either have the rights to the content you are uploading or dropping off or let the project know who holds the rights

All materials and objects contributed to 1Tibet will be reviewed, cataloged and archived. Contributors will be credited unless someone chooses to remain anonymous.

The project will have three phases. Phase one is the mapping, research and assembling of materials and reaching out to individuals, organizations and entities that have information related to 1Tibet. Phase two is the technical phase and involves the development and launch of the digital platform which will be both a repository of the content gathered as well as a gateway to archives and other resources that have information related to Tibet’s history and identity. The third phase is an educational campaign based on materials collected and other related information and collaborations. The education component will include exhibitions, lectures, seminars, festivals, etc. The educational phase will be implemented concurrently with the first phase.

While there are good digitization and archival projects related to the Tibtetan Buddhist culture and classical knowledge, the same cannot be said of Tibetan history, politics, identity and Tibet’s past as an independent nation. 1Tibet addresses that critical gap and represents an important measure to counter the Chinese government policies of eradicating Tibetan history and identity. The project is also crowdsourced which will allow everyone to participate. Lastly, 1Tibet is being built as a community-driven initiative with an important role for elders and the younger generation. A stewardship council composed of the young and seniors will be established to guide the initiative.