The Namgyal Audio Visual Archive raises operating expenses through the sale of audio and video recordings. Donations, though, are needed in order to make necessary improvements in our preservation and storage efforts.At present the project is looking for funding to support the costs of creating a duplicate copy of the archive which will be stored at the Namgyal Monastery Branch in Bodh Gaya, India. Creating a duplicate set of the recordings in the archive is of the utmost importance as our archive has the only copies of many teachings given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama over the last 30 years. We don’t anticipate any earthquakes or fires, but they are always an unfortunate possibility.
In 2003 a three-year fund-raising effort resulted in the construction of a humidity- and temperature-controlled archive room which stopped the monsoon-season mold from growing on our tapes. 2004 was spent transferring old recordings onto new tape stock for storage in this room.
But years of neglect had taken their toll. About 10% of the old tapes are severely damaged and require special cleaning before they can be recovered. We are looking for support to import a tape-cleaning machine from the West for this purpose.
Please contact us for how to help, or more information.