Project Title : Treasure Caretaker Training, Digital Monastery Project
Organisation: Digital Monastery Project
Country : India
Website : www.digitalmonasteryproject.com
Language: English, Hindi, Tibetan, Dzongka, Nepalese
Email: annshaftel@me.com

The Digital Monastery Project was launched in May 2014 in the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology to teach monks, nuns and cultural caretakers to create digital inventories of their monastery and museum treasures by use of their own mobile phones. Some 40 participants including monk and nun treasure caretakers, military personnel and cultural workers signed up to attend, representing their organizations from many regions of India, Bhutan and Nepal. The participants were taught digital documentation using their own mobile phones and tablets to record not only artifacts but also elders’ interviews. The participants were expected to return to their respective organisations and carry out digital documentation. The Digital Monastery Project used tools that are easily accessible to all and strategies that are easy to replicate. In the Himalyan region, very few understand the complicated museum standards cataloguing programs that are designed to create digital inventories. That is why a system for collections management documentation was devised using the electronics that people own, and the techniques they already use and know. The impact of this project is not limited to northeast India only but extends to other parts of India, Bhutan and Nepal as well. The project will help reduce art theft and loss which is particularly a major issue in India as once a statue, painting or other work of art has been documented and photographed on a mobile, and the information is sent as an email, this is considered legal proof of ownership if that artwork is stolen and comes up for sale.