Department of Central Eurasian Studies Associate Professor Elliot Sperling gave an introduction to the Tibetan collections held in the SRFIAS on Wednesday.
“I’m in here for research more often than the main ?library,” Sperling said.
Sperling said he comes across a variety of information looking through the SRIFIAS collections that may not otherwise be seen in more popular databases such as JSTOR.
He said JSTOR searches, while helpful, narrow the information a scholar encounters through his or her research. This limits the discovery of new, lesser-known materials.
Sperling spoke to the small group of graduate students in Goodbody 145 where the Antoinette Gordon Collection was originally stored.
The Gordon Collection includes mostly Tibetan art pieces, including some very valuable bronzes from the “looting of Beijing.”
IU received the bronzes from Antoinette K. Gordon in the late 1970s, Jaime Bue, graduate student of CEUS and SPEA, said in an email.
Sperling said when CEUS was better-equipped with money, the center began to be “flooded with works from India.”
CEUS originally had to gather Tibetan works from India, because it was one of he few places to get texts from, Bue also said in an email.
Both Sperling and Bue agreed the specificity of the program has kept the department expanding horizons in education on campus.
The collections have ?expanded greatly since Sperling’s first encounter with them in the late 1970s.
He said Sinor brought “national visibility” to CEUS, as it used to be a more “low-key” collection of materials.
Sperling, who is also the Tibetan specialist within CEUS, said the Tibetan collections are not the “bread and butter of holdings” at the center.
He said although they are not the backbone of the center, the artworks and texts from Tibetan culture are vital to Mongolian studies.
As Sperling is looking toward retirement, he said he hopes to see an expansion of interest in Tibetan studies.
“The department desperately needs another faculty member,” he said.
In his teachings, he ?focuses on the history of Tibet and said he looks forward to retiring because he has been “teaching an overload” of courses involving Tibetan studies.
He said he would like to see a more philosophical and anthropological approach to the studies without losing the importance of knowledge in the historical aspects.
Sperling said the approach to international studies has taken a “more contemporary” turn.
He hopes the study of international cultures and affairs will retain the teaching of each nation’s deep cultural history.
Students need to understand the current events in addition to the history, he said.
He said it is important for a student to hear about an event for the first time and be able to explain why it happened rather than focusing on the event itself.
This story has been updated because of factual errors. It previously stated that CEUS was fully federally funded, had a K-12 outreach program and that Mongolians spoke Tibetan more than Mongolian.
