On Thursday 16th June a group of Victoria & Albert Museum visitors; some with a basic knowledge about Jainism, who had never visited the V&A before; studied Jain manuscripts at the V&A and visited the Shikharbandhi Temple at the Oshwal Centre in Potters bar. (more…)
JAINpedia are holding Mahavir Jayanti celebrations at the British Library on 15th April 2011. This free event takes place over the whole day and includes:
We are fortunate to have agreed an extension to the exhibition of the Jain treasures displayed in the John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library. The free display is now on until the end of June, allowing you more time to look through the collection and more opportunities to have a tour of the display through JAINpedia volunteers. (more…)
The Institute of Jainology (IoJ) in partnership with the British Library is holding a reception, guided tour and lecture at the British Library on 22nd March 2011. Our expert scholar Prof. Nalini Balbir will give a lecture on the importance and history of the collection of Jain treasures at the British Library. We look forward to seeing members from the Jain community, Jain schools, stakeholders of the JAINpedia project and various others at this event. As the display is only on until the end of June, this is a great opportunity to see the objects on display and learn more about them.
The IoJ recently published the book Jain Tales, with original artwork by Kamini Gupta, and text by Colin Hynson. The book has been designed for young readers, giving them an insight into the Jain religion, ethics and principles through stories that illustrate the Jain teachings. The launch of this book adds to the entry-level book, Discover Jainism, which is part of the English religious education curriculum.
We look forward to seeing more of you at the next event at the British Library on 15th April 2011. This event will be held to celebrate Mahavir Jayanti, a Jain festival celebrating the birth of Mahavira. Look out for more details of this FREE event!
Happy Diwali, everyone!
We’d just like to remind you that there are special Diwali events this weekend at the V&A in South Kensington, London.
You can:
All the events are free, though they will be popular!
And of course you can marvel at the beautiful exhibits in the free display of Jain manuscripts in the Nehru Gallery.
Enjoy!
On 8 October, the British Library launched JAINpedia in a stunning display in the Treasures Gallery running until the end of April 2011.
Consisting of around 40 striking objects from the library’s Jain collection, the display appears in the rotating Sacred Texts permanent exhibition in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, also known as the Treasures Gallery of the British Library.
Nick Barnard, Curator of South Asian art in the Asian Department, will give a talk at 1.15pm on Wednesday 3 November. It’s free and you don’t need to book in advance – just turn up!
Nick’s specialist Curator Talk will be held in the Victoria and Albert Museum‘s Hochhauser Auditorium to accompany the launch of JAINpedia – an ambitious project digitising Jain manuscripts in the UK.
We are excited to announce that the first Jainpedia exhibition will open on Friday 14th May at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (more…)
I’m very pleased to report that a few weeks ago we received nearly all of the digital images of the manuscripts we requested from the Wellcome Library.
You will be able to start appreciating the beauty of these artefacts in these small photos.
A manuscript is made up of a number of folios. A folio is a sheet of paper or other material that has writing and sometimes an illustration on each side of the sheet. Each folio bears the handwriting of a scribe who used ink to write by hand. Many of the folios are also painted in full colour.
Kālakācāryakathā © Wellcome Library, London
For most of the manuscripts we’ll be displaying on the forthcoming full Jainpedia website, each page (one side of the sheet) has been photographed. Sometimes a manuscript will consist of only one or two folios, because of its age, its material or the conditions in which it was kept before being held in a professional curated environment. (more…)
As a new member of the team, I am very pleased to be part of the Jainpedia project. It’s been just two weeks since I joined the team, and as a Technical Developer, I will be taking care of the front-end development of the Jainpedia website.
I am very excited about helping to get this amazing project up and running, and I am looking forward to contributing to the creation of this website.
Before coming to work at CCH I didn’t know much about Jainism. I am looking forward to finding out more about this ancient religion and increasing my knowledge of it.
I believe that Jainpedia will become a powerful tool for finding resources and helping people to learn about Jainisim.
One of the main features of the Jainpedia website is that it will be accessible to all members of the public, and everybody will have an opportunity to be able to learn more about it.
I know that putting this content online will be tremendously valuable as it will help the preservation of the Jain cultural content (manuscripts, digital artefacts and so on) so they won’t be lost to future generations.
I am looking forward to begin this challenging and exciting journey and I will be sharing with you the stages of the development of the Jainpedia website.
Watch this space!