Tibetan Geeks

Tibetans are developing a respectable history and traditions in the IT field. Some people even say that the same qualities of mind that make Tibetan monks excel in Buddhist studies and debate, also make Tibetan techies good at IT.

This is a history of Tibetans in IT — hopefully to be corrected and expanded soon, by you! (Also would like links to related histories, such as the use of IT in the Tibetan movement, contributions by non-Tibetans, etc.)

• 600 AD to present Tibetan monks develop the deep "technology" of Buddhism with wisdom and compassion. Tibet
• 1940s His Holiness Dalai Lama explores and repairs watches, movie projectors, and other mechanical things. The Dalai Lama on the Scientific Method, Technological Innovation and Spiritual Development Tibet
• 1990 First email sent from Tibetan Government-in-exile in Dharamshala. ( Tibet-in-exile email history, by Bhuchung Tsering)
  Tibet-in-exile
• early 1990s Tibet support groups and exile Tibetans are using mail lists, email and mail lists to communicate and spread information. Tibet-in-exile, Inji assistance
• late 1990s Tibetan IT starts to really take off in Dharamshala. Tibet-in-exile
• 1990s Tibetan IT develops within Chinese-occupied Tibet. Chinese-occupied Tibet
• 1991 Thubten Samdup joins CanTibNet (which later became World Tibet Network – WTN). Tibet-in-exile
• 199? Tibetan Computing Resource Centre (TCRC) at CTA. Tibet-in-exile
• 1993 Sonam Dargyay founds mail list TIBET-L (which later becomes part of WTN list). Tibet-in-exile
• 1994 Nima Dorjee and Peter Kauffner set up the talk.politics.tibet newsgroup (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tibet-faq/). Tibet-in-exile
• 1996 Tibet.net rolls out; official website of the Central Tibetan Administration (Tibetan government-in-exile) Tibet-in-exile
• 1998 WorldBridges.com starts providing hosting for Tibetan websites, webcasting, and other internet services, and is soon full of websites built by Tibetans.
  Inji assistance, Tibet-in-exile
• 200? Tibetan Computing Resource Centre (TCRC) develops TCRC Bod-Yig Tibetan font. Tibet-in-exile
• 2000 Phayul.com Tibetan news site rolls out. Becomes the main source of exile Tibetan news, with vibrant message boards. Tibet-in-exile
• 2001 TibetSearch (tibetsearch.com) is a popular website for Tibetans in India, with a chat program widely used by Tibetans. Tibet-in-exile
• 2002 Lobsang Wangyal begins developing websites for world-wide communication of Tibetan popular culture. Tibet-in-exile
• 2003 Phayul.com starts posting news and develops active forums. Becomes the main source of exile Tibetan news and message boards. Tibet-in-exile
• 2003 to present An explosion of Tibetan websites and blogs spread knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism, culture, and people to the world. Tibet-in-exile
• 2003 to present Growth of Tibetan websites, blogs, email, and Skype/Yahoo Messenger inside Tibet, enable Tibetans to communicate, even though under restraints, inside and outside Chinese-occupied Tibet. Tibet-in-exile, Chinese-occupied Tibet
• 2003 to present Exile Tibetans are making their mark in India and around the world with their own IT-based businesses. Tibet-in-exile
• 2005 Tennornet provides cable network to Hunsur. Tibet-in-exile
• 2005 AirJaldi.com provides education and training to Tibetans and Indians in wireless networking, and wifi connectivity to NGOs, building one of the largest rural WiFi networks in the world — the Dharamshala Wireless Mesh Network. Inji assistance
• 2005 Individual Tibetan sysadmins are using Linux on their office servers (Dawa Tsering, Men-Tsee-Khang; Dorji Tsering, TCRC; ...) Tibet-in-exile
• 2005 TibetOnline.tv rolls out, built and maintained by Jigme Tsering of CTA. Tibet-in-exile
• 2006? Thubten Samdup founds Dharamshala Information Technology Group (DITG) with Phuntsok Dorjee. Tibet-in-exile
• 2006? Phuntsok Dorjee founds Tibetan Technology Center in Dharamshala. Tibet-in-exile
• 2006 Ven. Lobsang Monlam develops Tibetan font and related applications, and spreads them via CDs and the web: LobsangMonlam.org. Tibet-in-exile
• 2006 Tenzin Sonam develops TibetSites.com, an exhaustive directory of Tibetan websites. Tibet-in-exile
• 2006 Standardizing Tibetan Terms of IT [PDF [an error occurred while processing this directive]] by China Tibetology Research Center – attempts to standardize Tibetan words for Information Technology terms Chinese-occupied Tibet
• 2006-2007 Tennornet, a Tibetan ISP, provides wireless internet services to Bylakuppe and Mundgod Tibet-in-exile
• 200? to present More websites are built in Tibetan language, as the technology improves. Tibet-in-exile, Chinese-occupied Tibet
• 200? to present Tibetans and Chinese are using email, messaging and web to communicate with each other. Tibet-in-exile, Chinese-occupied Tibet
• 200? to present More Tibetan websites are moving to CMSs such as WordPress and Joomla, and using the internationalisation capabilities of those CMSs to present content in Tibetan language. Tibet-in-exile
• 2007 Tibetan individuals in Dharamshala begin trying Ubuntu and PCOS Linux on their home computers and laptops. Tibet-in-exile
• 2007 Tibetan NGOs in Dharamshala begin adopting Linux for some or all of their office computers; use of linux gains momentum through the support of Tenzin Norgay, David Huang, Dawa Tsering, Phuntsok Dorjee, and ... ?? Tibet-in-exile
• 2008? to present His Holiness Dalai Lama encourages Tibetans and others to reach out to Chinese inside China, and Tibetans follow suit with more websites and online communication. Dalai Lama periodically comments on the usefulness of technology, and reminds us that it is only a tool, and cannot by itself solve our problems or lead us to compassion. Articles – Dalai Lama and technology Tibet-in-exile, Chinese-occupied Tibet
• 2008 to present More major Tibetan news sites roll out: TibetSun.com by Lobsang Wangyal, TheTibetPost.com and ShambalaPost.com by Yeshe Choesang, and more. Tibet-in-exile
• 2008 The Monlam fonts version 3 released, developed by Ven. Lobsang Monlam, now completely Unicode. Tibet-in-exile
• 2008 Tennornet, a Tibetan ISP, provides wireless internet services to McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala, including to the offices of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Tibet-in-exile
• 2008 Tib-Ch-Eng digital dictionary handheld device, developed by Lhasa-based Tibetan enterprise Tibet Luozang Digital Science & Technology Ltd. Chinese-occupied Tibet
• 2008 KalonTripa.org takes the Tibetan democratic process to the web with a website for nominations of candidate for 2011 election of Kalon Tripa, an initiative founded by Thubten Samdup. Tibet-in-exile
• 2009 Tibet.net, website of the Central Tibetan Administration, is rebuilt using modern web technologies by Tibetan staff of TCRC. Tibet-in-exile
• 2009 TennorNet providing wireless internet services to His Holiness Private Office and CTA (Central Tibetan Administration), and continuing to improve services in McLeod Ganj/Dharamshala. October 2009 – runs first private fiber-optic cable to McLeod Ganj and Bhagsu from Dharamshala, and expands security on the network. Tibet-in-exile
• 2009 First Tibetan from India to go to Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. Tibet-in-exile

Tibetans and IT

• Articles – Computers and CTA at Tibet.net
• Articles – Dalai Lama and technology at Phayul
• Links to Tibetan websites at TibetSites.com

History of the Internet

A people's history of the internet from Arpanet in 1969 to today; at Guardian.co.uk

The first web page; archived at w3.org

What do you know about the history of Tibetans in technology? Send to us and we will publish it here.