Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA) and Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies
(中華佛學研究所「中華電子佛典」、數位典藏相關紀錄)
I. Chronicles
1997.6.15
Der-ming Juang, Research Specialist of the Academia Sinica, gave a lecture on “Supplemented Characters in CBETA.”
1998.2.1
Professor Aming Tu took the position of the Director of the Buddhist Studies Information Network Center.
1998.2.15
Inauguration of the CBETA led by Ven. Huimin, and the General Director, Professor Tu. The office will be set in Light of Wisdom Dharma Hall.
1998.4.1
Professor Christian Wittern, Ph. D. of Georg-August-University Goettingen joined as Associate Researcher and consultant to the Buddhist Studies Information Network Center.
1998.12.20
CHIBS sponsored the public announcement of the first edition of CBETA.
1999.1.12-21
A Joint Meeting of CBETA, Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, Scholars Electronic Resources Association, and Pacific Neighborhood Consortium (PNC) was presented by the Ministry of Education and Academia Sinica, and sponsored by CHIBS. ( 1/12-14 Training, 1/15-16 Tutorial, and 1/18-21 Joint Meeting)
1999.6.1
CHIBS Special Issue 2nd edition and Volumes 5-10 of CBETA were released in CD format.
1999.6.9-13
Professor Tu and Dr. Wittern attended the Association of Computers and Humanities(ACH/ ALLC) and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing Conference at the University of Virginia.
1999.6.15-16
Deputy Director of CHIBS, Ven. Huimin, Professor Tu, and Dr. Wittern participated in the Conference on the Characters in Ancient Texts organized by Academia Sinica. Professor Tu presented a paper “A Proposal to the Characters Problems Encountered in Buddhist Texts” and Dr. Wittern presented a paper "TEI（SGML/XML）for Chinese Documents-a Preliminary Report"
1999.7.10-11
CHIBS offered a seminar titled “Buddhist Research Camp for University Students on Buddhism and Informatics.”
1999.7.27
The management and hosting of the Buddhist Studies Information Network Database were transferred from National Taiwan University to CHIBS.
1999.10.29
The joint management of the Digital Library and Museum of Buddhist Studies was made official by Master Sheng Yen and the Principle of National Taiwan University, Dr. Chen Wei-chao, to maintain collecting information, digitizing data, and managing the site.
2000.1.1-12.31
Ven. Huimin and Prof. Aming Tu carried out a project sponsored by the National Science Council: “The Study and Organization of Documents, Images, Geographical and Historical Records, Project 1 of the Digital Silkroad Museum, the World of Xuanzang and the Silk Road(I).”
2000.1.11-17
Ven. Huimin, professor Tu, Dr. Wittern, and Instructor Zhou Bang-xin attended the PNC 2000 Conference and 2000 International CBETA Conference. The three Professors each presented one research article.
2000.5.6
Inauguration of the Digital Library and Museum of Buddhist Studies Office in NTU was announced by both Presidents of NTU, Dr. Chen Wei-chao, and Dharma Drum University, Dr. Tseng Chi-chun. Director of CHIBS, Lee Chih-fu, gave a speech and Deputy Director of CHIBS, Ven. Huimin, hosted the ceremony.
2000.5.22
Fr. Albert Poulet-Mathis, S.J., Fr. Bernard Senecal, and Fr. Jean-Pascal Lombart visited CHIBS and were received by the Director, Lee Chih-fu. Professor Tu gave a presentation on Computer and Indexing Electronic Buddhist Texts.
2000.6.23-29
Professor Tu presented “Xuanzang and Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (Datang Xiyuji)” at the 2000 Electronic Culture Atlas Initiative organized by the British Library.
2000.6.30-7.2
Professor Tu presented "Electronic Taisho Tripitaka and Chinese Buddhist Net Resources" at the Fifth Annual Conference of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies.
2000.7.21 -7.26
Dr. Wittern attended the ACH/ALLC 2000 Conference and presented a paper.
2000.10.2 -8
Ven. Huimin and professor Tu visited Faculty of Oriental Studies of Saint-Petersburg State University to sign a collaboration contract and gifted them a set of Taisho Tripitaka and a 1669 edition. In addition, they also presented “The World of Xuanzang and Silk Road: A Presentation of Inter-civilization Contacts in Digital Format” at East Asia--Saint-Petersburg--Europe: Inter-civilization Contacts and Perspectives on Economic Cooperation Conference in St. Petersburg.
2000.11.15-16
Professor Tu and Dr. Wittern attended PNC 2000 Digital Archive and Text Encoding Interchange Workshop in Academia Sinica. Professor Tu presented “TEI on Buddhist Texts,” while Dr. Wittern presented “Introduction to Markups and TEI Guidelines.”
2000.12.5-8
Ven. Huimin, Professor Tu, and Dr. Wittern attended International Conference on Buddhism and the 21th Century Digital Information Society and the Completion of the Digitization of the Korean Buddhist Canon organized by the Research Institute of Tripitaka Koreana at Dongguk University, Seoul. Dr. Wittern presented “Some Thoughts on New Modes of Research in Buddhist Studies in Society Based on Digital Information”.
2000.12.9.
Professor Tu attended APEC 2000 Digital Museum Initiative: Information Technology for Sharing Humanistic Content and reported on the project “Digital Museum—The World of Xuanzang and Silk Road”.
2001.1.15-20
Professor Tu and Dr. Wittern attended the 2001 PNC Annual Conference & Joint Meetings. Dr. Wittern offered TEI while Professor Tu presented “Application of Markup Language, A Case Study of CBETA and TEI”. They also demonstrated the usage of CBETA.
2001.1
Professor Tu and Dr. Wittern established a series of “Symposiums on the Management of Buddhist Texts and Information” to meet with specialists from the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at NTU, National Agriculture, Fishery, and Finance Information Center, and Xiangguang Monastery/Luminary International Buddhist Society.
2001.1-2002.8
Digitize the Complete Works of Master Sheng Yen.
2001.1.1-12.31
Ven. Huimin and Professor Tu continued the second year of Project 1 of the Digital Silkroad Museum, the World of Xuanzang and the Silk Road “The Study and Organization of Documents, Images, Geographical and Historical Records (II)” under the National Science Council.
2001.4.20
Professor Tu attended “Symposium on the Establishment of a Cooperative Database of Catalogs of Ancient Texts ” held by the National Central Library and presented a paper “Procedures and Regulations for the Digitalization of Chinese Buddhist Catalogs” in the panel “Regulations for the Titles of Ancient Texts”.
2001.4.21
Dr. David Leonard, Dean of International and Area Studies and Dr. Lewis Lancaster of the University of California at Berkeley visited Ven. Huimin and Prof. Aming Tu to finalize a cooperative project between CBETA and CDL (the California Digital Library).
2001.4.24
Ven. Huimin and Professor Tu demonstrated the World of Xuanzang and the Silk Road in the “Seminar for training in uses of the digital museum for teachers of primary and middle schools.”
2001.5.25-26
Ven. Huimin and Professor Tu attended the 2001 EBTI in Dongguk University, Seoul. Ven. Huimin presented “A Study on Creation and Application of Electronic Chinese Buddhist Texts: With the Yogācārabhūmi as a Case Study” while Professor Tu presented “CBETA 2001”.
2001.6.13-20
Professor Tu presented “The Adaption and Breakthrough of Chinese Documents Encoding: A Case Study of CBETA Digital Tripitaka and TEI” and demonstrated the content in the “Joint Conference of the Association for Computers and the Humanities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing” at New York University. Then Professor Tu reported on the progress and financial status of CBETA to the Yinshun Foundation of North America.
2001.7.1-2003.6.30
Ven. Huimin, Prof. Tu, and Prof. Yang Hui-nan of the Department of Philosophy of NTU engaged in the “Taiwanese Buddhist Digital Database” under the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.
2001.8.1-2002.7.31
Ven. Huimin carried out a project sponsored by the National Science Council entitled “A Study on Creation and Application of Electronic Chinese BuddhistTexts: With The Compasion Yogācārabhūmi as a Case Study” (漢文電子佛典製作與 運用之研究（III）────以《瑜伽師地論》梵漢藏版本對照為例). Dr. Wittern and Professor Tu acted as joint chairmen of the project, with Ray Chou as software consultant and Guo Lijuan as full-time assistant.
2001.8.24-9.2
Ven. Huimin and Prof. Tu went to Xinjiang for field research to interview specialists and discuss copyright issues for the project “The World of Xuanzang and the Silk Road” sponsored by the National Science Council.
2001.9
Ven. Huimin and Prof. Tu attended a conference on the Chinese Humanities Database in Hong Kong.
2001.9.14
Prof. Tu reported to the National Science Council regarding the “Digital Museum -- The World of Xuanzang and Silk Road” project.
2001.10.14
Professor Tu attended the “First Conference on the Development of Buddhism in Contemporary Taiwan,” and presented “The Development of Buddhist Websites.”。
2001.10.17
Prof. Tu accepted the position of Chief Librarian.
2001.12-2002.1
Release of the CD-ROM edition of the “The Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies Series” and the “Bibliotheca Sacra Birmanica.”
2002.2.15
Digital Library and Museum of Buddhist Studies went online.
2002.4.1-2003.3.31
Ven. Huimin and Prof. Tu started the first part of “Taiwan Buddhism Digital Museum: Pilgrimage to Formosa” under the Taiwan Digital Archive Project, National Science Council.
2002.5.19-26
Ven. Huimin, Prof. Tu, Miroslav Rozehnal and Zhou Bangxin attended the joint project “Thesaurus Literature Buddhicae” held by Universitetet i Oslo and the Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi,
2002.8.16-23
Prof. Tu attended a workshop offered by Yin-shun Foundation as an instructor.
2002.9.19-24
Prof. Tu presented a paper on “Applying XML, TEI and DC in Digital Buddhist Materials” at PNC Annual Conference and Joint Meetings 2002 [PNC/ECAI/IPSJSIGCH/EBTI] at Osaka University, Japan.
2002.10.7
Prof. Hsieh Ching-chun of Academia Sinica accompanied a group of five including Mr. Yu Chih-ming, Director of The Electronic Version of Siku Quanshu (Wenyuange Edition), from Hong Kong, with his wife and other advisors visited CHIBS.
2002.12.8-13
Ven. Huimin and Prof. Tu attended the 13th International Buddhist Conference at the Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. Prof. Tu presented “Digital Silkroad Museum, the World of Xuanzang and the Silk Road Project and Metadata”.
2003.3.16
Ven. Heng-ching along with leaders of the Digital Archive Projects from NTU, and Taipei National University of the Arts reported the progress of the projects to Master Sheng Yen, as well as visited the Library and Information Center.
2003.7~2004.6
The Institute received funding from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for the project entitled “The Study and Creation of a Multi-Lingual Version of the Lotus Sūtra (Saddharmapuṇḍarika-sutra).” Director Lee Chih-fu, Deputy Director Ven. Huimin, Prof. Toda Hirofumi, and Prof. Mitomo Kenyō will be working on the project.
2003.7.1
Faculties for the newly established Buddhist Informatics Program are Dr. Ching-chun Hsieh, Dr. Oyang Yen-jen, Dr. Christian Wittern, and Dr. Su-chu Hsu.
2003.11.5-11
Prof. Tu presented and demonstrated at PNC Annual Conference and Joint Meetings 2003（PNC/ECAI） in Bangkok.
2003.12.9-11
Ven. Huimin, Prof. Tu, and Instructor Zhou took students of the Buddhist Informatics Program to attend the First Literature and Information Technology Conference held in Yuan Ze University and presented “Technology for the Digitization of Classical Texts into Collated Editions, with CBETA as an Example.”
2004.1.15
The Buddhist Studies Information Network Center released a new edition of the CBETA Electronic Buddhist Canon which contains volumes 1–55 and 85 of the Taishō Tripitaka with twenty-one volumes of the Xuzangjing.
2004.5.1
In celebration of the one-hundredth birthday of Ven. Yin Shun, the “International Colloquium of Research Projects on the Silk Road” was held at Tzu Chi’s Still Thoughts Hall. The conference was jointly sponsored by our CHIBS, the Fo Guang Shan Foundation for Buddhist Culture and Education, Tzu Chi University’s Graduate Institute of Religious and Cultural Studies, and the Buddhist Hongshi Institute. In the morning, Library Head Prof. Tu introduced the “World of Xuanzang and the Silk Road” project website (see http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/silk . In the afternoon Director Lee Chih-fu gave a report entitled “International Silk Road Research Projects” and led the general discussion session. Prof. Tu then reported on recent research on the Silk Road in a presentation entitled “An Introduction to the Update of International Digitization Silk Road Project.” Approximately 150 scholars participated in this Colloquium.
2004.5.7-10
Prof. Tu attended the “Congress of Cultural Atlases: The Human Record” conference at the University of California at Berkeley and demonstrated “The New Environment for the Buddhist Electronic Text.”
2004.10.19-22
Ven. Huimin, Prof. Tu, and Prof. Yen-jen Oyang presented the following two papers: 1. “The Buddhist Digital Archive and its Knowledge Structure: Mani Jewels Reflecting in the Indra Net” (PNC); and 2. “Taiwan Buddhist Digital Archive and the Rare Books Cataloging in Dublin Core” at the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative(ECAI) session and demonstrated how to use the CBETA CD-ROM “The Buddhist Digital Text and the CB·Reader” at the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium’s (PNC) 2004 Annual Conference, held at Academia Sinica.
2004.10.28
Ven. Huimin gave a lecture for the Buddhist Informatics program entitled “A Comparison of the Achievements of National Digital Archives Technology Projects: Academia Sinica’s Institution Project and National Taiwan University’s Digital Archives.”
2004.11.25-29
Prof. Tu attended the “Conference on Comparative Buddhist Culture” in Japan to present a paper entitled “A Comparison betweenTraditional Paper Texts and Modern Digital Texts: The CBETA Buddhist Canon as an Example.”
2004.11.30
Prof. Ching-Chun Hsieh of Hsuan Chuang University gave a lecture for the Buddhist Informatics Program entitled “Characteristics of the Known: A Discussion regarding the Understanding and Interpretation of Information.”
2004.12.8
Prof. Tu presented “Standards and Models for the Creation of Digital Resources in Buddhist Studies” at the International Conference on Sinological Resources in the Digital Era.
2004.12.31
Prof.Feng-ju Lo of Yuan Ze University gave a lecture “Information System Design and Application for Literature, Geography, Time, and Space: The Poetry of Su Shi as an Example” in the Buddhist Informatics Program.
2005.1.9
The Buddhist Informatics Program Curriculum Committee invited Prof. Ching-chun Hsieh to engage in a dialogue with Professor Yu-wen Yang at the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica.
2005.1.14
The Buddhist Informatics Program Curriculum Committee invited Professor Kuo-zhan Huang, Department of Electric Commerce of Hsing Kuo University of Management to give a lecture on “Technical Development and its Related Fields of Buddhist Informatics”.
2005.2.1
The new edition of CBETA now includes Volumes 54-88 of Xuzangjing.
2005.4.29
The Buddhist Informatics Program Curriculum Committee invited Prof. Oyang Yen-jen of Information Engineering Graduate Institute, NTU to give a lecture on “Buddhism, System Science and Systems Biology.”
2005.5.27
The Buddhist Informatics Program Curriculum Committee invited Shijie Mei, Convener of National Digital Archive Program at the Information Subdivision of National Museum of History, to deliver a speech entitled: “Museum Information Network- Interweaving Reality and Virtual Reality.”
2005.6.30
Prof. Lee Chih-fu received project funding from the National Science Council for “The Research and Development of Buddhist Scriptural Digital Content: The Mark-up Content and Information Framework of a Scriptural Index and Its Contents.”
2005.8.28-9.4
Invited by SOAS, London University, Prof. Tu gave a presentation at the International Association of Buddhist Studies, IABS 2005.
2005.9.5-7
Prof. Ochiai Toshinori of the Graduate School of the International Institute for Buddhist Studies, Japan, delivered a speech entitled: “The Informational Value of Ancient Manuscripts of Japanese Buddhist Scripture.”Prof. Kinugawa Kenji of Hanazono University presented a speech entitled: “Verification of Ancient Japanese Buddhist Manuscripts”, and Mr. Aoki Susumu, Academic Frontier Associate of the Graduate School of the International Institute for Buddhist Studies, Japan, delivered a speech entitled: “Development of an Interface between Digital Image and CBETA.”
2005.9.16
Faculty and students of the Information Network Center from the Buddhist Informatics Program attended the “Trends and Application of Buddhist Digital Buddhist Resource Seminar 2005” and Prof. Tu presented “Report on the CurrentDevelopment of the Digital Resource in CHIBS” and demonstrated e-Library.
2005.9.20-22
Prof. Tu, along with staff and students of the Information Network Center, attended the Conference of Collaborative Establishment of Digitization of Chinese Texts 2005, sponsored by Fu Si-nien Library of History and Philology Institute, Academia Sinica. Prof. Tu presented “Essential Standards for Collaboration on Chinese Digitization Projects—the Markup of Chinese Buddhist Scriptures.”
2005.11.24
Prof. Hong Zhen-zhou presented “How Does the Internet Work? Who Owns the Net: Hardware, Software, and International Politics.”
2005.11.29
Prof. Chou Hai-wen delivered a speech entitled: “How to Design Practical Access Database and SQL Syntax.”
2006.1.12
Inauguration of Complete Works of Master Sheng Yen in CD format: 1. Make corrections to mistakes and typos in the entire 70 volumes. 2. Complete 100 volumes of XML files. 3. Complete web edition prototype. 4. Publish a 100-volume CD edition.
2006.1.12
2006.1.12 Continue to work on CBETA.
2006.2
56 volumes of Taisho Tripitaka and 35 volumes of Xuzangjing were published, altogether 100 million characters in 91 volumes. It is scheduled to complete the Xuzangjing by the end of this year and publish a new CD edition in 2007.
2006.3.6
The Chinese Full Text Group, Content Development Division of National Digital Archives Program held a workshop “Digital Treasures: Sharing of Experiences on the Digitization of Religious Texts” which invited Dr. Monica Esposito of Kyoto University, Dr. Wittern, Prof. Tu and many Taiwanese experts on digitizing Chinese texts to participate.
2006.4.6
The National Science Council granted fundings to two projects for the following year: “ Ways of Developing Digital Content from Buddhist Canons and Constructing Markup and Knowledge Architecture of Sutra Catalog and Sutras” led by Director Lee, and “Study and Implementation of Multi-media files in Digital Collections: Tibetan Voice Recording Files” led by Prof. Tu.
2006.5.13
The project “Ways of Developing Digital Content from Buddhist Canons and Constructing Markup and Knowledge Architecture of Sutra Catalog and Sutras” had a 5-minute presentation in the 2005 Digital Content Project Presentation Exhibition held in the flagship Eslite Bookstore on Hsin-yi Road in Taipei by the Content Development Division of National Digital Archives Program.
2006.8.14-19
Ven. Huimin, Prof. Tu, Ven. Fayuan, and Li Jiaming attended the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium (PNC) conference held in Seoul, Korea to give a presentation on Eminent monks and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Ven. Huimin and Prof. Aming Tu participated in the Electronic Buddhist Text Initiative (EBTI) conference. It was decided to hold the following EBTI conference in Taipei in conjunction with CBETA’s tenth-year commemorative international conference.
2006.8.31-9.1
The staff of Buddhist Studies Information Network Center attended the Fifth Conference on Digital Collections Technology held at Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica. Ven. Fayuan and Li Jiaming presented “The Research and Application of Abstraction of Chinese Vocabularies and Cross-language Vocabularies in Digital Buddhist Texts,”
2006.10.23
Zhou Haiwen was invited by the Sutra Recording Group to give a lecture “Applied Systems Database (I): The Creation of a Buddhist Catalog Database and an Introduction to its Website.”
2006.10.31
Dr. Lee Ming-fang of the Chinese Cultural University gave a lecture on “Applying Modern Chinese Punctuation to the CBETA Canon.”
2006.12.2
Zhou Haiwen was invited by the Sutra Recording Group to present two lectures: “Applied Systems Database (II): Using MS Access with the Buddhist Catalog Database” and “Applied Systems Database (III): Difficulties and Solutions in the Buddhist Catalog Database.”
2006.12
The Electronic Complete Works of Master Sheng Yen is completed with several additional functions added to the internal edition. The CD edition will be released in early 2007.
2007.2.16
According to the amendment to Article 9 in private school laws regarding mono-religious colleges, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education finally granted permission for the establishment of Dharma Drum Buddhist College.
2007.4.8
With the establishment of Dharma Drum Buddhist College, CHIBS would stop recruiting new students; instead, dedicate itself to research and publishing, and focus on cultivating researchers in Chinese Buddhism.
2007.10
CHIBS and the University of Ghent in Belgium discussed possibilities of creating opportunities for academic exchanges and collaborations.
2008.2.15-20
CHIBS, Dharma Drum Buddhist College, and other facilities co-sponsored “International Conference for Digital Buddhist Studies” to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of “Electronic Buddhist Texts Initiative” and the 10th Anniversary of CBETA.
2008.8.30-9.10
Ven. Huimin and Ven. Guo Jing lead faculty members and students of CHIBS to Xinjiang to attend the “International Conference for Research on Cultural Exchanges on the Silk Road in China and India,” which was organized by CHIBS, hosted by Talimu University in Xinjiang, and co-sponsored the Buddhist College. Ven. Huimin gave a keynote speech “Footprints and Outlook of Digitizing Culture of the Silk Road, from Virtual Museum, Information System of time-space, to Science 2.0”.The delegation later visited the Tuohulakeaiken Caves, Museums of Ancient Kuci in Xinhe County, and other ancient Buddhist sites.
2010.10.29
Honorary Director Lee, Dr. Tu, and Secretary Xiulan Chen visited Shuwei Huang, Director of Lungshan Temple. Prof. Tu reported the result of the Silk Road Project to Mr. Huang to seek possible sponsorship of CHIBS’ future projects.
2017.11.16
Ven. Xianchao, Ven. Xianshi, Ven. Xianwei, Ven. Xianting, Ven. Xiandu, and Ven. Xianxin of the Beijing Longquan Temple visited Director Ven. Guo Jing, CHIBS to discuss matters regarding publications.
2020.11.11、11.18、12.11
CHIBS and DILA co-hosted three online events “The Sacred Site on the Cloud, 2020 Digital Archive of Records of Chinese Buddhist Temples Workshops” in DILA rooms GC102 and GC103.
11/11: “Aspects of Chorography of the Ming and Qing Dynasties” by Prof. Chi-ying Chang, Center for General Education, National Tsing Hua University.
11/18: “On Medieval Temples, Re-reading Luoyang Qielanji with Docusky”, Dr. Tsao, Te-chi, Research Center for Digital Humanities, NTU
12/11: “The Usage and Research of Fosizhi, Digital Archive of Records of Chinese Temples”, Prof. Kai-ting Chien, Department of Chinese Literature, http://www.cl.ntu.edu.tw/web/team/team_in.jsp?fp_id=FP1628212104847
- Source: Chronicles of CHIBS
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Other Sources
- Master Sheng Yen: The Complete Works of Master Sheng Yen
- Professor Tu: http://archive.cbeta.org/data/cbeta10y/cbhistory.htm
- Ven. Huimin: http://archive.cbeta.org/data/cbeta10y/cbhistory.htm
- Ven. Heng Chin: https://cbeta.org/intro/origin.php
- All Digital Archive Projects Past and Present by CHIBS
- All Digital Archive Projects Past and Present by CHIBS
（Arranging by Chang, Ya-wen）
