The Tibetan Collection at the University of Michigan holds approximately 3000 volumes of Tibetan language materials containing more than twice as many titles. These include xylographs in traditional pecha format, bound codices, manuscripts and over 1500 titles on microfiche. The majority of these books were distributed by the Library of Congress as part of the PL480 program and often reproduce rare and important Tibetan works that have since been lost within Tibet itself. Most of these materials were published in South Asia through the 1960s and 70s in very limited numbers and are now out of print

The collection houses numerous editions of the Kangyur and Tengyur--translations of the Indian scriptural works and their commentaries that comprise the Tibetan canon--together with their indexes. It incorporates works from all the major Tibetan religious traditions, including the indigenous Bön, and a covers a wide range of philosophical, ritual, historical and literary subjects. It also includes the collected writings (sungbum) of numerous Tibetan authors.

The Tibetan Collection at the University of Michigan is open to all library users. It is housed in several locations: the stacks of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, the Buhr Shelving Facility, and the Buddhist Studies Reading Room (3035 Frieze Building), accessed through the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. The Buddhist Studies Reading Room also provides a wide range of reference tools, dictionaries, indexes, and journals related to the study of Tibet. The collection primarily serves students in the Buddhist Studies and Anthropology Programs, Tibetan language classes, faculty, visiting scholars, and the University's Institute for the Study of Buddhist Literature.

Most of the titles in the Tibetan collection are fully searchable in the University of Michigan's online catalog, MIRLYN. For help with the Romanization system used for searching Tibetan titles in MIRLYN, click here.