Chinese Text Input Project of the Institute of World Religions

Project Representative(s): Fan Guang Chang, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, China.
Input of Buddhist in the People's Republic began in 1986, with the formation of a "bureau of the Chinese Buddhist canon." During the earlier stages, they were severely lacking in terms of such things as technical support and fonts. But now 106 volumes have been fully published. They are undertaking four further projects: (1) the creation of a multimedia database related to Guanyin texts, artifacts, pictures, etc. After they finish the development of the data in this Guanyin project, they will make it available as a CD-ROM; (2) the creation of a database of Buddhist culture, including paintings, sculpture and ritual implements. The database design having been completed, they have started input, and there are already 120,000 pictures included; (3) publication of said materials on the internet. This has already been initiated. (4) the input of the Ming edition of the Dazangjing, along with tables and indexes.