ICT's
Map Project is an initiative to collect, analyze and distribute old maps of
Asia depicting Tibet through the ages. The project graphically shows how boundaries
of Tibet have shifted over time and demonstrates that prior to 1949. Tibet has
had a long and distinguished history as a distinct territory or country.
ICT's 2008 calendar, Maps of Tibet: Historic Images of the High Plateau, illustrate Tibet's history as an independent or autonomous state. Drawn from an era when maps were an art form as well as political representations of shifting dynasties and empires, the maps and images in this calendar illustrate Tibet's ancient and recent political status.
The 2008 Tibetan Maps calendar reproduces maps of Tibet from 1680 to 1942, providing a glimpse of Tibetan history through the lens of cartography. The calendar also serves as a launching pad for ICT's Map Project-an initiative to collect, analyze and distribute old maps of Asia that show Tibet through the ages. The chief goal of the project is graphically to indicate how boundaries of Tibet have shifted over time and to give evidence of Tibet's long and distinguished history, including as a separate country and territory from China.
ICT continues to build its collection of old maps of Asia and Tibet. We now have about 20 originals or high quality reproductions and 50 high resolution scans. Most of the scans are from the map collection at the Library of Congress, which has an enormous collection. We plan to post scans of ICT's collection on this website, as we enlarge the collection. If you have or know of distinctive maps, particularly any made by Asian cartographers, please contact us at mapproject@savetibet.org. These maps and many others will soon be on ICT's website. Reproduction quality scans will also be available from ICT.
We also have 24 of the maps in an exhibit in our conference room, with explanatory captions written mainly by Tsering Wangyal Shawa, head librarian of the Geographic Information Systems at Princeton University. The exhibit will be up through spring of 2008. ICT staff member Chris Fletcher researched and built the collection. If you have old maps showing Tibet that could be scanned, or want more information about the project, please write to mapproject@savetibet.org
Project details
