About THL > Help > Tibetan Literary Encyclopedia Resources > Tibetan Literary Encyclopedia Help
Help in Using the Tibetan Literary Encyclopedia
General Navigation
The THL Literary Encyclopedia has a persistent horizontal bar of tabs just below the top banner which provides access to its major areas. Each of these tabs gives access to a different body of content with its own distinctive home pages, including the right hand side vertical "accordion" menu that provides navigation within that area. Just click on that tab, and it will turn white to reflect the fact that it is active, while the main body of the page will change accordingly with the relevant content.
The right side vertical "accordion" menu is so called because clicking on any option will automatically expand its suboptions, and collapse whatever other option had previously been expanded. When first using the site, click around to see how it works, and explore the contents to which it provides access. Clicking on a suboption will then display the corresponding resource to the left on the main part of the page. The small square to the left of the option has a + (plus sign) in it when it is collapsed, and a - (minus sign) in it when it is expanded. Please note that in some cases an option may have no suboptions, which is indicated by a square dot in the square, and in which case clicking on it will display the corresponding content to the left instead of expanding into a list of suboptions.
Whenever possible, we try to keep the right hand side vertical accordion menu persistent, so that even as you consult various resources, you can easily navigate to other resources in this section. However, some resources that are accessed may be complex in their own right, such that they need the full space of the window. Often, this will involve the resource offering its own specific right hand side navigation menu. In these cases, the standard right hand side vertical menu is replaced.
The Sections of the Literary Encyclopedia
The main sections of the Literary Encyclopedia can be accessed through the tabs on the top horizontal bar: Home, Canons, Authors, Sects, Periods, Genres, and Orals. We suggest you begin your exploration of the site by exploring each section by clicking on the tab, and then exploring the contents through the right hand side vertical menu.
Home: The overall home page profiles the Encyclopedia overall.
Canons: This provides access to Thematic Research Catalogs on the various Tibetan canons, beginning with the Kangyur, Tengyur, and Nyingma Gyubum.
Authors: This organizes access, and provides introduction, to Tibetan literature as indexed by the authors of the texts.
Sects: This organizes access, and provides introduction, to Tibetan literature as indexed by the sectarian affiliations of the texts.
Periods: This organizes access, and provides introduction, to Tibetan literature as indexed by the literary periods of the texts.
Genres: This organizes access, and provides introduction, to Tibetan literature as indexed by the literary genres of the texts.
Oral: This provides access to, and information about, oral commentaries on Tibetan literature.
Instruction: This provides access to, and information about, oral commentaries on Tibetan literature.
Preparation of Your Computer
In general, the site should be easily used with a standard browser and computer set up.
The most important exception is the display and input of Tibetan fonts. The site is completely Unicode-based, and the newest versions of Windows and Macintosh OS should render the Tibetan fine. If you have older operating systems, or are having problems, please see Tibetan Scripts, Fonts & Related Issues for help.
In addition, if you are viewing the oral commentaries and having troubles with the playback of audio and video files, please consult Preparing Your Computer for THL Use and install the free QuickTime plugin offered by Apple as detailed therein.
Provided for unrestricted use by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library