“Digital Dharma offers a delightful opportunity to rejoice in the unparalleled contribution of Gene Smith in helping to preserve, digitize, and make available to scholars and students worldwide tens of thousands of Tibetan texts—making it possible to literally have an entire library of Tibetan texts on one’s computer or a tablet. Gene’s work in Delhi on behalf of the Library of Congress, his travels to different parts of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet, so poignantly captured in this beautiful volume, bring home a powerful point—that with will and dedication a single person can make so much difference. I, for one, will treasure this book so that my deep gratitude to Gene always remains strong and vibrant.”

– Thupten Jinpa, editor of The Library of Tibetan Classics and author of Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows

“It can be safely said that, after His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the person most responsible for the serious study of Tibetan Buddhism in America is E. Gene Smith. I first met Gene in India in 1978; the photos here for the Delhi days bring back many memories. For those lucky few who knew Gene and those lucky many who have benefited from his work, the images and words in this beautiful book convey much of the spirit of this remarkable man.”

– Donald S. Lopez, Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, University of Michigan

“I met the most kind, good-hearted Gene Smith in a Darjeeling hotel in the very, very early times [1967]. Gene Smith collected Tibetan texts for so many years, from India and other countries. As he gave permission to many universities to check and study the texts he collected, he offered so much wisdom to the world. And by giving texts to high lamas, monasteries, and others he knew, he helped many people open the eye of wisdom—Dharma wisdom, not worldly wisdom. Furthermore, his nature was very kind, good hearted, and I wish he could have lived forever.”

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche

“Digital Dharma: Recovering Wisdom provides a beautifully illustrated glimpse of the lifework of E. Gene Smith as he collected and preserved the sacred literary heritage of Tibet. Beginning in the early days of the Tibetan diaspora, Gene searched for the thousands of scattered jewels that were the religious texts of all the traditions of Tibet, reprinted them, and reassembled those jewels into great treasuries as complete collections in research libraries and teaching monasteries around the world. Then, with a vision far ahead of his time, in the final decades of his life, Gene perceived the need to digitize those collections into online databases that could be easily accessed by individuals anywhere in the world, so that they might be widely used in modern times. All future scholars and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism are forever indebted to E. Gene Smith and his supremely meaningful lifework as the founder and builder of what is now known as the Buddhist Digital Resource Center.”

– His Holiness the 42nd Sakya Trizin, Ratna Vajra Rinpoche

“Digital Dharma is a beautiful and moving tribute to a life that was well lived and enhanced the lives of others. Like so many, I was grateful for Gene’s generosity, in the PL 480 volumes with their incredible introductions, which made possible my own first studies in Tibetan Buddhism, and later for his encouragement and support in publishing my doctoral thesis during his brief time at Wisdom Publications. His spirit continues in the ongoing work of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, and I like to think that we are still connected in some way in its close relationship with the Endangered Archives Programme. And of course there is so much more to Gene’s great life story, which is so well told in this book.”

– Sam van Schaik, head of the Endangered Archives Programme, the British Library