"The Sakya Monastery Library which was discovered in 2003 has over 80,000 texts and is thought to be around 1,000 years old"
A library in a monastery in Tibet. It was discovered in 2003, behind a sealed wall, containing 84.000 hand written sutras and scrolls telling the history humanity back 10.000 years. They were written in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan & Mongolian. But some says it is not 10,000 year old it may be 1000 year old.
Sakya Monastery houses a huge library of as many as 84,000 books on traditional stacks 60 metres long and 10 metres high. Most of them are Buddhist scriptures, although they also include works of literature, history, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, agriculture and art. One scripture weighs more than 500 kg, the heaviest in the world. The collection also includes many volumes of palm-leaf manuscripts, which are well-preserved due to the region's arid climate. In 2003, the library was examined by the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences. The monastery started to digitize the library in 2011. As of 2022, all books have been indexed, and more than 20% have been fully digitized. Monks now maintain a digital library for all scanned books and documents. More than 3,000 murals in Sakya Monastery depict religious, historical and cultural themes, including valuable records of historical scenes such as Phagpa's meeting with Kublai Khan and the monastery's founding. The main library hall contains a 66-meter-long mural showing the life of Gautama Buddha. There are also more than 1,100 pieces of porcelain in the hall, dating from the Yuan dynasty to early 20th century.
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The Sakya Monastery Library
A Facebook post from September 2020 claims the following: "Library found in Tibet with 84.000 rolls and untouchable books, it has been holding the history of humanity for over 10.000 years." Various fact checking organizations debunked this claim at the time. That said, another very similar claim has recently been doing the rounds on social media. This claim says, "Library found in Tibet containing 84,000 secret manuscripts (books), including the history of mankind for over 1000 years."
Both versions show a photo of a man staring up at rows of shelves, extending to the roof and lined with what appear to be manuscripts. According to a fact check by Africa Check, the photo is of Sakya Monastery in Tibet and was shared on the Pinterest account Tibet Tenzin. It added that similar photos of the library have been published on the Tibet Travel website, the website of photographer Chris Roche and the Alamy stock photo site.
The Sakya Monastery in Tibet
The Monastery, located nearly 300 miles west of Lhasa, was founded in the 11th century and is considered an important seat of Tibetan culture. The older Facebook post mentions that the library includes more than 84,000 scrolls that were discovered “behind a huge” wall. Another fact check by the Australian Associated Press revealed that a 2010 Alamy photo caption and a republished 2003 report by Chinese state media agency Xinhua contained similar details but made no mention of the manuscripts being secret. AAP's fact check citing several experts of history also debunked that the manuscripts could contain information about 10,000 years of human history on the grounds that "the period of recorded history is much shorter and is tied to the development of text 5,000 years ago."
A video of the Sakya Monastery Library
Mr Mark told AAP FactCheck: “(Sumerian) cuneiform text is considered the oldest written work (along with a Sumerian temple hymn) extant. There is no evidence of earlier works anywhere in the world and certainly none dating back 10,000 years.” Regarding the reported library find, Mr Mark said it was possible the manuscripts predated the monastery being established in 1073. “Certainly, the 84,000 texts could have been composed elsewhere and brought to the monastery for safekeeping after that date .. but if they went back 10,000 years, by this time, we would have found some other evidence of writing going back that far,” he said. The scroll, made of papyrus, first emerged in Egypt around 5000 years ago, while early examples of paper from around 2000 years ago have been found in China. Buddhism was established approximately 2500 years ago. Similar posts shared on social media state that the library contains “the history of mankind over 1000 years”, while others include the 10,000-year-old claim.
As per a social media report "The Library of the Sakya Monastery, southern Tibet, built in 13thCE, one of the largest collection of Tibetan and Indic manuscripts and block-printed books, over 44,000 texts, shelves reach height of 10 meters. Cataloguing began in 2005". Another person in social media posted some picture of the Sakya Monastry library and wrote "This Library was found sealed up in a wall 60 metres long and 10 metres high in Tibet containing over 84,000 secret books on subjects that include literature, history, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics.
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