Working of Assam's Digital Civilisational Archive
Core Programmes
Digitising Assam
Large-scale digitisation of rare and out-of-print books, journals, and archival material — ensuring long-term preservation and open access for scholars, students, and the public.
Xaasipaat Manuscript Archive
Preservation of traditional Xaasipaat manuscripts sourced from satras, namghars, and private collections — many at risk of physical deterioration. The initiative covers identification, scanning, metadata creation, and secure archival storage.
Endangered Language Documentation
Structured documentation of Khamyang, Tai Phake, and Singpho through vocabulary-based audio recordings, textual transcription, and visual documentation — creating durable records of living linguistic heritage.
Digitising Assam
- Tea Archives — documenting the intellectual, institutional, and cultural history of Assam’s 200-year-old tea industry
- Cinema Archives — digitisation of Assamese cinema journals, pamphlets, and rare collections including the Pabitra Deka Archive
Research & Documentation
The Foundation undertakes structured research, archival interpretation, and report preparation — ensuring that digitised material contributes to knowledge creation and public discourse, not just storage.
Community Outreach
Community participation is foundational to the model. Local institutions, volunteers, and individuals actively contribute to identifying, accessing, and preserving archival material through workshops, field engagement, and training programmes.
Institutional Collaborations
Partnerships with academic and cultural institutions expand scale and ensure long-term preservation. All collaborations are formalised through MoUs that define ownership, responsibilities, and access. Full details are available on the Partnerships page.
Special Initiative:
Folk Tea Festival
A cultural and knowledge platform that repositions Assam's tea as a living heritage. Set within a working tea garden, the Festival brings together growers, industry stakeholders, artists, and communities — creating a space for dialogue on climate, markets, and identity, while celebrating tea as both an economic legacy and a living cultural narrative.
This is not digitisation.
This is civilisational continuity
