The object of study is the set of 65 Tibetan initiation cards (tsakali) belonging to the Bon religion. The cards are made of paper, each measuring 9.4 cm in width × 20.2 cm in height. On the recto side they bear the polychrome image of a divinity, a saint, or a sacred object, and on the verso a passage of text of varying length citing a scripture related to the corresponding image. These tsakalis are used in initiation rituals to empower neophytes into the particular domain of religion they represent.

The MSI data:

Images in preview are compressed and of lower quality. They are mainly intended to serve as thumbnails. Original hiqh quality TIF images can be found in the Color and PROCESSED folder below (zip file). For information about filenames and folderstructure as well as MSI system related info, please read the "Brief Description of Datasets for Multispectral Imaging". 

The research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2176 'Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures', project no. 390893796. The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg.