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“...m SOAS
X University of London
------100 Years-
The Michael Palin Scholar and Dr Alan
Entwistle Digitisation Project
2016-17...”
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“..."Accessibility is key to the dissemination of learning. Through
enabling digitisation of an important collection of images
and film at SOAS, you are ensuring that future generations of
scholars and enthusiasts across the world will be able to
benefit from this unique resource"
Baroness Valerie Amos, SOAS Director
Front cover image: "Vegetable Market" from the Alan Entwistle Collection...”
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“...report on the Michael
Palin Scholarship recipientJoe Pearson Woodand the Alan
Entwistle Digitisation Project, generously funded by you.
Having now been back at SOAS for more than half a year, Joe is
fully immersed in his two-year Master's course in Intensive South
Asian Studies. It is clear from his statement that without the support
that the Michael Palin Scholarship has offered him, he would have
had great difficulty returning to SOAS to further his studies. We are
very pleased with his progress thus far and look forward to keeping
up with his development over the coming months.
The Alan Entwistle Digitisation project is now complete with the
materials published online for all to access and enjoy. Enclosed in
this reportand featuring on the front coverare some of the
images that have been digitized thanks to your donation.
I hope you enjoy reading about Joe's experiences so far as a
postgraduate student at SOAS, and the progress of the Alan
Entwistle Digitisation Project.
Thank you...”
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“...Joseph Pearson Wood
Michael Palin Scholar 2016-17 MA Intensive South Asian Studies
The choice of university that I would apply to
for my undergraduate degree was always
obvious.
I've known about SOAS since early 2009 after
visiting to attend a public lecture with my
brother on the colonial impact of land policy in
India.
Being fifteen years old at the time and just
about to start my GCSEs, most of the lecture
was completely alien to me and to say I was
confused would be a huge understatement! I
was however, intrigued nonetheless.
It was this intrigue, both for the university itself
and also for India as an academic subject that
sustained me through both my GCSEs and A-
Levels.
Having grown up in Solihull, just outside of
Birmingham, I was surrounded by many
different diaspora communities, and my interest
in South Asianotably Pakistanstems from
hearing the many different languages and
observing many different cultures from a young
age.
Applying to SOAS therefore seemed like a no-...”
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“..."As a result [of the Michael Palin Scholarship], I have had
the opportunity to further my studies and contribute to
the wonderful SOAS community without financial
worry"
difficult to study had it not been for the
scholarship.
Academically speaking, SOAS is a challenging
environment but needless to say extremely
enjoyable. I have especially enjoyed the cultural
studies aspect of the course and have found
new interests in South Asian poetry, which my
Urdu study helps profoundly with.
As a result of my scholarship, I am also taking
extracurricular Persian/Farsi classes and have
set up a critical Pakistan reading/study group
with various PhD and Master's students. We
hope to hold events and potentially to produce
academic material. As a further result of my
scholarship, I have been able to become
involved with the SOAS refugee support society,
and have also been gradually becoming more
involved with local political campaigning.
I believe my studies are progressing well. I have
achieved...”
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“...The Alan Entwistle
Digitisation Project
Images above, top to bottom: View of the temples on the hilltop of Barsana; Ferryboat on the Yamuna...”
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“...all across
the town. Dr Gupta recruited a small team of local
scholars and enabled a number of young people
to acquire the skills of manuscript
conservation. During the 1970s and 1980s the VRI
project, now supported by the International
Association of the Vrindaban Research Institute,
drew in other SOAS specialists in Hindi, Urdu,
Bengali, Sanskrit and Persian. Several SOAS
students completed Ph.D theses on Vaishnava
Hindu literature that drew on materials at the VRI.
The late Alan W. Entwistie (1949-1996) was one
such student.
The majority of these photographs of Braj were
taken by Alan Entwistie as he led an IAVRI effort to
survey the region. Others were taken by the SOAS
PhD student David Crawford, Gerry Losty of the
British Library, and Paul Fox, the SOAS
photographer. The digitisation programme uses
these images and the descriptions Entwistie wrote
of each image, updated with searchable Hindi and
geographic data. Entwistie went on to build a
career as a scholar and teacher of Hindi...”
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“...millimetre films
dating from the 1970s from the same project,
which we are processing in the same way.
Adrian visited the site in questionVrindaban
earlier in the year, armed with a set of images for
which we lacked captions or descriptions, and
consulted scholars there.
Update from Erich Kesse, Digital Library
Project Officer
The full Entwistle collection narrative now resides
online and can be accessed by visiting this web
page: http://digital.soas.ac.uk/braj/
Items can be searched by topic, geographic area,
type, or key word, or browsed on the interactive
map that has been developed.
This map interface has been developed so each
item can be contextualised and placed
geographically in the area. Each digitised item has
a unique geographic reference.
Any user accessing the collection can use the
'MAP IT!' feature and dynamic map to see where
items relate to one another and fit within the
bigger picture.
As a direct result of this project, users could
therefore use the digital images and...”
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“...Three digitised images
from The Dr Alan
Entwistie coliection.
Top: MukutavalT dukan in
LoT Bazaar : a shop seliing
headdresses for deities
Middle: Rath ka Mela : the
chariot
Bottom: Bengal
yogapitha...”
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