Turin’s alarm at the rapid disappearance of languages—and the knowledge embedded within them—recently led him to create the World Oral Literature Project
, an effort to document endangered languages before they become extinct. He also directs Digital Himalaya
, a rapidly expanding archive of film, photographs, audio recordings, maps and rare publications. Both collections are based jointly at Cambridge and Yale and will serve as key resources for the Himalayan Initiative. Both websites are also being heavily used by people within the Himalayas themselves, who can now access much of their own documented history, often for the first time.