LIBRARY'S ATTRACTION

Special Collection

A special collection of books gifted by Her Majesty the Royal Grandmother Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck to Sherubtse College Library

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD: THE WORLD'S LARGEST BOOK

Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom

Measuring five by seven feet when opened and weighing 133 pounds, Guinness World Records certified Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom is the world’s largest book that was published in 2003.

In 1998, Michael Hawley, director of special projects at MIT visited Bhutan. Inspired by its scenic beauty and people, together with a desire to demonstrate how scientific field expeditions can achieve better photography, Hawley decided to produce a huge, limited-edition book of photographs to raise money for Bhutan’s schools.

For two years, Hawley and a team of MIT students and staff members traveled across Bhutan, taking 40,000 photographs of their expedition using state-of-the-art digital and film cameras. Assisted by several Bhutanese people, Hawley and his team captured the area’s mountainous terrain, architecture, and daily life through the eyes of two Bhutanese children, Choki Lhamo and Gyelsey Loday.

The 114-page book was developed at the MIT Media Lab and produced at Acme Bookbinding of Charlestown, Massachusetts and it cost US $ 30,000. The smaller version cost US $ 850 on Amazon.com

(Source: Walter Havighurst Special Collections & University Archives, Miami University)