The Treasury of Lives

ཟ་ཧོར་གྱི་དགེ་སློང་ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་ར་ནི་བོད་དུ་བསྟན་པ་ཕྱི་དར་གྱི་དུས་སུ་བྱོན་པའི་ནང་པའི་སློབ་དཔོན་གཙོ་ཆེ་བ་ཞིག་ཡིན། པུ་ཧྲེང་རྒྱལ་པོས་རྒྱ་གར་བིཀྲམ་ཤཱིལ་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་ནས་གདན་དྲངས་པ་ལྟར། བོད་མངའ་རིས་དང་དབུས་གཙང་ཁུལ་དུ་ལོ་༡༣ ཙམ་བཞུགས། ལམ་རིམ་དང་བློ་སྦྱོང་གི་གདམས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་སྤེལ་བས་དེ་ཉིད་དུས་ཕྱིས་རི་བོ་དགེ་ལྡན་པའི་བསྟན་པའི་སྙིང་པོར་གྱུར། ཁོང་གིས་མཛད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མ་ཡང་ལམ་རིམ་གྱི་གཞུང་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཕྱི་མོའམ་རྩ་བའི་གཞུང་ལྟ་བུར་གྱུར། བོད་དུ་རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཆོས་སྐོར་དར་སྤེལ་ཤུགས་ཆེར་མཛད། ཁོང་གི་སློབ་མ་འབྲོམ་སྟོན་རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་གནས་ཀྱིས་དགོན་ཆེན་ཁག་ཅིག་ཕྱག་བཏབ་པ་ལས་བཀའ་གདམས་པའི་ཆོས་ལུགས་ཞེས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་གསར་དུ་སྲོལ་གཏོད་མཛད། མཐར་ཆོས་ལུགས་འདི་ཉིད་གཙོ་ཆེ་བ་དགེ་ལུགས་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་ས་སྐྱ་དང་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་བཅས་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་འདུ་བར་བཤད།


Alexander Gardner is Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007. He is the author of The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul The Great.

Published December 2009

Images

Atiśa

This painting of Atiśa is from the early to mid twelfth century and features extensive inscriptions on the reverse side. 

Bodhisattva with Atisa and Dromton

This eighteenth century painting of a Bodhisattva depicts Atiśa and Kadam founder Dromton on the top (left and right). Tara and Jambala are pictured along the bottom. Dromton is considered an emanation of Padmapani Avalokiteśvara, who is the central figure in this image according to some sources. However, the presence of a sword and book suggests that the central figure is Mañjuśrī.

Cakrasamvara with the footprints of Drigungpa Rinchen Pel.

Chakrasamvara, Sahaja Heruka, with the footprints of Drigungpa Rinchen Pel.

Go Lotsawa Khukpa Lhetse

The important translator Go Khukpa Lhetse is the central figure of this 19th century painting, with Atiśa depicted above. 

Karma Kagyu Refuge Field

Karma Kagyu Field of Accumulation painting with the Fifteenth Karmapa, Kakyab Dorje, as the last lineage holder at the time of the compositions creation.

Six Kagyu Teachers with Lineage

An unusual Kagyu lineage painting—possibly the Śrī Sahaja Hevajra— that includes one of the earliest known image of a Karmapa.

Six Kagyu Teachers With Lineage

An important early Kagyu painting, possibly the earliest known depiction of the First Karmapa. The lineage depicted is likely the Shri Saraha Hevajra that passed into Tibet through Zhang Yudrakpa.

Third Pawo Tsuklak Gyatso

An exceptional painting of the Third Nenang Pawo surrounded by hierarchs of the Karma Kagyu and other traditions. The size of the hand and footprints suggest that they are stylized rather than actual prints.
 

Tsongkhapa

A painting of Tsongkapa, founder of the Geluk tradition, with the two principal students, Gyaltsab on the left and Khedrub on the right.

དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།

Alaka Chattopadhyaya 1981 (1967). Atiśa and Tibet, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas.

Das, Sarat Chandra. 1965 (1893).Indian Pandits in the Land of Snow. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay.

Davidson, Ronald. 2005.Tibetan Renaissance.New York: Columbia University Press.

Decleer, Hubert. 1995. “Atiśa’s Journey to Sumatra.” In Donald S. Lopez Jr., ed.,Buddhism in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 532-540.

Decleer, Hubert. 1996. “Lord Atiśa in Nepal: The tham Bahil and the Five Stupas’ Foundations according to the ‘Brom ston Itinerary.” Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, vol. X, pp. 27-54.

Decleer, Hubert. 1997. “Atiśa’s Journey to Tibet.” In Donald S. Lopez Jr., ed.,Religions of Tibet in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 157-177.

Donboom Tulku and Glenn H. Mullin. 1983.Atiśa and Buddhism in Tibet. New Delhi: Tibet House.

Eimer, Helmut. 1982 “The Development of the Biographical Tradition concerning Atiśa (Dipamkarasrijnana).” Journal of the Tibet Society vol. 2. pp. 41-51.39.

Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, Sharpa Tulku, and Alexander Berzin. 1982.Anthology of Well-Spoken Advice, vol 1. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives.

Mchims tham cad khyen pa. 1992.Jo bo rin po che dpal ldan a ti sha’i rnam thar rgyas pa yongs grags.In Lokesh Chandra, ed.,Biography of Atiśa and his Disciple Brom-ston, Zho[l] edition. Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture 1982, vol. 1: 49-236

Nag tso tshul khrims rgyal ba. 1982.Jo bo rje dpal ldan mar me mdzad ye shes kyi rnam thar rgyas pa.In Lokesh Chandra, ed.,Biography of Atiśa and his Disciple Brom-ston, Zho[l] edition.Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, vol. 2, pp. 820-862.

Snellgrove, David. 1987.Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publication.

གང་ཟག་འདིའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་ཁག་བོད་ཀྱི་ནང་བསྟན་དཔེ་ཚོགས་ལྟེ་གནས་སུ་འཚོལ།