![]() ![]() ![]() They often involve pre-incarnation lists that stretch back into mythology and sometimes involve so many figures that the list is more of a Who’s Who of Tibetan history. They are perhaps best thought of as an art rather than a historical exercise. Incarnation lineages also seek to accomplish this linkage, but do so in a far more complicated way. Tibetans write biographies not just to inspire but also to legitimate the teaching of their masters by linking them to the great men and women of the past, and ultimately to the Buddha himself. It is that chain of transmission-from master to disciple, from one incarnation to another, or from one abbot to his or her successor-that gives Himalayan Buddhism much of its historical character. In these biographies one finds both the famous and the obscure, both those who established monasteries and teaching traditions, and those about whom nothing more is known than that they were the student of one person and the teacher of another-a simple name in a long chain of transmission. In short, a biography for everyone whose name is known. The goal of the project is to have a clear, reliable biography of every religious figure whose life and deeds were recorded-every lineage holder, teacher, abbot, incarnation, hermit, wandering ascetic, village lama, magician-and also of the laypeople who supported or were otherwise involved in the religions. ![]() Since its launch three years ago, the Treasury of Lives, an online encyclopedia, has been mining the rich tradition of Tibetan biographical literature to publish, in English, biographies of men and women, both Buddhist and Bön, from Tibet, the Himalayas, and Inner Asia. These biographical works are known in Tibetan as namtar, which literally means “enlightenment.” The Tibetans have produced a dizzying number of them. Tibetans, who have produced what is possibly the largest collection of sacred literature in the world, adapted the format of the Buddha’s quest for enlightenment to the telling of the life stories of their own religious masters. It is an inspirational story that is meant as a model for all people: a man turns his back on the pleasures and sufferings of human society, sets off on a rigorous path of practice and reflection, attains a state of freedom from suffering, and then teaches the theory and method of his accomplishment to others. The life story of the Buddha is one of the central teaching tales in all Buddhist traditions. ![]()
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