About the Rubin
Treasury of Lives
About the Treasury of Lives
The Treasury of Lives is a project of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Its mission is to provide well-researched and clearly written biographies of all known masters of Tibetan religion, both Buddhist and Bon, each illustrated with portraits. The site is linked with the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC), an online library of Tibetan literature, and Himalayan Art Resources (HAR), a virtual museum of Himalayan art.
The Treasury of Lives is a growing site that depends on contributions of biographies from scholars and practitioners. The “Our Community” portion of the website, which will enable users to submit and discuss work, is currently under development. Short biographies of people involved in the project will also be available there.
The Treasury of Lives began in 2006 under the leadership of Vivian Kurz of the Dilgo Khyentse Fellowship / Shechen, and Moke Mokotoff. Vivian served as general editor and created a prototype Nyingma website. Moke hired Dan Martin, Cyrus Stearns, and Miranda Adams to write material for the Kagyu, Jonang, and Gelug traditions.
In 2008 Alex Gardner, Associate Director of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation took on the task of expanding the website to incorporate all traditions of Tibetan religion. After much consideration the initial idea of separate sites for Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and so forth was set aside. Instead, all traditions are presented in a single site, with dynamic search and browse capability to allow users to access the biographies using a variety of categories.
TBRC, under the leadership of Gene Smith and Jeff Wallman, was instrumental in preserving the momentum of the project as it transitioned to direct Foundation management and for helping to rethink its mission. TBRC provided the initial population of the database using biographical information from the TBRC Library. Jeff Wallman assembled the excellent technical team the Foundation employed to create the new site: Theresa Reed as the the information architect, Sean O’Dwyer as the designer and usability expert, and Trevor Conn as the principal software developer. The creative teams at TBRC and the Treasury now regularly consult with each other on ongoing improvements and enhancements and the ways that the two sites can be linked together. Jeff Watt, director of Himalayan Art Resources, has also assisted significantly in the redevelopment and the extension of links between the Treasury and HAR.
