Preservation

Treasures

Over the course of his lifetime, Lama Surya Das has collected a treasure trove of over 6,000 sacred art and spiritual study assets, 2,000 audio cassettes and compact disks containing the Vajra voices and teachings of the great masters, and over 14,000 books on Buddhist and Eastern thought.

Part of the founding vision of the Dzogchen Foundation is to catalog, preserve, sustain, and transmit the ancient lineage practice of enlightenment, and especially the Dzogchen tradition, to ensure that its transformative benefits continue for future generations.

Lama Surya Das’ unusual, and perhaps unique collection, includes:

• Many precious Tibetan language texts
• Tibetan thangkas, statues, relics and ritual implements
• Rare written documents from audio video recordings of the great Tibetan lineage masters
• One-of-kind, unique art and artifact objects

Primary Goals of the Preservation Program

Currently we are working collaboratively with individuals and organizations to achieve the following primary goals:

1. Preserve, secure, care for and make publicly available—in physical and digital form—Lama Surya Das’ Buddhist historical lineage archive in the form of a collection of over 6,000 tangible and intangible sacred art and spiritual study assets and over 14,000 books on Buddhist and Eastern thought.
2. Work collaboratively with and contribute to the initiatives of other non-profits (that have shared and aligned goals and interests) in the form of a structured organizational relationship that will connect Tibetan Buddhist and Dzogchen collections across the globe—that are publicly accessible and can be crossed referenced digitally and virtually.

We have made great strides with the help of many individuals, including scholars and volunteers. Accomplishments include:

• An initial inventory and cataloging of the entire collection and its unique properties
• Development and creation of a database for the collections inventory
• Creation of two, initial, small collections (“micro-collections”). Micro-collections are small, pre-curated selections of specific tangible and intangible assets from Lama Surya Das’ Collection. Each micro-collection provides an area of emphasis focused on a specific topic or concept of the teachings that serves to represent the  critical context of the archive. The first two micro-collections focus on two of Lama Surya Das’ main Dzogchen root lineage teachers: the late great masters Venerable Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
• The Voices of the Masters (Tibet’s grand masters own voices teaching Dzogchen and Mahamudra lineage texts and commentaries, with and without simultaneous translations)
• Sacred calligraphies and letters, drawings and paintings by my own lineage lamas

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