Table Of ContentBUDDHISM, CONFLICT AND BUDDHISM IN THE
VIOLENCE IN MODERN PUBLIC SPHERE
SRI LANKA Reorienting global interdependence
Edited by Mahinda Deegal/e Peter D. Hershock
THERAV ADA BUDDHISM AND BRITISH BUDDHISM
THE BRITISH ENCOUNTER Teachings, practice and
Religious, missionary and colonial development
experience in nineteenth century Sri Lanka Robert B/uck
Elizabeth Harris
BUDDHIST NUNS IN TAIWAN
BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT AND SRI LANKA
Buddhism, religion, modernity A critique of the feminist perspective
Richard Cohen Wei-Yi Cheng
The following titles are published in association with the
Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
a project ofThe Society for the Wider Understanding of the Buddhist Tradition
The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies conducts and promotes rigorous teaching and
research into all forms of the Buddhist tradition.
EARLY BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS
Noa Ronkin
MIPHAM'S DIALECTICS AND THE DEBATES ON EMPTINESS
Kanna Phuntsho
HOW BUDDHISM BEGAN
The conditioned genesis of the early teachings
Richard R Gombrich
BUDDHIST MEDITATION
An anthology of texts from the Pali Canon
Sarah Shaw
REMAKING BUDDHISM FOR MEDIEVAL NEPAL
The fifteenth-century reformation ofNewar Buddhism
Will Tuladhar-Douglas
METAPHOR AND LITERALISM IN BUDDHISM
The doctrinal history of nirvana
Soonil Hwang
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF RECHUNGPA
The evolution of a Tibetan hagiography
Peter Alan Roberts
THE BIOGRAPHIES
OF RECHUNGPA
The evolution of a
Tibetan hagiography
Peter Alan Roberts
~~ ~~~J!!n~~~p
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OXI4 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2007 Peter Alan Roberts
Typeset in Times New Roman by
Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddies Ltd, King's Lynn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Roberts, Peter Alan, 1952-
TI:ie biographies ofRechungpa: the evolution of a Tibetan hagiography I
Peter Alan Roberts.
p. ern. - (Routledge critical studies in Buddhism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Ras-chun Rdo-rje-grags, 1083-1161. 2. Bka'-rgyud-pa lamas-China
Tibet-Biography. 3. Tibet (China)-Biography. 4. Buddhist hagiography
China-Tibet. 5. Lamas-Biography-History and criticism. I. Title.
BQ982.A757R63 2006
294.3'923092-dc22 2006019819
ISBN!O: 0-415-76995-7 (hbk)
ISBNIO: 0-203-96338-5 (ebk)
ISBN13: 97!H}-415-76995-2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-96338-8 (ebk)
TO MY PARENTS
IORWERTH AND GLENYS ROBERTS
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
(From the screenplay of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,
by James Warner Bella and Willis Goldbeck.)
CONTENTS
Preface
X
Acknowledgements xii
1 Introduction
2 The biographies 7
3 The evolution ofMilarepa's biography 57
4 Rechungpa's childhood and meeting Milarepa 85
5 Rechungpa's strange illness and cure 103
6 Sorcery, logic and angry monks 137
7 The teachings of a bodiless cfiikil}I 154
8 The yak horn and the burning texts 183
9 Marriage, pupils and the end of life 210
Notes 236
Bibliography 266
Index 275
ix
PREFACE
This book examines the surv1vmg accounts of the life of Rechungpa
(1084-1161). He was a Tibetan master in the formative years of the Kagyu, one
of the principal traditions of Buddhism in Tibet.
My involvement in Tibetan Buddhism dates back to 1974, and then I lived in
or near Samye Ling Tibetan Centre in Scotland from 1978 to 1991. Kagyu lamas
often tell stories of Rechungpa and his quarrels with his teacher Milarepa, the
most famous early master of the Kagyu lineage. Rechungpa seemed to my
contemporaries and me, to be a curious and contradictory persona, concerning
whom little information was available.
I translated for Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche's course on the life ofRechungpa
at Thrangu Monastery in Bodhnath in 1990, and to my surprise he announced that
the listeners would be able to eventually read the biography in my translation.
Although the translation was intended to accompany this thesis, the readers are
sadly still waiting.
Both Akong Rinpoche of the Samye Ling Centre (who is himself regarded as
an emanation of Rechungpa) and Michael Aris at Oxford University encouraged
the idea of choosing Rechungpa as a thesis from amongst the various projects I
had in mind. I knew nothing about the date or provenance of Rechungpa's
biography, which was itself difficult to obtain a copy of. I had assumed it was a
very early work and that the thesis would be a straightforward project. I had no
idea how complex and baffling a labyrinth I was about to enter.
The thesis assumed a readership that had a familiarity with Tibetan and all
Tibetan words were simply transliterated into roman letters. However, for this
book, assuming that the reader is more familiar with a phonetic version of Tibetan
words, the names of people, lineages and places are given in that form, with
transliteration in parenthesis if their incident is infrequent. However, not only
does contemporary Tibetan phonology differ greatly from its ninth-century
spelling, there are considerable variations in phonology across the Tibetan
plateau, so that almost every archaic pronunciation is preserved in one place or
another. Nevertheless, a regular method of phoneticisation has developed in the
now abundant output of books on Tibet, and this is what I have attempted to
follow here. It is by nature somewhat arbitrary, and I apologise for any irritation
X
PREFACE
it may cause. I have not supplied phonetics for text titles, providing an English
translation instead. I have also given the Tibetan for any text passages in
transliteration only.
For the transliteration of Tibetan, I have chosen to capitalise the root-letter
rather than the first letter; and have hyphenated syllables when they form words
but not followed the system of hyphenating particles to their associated nouns.
I am not claiming any superiority for this approach, but it is the form of
transliteration I am at ease with and I apologise to anyone accustomed to another
system.
In this book I shall present the successive parts of Rechungpa's life through
the stages of their narrative evolution in a succession oft exts. The focus is on the life
of Rechungpa primarily during his time as a pupil of Milarepa and therefore does
not give a detailed description of his entire life as a normal biographical
study would. The principal topic is the complex relationship between the
numerous variants to be found in texts that have been little studied or even read.
Rechungpa's particular version of Tibetan Buddhism and the history of his
lineage are only briefly described in this book. The necessity of losing over a
quarter of the thesis for publication has resulted in the absence of general
introductions to Tibetan Buddhism and hagiography, and also a great deal of
transliterated Tibetan text accompanying my translations.
The most important goal of this book will have been achieved if it helps others
to explore this previously uncharted region, make fresh discoveries and correct
any errors and delusions I had on this journey.
xi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the late Tenpa Negi Gyaltsen, the late Lama Ganga of
Thrangu Monastery, Quinghai, the late Lama Thubten Namgyal and Lama Lodro,
both of Palpung Monastery in Swechan, and Karma Tshultrim Gyamtso,
previously an administrator and attendant at Thrangu Monastery in Bodhnath,
Nepal, for teaching me Tibetan.
This book owes its origins to a thesis that was undertaken on the suggestions
and encouragement of Akong Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, the late
Michael Aris and Prof. Richard Gombrich.
The search for and acquisition of texts has been greatly facilitated and fulfilled
by Burkhard Quessel of the British Library and Ulrich Pagel of the erstwhile
India Office, Hakan Wahlquist of the Folksmuseum, Stockholm; Valrae Reynolds
of Newark Museum, Dr Tashigang of New Delhi, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche,
Father Francis Tiso, Thomas Almsberger, Ani Perna Zangmo, Ani Yeshe Palmo
and especially the late Michael Aris and Dan Martin. In particular, without
E. Gene Smith's Aladdin's Cave of texts and his kindness the thesis would have
been impossible.
Zenkar Rinpoche and Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche provided invaluable aid in
the interpreting of difficult passages beyond the scope of available dictionaries.
The thesis would not have been possible without the kindness of Irmgard
Lauscher-Koch who can be said to be the selfless primogenitor of this thesis.
I also thank the Boden Fund and the Michael Aris Trust for enabling me to reach
the conclusion of this work.
I would like to thank for their support, advice and encouragement, my parents,
my sister Delyth Lewis, Dr Shenpen Hookham, Dr Rowena Archer, Dr Kristina
Boylan, Dr William Douglas, Dr Elizabeth English, Dr Marco Dorigatti, Rebecca
Gowers, Dr Guilaine Mala, Clare Moseley, Patricia Myerson, Eric Wilson,
Dr Isabelle Onians, Andre de Vries, Dr Karma Phuntsok, and in particular the
indefatigable encouragement and friendship of Dr Rashid Khatib-Shahidi. Most
of all, this work would not have been possible without the help, companionship
and sufferings over many years of Georgina Margaret Roberts (nee Patterson).
In particular, my thanks to the late Dr Michael Aris, who oversaw the genesis
of this doctorate and was my supervisor in its first years, and especially my thanks
xii
