THE BIOGRAPHIES OF RECHUNGPA This book traces the lifestory of Rechungpa (1084–1161)—the student of the famous teacher Milarepa—using rare and little-known manuscripts, and discovers how the image of both Milarepa and Rechungpa underwent fundamental transformations over a period of over three centuries. The author compares significant episodes in the life of Rechungpa as portrayed in a succession of texts and thus demonstrates the evolution of Rechungpa’s biography. This is the first survey of the surviving literature which includes a detailed analysis of their dates, authorship and interrelationships. It shows how Rechungpa was increasingly portrayed as a rebellious, volatile and difficult pupil, as a lineage from a fellow-pupil prospered to become dominant in Tibet. Peter Alan Roberts is a writer, translator and interpreter. He was born in South Wales, received his doctorate in Tibetan Studies at the University of Oxford, and worked as a Tibetan translator at Samye Ling Centre in Scotland. He presently lives in Hollywood, California. ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL STUDIES IN BUDDHISM General Editors Charles S.Prebish and Damien Keown Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism is a comprehensive study of the Buddhist tradition. The series explores this complex and extensive tradition from a variety of perspectives, using a range of different methodologies. The Series is diverse in its focus, including historical studies, textual translations and commentaries, sociological investigations, bibliographic studies, and considerations of religious practice as an expression of Buddhism’s integral religiosity. It also presents materials on modern intellectual historical studies, including the role of Buddhist thought and scholarship in a contemporary, critical context and in the light of current social issues. The series is expansive and imaginative in scope, spanning more than two and a half millennia of Buddhist history. It is receptive to all research works that inform and advance our knowledge and understanding of the Buddhist tradition. A SURVEY OF VINAYA LITERATURE Charles S.Prebish THE REFLEXIVE NATURE OF AWARENESS Paul Williams ALTRUISM AND REALITY Paul Williams BUDDHISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS Edited by Damien Keown, Charles Prebish, Wayne Husted WOMEN IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE BUDDHA Kathryn R.Blackstone THE RESONANCE OF EMPTINESS Gay Watson AMERICAN BUDDHISM Edited by Duncan Ryuken Williams and Christopher Queen IMAGING WISDOM Jacob N.Kinnard PAIN AND ITS ENDING Carol S.Anderson EMPTINESS APPRAISED David F.Burton THE SOUND OF LIBERATING TRUTH Edited by Sallie B.King and Paul O.Ingram BUDDHIST THEOLOGY Edited by Roger R.Jackson and John J.Makransky THE GLORIOUS DEEDS OF PURNA Joel Tatelman EARLY BUDDHISM—A NEW APPROACH Sue Hamilton CONTEMPORARY BUDDHIST ETHICS Edited by Damien Keown INNOVATIVE BUDDHIST WOMEN Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo TEACHING BUDDHISM IN THE WEST Edited by V.S.Hori, R.P.Hayes and J.M.Shields EMPTY VISION David L.McMahan SELF, REALITY AND REASON IN TIBETAN PHILOSOPHY Thupten Jinpa IN DEFENSE OF DHARMA Tessa J.Bartholomeusz BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY Dan Lusthaus RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION AND THE ORIGINS OF BUDDHISM Torkel Brekke DEVELOPMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN BUDDHISM Michelle Spuler ZEN WAR STORIES Brian Victoria THE BUDDHIST UNCONSCIOUS William S.Waldron INDIAN BUDDHIST THEORIES OF PERSONS James Duerlinger ACTION DHARMA Edited by Christopher Queen, Charles Prebish and Damien Keown TIBETAN AND ZEN BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN David N.Kay THE CONCEPT OF THE BUDDHA Guang Xing THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESIRE IN THE BUDDHIST PALI CANON David Webster THE NOTION OF DITTHI IN THERAVADA BUDDHISM Paul Fuller THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF SELF-COGNITION Zhihua Yao MORAL THEORY IN ŚĀNTIDEVA’S Barbra R.Clayton BUDDHIST STUDIES FROM INDIA TO AMERICA Edited by Damien Keown DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY IN MEDIEVAL JAPANESE BUDDHISM Edited by Richard K.Payne and Taigen Dan Leighton BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH Edited by D.K.Nauriyal, Michael S.Drummond and Y.B.Lal BUDDHISM IN CANADA Edited by Bruce Matthews BUDDHISM, CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE IN MODERN SRI LANKA Edited by Mahinda Deegalle THERAVĀDA BUDDHISM AND THE BRITISH ENCOUNTER Religious, missionary and colonial experience in nineteenth century Sri Lanka Elizabeth Harris BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT Buddhism, religion, modernity Richard Cohen BUDDHISM IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE Reorienting global interdependence Peter D.Hershock BRITISH BUDDHISM Teachings, practice and development Robert Bluck BUDDHIST NUNS IN TAIWAN AND SRI LANKA A critique of the feminist perspective Wei-Yi Cheng The following titles are published in association with the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 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 Karma Phuntsho HOW BUDDHISM BEGAN The conditioned genesis of the early teachings Richard F.Gombrich BUDDHIST MEDITATION An anthology of texts from the Pāli Canon Sarah Shaw REMAKING BUDDHISM FOR MEDIEVAL NEPAL The fifteenth-century reformation of Newar 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 LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 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 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2007 Peter Alan Roberts 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– The biographies of Rechungpa: the evolution of a Tibetan hagiography/ Peter Alan Roberts, p. cm.—(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 0-203-96338-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-76995-7 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-96338-5 (Print Edition) (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-76995-2 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-96338-8 (Print Edition) (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 xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 The biographies 7 3 The evolution of Milarepa’s biography 55 4 Rechungpa’s childhood and meeting Milarepa 82 5 Rechungpa’s strange illness and cure 98 6 Sorcery, logic and angry monks 130 7 The teachings of a bodiless 146 8 The yak horn and the burning texts 174 9 Marriage, pupils and the end of life 199 Notes 224 Bibliography 255 Index 263 PREFACE This book examines the surviving 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 of Rechungpa 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 it may cause. I have not supplied phonetics for text titles, providing an English translation instead.