The Biographies of Rechungpa: The Evolution of a Tibetan ...

The biographies of Rechungpa 112
Only one healing visit by Varacandra is described. As in The Lhorong Dharma
History, the Changchub Zangpo text merges the two visits described by Gyadangpa into
one: the queen with a growth on her head and the snakebitten woman are merged into a
snakebitten queen. The Lhorong Dharma History and Changchub Zangpo are textually
very close and therefore based on the same source. Where Gyadangpa has smugs for
‘bite’ (which is a common contemporary term in gTsang) 64 , The Lhorong Dharma
History has brgyab (incorrectly written as brgyan in the dPe-rnying dPe-skrun-khang
edition). Changchub Zangpo, though usually retaining the more obscure word, has here
used the more accessible so-btab. The unfortunate bird is a red chicken (bya ‘thsal lu),
whereas The Lhorong Dharma History affixes rma before bya tsha-lu (a variant spelling
of bya-‘thsal lu or mtshal lu) to create a peculiar, unattested word for peacock.
Rechungpa does not go to visit Tipupa, but returns to Tibet, going to Nyanang (gNya’nang)
as in The Lhorong Dharma History, where the area is called Nyenam (sNye-nam),
and Möntsepa where it is Nyanam (gNya’-nam).
Though this version of the life of Rechungpa appears in a text compiled in the midsixteenth
century, it belongs to an earlier generation of textual development, akin to
Möntsepa and The Lhorong Dharma History.
The Blue Annals (completed in 1478)
The passage is brief, merely stating that both uncle and mother complained about their
payments stopping and that Milarepa taught Rechungpa the practice. In the
previous versions, that teaching was at a later time, but it is made possible earlier here
because Gö Lotsawa’s emphasis on dating rather than narrative greatly extends the
passage of time: he has Rechungpa meet Milarepa in his eleventh year, in 1094, and not
becoming sick until his fifteenth year, in 1098, an error that was repeated a few centuries
later by Katok Tsewang Norbu, who compounded the error by dating the events to ten
years earlier. 65 Gö Lotsawa wrote that Rechungpa became ill because he ploughed a field
for his uncle and then went to live in empty houses until he accompanied three yogins to
Varacandra and was cured by the practice. Gö Lotsawa does not
describe the return to Tibet. Thus, he preserves the essential elements only of the
Gyadangpa narrative.
The two works of Tsangnyön Heruka (1452–1507)
A Commentary on the
(written between circa 1490 and circa 1507)
This text’s version of Rec hungpa’s illness is a very brief version of the Gyadangpa
narrative, but shows no evidence of using that text or any other. The story avoids the
complexity of the earlier versions and creates a smooth narrative.
Rechungpa does not at first stay with Milarepa, but simply takes his reading payments
to him. His mother and uncle disapprove of this and make him plough the fields instead