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

Rechungpa’s strange illness and cure 129
sickness, which is found in The Blue Annals, Tsangnyön’s The Hundred Thousand Songs
of Milarepa, Lhatsun Rinchen Namgyal and Götsang Repa.
Śākya Rinchen (Je Khenpo of Bhutan from 1744 to
1755)
This text demonstrates the influence of the Götsang Repa version in Bhutan, even though
it is based on an identical version attributed to a Gade Gyaltsen. Śākya Rinchen also
demonstrates a familiarity with Pema Karpo’s summary, for he adds the detail of the
practice being of ‘the Len (gLan) tradition’.
As in Pema Karpo, the leave-taking from Milarepa is omitted. Śākya Rinchen
mentions periods of practice of three months, seven days and half a month only, the latter
being written zla ba phyed mtshams bcad 111 although Gade Gyaltsen and all available
editions of Götsang Repa have zla ba gcig mtshams bcad. 112