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

The biographies of Rechungpa 58
house in ruins and his dead mother’s bones inside. Disillusioned with the world, he gives
away the property and lives in the mountains. Living on a diet of nettles, he becomes
skeletal and green. The Life of Milarepa skips ahead at this point from autobiographical
narrative to a third-person account of the end of Milarepa’s life. In a much-quoted
conversation that takes place not long before his death, Milarepa rebukes some of his
pupils for believing that he is an emanation of a buddha, saying that this view constitutes
slander against the vajrayāna, implying that it could not bring an ordinary being to
buddhahood in one lifetime. Milarepa’s death and the astonishing miraculous events that
accompany it, including his coming back to life on the cremation pyre, demonstrate that
he has indeed become a buddha.
The life of Tsangnyön Heruka
The works of Tsangnyön and his followers are crucial in the history of Kagyu
biographies. These biographies, which were particularly focussed on early mendicant
practitioners such as Milarepa, Rechungpa, Tilopa, Nāropa, Marpa, Götsangpa and
Lorepa, eclipsed earlier versions and became a dominant influence over later generations.
There are three biographies of Tsangnyön written by his pupils. Two are by authors of
biographies of Rechungpa: Lhatsun Rinchen Namgyal 11 and Götsang Repa. 12 A third is
by Rabjam Ngödrup Palbar (Rab-‘byams dNgos-grub dPal-‘bar)—which at present exists
as only one known copy in the collection of E.Gene Smith, 13 but in a part of his
collection that is in storage in Europe and to which he has been unable to gain access. 14
Tsangnyön Heruka was born in 1452. He became ordained as a child in his seventh year
and his monastic name was Sangye Gyaltsen (Sangs-rgyas rGyal-mtshan). 15 In his
eighteenth year, according to Götsang Repa (i.e. in approximately 1466), but in his
fourteenth, according to Lhatsun Rinchen Namgyal (i.e. 1470, though Tinchen Namgyal
does seem to err by making events about three or four years too early), Tsangnyön fled
from his monastery to go on pilgrimage. En route, he met Shara Rabjampa Sangye (Shara
Rab-‘byams-pa Sangs-rgyas), who was a holder of the Rechungpa lineages. 16 Shara
Rabjampa Sangye had received an union of all Rechungpa lineages from his teacher,
Ngawang Drakpa (Ngag-dbang Grags-pa) (1418–96), who was the holder of the Talung
Kagyu lineage at Talung monastery and had given Shara the instruction to spread these
teachings. 17 Therefore, though Tsangnyön Heruka is usually associated with
the Drukpa Kagyu, the origins of his lineage lie in the Talung Kagyu, which has
maintained a transmission of these teachings to the present day. Tsangnyön became his
pupil and was swiftly able to generate heat and wear only cotton. 18 Shara gave
Tsangnyön the name Chökyi Drakpa (Chos-kyi Grags-pa). According to Lhatsun,
Tsangnyön served as Shara’s consort’s attendant for six months, 19 which is usually an
euphemism for sexual practices, which are central to the Rechungpa transmission. For
example, one of the few texts said to have been written by Rechungpa is entitled The List
of the Profound Instructions from ‘The Lower Entrance of the Glorious