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| Jetsun Milarepa | |
|---|---|
| Name | Milarepa |
| Birth date | c. 1052 (Tibetan calendar dates vary) |
| Birth place | Kyi Khong, Kham, Tibet |
| Death date | c. 1135 |
| Death place | Rewalsar (Tso Pema) / Tibet |
| Nationality | Tibetan |
| Religion | Tibetan Buddhism (Kagyu) |
| Teacher | Marpa Lotsawa, Naropa, Maitripa |
| Students | Rechungpa, Gampopa |
| Known for | Yogi, poet, siddha |
Jetsun Milarepa was a Tibetan yogi, poet, and one of the most influential figures in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Renowned for his dramatic life story—from avenger and black magician to ascetic practitioner and enlightened teacher—he is celebrated in Tibetan hagiography, song, and monastic transmission. His autobiographical verses and songs form core texts in lineages tracing transmission to Marpa Lotsawa, Naropa, and later teachers such as Gampopa and Rechungpa.
Milarepa was born in Kham, eastern Tibet during the reign of local lords contemporaneous with figures like King Langdarma's later influence and the era that saw regional powers such as the Yarlung Dynasty fragment. His family background connected him to local landholding families and household ties that intersected with regional aristocracy and rural peasant life, as with contemporaneous families documented in sources on central Tibetan history and the sociopolitical landscape of the 11th century Tibetan plateau. Early accounts situate his childhood amid disputes over property and lineage that involved local elites, household retainers, and village networks comparable to disputes recorded in biographical narratives of other Himalayan siddhas.
After the death of his father, conflicts with relatives over estate and inheritance escalated into litigation and violent retribution involving hired agents, alliances with local strongmen, and the employment of ritual practitioners. In response Milarepa studied esoteric techniques with tantric adepts, an arc resonant with episodes in the biographies of other tantric practitioners recorded in histories of the Sakya and Nyingma traditions. The ensuing acts of sorcery and the resulting deaths are treated in hagiographies as karmic consequences that precipitated his deep remorse and the need for extensive spiritual atonement recognized by later masters such as Marpa Lotsawa.
Seeking purification, he travelled to central Tibet to find the translator and mahasiddha Marpa Lotsawa, who is also linked historically to contacts with Indian pandits and translators like Naropa and Tilopa. Under Marpa’s rigorous tests, hard labor, and instruction, Milarepa undertook the oral and experiential transmissions of the Mahamudra and the Six Yogas associated with Naropa. His training included transmissions related to tantric cycles and experiential methods transmitted through lineages connected to places such as Bodhgaya and sites associated with Indian mahasiddhas. This phase aligns with broader patterns of Tibetan-Indian transmission during the reintroduction of tantric scholarship and practice.
Following ordination and long solitary retreats in caves and mountain hermitages in regions like Ganden, Drak Yerpa, Rewalsar (Tso Pema), and locales of Lhasa’s surrounds, Milarepa composed hundreds of spontaneous songs and doha verses. These songs, often framed as dialogues with disciples and skeptics such as Rechungpa and later relayed to students like Gampopa, exemplify practical instructions on meditation, renunciation, and realization in the Kagyu pedagogical model. The corpus addresses stages of tantric practice, Mahamudra meditation, and methods comparable to instructions found in treatises attributed to Naropa, Tilopa, and other Indian siddhas, while integrating Himalayan ascetic exemplars.
Milarepa’s life and songs became foundational for the Kagyu schools, influencing monastic centers and lay practitioners across regions including Ü-Tsang, Kham, and Amdo. His transmission chain through Marpa to Gampopa established institutional forms later associated with centers like Dagpo Kagyu and sub-schools whose histories intersect with figures such as Phagmo Drupa and later lineage holders. Beyond doctrinal lineage, Milarepa inspired devotional practices, pilgrimage to hermitages such as Drak Yerpa, poetic genres in Tibetan literature, and revival movements that engaged with broader currents involving Sakya and Gelug interactions. Modern scholarship and translations have brought his songs into comparative studies alongside Indian tantra, Himalayan folk religion, and studies of medieval hagiography.
Artistic representations depict him as an ascetic yogi, often garbed in simple white or saffron robes, sometimes shown holding a skullcap or a singing bowl, and sitting in meditation within caves or mountain landscapes familiar from Tibetan thangka painting. Visual and literary portrayals appear across media—thangka, fresco, oral epic performance, and modern film—paralleling iconographic treatments of figures such as Padmasambhava, Naropa, and Tilopa. Pilgrimage sites like Rewalsar and cave shrines at Drak Yerpa host annual commemorations and rituals that situate Milarepa within living devotional networks involving monasteries, lay confraternities, and festivals connected to Himalayan cultural heritage.
Category:Tibetan Buddhists Category:Kagyu lamas Category:11th-century Tibetan people Category:12th-century Tibetan people