Person · Tibetan translator & householder yogi · India
Marpa Lotsawa
Also known as Marpa, Marpa Chokyi Lodro
Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (c. 1012-96), 'Marpa the Translator', the Tibetan farmer-scholar who crossed the Himalayas to India three times — on each occasion travelling two years in each direction — to receive Vajrayāna transmissions from the Bengali mahāsiddha Nāropā at Pullahari and from Maitripa. He translated the Hevajra, Guhyasamāja and Cakrasamvara Tantras and the Six Yogas of Nāropā into Tibetan, and brought the Mahāmudrā teachings to Tibet. His most celebrated student was the poet-yogi Milarepa. Marpa remained a householder — a farmer in the Lhodrak valley of southern Tibet — and the Kagyu lineage descends from his transmission.
- Periods
- Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (2)
- Teacher ofJetsun Milarepa
Marpa took Milarepa through years of ferocious trials — building and demolishing stone towers, suffering beatings and refusals — to purify the karma of the black magic Milarepa had used to kill his family. Only after that purification did he transmit the Mahāmudrā and the Six Yogas of Nāropā. The relationship became the paradigm of Tibetan guru-disciple pedagogy.
- Founder ofKagyu — the Oral Lineage
Marpa Lotsawa's transmission from Nāropā is the root of the Kagyu lineage.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard reference.
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