Marpa (Marpa Lotsāwa)
? · Lhodrak
c. 1012–1097 CE (traditional)
Marpa Lotsāwa ('Marpa the Translator,' c. 1012–1097 CE by tradition) was a Tibetan layman-translator who made the tantric transmissions of late Indian Buddhism the foundation of the Kagyu school. Born in Lhodrak in southern Tibet, he traveled several times to India and Nepal, studying chiefly under the master Nāropa, and brought home and translated a body of tantric teachings—including the practices later central to Kagyu. He is best known as the teacher of the yogin Milarepa. He is historical; his exact dates and the more colorful episodes of his life rest on later tradition.
Did you know?
The married farmer who crossed the Himalayas three times for books
Marpa the Translator (c. 1012-1097), a founding figure of a major Tibetan lineage, was not a monk but a married householder with land and family. He crossed the Himalayas from Tibet to India three times to study with Indian teachers and carry Buddhist texts home, spending years in study before returning each time to translate them.
How we know
Marpa Lotsawa (c. 1012-1097): lived as a lay householder (wife Dagmema, children, land); journeyed to India three times, studying ~12 years with Naropa, Maitripa and others; translated Vajrayana texts into Tibetan. Sources: Wikipedia 'Marpa Lotsawa'; Treasury of Lives 'Marpa Lotsawa'. Graph Author bud-marpa.
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Lhodrak
What they did here
DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born to a well-off family in Lhodrak in southern Tibet; trained in Sanskrit before setting out to seek teachings in India.
About Lhodrak
Lhodrak is a region of southern Tibet, near the modern border with Bhutan. It was the home of Marpa the Translator (Marpa Lotsāwa), the eleventh-century founder of the Kagyu lineage in Tibet, whose estate and teaching seat at Drowolung lay in Lhodrak; it was there that his disciple Milarepa underwent his famous trials.
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