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Mi la ras pa sings again: an examination of the songs of Gtsang smyon Heruka
University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, Religious studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1320-7073
2019 (English)In: 15th International Association for Tibetan Studies Seminar Paris, France, 7-13 July 2019, 2019Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

According to his disciples and himself, Gtsang smyon Heruka (1452-1507) was an incarnation of Mi la ras pa, one of the most famous and popular composers of mgur in Tibet. Gtsang smyon devoted his life to following in the footsteps of his former incarnation. He meditated in the same caves, wandered the same paths, and like Mi la ras pa, he expressed his realization in songs. Gtsang smyon also compiled and printed Mi la ras pa’s song collection (mgur ’bum), and thereby contributed a great deal to making Mi la ras pa’s poetry well known. Mi la ras pa’s religious songs is likely the most famous and important examples of mgur ever recorded in Tibet. In contrast, Gtsang smyon’s own songs, which are strikingly similar to Mi la ras pa’s, remain quite unknown. Besides Gtsang smyon’s disciples, few Tibetan writers quote or refer to them, and relatively few Tibetans seem to be aware of their existence. In 1508, a group of disciples compiled these songs, and a song collection entitled Rje btsun gtsang pa he ru ka’i mgur ’bum rin po che dbang gi rgyal po thams cad mkhyen pa’i lam ston was printed. I have spent the last years translating this text and the present paper will be devoted to presenting and analyzing some of the songs in it. The songs, which are strikingly similar to Mi la ras pa’s, are a testimony of Gtsang smyon’s mastery of mgur and provides us with insight to the way in which Gtsang smyon taught Dharma to his disciples. The songs also offers fascinating glimpses of the wandering yogic life style that both he and many of his disciples followed. Focusing on the songs that Gtsang smyon sang to his heart son Rin chen dpal bzang po (n.d.) and to his female companion Kun tu bzang mo (1464-1549), the paper will scrutinize Gtsang smyon’s songs and describe some of their main characteristics. Having analyzed these songs and quoted sections from them, I will compare the songs in Gtsang smyon’s song collection with the same songs as rendered by his disciples Rgod tshang ras pa (1482-1559) and Lha btsun rin chen rnam rgyal (1473-1557) in their respective biographies of Gtsang smyon. Although Lha btsun rin chen rnam rgyal compiled his version of the biography later than Rgod tshang ras pa, he renders the songs somewhat differently. These differences indicates that diverse versions of Gtsang smyon’s songs were in circulation among his disciples after his collected songs had been printed. This raises questions regarding how songs such as these were transmitted.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019.
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Arts
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no Strategic Research Area (SFO)
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URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-31496OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-31496DiVA, id: diva2:1386839
Conference
Bidraget ingick i följande panel: Mgur: Songs of Realization in Tibetan Culture Panelen organiserades av Stefan Larsson and Carl Yamamoto
Available from: 2020-01-20 Created: 2020-01-20 Last updated: 2022-09-21Bibliographically approved

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