“Blazing with bravery, like a great lion soaring through space,
Turquoise mane of thousands of oral instructions on the tantras’ meaning,
Bellowing laughter that stirs the ‘earth’ of the whispered lineage,
Remembering again the supreme translator.
སེང་ཆེན་མཁའ་ལ་འཕྱོ་འདྲའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་འབར༎ རྒྱུད་དོན་མན་ངག་འབུམ་གྱིས་གཡུ་རལ་གསིག༎
སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ས་གཞི་གཡོ་བའི་གད་རྒྱངས་ཅན༎ སྐྱེས་མཆོག་སྒྲ་བསྒྱུར་རྒྱལ་སླར་ཡང་དྲན༎།
–17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s Praise to Marpa (tr. A. Tomlin)
“For instance, the life-story “Lamp Illuminating the Excellent Path” was written when the author was young, and it is heavily narrative in style. It can be said that the entire biography, from the beginning’s dedication to the end’s conclusion, is a complete story of characters, not just the main text. As a storyteller, the author has vividly and elaborately described the conversations between characters and the psychological changes of the characters in the story, captivating the reader’s mind.”
“On the other hand, the “Amazing Deeds of Accomplishment” is the opposite, written in the author’s old age, with great investigation and meticulousness. As the preface states, it was written by comparing thirteen different biographies of Marpa. The entire biography has minimized the dialogues between characters, examined the birth and death years of the characters, scrutinized the order of events, verified the authenticity of Marpa’s songs, and particularly refuted other opinions and established his own regarding whether Marpa met Naropa on his third trip to India. It has extensively used logical and textual analysis to elevate Marpa’s biography from a mere narrative to a form of historical truth.”
Introduction
Yesterday, I was excited and inspired to read about two new liberation-stories (biographies) of the great Tibetan Marpa Lotsawa, by the 16th Century Pawo Tsuglag Trengwa (དཔའ་བོ་གཙུག་ལག་ཕྲེང་བ) who took care of the seat of Marpa in Tibet (posted on Layjang here). Pawo Tsuglag Threngwa (1504–1566), the second Nenang Pawo, was a Tibetan historian of the Karma Kagyu. He was a disciple of Mikyö Dorje, 8th Karmapa Lama. Here below is my new translation of the original Tibetan about these two new biographies.
The great Marpa Lotsawa, a personal hero of mine (and a major inspiration for founding Dakini Translations (in 2019)), was a layperson, married with children. Many saw him as an ordinary (and bad-tempered) individual. Yet, due to his extraordinary passion and devotion to Dharma and beings, took three arduous journeys to India overland (no air or train then), facing many obstacles and people actively trying to block him on the way. He was not sitting in a quiet library or café with internet connection, online dictionaries and funding from various institutions either. In terms of Vajrayana lineages and transmissions, from great Indian Mahasiddhas, like Nāropa (the author of the Kālacakra Tantra), Marpa is beyond comparison in the Tibetan Buddhist world. For the Kagyu, without Marpa the Kagyu lineages and Vajrayana transmissions would not be as they are now in Tibet.
Two new biographies of Marpa Lotsawa by Pawo Tsuglag Trengwa
“There are numerous biographies of Jetsun Marpa Lotsawa Lhodrag, whose actual name was Chökyi Lodrö (1012-1097), composed by his direct and indirect disciples. Among the earliest ones is the so-called “Four Levels/Stages རིམ་བཞི་” Biography” attributed to Ngok Chöku Dorje (རྔོག་ཆོས་སྐུ་རྡོ་རྗེས་) (1036-1102). There is also the biography transmitted through Jetsun Milarepa to Ngamdzong Tönpa (ངམ་རྫོང་སྟོན་པ), and others.
In the middle, in the 14th century, the Tibetan historian Tsalpa Künga Dorje (ཚལ་པ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྡོ་རྗེ 1309-1363) compiled a biography, Also, the “Key to the Secret Treasure” was composed by the second incarnation of the 2nd Zhamarpa, Khacho Wangpo (ཞྭ་དམར་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་གཉིས་པ་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དབང་པོ 1350-1405).
In the 15th century, the biography “Meaningful to See” was composed by Tsangnyön Heruka (གཙང་སྨྱོན་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ 1452-1507). The biographies “Precious Boat to Accomplishment” རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གྲུབ་གཟིངས་ by Shakya monk Drakpa Döndrup (ཤཱཀྱའི་དགེ་སློང་གྲགས་པ་དོན་གྲུབ་ 1547-1613) and “Revealing the Hidden: The Life of Chökyi Lodrö, the Lord of Marpa” དགྱེས་མཛད་མར་སྟོན་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་གབ་པ་ by Karma Zhenphen Chökyi Gyatso Palzangpo are also noteworthy. In total, there are over twenty different biographies of Marpa.
From the early part of the 16th century, the authority on Tibetan history, Pawo Tsuglag Trengwa took care of the seat of Jetsun Marpa. It seems that there are relatively few who are aware that he authored two different biographies of Jetsun Marpa, and I will briefly discuss this below.
Publications of two biographies by Pawo Tsuglag Trengwa
1) Publication Status of the Two Biographies
Amazing Accomplishments
First, the publication status of the two biographies. Among the two different biographies of Jetsun Marpa authored by Pawo Tsugla Trengwa, the one titled “Jetsun Marpa Liberation Story: Amazing Accomplishments” རྗེ་བཙུན་མར་པའི་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་གྲུབ་པའི་ངོ་མཚར་ is somewhat familiar to us, as it is included in the Kangyur Treasury edition and was published by the Tibet People’s Publishing House in 2014.
It was also published together with Marpa’s collected works by the China Tibetology Publishing House in 2018. And is included in Pawo Tsugla Trengwa’s collected works, published in 2019 by the Paltse Tibetan Ancient Manuscripts Research Institute, printed by the Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetan Ancient Manuscripts Press.
Lamp Illuminating the Excellent Path
The other biography, titled “Lamp Illuminating the Excellent Path: The Biography of Translator Marpa Chokyi Lodro,” ལམ་བཟང་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་ was published together with Pawo Tsuglag Trengwa’s collected works in 2019 by the Paltse Tibetan Ancient Manuscripts Research Institute, printed by the Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetan Ancient Manuscripts Press, and this is the only known publication of this biography.
Second, relating to Lamp on the Excellent Path: in the colophon of this biography, the author is identified as “Shakya monk and Dharma speaker Chogyal Dondrup” ཤཱཀྱའི་བཙུན་པ་ཆོས་སྨྲ་བ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་དོན་གྲུབ་ without explicitly mentioning “Tsuglak Trengwa.”
Furthermore, the title of this biography is not found in the manuscript known to have been written by Pawo Tsuglak Trengwa himself. This has led to doubts about the authorship of this biography.
However, by comparing the year of composition, the location of composition and printing, the person who commissioned the composition, the author’s name, and the author’s life story at the time, one can be certain that this biography was indeed written by Pawo Tsuglak Trengwa. (A facsimile of the biography of the Jetsun Marma obtained from the ancient manuscript collection.)
- the year of composition of the biography is as stated in the colophon:
“Four hundred and twenty-three years after the passing of the precious lord Marpa in the year of the female water sheep.” མཛད་བྱང་དུ་མངའ་བདག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མར་པ་ཉིད་ཞིང་གཞན་དུ་གཤེགས་ནས་ལོ་བཞི་བརྒྱ་དང་ཉི་ཤུ་གསུམ་ལོན་པ་ཆུ་མོ་ལུག་གི་ལོ་
In this biography itself, Marpa is said to have passed away in the year of the fire ox, which would be 1097 AD. Considering this, four hundred and twenty-three years after 1097 AD is 1520 AD, which is the year of the iron dragon, not the year of the female water sheep. However, overall, it can be considered that the year of composition is 1520 AD.
2. the place of composition is clearly stated in the colophon as “composed at the glorious Drowolung Serkhar གྲོ་བོ་ལུང་སྲས་མཁར་” and the printing location is also specified as the “great seat of glorious Drolung,” indicating that it was printed at the same place. As such, there is no doubt that this is the seat where Pawo Tsuglag Trengwa resided during the sixteenth century. Furthermore, by taking the date of composition and the place of composition as the basis and comparing them with Pawo Tsuglag Trengwa’s own life history, it can be clearly understood.
According to his autobiography, the Mirror Reflecting the Deceptive Face ( རང་རྣམ་འཁྲུལ་བའི་བཞིན་རས་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་) when he was seventeen years old, in the Iron Dragon year (1520), he was originally studying at Nyukla Lekshe Ling ( སྙུག་ལ་ལེགས་བཤད་གླིང་), but due to an illness, he returned to Drowolung in the south.
From that point, he remained in Drowolung until the age of nineteen, and for three years, apart from taking care of his own illness, he primarily undertook several renovations of the great temple of Serkhar.
Therefore, it is not contradictory to say that this biography was composed at this time. If, on the other hand, the year were to be the Water Sheep year, it would mean he was twenty years old at this time, which would contradict his own autobiography, the Mirror Reflecting the Deceptive Face, where it is written that at the beginning of the Water Sheep year, he went to Nyukla Lekshe Ling and stayed there for three years.
3. the author’s name did not appear as Tsuglak Trengwa at that time, but as Shakya Bhikshu Dharmasrava Chogyal Dondup ཤཱཀྱའི་བཙུན་པ་ཆོས་སྨྲ་བ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་དོན་གྲུབ་, because the name Tsuglak Trengwa was given by the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje when he met him at the age of twenty-nine in the year 1532 AD. Chogyal Dondup, on the other hand, is the name bestowed upon him when he was nine years old and took novice vows in the presence of the Fourth Karmapa Zhamarpa Chödrak Yeshe ཀརྨ་པ་ཞྭ་དམར་ཆོས་གྲགས་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྐུ་ཆོས་གྲགས་ཡེ་ཤེས་. Therefore, when this biography was written, he had not yet received the name Tsuglak Trengwa and had already received the other one.
4. the one who urged the composition of the biography is the one mentioned in the colophon as “the discerning-eyed realized being” མིག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་རྟོགས་ལྡན Sangha Sagar སཾ་གྷ་སཱ་ག་ར་.” His name is written in Chinese and is called “Tokden Gendun Gyatso” རྟོགས་ལྡན་དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ in Tibetan. Tokden Gendun Gyatso is the same person referred to in the autobiography of the Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa as the teacher who taught him to read the alphabet from the age of six.
3) Common and unique aspects of the two biographies
Thirdly, the common and unique aspects of the two biographies. These two biographies were composed by the same author at different times of his life, in the same place, due to the urging of different individuals.
“Excellent Path to Enlightenment” was composed when the author was seventeen years old, in the Iron Dragon year, 1520. The other, “Amazing Accomplishments” was completed when he was sixty years old, in the Water Pig year, 1563, leaving a gap of about 43 years in between.
However, as they were composed by the same author, they share common aspects, while the author’s unique circumstances during different times, different urges, and the author’s personal experiences at different times also make them have uncommon aspects.
a) Common aspects of the two life-stories: Sekhar Tower location, order of Marpa’s three trips to India
Besides the fact that both biographies were composed at the Drölung Sekhar [1] by Pawo Tsuglag Khang in Lhodrak, in terms of the chronology of Marpa of Lhodrak’s life, the content is almost the same.
Both versions are written in the order of Marpa’s three trips to India. The number of Marpa’s songs and the order of the songs in both biographies are largely the same.
Both biographies are written from the perspective of the same author being a holder of the lineage of Milarepa’s seat. They meticulously describe Milarepa’s later life and the circumstances of Marpa’s son Darma Dodé དར་མ་མདོ་སྡེ་ ‘s untimely death.
There are only minor differences, such as the way the names of Milarepa’s disciples are listed, and the overall structure of the two biographies is largely consistent. The author has presented the events in chronological order without any specific divisions or sections.
b) Uncommon/Unique Aspects: same author but different age, and style/content of the narratives
Secondly, the unique aspects are as follows. Although the authors of the biographies are the same, this is due to different reasons for writing and the time of writing, which have resulted in several unique characteristics for each. Some specific differences are as follows:
For instance, the life-story “Lamp Illuminating the Excellent Path” was written when the author was young, and it is heavily narrative in style. It can be said that the entire biography, from the beginning’s dedication to the end’s conclusion, is a complete story of characters, not just the main text. As a storyteller, the author has vividly and elaborately described the conversations between characters and the psychological changes of the characters in the story, captivating the reader’s mind.
On the other hand, the “Amazing Accomplishments” is the opposite, written in the author’s old age, with great investigation and meticulousness. As the preface states, it was written by comparing thirteen different biographies of Marpa. The entire biography has minimized the dialogues between characters, examined the birth and death years of the characters, scrutinized the order of events, verified the authenticity of Marpa’s songs, and particularly refuted other opinions and established his own regarding whether Marpa met Naropa on his third trip to India. It has extensively used logical and textual analysis to elevate Marpa’s biography from a mere narrative to a form of historical truth.
Now, the Mahashri Scripture Library, also known as the Nyingma Monastery Ancient Scripture House, is preparing to publish these two biographies written by Pawo Tsuglak Trengwa at the age of 17, “The Lamp Illuminating the Excellent Path: Life-story of the Translator Marpa Lotsawa,” and at the age of 60, “Amazing Accomplishments: Life-story of Jetsun Marpa.” We hope that this will benefit all readers.”
Translated by Adele Tomlin (5th February 2026). Original Tibetan below.
For other research and translations I have written and translated about Marpa Lotsawa, see here:
A “Kagyu Treasure” Tradition? Marpa’s Fifteen “Hidden Scrolls” from Sekhar
Original Tibetan text