About a century later, in 1 608, the large Sgam po pa hagiographies by Mkha' spyod dbang po and Sgam po B sod nams lhun grub were further expanded in a new version composed by the second Sgam po pa sprul sku and twenty-first abbot of Dags Iha sgam po monastery, Sgam po Zhabs drung 'Dzam gling nor bu rgyan pa (a.k.a., Mi pham chos kyi dbang phyug 'phrin las roam rgyal dpal bzang po, 1 589- 1 633).425 Nor bu rgyan pa compared a large number of earlier Sgam po pa hagiographies in order to add additional material to Sgam po Bsod nams lhun grub's version. He also augmented the text by adding further scriptural sources from the Tibetan canon on the stories of Bsod nams rin chen's former lives as bodhisattvas and he supplemented the information on Bsod nams rin chen's family line, of which the author himself was a descendant.
The last large Sgam po pa hagiography to be written in free Tibet426 was penned in 1 888 by Mai:ii ba Karma Nges don bstan rgyas (ca. 1 849- 1 942), composed at the author's hermi
tage is Sman sdong. While Nges don bstan rgyas generally bases his text on the hagiographical prototypes of the preceding tradition, his work is notable for the considera
ble shift in focus and style that it introduces. The writing style is much less literary and embellished than that seen in the earlier texts and instead employs a simple and quite direct form of prose. Further, the text only pays scant attention to B sod nams rin chen's youth and Bka ' gdams pa studies and instead hones in on the spiritual relationship that developed between Bsod nams rin chen and his Bka ' brgyud teacher Mi la ras pa. It is also notable that the author draws in considerable material from various instructional texts of the Dags po 'i
421 I.e., Nye gnas Shes rab gzhon nu.
422 Perhaps referring to Nye gnas Sho sgom Byang chub ye shes.
423 The identity of the last mentioned assistant, Gsal Ye, is unknown.
424 For the chronology of the abbots of Dags lha sgam po, see S0RENSEN & DOLMA (2007 :46-50).
425 For bibliographical details, see pp. 85ff.
426 A number of modem summaries of B sod nams rin chen's life story have since 1 95 1 been published in Communist Tibet and by the refugee diaspora community abroad. One such work is Gang can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdwd edited by Ko shul Grags pa 'byung gnas and Rgyal ba Blo bzang mkhas grub (published by Kan su'u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1 992), pp. 843-845 . Another is Dpal mnyam med mar pa bka ' brgyud kyi grub pa 'i mtha ' rnam par nges par byed pa mdor bsdus su brjod pa dwags brgyud grub pa 'i me long by Khro ru mkhan po Tshe mam (published by Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1 989), pp. 50-62.
Chapter 3 : The Hagiographical Tradition 1 53
bka'
'bum, which is novel to the hagiographical genre, and uses this to give the reader a thorough overview of Bsod nams rin chen's teachings and instructions framed in a practical concern of how he guided his students. It thus appears that the author has drawn to a considerable extent on his own spiritual interests - himself being a renowned meditative recluse and retreatant (mtshams pa) of the nineteenthcentury Karma km?i tshang tradition -to produce a novel version of the Sgam po pa hagiography that is more centered on meditation and inner guidance than on outer events.The text includes segments on the scriptural Sutra prophecies regarding B sod nams rin chen (folios l b-Sa) ; his childhood and early years as a bka ' gdams monk (8a- l l a) ; the yogic training he received during the eleven months he spent with Mi Ia ras pa ( 1 1 a-4 1 a); the years he spent in solitary practice retreat in the wilderness ( 4 1 a-48b ); the qualities, activities and miracles he displayed for the benefit of his students, along with rather detailed explanations on the different types of instructions that he gave (48b-64b) ; his answers to various questions and how he guided his students ( 64b-72b) ; his students and their activities (72b-75a) ; and an epilogue concerning the nature of the hagiography and the benefits that practitioners may derive from reading such texts (75a-79a) .427
The stories of Sgam po pa's life presented here have revealed a formative process. The simple and at times somewhat conflicting narrative elements of the earliest fragmentary life stories gradually became unified into a larger, more fixed religious vita that shaped the traditional view of B sod nams rin chen and his significance for the Bka ' brgyud lineages.
This standard version of the story was cemented by Mkha' spyod dbang po's Large Hagiography composed in the second half of the fourteenth century at a time when the Bka ' brgyud schools were going through a period of increased political and cultural influence in Tibet and China. By including the Large Hagiography into the first printed edition of the Dags po 'i bka ' 'bum corpus in the reworked, embellished adaptation of the vita by Sgam po Bsod nams lhun grub in 1 520, the hagiographical stream was fused with the textual transmission of teachings from the Dags Iha sgam po community. From this point on in time, the life and teachings of B sod nams rin chen were embedded in a single transmission, in which the hagiography informed the reading of the teaching texts and vice versa. This is the traditional hermeneutical framework from within which the teachings of Sgam po pa have been read and promulgated in the Tibetan speaking world since the sixteenth century.
With a clearer understanding of the Tibetan narrative construct of Sgam po pa as a religious founder in hand, the next part of the book will lead the reader into a larger study of the Manifold Sayings of Dags po, being the collection of teachings associated with B sod nams rin chen's authorship.
427 The folio numbers are to the xylograph version of the text (NGMPP microfilm reel no.
B656/2). For further bibliographical references, see fn. 149.