Study Of The Biography Of U Rgyan Pa—A Tibetan Monk In The 13^th Century

U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal(1230-1309)was a great adept of the bKa brgyud school of Tibetan Buddhism,particularly renowned for his knowledge of the Kalacakra tantra and the unique teaching known as the Approach and Attainment of the Three vajras(rDo rje gsum gyi bsnyen sgrub),said to have been given to him in his vision by vajrayogini(rDo rje rnal 'byor ma)in the Miraculous Land(sprul pai zhing)of U rgyan-He was the student rC of the 2nd Karma pa,who entrusted him with the Black Hat,which he passed to the 3 Karma pa.He was also a great traveller who journeyed widely across and beyond Tibet.He met Qubilai Khan in the capital of Yuan China and visited sacred Buddhist sites ir n South India-He has been aptly described by van der Kuijp as the great Tibetan yogi,thaumaturge,scholar,alchemist and traveler"Thanks to the availability of a large amount of hitherto unknown materials from eleven biographies,the thesis has put considerable weight on the bibliographical comparison and analysis of the different works in an attempt to establish the possible relationship between them.This is supplemented by summaries of the biographies,to give an overview of the protagonist's life in Part One of the thesis.Part Two consists of a critical study of the different phases and aspects of U rgyan pa's life in the unique historical political and religious context of each phase,drawing materials from the corpus of biographies and in the light of other primary and secondary sources in Tibetan,Chinese and Westernlanguages-In Chapter I,U rgyan pa's family lineage,childhood and early studies are discussed in order to find out how his innate propensities and early studies are represented as having influenced his character.In Chapter Il,the account of U rgyan pa' s journey to West Tibet and U rgyan is studied.A sixteen-stanza song in his own words epitomising this journey,supplemented by route maps will be used as a framework to illustrate and reconstruct his journey to the Land of the Dakinis-In Chapter ?,the teachings he received and the subsequent transformation of his character and status,are explored.