The view from nowhere : the travels of the third karmapa, rang byung rdo rje in story and songs

Abstract

Rang byung rdo rje (1284-1339), the third Karmapa, was an important figure in the development of Tibetan Buddhism. He is most famous for his commentaries and treatises that systemised the lineages of tantric Buddhism he inherited, works that have been the subject of numerous studies. Until this present study, however, his personal writing, both his biographical liberation-stories (rnam thar) and his songs (mgur/glu) have not been translated in full or studied. As much of his writing in these two genres was composed while he travelled around first Tibet, then Mongolia and China, travelling is one of these works' major themes, and therefore the thematic subject of this thesis. The study's thematic approach to these compositions has allowed it to examine them as both literature and historical sources. A combination that, in turn, has not only provided many more details about his life than earlier studies, but also enabled an investigation of Rang byung rdo rje's contribution to Tibet's literary culture, in which the two genres of rnam thar and mgur/glu have played a central role. As this thesis explains, what becomes evident in this literary and historical examination of Rang byung rdo rje's writings in these genres is that his influence on Tibetan culture was not limited to his contribution to Tibet's intellectual history. He also played a pivotal role in the development of two other important elements of Tibetan culture: the sacralisation of Tibet's environment and the tradition of recognising reincarnated gurus, both of which he helped establish on his travels. Moreover, this investigation shows how intertwined these processes were in Rang byung rdo rje's writing: how much Rang byung rdo rje's presentation of the Karmapa reincarnate lineage - the first reincarnate lineage upon which others were modelled - depended on the sacralisation of the Karmapas' environments to sustain their status across lives; and how much the sacralisation of the Karmapas' environments depended on both their sanctified presence, and their cultural "landscaping" of these sites through architecture, art and most influentially literature. In establishing this connection between sacred sites and the development of Tibet's first reincarnation lineages, this thesis further demonstrates how Rang byung rdo rje's participation in both these projects depended on his claims to and articulation of otherworldly visions. Through these visions he established a religious, otherworldly, periphery-focused authority upon which he could make claims about identity and territory that stood in opposition to those made on the same region by its this-worldly rulers, the Mongol Empire. It also shows how this alternate vision was aided by Rang byung rdo rje's promotion of the mahamudra tradition, a tradition whose sceptical approach to all phenomena suggested experiences of this and other worlds were equally unreal.