Padmasambhava: Life Story Variations
Padmasambhava: Life Story Main PageSubjects, Topics & Sets:
- Description (below)
- Variations & Sources:
--- Dunhuang Manuscripts
--- Early Tibetan References & Colophons
--- Testament of Ba (dba' bzhed)
--- Buddhist 'Kama'
--- Buddhist 'Revealed Treasure' (Zamlingma, Pema Kathang)
--- Blue Annals
--- Bon Religion
- Confusions: Location of Oddiyana,
- Others...
Videos:
- Padmasambhava & Variations of the Life Story
- Padmasambhava (All Videos)
- The Life & Liberation of Padmasambhava (Book review)
There is very little original information on Padmasambhava that can be taken as historical or factual. Within the Nyingma tradition there are 'Kama' biographies which portray Padmasambhava as being born as a regular person, a prince within a kingdom of early India. There are 'Terma' biographies that claim Padmasambhava was born from a lotus in the kingdom of Oddiyana, likely borrowed from the earlier biography of Aryadeva the famous student of Nagarjuna. The most popular and likely the largest of the 'Terma' texts is known as the Padma Kathang discovered as a 'Revealed Treasure' biography by Orgyan Lingpa (1323-1360).
There is an early second millennium Tibetan text which claims that Padmasambhava is the brother-in-law of Shantarakshita and that they traveled together from Kanchipuram in south-east India to Tibet in the 8th century.
The Bon religion also has both 'Kama' and 'Terma' biographies and narratives of the life story of Padmasambhava. These sources vary greatly from those of the Nyingma Buddhists.
Jeff Watt [updated 11-2024]
(The images below are only a selection of examples from the links above).
