ABSTRACT
As noted, the earlier sources on Milarepa recount, with varying degrees of detail and narrative length, how he was born into an extremely poor family of no great repute, from a low-caste clan, with few members and without a genealogy. Similarly, like Gampopa, Zhang, and Gyelthangpa (although not the Buchen Chunyi, which makes no mention of the family’s social and economic status), Tsangnyön Heruka also begins the Milarepa’i Namthar with an account of the Repa’s youth and familial background. Nevertheless, he also does so with a notable twist.
