From Song to Biography and from Biography to Song: The Use of gur in Marpa's namthar

This article is a presentation of the literary tradition surrounding the Tibetan eleventh-century translator Marpa. It shows that one of the main sources of the more than thirty biographies of Marpa now available are the songs that he is considered to have sung to his disciples, often summarising his life and particularly his journeys to India. The article examines how in the tradition the songs were first used as sources and later as legitimising tools.