ABSTRACT
Milarepa (Mi la ras pa) was born in the high Himalaya of Tibet, in the small village of Kyangngatsa (Skyang rnga rtsa) near the present-day border with Nepal, probably in 1040 ce, and died a good eighty-three years later, probably in 1123 ce. As he eschewed political and administrative circles, there is little or no synchronic evidence of his life, and therefore, while most scholars accept that he existed, doubts remain about even his most basic details, including his dates. What has been preserved in abundance, by contrast, are stories about him and songs attributed to him. Some of these are obviously apocryphal and reflect the layers of biographical, lyrical, and cultic traditions that developed after his life. But some can be dated to his lifetime, or very soon after, and therefore provide ample evidence at least for his existence, if not for some of the particulars of his activities.
