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Tibetan biographers began writing Jetsun Milarepa's (1052–1135) life story shortly after his death, initiating a literary tradition that turned the poet and saint into a model of virtuosic Buddhist practice throughout the Himalayan world. Andrew Quintman traces this history and its innovations in narrative and aesthetic representation across four centuries, culminating in a detailed analysis of the genre's most famous example, composed in 1488 by Tsangnyön Heruka, or the "Madman of Western Tibet." Quintman imagines these works as a kind of physical body supplanting the yogin's corporeal relics.
Price: $38.00
Pages: 336
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines
Publication Date:
05 November 2013
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780231164153
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
RELIGION / Buddhism / Tibetan, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Religious, RELIGION / Buddhism / History, PHILOSOPHY / Buddhist, LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / General
Quintman is the leading authority on the Milarepa story, and this book is the most important contribution to our understanding of this great narrative's rich history to date.
— Kurtis R. Schaeffer, University of Virginia
The most important study yet published about the literary tradition surrounding the greatest single work in Tibetan literature. It does more than any previous study to give historical access to the life (and lives) of Tibet's most revered and influential yogin and poet.
— Roger R. Jackson, Carleton College
This book studies the making of perhaps the greatest masterpiece in Tibetan history. Quintman shows how a bare account of events is transformed into a human story that touches the lives of both its author and its avid readers, making a signal contribution to the study of literature and its place in religion.
— Janet Gyatso, Harvard Divinity School
The Yogin and the Madman is a treasure trove for anyone, who wishes to learn more about literary traditions in the Himalayas, Buddhist history, and about the life of Milarepa.
Quintman's work represents a groundbreaking achievement in the presentation of Tibetan biographies to a wider audience. His command of both Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhism ensures a solid presentation of complex and wide-ranging material, and his deep knowledge of literary theory broadens the reader's understanding of sacred biography in general.
— Cécile Ducher
[A] masterful study.
— Janet Gyatso
— Kurtis R. Schaeffer, University of Virginia
The most important study yet published about the literary tradition surrounding the greatest single work in Tibetan literature. It does more than any previous study to give historical access to the life (and lives) of Tibet's most revered and influential yogin and poet.
— Roger R. Jackson, Carleton College
This book studies the making of perhaps the greatest masterpiece in Tibetan history. Quintman shows how a bare account of events is transformed into a human story that touches the lives of both its author and its avid readers, making a signal contribution to the study of literature and its place in religion.
— Janet Gyatso, Harvard Divinity School
The Yogin and the Madman is a treasure trove for anyone, who wishes to learn more about literary traditions in the Himalayas, Buddhist history, and about the life of Milarepa.
Quintman's work represents a groundbreaking achievement in the presentation of Tibetan biographies to a wider audience. His command of both Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhism ensures a solid presentation of complex and wide-ranging material, and his deep knowledge of literary theory broadens the reader's understanding of sacred biography in general.
— Cécile Ducher
[A] masterful study.
— Janet Gyatso
Andrew Quintman is associate professor of Religious Studies at Wesleyan University. He is the author of The Yogin and the Madman: Reading the Biographical Corpus of Tibet’s Great Saint Milarepa (Columbia University Press 2014).
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Earliest Sources: A Biographical Birth
2. Proto-Lives: Formations of a Skeletal Biography
3. Biographical Compendia: Lives Made Flesh
4. A New Standard: Tsangnyön Heruka's Life and Songs of Milarepa
5. The Yogin and the Madman: A Life Brought to Life
6. Conclusions
Epilogue: Mila Comes Alive!
List of Abbreviations
Appendix 1: Gampopa's Life of Jetsün Mila
Appendix 2: Colophons
Appendix 3: Outlines and Concordances
Notes
Bibliography
Index