94. Milarepa Thangka (Thanka). Free Brocade / Free Shipping.

Milarepa (Yogi of Tibet) Thangka : Milarepa is one of the most widely known Tibetan Saints. In a superhuman effort, he rose above the miseries of his younger life and with the help of his Guru, Marpa the Translator, took to a solitary life of meditation until he had achieved the pinnacle of the enlightened state, never to be born again into the Samsara (whirlpool of life and death) of worldly existence. Out of compassion for humanity, he undertook the most rigid asceticism to reach the Buddhic state of enlightenment and to pass his accomplishments on to the rest of humanity. His spiritual lineage was passed along to his chief disciples, Gambopa and Rechung. It was Rechung who recorded in detail the incidents of Milarepa's life for posterity. The narrative of his life has thus been passed down through almost a millennium of time and has become an integral part of Tibetan culture. In addition to Rechung's narrative of his life, summarized below, Milarepa extemporaneously composed innumerable songs throughout his life relevant to the dramatic turns of events of himself and his disciples in accordance with an art form that was in practice at the time. These songs have been widely sung and studied in Tibet ever since and have been recorded as the Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. His faithful devotion, boundless religious zeal, monumental forbearance, superhuman perseverance, and ultimate final attainment are a great inspiration today for all. His auspicious life illumined the Buddhist faith and brought the light of wisdom to sentient beings everywhere. The Life of Milarepa Milarepa was born into the family of Mila-Dorje-Senge in the year 1052. His father was a trader in wool and had become wealthy by the standards of the time when his wife bore a son. The son was named Thopaga which means delightful to hear, and Thopaga, later known as Mila-repa (Mila, the cotton clad), lived up to his name as he had a beautiful voice and charmed his companions with his singing. The family lived in a large stone house that consisted of three stories held in place by a large central pillar and supporting columns - a mansion in comparison to the modest homes of his neighbors. The brother and sister of Milarepa's father had also settled in the area along with their families, and the clan would often congregate at the great stone house of Mila-Dorje-Senge. The family was well to do and generous and became the darling of all the relatives and neighbors in the area. They would often gather at the house to enjoy feasts. The gathering of friends and neighbors would often fawn over the small children - the young son Milarepa (then called Thopaga), and his sister, Peta who was four years younger. During this period the family enjoyed the admiration and attention of their neighbors, ate only the finest food and wore nothing but fancy clothes and jewelry. About this time the father, Mila-Dorje-Senge, became gravely ill and accepting his impending death, called together the extended family and made known to all that he wanted his entire estate and all possessions put into the care of his brother and sister until such time as Milarepa had grown and married Zesay, one of the neighboring girls who had been betrothed to him in childhood according to the tradition of the times. After the fathers death, however, Milarepa's greedy Aunt and Uncle who had been given charge of the property, divided the estate between them, dispossessing Milarepa, his mother, and sister Peta of all their worldly possessions. They were forced to live with them in the lowest accommodations and were given only coarse food and even made to work in the fields. Over the ensuing years their health suffered, their clothes were rough and tattered, the heads of the two children became invaded by lice. The mother and her two children who had formerly been the darlings of the village, now became objects of derision and abuse by all, who now spurned and ridiculed them. When Milarepa reached his fifteenth year, his mother decided on a plan to recover the lost inheritance. She scraped together whatever resources she could borrow from neighbors and relatives and put on a feast, inviting all who had been present when her husband had died and made known his last wishes. As the assembled neighbors and relatives were feasting and drinking large cups of chang (fermented barley), she stood up and recounted all that her husband had said on his deathbed, reminding her husband's brother and sister that they were to be only caretakers of the estate. Now that Milarepa had attained his majority, she requested that all the property be restored to them. But the greedy Aunt and Uncle now claimed that they had been the original owners and had only loaned the property to the Mila-Dorje-Senge family and thus, Milarapa and his mother had no real claim on the property. The aunt and uncle now began indignantly slapping Milarepa's mother and the two children, calling them ungrateful wretches to act thus after accepting the charity of living with them and eating their food. Thus they drove them out of the large stone house to let the mother and children fend for themselves. Some of the relatives and neighbors were sympathetic to Milarepa's family, but they were not sufficient in strength or numbers to oppose the clan of the Aunt and Uncle. And so it happened that the three were turned out of their own house. After that they lived meagerly, supported by the relatives of Milarepa's mother and charity from Zesay's family. The three were forced to work hard, exchanging their labor for a bit of food or a scrap of clothing. During this time they found no joy in their lives whatsoever. One day Milarepa happened to be singing loudly, proud of his voice, when his mother overheard him and was stung to the quick by his unseemly outburst of happiness. She immediately berated him for his transgression in the face of the relentless misery of their existence. She thought over the situation and decided to take action. She wanted him to learn the black arts of sorcery in order to wreak vengeance on their enemies, the greedy Aunt and Uncle. Milarepa agreed that he would apply himself under a good teacher if his mother provided him with fees for the apprenticeship and living expenses. In order to do so, She sold half of the small plot of property that had belonged to her side of the family before her marriage and sent Milarapa off with money. Before he took her leave she very solemnly told him that she would kill herself in his very presence if he returned without having learned sufficient magic to be able to wreak some havoc on their enemies. Milarepa traveled a distance away to a Lama who was known about the countryside as one who was proficient in the black arts. Along with some other young apprentices, Milarepa spent nearly a year learning mostly ineffectual magic rites with high sounding titles. At the end of the year, the pupils were sent off and told that if they applied themselves diligently they would succeed in their quest. Milarepa accompanied his companions for a time as they took their leave but then turned back to the Lama's house. Along the way, he collected a quantity of manure and dug a hole and buried it in the Lama's garden as a small gift to his teacher. The Lama observed this from his roof, and is said to have remarked that he had never had a pupil more affectionate and industrious as the young lad Milarepa was. The latter, went in to the Lama's presence and told him of his mother's vow to kill herself in his presence if he didn't learn some real magic. He then recounted his tale of woe in all its detail to the Lama who was greatly saddened by the story. The Lama decided to confer some real power on Milarepa but he wanted to make sure that the magic would not be used unjustly so he sent a fleet disciple to Milarepa's homeland to find out if the tale was true. On the disciples return, he agreed to show him the true and potent rituals for invoking the Tutelary deities to take revenge. Milarepa absorbed all the teachings thoroughly and carefully carried out the prescribed ritual for 14 days. At the end of the ritual the Tutelary deities appeared to him in a vision with the bloody heads and hearts of 35 of the relatives who had most ill-treated him. The Lama informed him that two of the guilty ones had been missed and asked Milarepa if he wanted their lives as well. He replied that he wanted them to be spared as witnesses to the power of his magic. Thus it came to pass that his two very worst enemies, the greedy Aunt and Uncle were spared from harm. From a phenomenal aspect, the sorcery took the form of a disaster that occurred at the family wedding. All the relatives and friends who had been most offensive to him had gathered at the great stone house to celebrate the wedding. There was a big commotion outside and some of the horses kept in the yard started kicking and running about violently agitated, until one of them ran into the main supporting column of the three story house with such force that the entire house came crashing down on the wedding party with tremendous noise and force killing everyone inside except for the Aunt and Uncle. All this was observed by some of those sympathetic to the Milarepa family who were just approaching the house. Milarepa's mother quickly learned of the catastrophe and was ecstatic with cruel joy. She came gloating over the destruction that her son had caused telling everyone what joy her son had brought to her aging heart by causing so much death and destruction. The relatives of the dead were quite upset at the tragedy and more so to learn of her gloating. They talked it over but were divided on whether to get together and kill her in revenge, or to go after her son Milarepa, who had directly caused the destruction. After due consideration they decided to find and kill the son. Soon word of their plans got back to the mother so she sent a message to her son, along with several gold pieces she got from selling the remaining half of her plot of land. In the note she described her joy at his success and requested him now to launch a powerful hail storm on the area, ruining the crops of their enemies and striking fear into their hearts so as to prevent further retaliation. Milarepa received the note from the pilgrim courier and gave the gold pieces over to the Sorcerer-Lama, requesting him to teach him the art of launching hail storms. Armed with his new magic, Milarepa traveled incognito back to his homeland and set up his ritualistic site on a hillside overlooking the valley of his homeland below. He began his incantations and soon dark clouds began to gather and then a succession of three powerful hail storms utterly ruined the entire barley crop of that year, a crop that had promised to be one of the heaviest in years. After the destruction, Milarepa retreated to a cave in the hillside to escape the cold wind and lit a fire for warmth. After a few hours he heard some of his former neighbors walking by the cave he had taken refuge in. They had guessed who was responsible for this fresh mischief and were immensely angered by the all destruction he had caused, first to the 35 people killed in the wedding party, and now to the season's rich harvest of barley - utterly laid waste. The men were talking amongst themselves, saying as they walked past the cave that if Milarapa fell into their hands at that very moment, their vengeance could hardly be satisfied by chopping his body into tiny bits; such was their anger. At that instant one of them spotted the fire and guessed that it was Milarepa himself taking refuge in the cave. They hurried quickly and quietly away to go gather a party to go after him. Meanwhile as soon as they had left, Milarepa made good his escape and journeyed back to the Sorcerer-Lama. Size: Size without Brocade: 15 inches by 20 inches Shipping: We ship within 2 business day. DHL Shipping: 5 to 8 business days with tracking number. Insurance against loss. We do wholesale too. Our one and only priority in this business is to provide "Hassle free Customer Satisfaction". We have "Quality Products" with "Cheapest Price" in the market. Please contact us to resolve any issues. Contact us via email before leaving any negative or neutral comments. We promise you that we will resolve any issues. Please confirm the return address with us before returning the product.