Tonpa Shenrab ( "Teacher Shenrab") or Shenrab Miwo ()—also called the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

Shenrab,

Guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverentia ...

Shenrab and a number of other titles—is the legendary founder of the

Bon ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...

tradition of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. The story of Tonpa Shenrab was revealed in a fourteenth century terma of Loden Nyingpo.

Etymology

The name ''Shenrab Miwo'' is in the

Zhang-Zhung language Zhang-Zhung () is an extinct language, extinct Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language that was spoken in what is now western Tibet. It is attested in a bilingual text called ''A Cavern of Treasures'' (''mDzod phug'') and several shorter te ...

, which is a relative of

Old Tibetan Old Tibetan refers to the period of Tibetan language reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to works of the early 11th century. In 816 CE, during the reign of Sadnalegs, literary Tibetan u ...

; while many suggestions have been put forward as to its meaning, it appears to be the Zhangzhung word "

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools ...

" (equivalent to Tibetan ''shégya sempa'', ).

Shenrab's life according to Bon traditions

According to Bon doctrine, Tonpa Shenrab lived 18,000 years ago, predating

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

. Practitioners of Bon believe that he first studied the Bon doctrine in Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, at the end of which he pledged to

Shenlha Okar Shenlha Ökar () or Shiwa Ökar () is the most important deity in the Yungdrung Bon tradition of Tibet. He is counted among the "Four Transcendent Lords" () along with Satrig Ersang (Sherab Chamma), Sangpo Bumtri, and Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche. Nam ...

, the god of compassion, that he would guide the peoples of this world to liberation. Like Gautama, Tönpa Shenrab was of royal birth. Tonpa Shenrab renounced his royal inheritance at the age of thirty-one to travel the path to enlightenment. Tonpa Shenrab embraced the life of a renunciate and commenced austerities, spreading the doctrine of Bon; at length, he arrived in the land of

Zhangzhung Zhangzhung or Shangshung was an ancient culture and kingdom in western and northwestern Tibet, which pre-dates the culture of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. Zhangzhung culture is associated with the Bon religion, which has influenced the philosophies ...

near what is widely held to be

Mount Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It h ...

. Accounts of Tonpa Shenrab's life are to be found in three principal sources, the ''Dodü'' (), ''Zermik'' (), and ''Ziji'' (). The first and second of the accounts are held to be terma discovered by

tertön Tertön () is a term within Tibetan Buddhism meaning a person who is a discoverer of ancient hidden texts or '' terma''. Many tertöns are considered to be incarnations of the twenty five main disciples of Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), who foresaw ...

in the 10th or 11th century; the third is part of the oral lineage () transmitted from teacher to disciple.

Aspects of Shenrab Miwoche

Shenrab Miwoche is said to have three aspects or forms: * the

tulku A ''tulku'' (, also ''tülku'', ''trulku'') is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor. High-profile examples ...

() or nirmaṇakāya, Shenrab Miwoche; * the ''dzokku'' () or sambhogakāya,

and * the ''bönku'' () or

dharmakāya The ''dharmakāya'' ( sa, धर्म काय, "truth body" or "reality body", zh, t=法身, p=fǎshēn, ) is one of the three bodies ('' trikāya'') of a buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The ''dharmakāya'' constitutes the unmanifested, "incon ...

Tapihritsa Tapihritsa or Tapahritsa (c 7th ~ 8th century) was a Bon practitioner who achieved the Dzogchen mastery of the rainbow body and consequently, as a fully realised trikaya Buddha, is invoked as an iṣṭadevatā ( xct, yi dam) by Dzogchen practitio ...

.The Tibetan for ''dharmakaya'' is ''chos sku'' in the Buddhist context; though a case can be made that Bon borrowed some, or even much, of its current terminology from Buddhism, to suggest that Sanskrit words are thus the "source" of this terminology is dubious.

Footnotes

References

* Bellezza, John Vincent. (2010). "gShen-rab Myi-bo, His life and times according to Tibet’s earliest literary sources." ''Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines'' Number 19 October 2010, pp. 31–118. *Unknown Author (2005).
The Bonpo's Tradition
'. (Accessed: January 17, 2007).

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miwoche, Tonpa Shenrab Bon Year of birth missing Year of death missing Founders of religions Bon deities