Life of Milarepa
Milarepa (1040–1123 CE), born as Thopaga, is the most revered yogi and poet in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly within the Kagyu school. His life story is one of the most dramatic spiritual transformation narratives in world religion. In his youth, he was driven by vengeance to learn black magic and killed many people, including relatives, through sorcery. Consumed by remorse, he sought out the great master Marpa Lotsawa (the Translator) and underwent an extraordinarily harsh apprenticeship. Marpa made Milarepa build and demolish tower after tower with his bare hands — a famous spiritual discipline designed to purify his accumulated negative karma.
After receiving the full transmission of the teachings, Milarepa retreated to the wilderness. He spent decades in isolated caves throughout the Tibetan plateau, wearing only a thin cotton cloth even in the bitter Himalayan winter (hence his name: Mila, “cotton-clad,” and Repa, “one who wears cotton”). Surviving almost entirely on wild nettles, his skin is said to have turned green. Through single-minded meditation, he achieved profound realization in a single lifetime — a feat normally said to require countless lives of practice.
Connection to Mount Kailash
In his later years, Milarepa made Mount Kailash his principal seat of meditation. He established a hermitage in the sacred valleys surrounding the mountain and spent extensive periods in strict retreat (Tibetan: tsam) at caves along the Kora route. One of the most famous landmarks on the pilgrimage circuit — the Milarepa Cave — is believed to be where the yogi meditated in deep samadhi, emanating great warmth that melted the snow around his cave.
During his time at Kailash, Milarepa composed some of his most celebrated spiritual songs, known as Doha or Gurum (songs of realization). These spontaneous poetic utterances describe his meditative experiences, the nature of mind, and the luminosity of reality as perceived from the sacred mountain. Pilgrims today still recite many of these gurums as they circumambulate the mountain.
The Great Contest: Milarepa vs. Naro Bonchung
The single most legendary event at Mount Kailash is the duel between Milarepa and Naro Bonchung, a powerful Bonpo priest who claimed possession of the mountain for the indigenous Bön religion. The contest is narrated extensively in Milarepa’s biography, the Mila Khabum (The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa).
According to the legend, the two engaged in a series of magical competitions to determine who had the true right to reside at and bless Kailash:
- The water race: Both were to race divine waters downstream. Naro Bonchung cast his into a river, but Milarepa, through spiritual power, caused his water to flow upstream.
- The mountain race: On the day of the Buddha’s great festival, Naro Bonchung mounted his ritual drum and flew toward the summit of Kailash at dawn. Milarepa remained calmly meditating. When his disciples grew anxious, he waited until just the right moment, then snapped his fingers and instantly appeared at the summit, arriving before Naro Bonchung, who, startled by Milarepa’s sudden presence, fell from his drum.
- The final settlement: In some versions of the story, rather than claiming total victory, Milarepa compassionately offered Naro Bonchung a different mountain — Mount Tise (also called Bonri), nearby — where the Bön tradition could continue to thrive. Milarepa then claimed Kailash as a Buddhist sacred site.
This contest is understood symbolically as representing the historical transition of Tibet from the indigenous Bön religion to Buddhism during the second diffusion (around the 11th-12th centuries). Despite the competitive framing of the legend, modern interpreters see it as an allegory for cultural and spiritual synthesis rather than outright conquest.
Spiritual Songs at Kailash
Milarepa’s gurums composed at Kailash are treasured in Tibetan spiritual literature. One celebrated verse, freely rendered:
“Upon the snow-crowned peak of Kailash, I beheld the face of Chakrasamvara; Above the turquoise waters of Lake Manasarovar, Padmasambhava’s blessings pervade all space.”
These songs express the core Kagyu teaching: that the nature of mind is luminous emptiness, and that ultimate reality can be directly perceived through meditation. Kailash, in Milarepa’s songs, is not merely an external mountain but a representation of the practitioner’s own awakened nature — the inner Mount Meru, axis mundi of the subtle body.
Cultural Legacy
Milarepa is Mount Kailash’s most famous “resident” across all traditions. His legacy permeates every aspect of the Kora experience:
- Pilgrimage stops: The Milarepa Cave, located along the northern face of the mountain, is a mandatory stop where pilgrims offer butter lamps, tsampa, and prayers. Many believe that meditating here accelerates one’s spiritual progress.
- Oral tradition: His songs continue to be transmitted orally and sung in monasteries, in homes, and during circumambulation. They are among the oldest continuously performed poetic works in the world.
- Art and iconography: Milarepa is always depicted seated on an antelope skin, his right hand cupped to his ear as if listening to the “echo of emptiness,” his skin with a faint greenish hue from years of consuming only nettles.
- Interfaith symbolism: The Milarepa-Naro Bonchung legend makes Kailash one of the world’s rare sites where competition and coexistence between two religions are embedded into the landscape itself. Both Buddhist and Bön pilgrims acknowledge this shared history as they walk the Kora — Buddhists clockwise, Bön practitioners counterclockwise, each honoring their own heritage while recognizing the mountain’s universal sanctity.
Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims pass by the sites associated with Milarepa’s life and contests. His story — of radical transformation, solitary discipline, poetic expression, and compassionate settlement — remains central to the spiritual identity of Mount Kailash.