Speaking Realization into Existence: Oral History and the Creation of Hagiographic Truths

In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, hagiography (rnam thar) is a vast and popular genre of literature that tells the life-stories of Buddhist figures. The term rnam thar indicates that the texts are one of the twelve divisions of the Buddha’s teachings (gsung rab yan lag bcu gnyis) and the origin of the rnam thar genre in Tibetan literature is likely to have emerged from the Sanskrit annals of the lives and works of the great siddhas. The term rnam thar itself means complete liberation, so it is implicit that rnam thar works center around extraordinary figures of religious ability. While some scholars classify rnam thar under the larger category of “History and Biography,” this definition is complicated by the fact that many rnam thar are not simply religious texts (Cabezon & Jackson, 1996); they are also performance texts and fodder for oral story-telling traditions such as a lce lha mo (Tibetan opera) and bla ma ma ni (oral story telling). In this vein, the term rnam thar is used to signify a sung aria within a libretto, as well as a specific style of high-register singing used in Tibetan opera and Amdo rnam thar performances. Although rnam thar as religious texts appear to have arrived in Tibet prior to the advent of Tibetan opera, dramatic conventions may have reflexively influenced the codification of certain tales into written form. Kurtis Schaeffer, in his translation of the hagiography of Tibetan Nun Orgyan Chokyi, writes, “Tibetan hagiography is a richly layered literature containing esoteric philosophy, folk practices, local history, social theory, political rhetoric, and pyrotechnic miracle displays in addition to personal and emotional musings” (Schaeffer, 2004).

Despite the fact that there is great diversity in hagiographies throughout Tibet, a diversity which points to its complex relationship to orally transmitted narratives, scholars tend to read, translate and interpret rnam thar for its historical and literary value. Focus on hagiography’s stylized and poetic aspects, its value as literature, belies its existence first as constructed oral narratives. Focus on hagiography’s historical value, its ability to convey information about the past, belies its constructed, often fabricated, nature. Is there another way to read about the lives of great religious figures that looks beyond the historical record as well as its literary tools?

This paper looks at two accounts of the life story of a reincarnate Buddhist master – one oral history given by a 25-year-old lama in Tibet and another account, taken only days apart, from the young lama’s main teacher. The young lama presents a version of his life that is filled out self-doubt, non-religious desires and fatigue with his position. He talks at length about his own doubts about whether or not he is in fact a reincarnation of a great lama from the past. He speaks at length about his desire to compose guitar music and his interest in film. He pines for freedom from the monastic system and recalls his own failures in monastic training. His teacher, on the other hand, presents a narrative that includes miracles and extraordinary signs that prove the accomplished nature of his student, as well as an exaggerated picture of his educational merits. He explains the lama’s time away from the monastery as part of a purposeful educational pathway and sees his non-religious interests as further evidence of his genius. He expresses admiration and devotion to the young lama, as well as ensures the listener understands his own value as an excellent teacher.

If we are not interested in uncovering the ‘truth’ of historical fact, what does the construction of a religious ideal in oral narrative form actually entail? How does a narrator tell the truth (larger truths of an ontological nature) while lying?

Inspired by Peter Faggen’s 2021 dissertation, “Contested Authority of a Tibetan Goddess: Narrating the Tragic and Non-traditional Life Story of the Lay Mother Reincarnate Kelzang Drölma,” this paper examines oral history of ‘great’ Buddhist individuals as a dialectic process between intersubjective interlocutors that come to form narratives of conventional nontruths. These nontruths are often deeply contested and embedded in political and economic frameworks of power. The dialogic process of biography-creation forces us to rethink the stability of the hagiographic text and imagine the narrative interests of hagiographic-ethnographers of the past. This paper will consider how hagiographic truth is both conventionally true (represents reality) and fabricated (reflects an untrue ideal). At the same time, I argue that the widespread popularity of hagiographic texts leads to intertextual reference in oral storytelling, which in turn becomes the fodder for literary narrative. Examination of this process forces us to reconsider the boundaries between textual and oral narrative, in turn blurring the boundaries between Buddhist Studies as an Anthropological and Philological endeavor.