Bhutan and the Buddhist Himalayan world maintains a rich tradition of life writing in the form of histories, biographies, travelogues, memoirs, catalogues, narratives and other types of life accounts. Among them, the genre of biography is the among the well-known forms of life writing. Bhutanese hierarchs who were capable of writing took great interest in writing accounts of their lives or the lives of their masters.
The most common form of biographical writing in Bhutan is namthar (རྣམ་ཐར་), which literally means ‘absolute liberation’. In its original context, the term namthar, or vimokṣa in Sanskrit, refers to the state of liberation and the traits of enlightenment that a spiritually enlightened person is said to have attained. As accounts of holy persons contain enlightened qualities or aspects of liberation as among its key content, the accounts came to be known as namthar. Because it deals with facets of liberation, namthar are believed to have a liberative soteriological power to free the listener or reader from the bondage of ordinary existence. They are attributed the spiritual power to liberate a listener or auditor from suffering and the cycles of existence. The namthar biography as a story of a holy or enlightened personage is said to inspire the reader and auditor and lead the person on the path to enlightenment and freedom.
Most namthar books, as sacred biographies written to instill religious devotion and longing for enlightenment, are hagiographies, generally giving a very positive and glorified account of the subject. Namthar hagiographies in general neither give a critical account of the subject nor details of the worldly or profane aspects of the subject’s life. It usually focuses instead on positive qualities and highlight spiritual achievements. In this regard, one can find namthar that mainly address with the outer social and religious life of the person, which is called a chiyi namthar, or outer biography. An outer namthar records the public and social life of the figure and often contains a great deal of historical information on the cultural, social, genealogical, historical, and/or political aspects of the person’s life.
In addition, one can find nangi namthar (ནང་གི་རྣམ་ཐར་), or inner biography, which would elaborate on the person’s inner education, training, religious devotion, and/or spiritual practices. They extol inner qualities such as compassion, erudition, wisdom, etc. The sangwai namthar (གསང་བའི་རྣམ་ཐར་), or secret biography, is an account of the life of some religious figures enumerating visions, dreams, esoteric practices, and private matters. They also narrate mystical experiences and acts of miracle making, supernatural powers, and the ultimate spiritual status of the subject. Although most biographies of religious figures combine all three aspects of outer, inner and secret biographies, for some lamas, three separate biographies are written.
While most namthar are about historical figures, there are some biographies about legendary figures who have come to be seen as historical persons. These include the biographies such as the stories of Khandro Drowa Zangmo, Nangsa Ödbum, Yuna Ralpa, and Pema Öbar. These legendary biographies contain religious messages of the futility of worldly endeavours, vagaries of life, religious devotion, karma retribution, rebirth, enlightenment, etc.
Biographies of historical persons often contain opening chapters giving cosmological, geographic and contextual information. For some lamas, this would also include their genealogy and the accounts of their previous incarnations. The biography would then discuss their birth, upbringing, religious vocation, education, spiritual training, and go on to narrate the achievements, often interspersed with verses of praises. Also included are lists of any institutions the subject founded, books composed, and a list of the subject’s students and followers. Some biographies may also contain some writings by the subject. Most biographies are written by another person close to the subject, such as student or a follower, but it is not unusual to find autobiographies authored by the subject himself or herself. If it is an autobiography, the book is generally not given the title namthar as it would be self-aggrandizing to call one’s life writing a liberative piece. The book may have a more modest title such as rangtsül jöpa (རང་ཚུལ་བརྗོད་པ་), or accounts of oneself. However, other people would call the autobiography a namthar.
Some namthar are given the title tokjö (རྟོགས་བརྗོད་), or accounts of realization, modeled on the Indian avadāna literature. These accounts give the description of a person’s spiritual realization and achievements. Some namthar and togjod biographies are full accounts of a person’s life even containing pre-birth information and posthumous and funerary details but others contain only accounts of a part of the subject’s life.
Namthar are written, published, distributed, owned, read, and listened to as a religious practice of merit-making and spiritual edification. Bhutanese families may sponsor the reading of certain biographies such as that of Guru Rinpoche as a ritual to overcome misfortunes and bring about prosperity and good health. In the past, namthar were often read in the evening as a spiritually-nurturing entertainment. A literate person would read the book to a group of listeners who would follow the story, ask questions, and offer comments. The story is supposed to inspire an audience in their moral and spiritual pursuits. The namthar culture helps the ordinary people forget the drudgeries of their ordinary life and aspire for higher ideals.
Karma Phuntsho is a social thinker and worker, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of many books and articles including The History of Bhutan.