Peintures tibétaines de la vie de Mi-la-ras-pa

Abstract

This paper gives a description of a complete set of three paintings illustrating the life of Milarepa, the famous saint and poet who lived in XIth century in Tibet. These thangka are kept in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. They were acquired by Jacques Bacot in the eastern province of Khams around 1910. All three of them follow the same organisational lines: a central picture of the yogin surrounded by many clearly-defined registers relating episodes of his life. Most of them have legends handwritten in printing characters identifying people and places. Indeed these painted scrolls were used most likely to accompany the narrative of the mani-pa story-tellers who used to travel from village to village telling legends about great Tibetan saints and heros for the edification of the people. Life of this most famous among Tibetan hermits is well-known to us through his biography, rnam-thar, as well as the collection of his songs, mgur 'bum, the work of a XVIth century yogin of which exist several translations in western languages. Those very popular texts have guided us in analysing and interpreting the various scenes depicted in each painting.