Tsang Nyön Heruka, (1452-1507), ‘The Madman of Tsang’, is aptly portrayed in this extraordinary image of one of Tibet’s most extraordinary characters.1 He was an ordained follower of the Kargyu order with numerous monastic names, but it is by this epithet that he is most widely known and particularly revered. He followed to the letter the tantric practices laid out in early Indian texts, inhabiting charnel grounds where he smeared himself with human blood, fat and ash, picked fingers and toes from corpses to bind into his matted locks and chose a flayed human skin as a cape. He thought nothing of cannibalism. But for all his eccentric behaviour he wrote what is considered a masterpiece, the definitive biography of the Kargyu hierarch and poet/saint Milarepa (1040-1123), and the accompanying volume Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, one of the most popular literary works in Tibet. He had little to do with the monastic lifestyle, as his appearance in this sculpture would suggest. Although he travelled extensively through Tibet and Nepal as a yogin, he found time to take on pupils, and between them they wrote the biographies of the masters of the Kargyu lineage, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa and Rechungpa. He commissioned woodblocks to be carved to print the works. Indeed it was these printed books that brought the life of Milarepa into the popular domain; up to this point his story had been confined to manuscripts in monastery libraries, for the eyes of initiates only.2

The yogin raises his right hand exuberantly, holding the tip of a vajra sceptre. A blood-filled skull cup is poised in his left hand. Lips are parted and eyes wide open in a menacing glare and he is naked but for bone ornaments, a diadem binding his mass of plaited hair, and a short dhoti tied beneath his bulging stomach. An antelope skin serves as a rug covering the lotus pedestal. Descriptions of the man’s free spirit and wild nature are realized in this portrait, and there is a sense of triumph in his achievements gained through such eccentric behaviour, a ‘madness’ for which Tibetans have the highest esteem.

1 Inscription: mos-gus-yid-bzhin-nor-bu’i-byin-brlabskyis/ rnal-’byor-rgod-tshang-ras-p’ai-bsam-pa-bzhin/ rke-tshang-sgrub-sde’i-mchod-bnas-/ e-ma-ho/ dusgsum- sangs-rgyas-thams-cad-kyi/ sku-gsung-thugs-dangyon-tan-dang/ ‘phrin-las- gcig-tu-bsdus-pa’i-dpal/ snyigsdus-’ gro-ba’i-mgon-gyur-pa/ phyogs-las-rnam-rgyal-heru- ka/ rdor [illegible] –khrag-’thung-rgyal-po’i-sku/ dongnyis- lhun-grub-e-ma-ho/ dran-mcho-gtsang-smyon-rjela-’dud/
By the blessing of fervent devotion which is like a wishfulfilling gem, he became the lord of the beings of these degenerated times, his glory encompassing the Body, Speech and Mind of the three times as well as their accomplishments and powers, and [he became] the object of devotion of the community, dwelling in asceticism as advocated by the yogi Götsang Repa. Emaho. In the guise of Dor[illegible] Thrathung Gyalpo, the Heruka victorious over all directions, he accomplished spontaneously the two purposes. Emaho. Salutation to the dearest lord Tsangnyön.

2 For an overview of the life and works of Tsang Nyön Heruka, see Dinwiddie, 2003, pp. 125-127, and for two other portraits of the master, ibid. pp. 154-157.