Milarepa won Kailash

Milarepa (1040-1123) was unarguably the foremost respected Tibetan yogis and all schools of the Tibetan Buddhism believe that Milarepa achieved englightment in one lifetime!!!

Marpa, the great master of Milarepa, told him "if you can't meditate on your understanding of Buddhism, living a long life would only be the cause to be reborn in the hell."

Milarepa reached Mount Kailash in 1093. On arrival at Gur La, a pass where you first see Mount Kailash as you approach from the west. Milarepa was welcomed by the local deities and spirits, the so-called land owners. They offered him the sacred Mount Kailash and the holy lake of Manasarovar as a retreat centre for himself and his followers.

Then, at the lakeside, Milarepa encountered the famous Bon Po (the pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion) practitioner, Naro Bon Chung. He asked Milarepa, "Who are you and where are you going?" Milarepa answered, "My name is Milarepa. We are going to the sacred Mount Kailash to meditate." Naro Bon Chong replied "Kailash and Manasarovar belong to the Bon religion, so you can only meditate there if you practice Bon." Milarepa replied, "Buddha Shakyamuni predicted that Mount Kailash would be a sacred place for all Buddhists practitioners in general. The great master Marpa especially advised me to go to Mount Kailash to meditate. Therefore, Mount Kailash is a sacred Buddhist mountain and Bon practitioners can only remain there if they practice Buddhism." Milarepa and Naro Bon Chung had a long argument. Finally, they used their spiritual powers to compete with each other to see who should own Mount Kailash.

Naro Bon Chung stepped across holy Manasarovar. He sang this song: "You, Milarepa, are like Mount Kailash and Manasarovar with great fame from afar. Mount Kailash is just a rocky mountain covered by snow, and Manasarovar is a lake which stores all the dirt coming from the rivers. You, Milarepa, are a skinny man, who is just skin and bone. There is nothing wonderful about you at all." Then, Milarepa left Manasarovar on the tips of his fingers, without causing any harm to the living beings in the lake, and sang this song: " I, Milarepa, known by all people, came to Mount Kailash in order to fulfil Lho Drang Marpa's advice and to achieve my own goal and others' through meditation. Since you, Naro Bon Chung, came with the wrong idea, I am going to compete and do whatever it takes." Their final match was to see who could be first to get to the top of Mount Kailash; this would decide the ownership of Mount Kailash and Manasarovar. So, on the day, Naro Bon Chung left early in the morning while Milarepa was still in his bed. A follower of Milarepa woke him up and said, "Naro has left early. Are you going to give away the sacred mountain?" At sunrise, Milarepa flew to the top of Mount Kailash. Naro Bon Chung lost his drum because he was unable to bear the rays shining from the peak of the mountain. The great scar down the side of Mount Kailash is believed to have been made by Naro Bon Chung's drum. Since Naro Bon Chung was unable to defeat Milarepa, he said, "You have won, but please give me a place from where I can see Mount Kailash." So Milarepa threw a handful of snow from the mountain, creating a small Kailash. Milarepa offered the small mountain to Naro Bon Chung. Still today, the small mountain is known as Gang-Chung (small Kailash) or Bon Re (the mountain of Bon).

Since the 11th century, the Kagyu Pa sect of Tibetan Buddhism have been the owners of Mount Kailash and Manasarovar. Milarepa told his students to practise their meditation on Mount Kailash. Then Gampopa (1079-1153), one of Milarepa's closest disciples, also told his disciple, Pugmodrupa (1110-1170), to send graduate monks to meditate continuously at Mount Kailash, Tsari and Lachi. However, things didn't turn out as expected: Pugmodrupa, the founder of the Pagdru Kagyu Order, sang this song to two of his disciples, Kyabpa Jigten Sumgon (1143-1217), the founder the Drikung Kagyu Order, and Druptop Langje Repa, the founder of the Drugpa Kagyu Order: "As Buddha predicted, the Himalayas are known all over the world. The residence of Palkhorlo Dompa (Chakrasamvara) is there. Today, it is there as an object for worldly sentient beings to make offerings to. To go to Mount Kailash would be a great joy and to meditate there would be a great happiness." Two of the disciples asked their disciple, Je Tsangpa Gyare Yeshi Dorjee, to go to Mount Kailash. He went and gathered thousands of students, ensuring the practice of meditation flourished in the region as the waxing of the moon. His disciple Gyalwa Gotsangpa practised for a long time at Mount Kailash and established the path round the mountain, introducing the tradition of walking around sacred Mount Kailash, known as Kora in Tibetan.

Jigten Sumgon first sent 80 of his students from the Drikung Kagyu Order, under the guidance of Geshe Nyepupa. A second time, 900 disciples went with Geshe Nyochenpo and Garpa Jangdor. The third time, he sent Dordzin Guya Gangpa as the retreat master to oversee 55,525 students. At that time there were no monasteries at Mount Kailash and the meditators lived in caves and under boulders. Later, Lord Jigten Sumgon also instructed Nyo Gyalwa Lhanangpa, Druptob Senge Yeshe and others to practise at Mount Kailash.

Since that day, the abbot of Gyangdrak Monastery has held the title “Dordzin.” “Dor” refers to “dorje” in Tibetan or “vajra” in Sanskrit—representing an indestructible substance such as a thunderbolt or a diamond; “dzin” means “holder”; and so together the title means, “Vajra Holder.” Since the founding of Gyangdrak Monastery, there have been 33 Vajra Holders. The first was Ghuya Gangpa and the current Dordzin is Wangtang Dorje.