Crazy for Wisdom: The Making of a Mad Yogin in Fifteenth-Century Tibet

Abstract

According to his life stories Tsangnyon Heruka (1452-1507) was known neither as the Madman of Tsang (Tsangnyon) nor as Heruka until his early twenties. Before that he had other names, the most common being the name he received when he was ordained, Sangye Gyaltsen.1 The main aim of the present study is to describe how Sangye Gyaltsen was trans-formed into a mad yogin, and to investigate and depict his subsequent activities as a mad yogin. Since the focus is on how Tsangnyon became a mad yogin and how he practiced 'disciplined conduct,' his first thirty years are emphasized. His last twenty-five years are not entirely neglected, however, although I restrict myself to summarizing this period.