Namtar

namtar (T. rnam thar t=རྣམ་ཐར་), also spelled namthar, is a spiritual biography in Tibetan Buddhism.

The term namtar is a contraction of nampar tharpa (T. rnam par thar pa རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་), which literally means 'complete liberation'. This name refers to the fact that the namtar tell the story of the "liberation" or "enlightenment" of a yogis or mahasiddhas.

Namtars are intended serve as an example and inspiration for Vajrayana practitioners. They do not focus on a literal chronology of events, but rather focus on the key points of the yogi's spiritual life. According to Janice D. Willis, the focus on spiritual practice forms an essential difference between Christian hagiography and Tibetan namtar.

Tsultrim Allione states:

The sacred biography is called 'rNam.thar' in Tibetan, which literally means 'complete liberation.' The 'rNam.thar' are specially geared to provide records for those on a spiritual quest, in much the same way that someone about to climb a high mountain would seek out the chronicles of those who had made the climb before. The sacred biographer is primarily concerned with providing information which will be helpful and inspirational for someone following in the footsteps of the spiritual adept or 'saint.' Establishing a mythical ideal and the communication of the sacred teachings takes precedence over providing a narrative portrait or "likeness" of the subject as a personality. The personality is stressed only in so far as it relates to the spiritual process of the individual.

Thrangu Rinpoche states:

A spiritual biography of a great mahasiddha or any great lama is called a namtar in Tibetan, which means ... “a story of realization.” This type of spiritual biography is not a biography that discusses when and where a person was born and other biographical details but rather a story of the events that led to the individual’s realization. A spiritual biography discusses how that individual began to practice meditation, how he or she applied themselves to the Dharma, what methods that person used to attain realization, and how this realization led to the helping of others. Since they are stories of complete liberation from all suffering, they are called namtar, with the syllable nam meaning “liberation” and the syllable tar meaning “complete.”

Spiritual biographies usually have few references to the more mundane things of a mahasiddha’s life, such as what kind of clothes were worn, what kind of food was eaten, or where he or she went. The reason for this is that the main purpose of a spiritual biography is to show the student of Buddhism how to practice the Dharma and to illustrate the results of practicing the Dharma by using the example of an individual who has actually attained buddhahood.

Traditional division

All Tibetan Namtar consist of three parts:

• The outer biography (Tibetan: ཕྱའི་རྣམ་ཐར་, Wylie: phyi'i rnam-thar), containing descriptions of birth, education and consulted texts.
• The inner biography (Tibetan: ནན་གི་རྣམ་ཐར་, Wylie: nan-gi rnam-thar), containing details on meditative cycles and initiations.
• The secret biography (Tibetan: གསན་བའི་རྣམ་ཐར་, Wylie: gsan-ba'i rnam-thar), said to describe the meditative state of the siddha.

Bibliography

• Allione, Tsultrim (1986). Women of Wisdom. London: Arkana. ISBN 1-85063-044-5. 
• Dowman, K. (1973) The Legends of the Great Stupa and the Life Story of the Lotus Born Guru (Berkeley).
• Thrangu Rinpoche (2019), Johnson, Clark, ed., Tilopa's Wisdom: His Life and Teachings on the Ganges Mahamudra, Snow Lion 
• Willis, J.D. (2009) 'On the Nature of rNam-thar: Early dGe-lugs-pa Siddha Biographies' in: Aziz, B.A. & Kapstein, M. (eds.) Soundings in Tibetan Civilization (Kathmandu): 304-319.