A namtar, a contraction of the Tibetan nampar tharpa meaning complete liberation, is a spiritual biography or hagiography in Tibetan Buddhism chronicling the lives of yogis and mahasiddhas who attained enlightenment. Unlike Western biography, a namtar prioritizes information helpful and inspirational to a practitioner following the same spiritual path, treating miraculous events as metaphors for tantric meditation experience rather than as personality portraiture. The genre is traditionally structured in three parts: an outer biography covering birth and education, an inner biography covering meditative practices and initiations, and a secret biography covering the adept's meditative states, a threefold framework distinguishing namtar from other biographical traditions within Vajrayana Buddhism.
Facts
Place of Origin Defining Traitstructured in three parts, an outer, inner and secret biography 1 Sources
1. Namtar (biography), Wikipedia
Lead section
A namtar, sometimes spelled namthar, is a spiritual biography or hagiography in Tibetan Buddhism.
Traditional division section
All Tibetan Namtar consist of three parts: The outer biography, containing descriptions of birth, education and consulted texts.
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