Tonpa Shenrab (, ), also known as Shenrab Miwo (), Shenrab Miwoche, Buddha Shenrab, Guru Shenrab, and by a number of other titles, is the legendary founder and reformer of the Bon religious tradition of Tibet. Bönpos usually add the honorific âÂÂTonpaâ (âÂÂfounderâ or âÂÂteacherâÂÂ) before his name.
The story of Tonpa Shenrab was revealed in a fourteenth-century terma of Loden Nyingpo.
The name Shenrab Miwo is in the Zhang-Zhung language, which is a relative of Old Tibetan. It appears to be the Zhangzhung word for "bodhisattva" (equivalent to Tibetan shégya sempa, ).
âÂÂTonpaâ means âÂÂFounder/TeacherâÂÂ; âÂÂShenrabâ is interpreted by Bönpos as âÂÂBuddha.â The term âÂÂYungdrungâ also has Buddhist connotations: âÂÂYungdrungâ means Vajra, and âÂÂYungdrung Tsulpaâ means Bodhisattva.
Accounts of Tonpa ShenrabâÂÂs life are found in three principal sources, the Dodü (), Zermik (), and Ziji (). The first two are considered terma revealed in the 10th or 11th century; the third is part of the oral lineage ().
Bön tradition asserts that Tonpa Shenrab lived in a remote antiquity, long before à ÂÃÂkyamuni. According to standard Bön chronology, he was born in 16,017 BCE in the land of Olmolungring and lived for 82 years, first marrying and teaching sciences such as logic, phonology, astronomy, and medicine, then renouncing royal life at age 31, attaining realization at Mount Kailash, and spreading Bön until his passing.
Alternative narratives, sometimes framed in more âÂÂhistoricalâ terms, place Shenrab in the early 1st millennium BCE. A few accounts describe him as the first king who unified Tibet and founded the Zhangzhung kingdom in the 6th century BCE; others identify him as a Zhangzhung prince active in the 4th century BCE. Still other traditions claim his birth as early as 1917 BCE.
Like Gautama, Tonpa Shenrab was of royal birth. At thirty-one, he renounced his inheritance to pursue enlightenment, embraced renunciation and austerities, and spread the doctrine of Bön. He eventually arrived in Zhangzhung, near Mount Kailash.
From childhood, he displayed great abilitiesâÂÂteaching sciences, emanating multiple forms to aid beings, and traveling widely. At 16 he married, at 18 fought demons, at 20 taught in China and India, and by 26 began preaching. At 31 he became a monk, attained realization, and lived until age 82.
Bönpos believe ShakyamuniâÂÂs previous life was âÂÂPrince White Bannerâ and that Shenrab was his teacher. They credit him with creating Zhangzhung culture, including crafts, linguistics, medicine, astronomy, and inner Bön doctrine, and even claim he was the source of world culture and Buddhism itself.
Tibetan Buddhists criticize such narratives as imitations of the BuddhaâÂÂs life, calling Bön an âÂÂouter pathâ (). Today, Bön is administratively placed under the Buddhist Association of China.
Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche is believed to have many forms:
Many Buddhists in Bhutan practice Bon alongside Buddhism, but keeping Buddhism as the main tradition. Many of these 'Bon Buddhists' see Shenrab as a previous Buddha like Kassapa Buddha