Dagmema was Marpa's devoted wife and partner, managing their household while he pursued his tantric studies, and showing the compassion toward Milarepa that her husband deliberately withheld during the young disciple's years of trial.
Darma Dodé was Marpa's eldest son. After Darma Dodé died in a riding accident, Marpa performed consciousness transference, sending his son's mind into a pigeon's body.
Milarepa's Trials describe the years of grueling labor Marpa the Translator imposed on Milarepa — repeatedly building and demolishing stone towers — to purify the karmic debt from Milarepa's earlier sorcery before granting tantric initiation.
Marpa studied under Maitripa in India, receiving Mahamudra teachings and the doha tradition of Saraha, which became a key doctrinal source for the Kagyu school in Tibet.
Marpa made three perilous journeys across the Himalayas to India to study under Naropa, enduring hardship and poverty to receive the complete transmission of the Six Yogas and the Mahamudra teachings that would become the heart of Tibet's Kagyu lineage.
Tilopa was the root guru of the Kagyu lineage and teacher of Naropa, through whom Marpa received the transmission. Marpa revered Tilopa as the ultimate source of his lineage.
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