The significance of Marpa Lotsawa’s three principal students lies in the way each became a distinct vessel for a different facet of his transmission, so that the Kagyu heritage would remain whole. Milarepa is remembered as the primary holder of the experiential and contemplative stream: he received Marpa’s most profound Mahāmudrā and tantric instructions, especially the Six Dharmas of Nāropa, and embodied them through a life of rigorous ascetic practice and meditative realization. His story, moving from grave wrongdoing to awakening in a single lifetime, came to exemplify the transformative power of devotion and solitary practice, and it established the ideal of the yogin-saint within the Kagyu tradition. Through Milarepa, the lineage’s emphasis on direct realization, retreat, and spontaneous spiritual songs took on an enduring and inspirational form.

Ngok Chöku (or Chökyi) Dorje, by contrast, became the principal heir to Marpa’s scholastic and explanatory transmissions. He is associated with the careful study and interpretation of tantric texts and related philosophical materials, preserving the intellectual clarity that undergirded Marpa’s Indian teachings. In this way, Ngok represents the learned dimension of the lineage, ensuring that its contemplative practices would be supported by rigorous doctrinal understanding rather than resting solely on oral or experiential instruction. His role shows that authentic realization and careful scholarship were seen as mutually reinforcing rather than opposed.

Tshurton Wangé (or Tsurtön Wangngé) received from Marpa the ritual and ceremonial aspects of the tradition, including specific esoteric instructions, empowerments, and liturgical practices. He thus safeguarded the formal and communal side of the transmission, maintaining the continuity of particular tantric rites and the structures needed for their proper performance. In the early Kagyu community, this functioned as a stabilizing pillar, complementing both the contemplative stream associated with Milarepa and the scholastic stream associated with Ngok.

Seen together, these three students illustrate a deliberate and comprehensive pattern of transmission: meditative realization through Milarepa, doctrinal and textual precision through Ngok, and ritual continuity through Tshurton. Marpa’s lineage did not pass into the hands of a single type of practitioner but was entrusted to a triad whose strengths were different yet mutually completing. Their combined activity shaped the identity of the Kagyu school, allowing it to be at once deeply experiential, intellectually grounded, and ritually coherent.