The Coming of Buddhism to Tibet

King Songtsen Gampo (617–649 CE), the founder of the Tibetan Empire, ascended to the throne around 630 CE. During his reign, he conquered not only Zhang-zhung, but also the remnants of the Qiang in northeastern Tibet. Although his initial campaigns against the Tuyuhun in the Kokonor region, who maintained strong connections with Khotan, met with resistance, he subsequently subdued them and forced them into tribute. He was able to extend his empire to the modern Sichuan province of western China, northern Myanmar and, for a time, Nepal. His first wife was from Zhang-zhung, and although he arranged for the assassination of the last Zhang-zhung king, Songtsen Gampo did not totally reject Bon. His burial was conducted according to Bon rituals.

Songtsen Gampo first sought a marriage alliance with Nepal before he set out to conquer this land. The Nepalese sent Princess Bhrikuti Devi, who brought with her a statue of the Buddha-figure Akshobhya. The king built the Ramoche Temple in Lhasa to house it. This was his main contact with Indian Buddhism. He did not establish Buddhism, however, as a state religion. He seems to have been interested in making general culture available to his people. According to the chronicles of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Songtsen Gampo commissioned statues of Bon deities, which were also housed in Ramoche Temple.

The Dunhuang historical documents do not mention this Nepalese queen. Some Western scholars have concluded that later Tibetan Buddhists invented her in retrospect in order to offset the role of Songtsen Gampo’s Chinese queen in introducing Buddhist elements at this early point in Tibetan history. Her omission, however, does not necessarily prove her non-existence. On the other hand, over the next century and a half, the major Buddhist influences in Tibet seem to have been from China and Khotan, and not from the Indian subcontinent.

Songtsen Gampo also sent his minister Thonmi Sambhota, with eighteen assistants, on a mission to develop a written Tibetan script. Some scholars believe Thonmi Sambhota was headed for Khotan via Zhang-zhung and en route in Kashmir met the Khotanese master Li Chin. In any case, Thonmi Sambhota went no further than Kashmir and, through his studies with this Khotanese and also Kashmiri scholars, modified the scripts of those two lands for writing Tibetan.

Both the Khotanese and current Kashmiri letters were derived from the Sanskrit Gupta script. The manner of writing the vowels when they are initial letters, the placement of the basic vowel letter at the end of the alphabet and the manner of indicating long vowels follow the Khotanese model rather than the Kashmiri or any other traditional Indian system. The shape of the letters, however, is similar to that found in these two scripts.

Thonmi Sambhota developed the “with-head” (uchen) Tibetan script. There is much scholarly discussion about the origins of the Tibetan “headless” (ume) letters. Some believe it arose simply as a consequence of writing the “with-head” letters quickly. Others trace antecedents in the Zhang-zhung “maryig” script. But the Zhang-zhung writing system itself would have ultimately evolved from Gupta antecedents, perhaps also through the intermediary of Khotanese. This Khotanese and Zhang-zhung connection fits in with the theory of Khotan having been the route for Iranian ideas to have entered Bon.

With Thonmi Sambhota’s new script and the bilingual talents of his mission, King Songtsen Gampo commissioned the translation of the Buddhist text that had been brought to Tibet several centuries earlier. Physicians from Nepal and India, as well as Byzantium, Zhang-zhung and China, were present in his court. This necessitated other translations to be prepared as well. The Tibetans even took some of their own translations of texts on Indian medicine and translated them further into Khotanese. The development of a Tibetan writing system, however, seems also to have been motivated by the king’s military needs for a means of secret communication with his generals in the field.

Songtsen Gampo’s only direct contact with India was in 648 CE, shortly before his death. He sent his army to invade Bihar and depose an anti-Buddhist minister who had killed a large portion of a Chinese mission. The primary source of Indian cultural contact during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo, then, was Nepal, Kashmir and to a certain extent Khotan.

Songtsen Gampo’s father had already sent the first Tibetan embassy to the Chinese court. This was in 608 CE, during the strongly pro-Buddhist Sui Dynasty (590–617). Songtsen Gampo sent a second embassy to China in 634 to the court of the Tang Emperor Taizong (626–649). Taizong favored Daoist yoga. He is said to have died from a poisonous elixir of immortality.

In 630, Taizong defeated the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and in 635 reconquered the Tuyuhun. Songtsen Gampo heard from his embassy in China that the emperor had made a marriage alliance with both these states and requested a similar arrangement. The Chinese refused and the Tibetans attacked Tuyuhun, but without success. Songtsen Gampo was more successful in his campaigns against the Tuyuhun’s neighboring Tangut population and the western Chinese border districts. Taizong finally consented to send his daughter, Wencheng, to wed the Tibetan king in 641.

Unlike her father, Princess Wencheng was a devout Buddhist. She brought with her to Tibet a Buddha statue. The king had what was later called the Jokhang Temple constructed in Lhasa to house it. This image and the one brought by the Nepalese princess, for which he built the Ramoche Temple to house it, are still revered today as the most holy in Tibet. In 645, Songtsen Gampo commissioned the first Tibetan temple on Wutai Shan, Riwo Tsenga in Tibetan, the plateau enveloped in five mountain peaks southwest of Beijing sacred to Manjushiri

Wencheng also brought with her texts on Chinese medicine, astrology and geomancy. Geomancy is the traditional Chinese science dealing with the subduing of adverse forces by the proper geographic orientation of buildings. This includes not only calculations for which direction a particular building should face and what type of landscape should surround it, but also for which locations in the country the buildings and temples should occupy.

One of the technical terms for the geomantically correct building sites in a country is also used for the acupuncture and medical burning points of the human body. Tibet was conceived as a demoness lying on her back. She lies with her head in the west and feet in the east, in accordance with the common Tibetan view of the western part of their country being Upper Tibet and the east being Lower.

Following principles of geomancy, King Songtsen Gampo built twelve Buddhist temples at specially chosen spots around his empire, on the limbs of the demoness. The Jokhang Temple at Lhasa was at the demoness’ heart. As with applying needles or a burning cone of medicinal powder on certain spots on the body, the construction of temples at these specific sites would cause the energy in the demoness land of Tibet to flow unimpededly. This configuration of temples on the land, then, was intended to eliminate adverse forces to the establishment of Buddhism. Two of these temples were in Bhutan, south of the Himalayas.

Songtsen Gampo has traditionally been associated with Amitabha, the Buddha of the West. Iconographically, the king is always depicted with a statue of Amitabha wrapped in his turban on the top of his head. After the death of Emperor Taizong in 649, the next Chinese emperor, who was a strong Buddhist, conferred on King Songtsen Gampo a title usually reserved for Amitabha. Amitabha’s pure land was often identified in China with the Daoist Western Land of the Immortals. The emperor referred to Songtsen Gampo as the “Ruler of the West.”

Under the next Tibetan king, Mangsong Mangtsen (649–676), Tibet’s first rule of Khotan and the other oasis states of East Turkistan began. Tibet held Khotan from 670 to 692 CE. A few years earlier, the Tibetans had gained control of Tuyuhun, which had derived its Buddhism mainly from Khotan. Thus, Khotanese influence on Tibet undoubtedly grew stronger during this period.

Tibet lost Khotan and Nepal during the reign of King Tri Dusong (677–704). But trade and cultural contact continued with these lands under the next Tibetan king, Me Agtsom (704–755). During this time, Tibet was allied with the Türgesh Türks, who were also Buddhist, and extended its rule to the Buddhist kingdom of Gilgit. Thus, Buddhist influences came from many sides.

In 710 CE, Princess Jincheng was sent to Tibet to form a marriage alliance. There is scholarly disagreement as to whether she was from one of Tibet’s allies at the time, either the Eastern Türks or the Türgesh Western Türks, or whether she was Chinese. In any case, she brought with her more Chinese Buddhist, astrological and Confucian texts.

Tibet seems to have been open to other foreign ideas at this time as well. In 717, an Islamic teacher was invited to Tibet as part of a short-lived alliance with the Umayyad Arabs against the Chinese. Princess Jincheng, however, had a much stronger influence than the Arabs. China controlled Khotan, and in 720, deposed the Khotanese king and installed a puppet ruler. In 725, she arranged for Khotanese refugee monks to receive asylum in Tibet. Under her patronage, seven monasteries were built for them.

The Chinese emperor at this time favored Daoism and restricted the number of monks and nuns. In 740, he expelled all foreign Buddhist monks from China. Jincheng helped make arrangements for them in Tibet. Furthermore, there was continuing Islamic pressure on the Buddhist monks of eastern Afghanistan, Tokharistan and as far as Gilgit. Many also came to Tibet under the princess’ good graces.

Several years after this large influx of foreign monks, Jincheng died in a smallpox epidemic. The refugees were blamed and deported to Gandhara. There may have also been political reasons for this step. Me Agtsom’s ministers were wary of the king’s Buddhist and foreign sympathies.

There were many political changes occurring in Central Asia at the time. Many suspected they were due to the presence of foreigners in the affected lands. In 716 CE, the Uighurs had gained independence from Tibet’s ally, the Eastern Türks, whom the Uighurs had previously helped to defend. In 744, the Uighurs overthrew the Eastern Türks and developed very strong ties with the Sogdian merchants and the Chinese. In 747, the Abbasid Arabs overthrew the Umayyads in the predominantly Sogdian city of Merv. In 755, the Turko-Sogdian An Lushan deposed the Chinese emperor. Thus, the expulsion of the foreign monks from Tibet and the eventual assassination of Me Agtsom by his ministers in 755 may have been due to fear of a similar foreign-inspired takeover. 

The young prince who later became the Tibetan King Tri Songdetsen (742–797) showed great interest in Buddhism as a child. He learned about it from his friend Ba Sangshi, the son of a former Tibetan envoy to China. Consequently, Tri Songdetsen’s father, King Me Agtsom, sent Ba Sangshi and four others to China in 751 CE to learn more about Buddhism. This was the year that Nanzhao, in modern Yunnan province of southwest China, submitted itself to Tibet. Thus, the Tibetan mission traveled to China via the southern route of Sichuan and Nanzhao.

Ba Sangshi was honored by the new, pro-Buddhist Chinese emperor, Suzong, who identified the Tibetan with a bodhisattva prophesied to come from the west. The previous emperor, Xuantsong, who was anti-Buddhist, had been deposed by An Lushan in 755 and died in 756. Suzong asked Ba Sangshi to stay in China and become his minister, but the Tibetan declined. The emperor then gave him a thousand rolls of scriptures to bring home. On his way back to Tibet, Ba Sangshi visited the sacred Buddhist mountain Wutai Shan, where a Tibetan temple had been built by Songtsen Gampo. Ba Sangshi also met the Korean Chan master Jin Heshang in Sichuan.

The robe of Bodhidharma, the founder of Chan, had been passed down through the successive Chan patriarchs. Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch, accepted only by the Southern Chan schools, declared that the robe would no longer be passed down. One line of masters who followed, however, claimed that they still had and were transmitting Bodhidharma’s robe. Jin Heshang was one of the figures in this line. He passed the robe to Wuzhu, who founded the radical Baotang school. The Tibetans were familiar with the Chan teachings of both Jin Heshang and Wuzhu.

Jin Heshang told Ba Sangshi that King Me Agtsom had been assassinated and that Tibet was dominated by two anti-Buddhist ministers. He predicted that when Prince Tri Songdetsen came of age, he would speak about non-Buddhist teachings, but if he were taught Buddhism, he would be very receptive. The Korean master also predicted that Shantarakshita would come from India and establish Buddhism in Tibet. Jin Heshang then presented the Tibetan with three rolls of Chinese Buddhist texts.

When Ba Sangshi returned to Tibet around 756 CE, all was exactly as the Korean had described. During the subsequent years Buddhism was suppressed by the Bon ministers, and so he buried the texts he had been given for safekeeping. In 761, Tri Songdetsen reached adulthood and spoke a great deal about Daoism. Ba Sangshi immediately unearthed the texts he had hidden and taught them to the young king. Tri Songdetsen officially proclaimed himself a Buddhist.

In this same year, 761 CE, the Tibetan king sent an emissary, Selnang, to India to invite Shantarakshita (725–783). China was in the throes of the An Lushan rebellion at this time. In 762, a smallpox epidemic swept Tibet, and once more the foreign Buddhists were blamed. Shantarakshita was obliged to return to India. He suggested, however, that in order to overcome obstacles, the king next invite the Indian master Padmasambhava (known as Guru Rinpoche in Tibet), well-known for his actual attainments.

In 763, Tibet conquered and briefly held the Chinese capital, Chang’an. The victorious Tibetan general was a strong supporter of Buddhism. When he returned home, he helped restore and stabilize Buddhism’s position in Tibet. The king now could invite Padmasambhava, who was in Nepal at the time.

Padmasambhava subdued the local forces and spirits of Bon that were thought to be causing the obstacles towards Buddhism in Tibet. He bound several of them by oath to be protectors of Tibet. He advised, however, that the main spirit that could safeguard the situation was Pehar.

Pehar was found among the Bata Hor people, who can be identified with the Tanguts. According to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, Pehar originally came from India, but this is hard to establish. Indian origins are often attributed to various Tibetan cultural phenomena, such as the first king of Yarlung, in order to enhance their legitimacy and sanctity.

Pehar belongs to a group of figures called Ku-nga. On a military expedition against the Tanguts, King Tri Songdetsen’s son brought back to Tibet the precious stone statues that housed the life-spirit of this group. Pehar and the others were obliged to follow. After taming them, Padmasambhava made them the protectors and oracles of Tibet. They speak through the Nechung and Gadong mediums.

According to other Tibetan and Buryat sources, the Bata Hor people were found in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. If this were the case, King Tri Songdetsen’s son would have had to have negotiated the capture of Pehar’s life-spirit statues with Tibet’s allies, the Kyrgyz, who controlled the Baikal and Tuva regions. At that time, Tibet and the Uighurs ruling Mongolia were enemies. It is uncertain, however, that Tibetan forces ever went as far north as Lake Baikal, whereas it is known that the Tibetans frequently raided the Tanguts during this period.

Pehar and other figures of the Ku-nga group were made the State Oracles and Protectors of Tibet by the Fifth Dalai Lama. They still hold that role today. Their mediums and monasteries have been relocated to India, near the residence of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.

With the conditions for Buddhism now more conducive, King Tri Songdetsen reinvited Shantarakshita from India to Tibet. Together with Padmasambhava, Shantarakshita founded the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery. This was at Samye, where Padmasambhava installed Pehar as oracle and protector. Samye was modelled after the Indian monastic university Odantapuri. The ground floor of its main temple was built in Tibetan style, while the next two floors were in the Chinese and then Indian idiom. This indicates the originally eclectic spirit of Buddhism in Tibet.

Having invited several more monks from India, Shantarakshita ordained the first seven Tibetan monks according to the Mulasarvastivadin tradition. Among them were an adherent of the Chinese Chan tradition and Selnang, who had formerly traveled to India to invite Shantarakshita. After Shantarakshita passed away, Selnang became the abbot of Samye.

Shantarakshita also opened a Sanskrit school at Samye, where the translation of Buddhist texts begun a century and a half earlier was greatly expanded. Chinese Buddhist and even Zhang-zhung Bon texts were translated as well. There were four schools established as part of Samye, and one of them was Chinese Chan. Thus, at first, Samye was not exclusively a monastery to further the Indian Buddhist tradition.

Padmasambhava taught very little tantra while he was in Tibet. What he did transmit, however, greatly displeased the suspicious ministers who were still influential. He was obliged to leave Tibet before Samye was completed in 775. By the time of its opening, the monastery had over three hundred monks.

The sect that began from these efforts of Padmasambhava, Shantarakshita and King Tri Songdetsen is known as the Nyingma, the old translation period school.

King Tri Songdetsen made Buddhism the official state religion in 779 CE. He may have been influenced by the Chinese model in which Buddhism served to foster the state. In 766, the Chinese had built a Buddhist temple at Wutai Shan called the Golden Pavilion Temple that Protects against Demonic Forces and Defends the Nation. The Tibetan king’s Chinese Buddhist teacher, Ba Sangshi, was sent again to China and visited Wutai Shan once more. He undoubtedly saw this new temple and was aware of the popular new Chinese text, the Sutra of the Bodhisattva King Who Defends the Nation. Upon Ba Sangshi’s return to Tibet, a Buddhist temple was built on the model of the Golden Pavilion of Wutai Shan. This was several years prior to the building of Samye.

Tri Songdetsen went much further than the Chinese, however, in giving state support to Buddhism. He exempted certain families from state taxes and assigned them instead to support the monastic community. Two hundred families were to provide the resources for the main temple’s offerings, and three families were to donate the provisions for supporting each monk. Under King Ralpachen (815–838), this was increased to seven families per monk.

King Tri Songdetsen established a Religious Council, headed by the abbot of Samye. This council became more powerful than the king’s Council of Ministers. Ostensibly, the function of the Religious Council was to ensure the pure maintenance of the monks’ vows and to decide upon which texts were to be translated. Mostly only the tantras from the first two classes were considered fitting for the Tibetans to practice. The higher tantric classes were not officially sanctioned, but a few texts managed to be translated anyway. The Samye abbots, however, persuaded the king to let them attend all ministerial meetings and to have the power to overrule the ministers. They also pushed for full autonomy of the monasteries from secular state control. This was the beginning of the Tibetan form of government eventually having both lay and ordained ministers.

In 784 CE there was a large-scale repression of Bon. There was undoubtedly a large political motive behind this move. Bon had been supported by the faction of ministers that had assassinated Tri Songdetsen’s father. With the establishment of the Buddhist Religious Council and its involvement in Tibetan politics, it was natural that any possible threats to Buddhism would have to be eliminated.

Many Bon practitioners fled to the western and eastern extremes of the Tibetan Empire, namely to Gilgit and Nanzhao. Tibet continued to hold the northwestern part of Nanzhao until 794. Even in the twentieth century, Bon naga rituals and other ceremonies have continued to be performed among the Nakhi tribes of northwestern Yunnan.

The great Bon master, Drenpa Namka, pretended to convert to Buddhism in order to preserve the Bon teachings. He hid many texts as buried treasures so that they might survive the persecution. Some were unearthed later even at Samye Monastery itself.

To establish further religious and political unity, it now seemed necessary for Tibet to choose between China and India as its main spiritual source. The stage was now set for the historic Samye debate.