History of Tibet

The Organized Bon Religion and the Native Tibetan Tradition The two main religious traditions of Tibet are Bon and Buddhism. The former was the native faith of Tibet, while the latter had been introduced by Tibet’s first emperor, Songtsen-gampo (Srong-btsan sgam-po, r. 617 ...

The Revival of Monasteries in Central Tibet In Central Tibet, a great many of the monasteries, even smaller ones, are being rebuilt. Local disrobed monks, usually with financial aid from geshes and lamas in the West, are doing much of the work, reconstructing the buildings...

The Early Yarlung Kings According to the traditional account, the first king of the Yarlung Dynasty (Yar-klungs) in Central Tibet came there from the central North Indian kingdom of Magadha. He was called Nyatri Tsenpo (gNya’-khri btsan-po) and it was thought that he descended...

The Founding of the Qarakhanid Empire When the Orkhon Uighur Turks were driven from Mongolia by the Kyrgyz takeover in 840 CE, they lost possession of the sacred earth-goddess mountain Otuken near their former capital, Ordubaliq. According to the pre-Buddhist and...

Introduction Amdo, especially the areas around Lanzhou 兰州 and southern Gansu 甘肃, and Xining 西宁 and northeastern Qinghai 青海, has seen an influx of Han Chinese and Hui Muslim settlers. Many villages, even in the highlands, are almost entirely Muslim, and this is reportedly the...

Long before the Arabs brought Islam to Central Asia in the mid-seventh century CE, Buddhism had flourished there for hundreds of years. It was particularly prominent along the Silk Route, which carried trade between India and Han China, and led from both to Byzantium and to...

Review of Tibetan Relations with China Tibet and China had first established diplomatic relations in 608 C.E. when Emperor Songtsen-gampo’s father, Namri-lontsen (gNam-ri slon-mtshan), had sent the first Tibetan mission to the Chinese court at the time of the Sui Dynasty...

The Fragmentation of Tibet after Langdarma’s Assassination The Tibetan Empire disintegrated after the assassination of Langdarma in 842 CE. Central authority was not restored for four centuries. The imperial Tibetan troops had already started to withdraw from the border...

Chinggis Khan In 1207 CE, news reached Tibet that Chinggis Khan (Sog-po Ching-ge-se Kh’ang) (1162 – 1227) had conquered the Tangut Empire in Gansu and Amdo. The Tibetans had a close relation with the Tanguts at this time. They had already been engaged in translating Buddhist...

The Establishment of the Pagmodru Hegemony Dorje-Gyalpo (1110 – 1170), a highly educated monk from Kham, disciple of the Kagyu master Gampopa, arrived in Central Tibet in 1158. He was given the name “Pagmodrupa” (Phag-mo gru-pa), meaning “One from Sow’s Ferry,” since he...