History of Tibet

The Situation of the East-West Trade Routes The overland Silk Route from China to the West passed from East to West Turkistan, and on through Sogdia and Iran to Byzantium and Europe. An alternative route passed from West Turkistan through Bactria, the Kabul and Punjabi...

Tangut Thwarting of Qarakhanid Plans for Further Expansion After the fall of Khotan, the Qarakhanids could not press further eastward in their campaign to capture the rest of the southern Tarim. Mahmud of Ghazni attacked from the south and war ensued between the two Turkic...

Tibetan Relations with China Tibet and China had first established diplomatic relations in 608 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. Songtsen-gampo, in...

When al-Salit bin-Abdullah al-Hanafi arrived in Tibet, there were already two religious traditions sponsored by the imperial court, so-called “Bon” and Buddhism. The former was the native faith of Tibet, while the latter had been introduced by Tibet’s first emperor,...

The Establishment of the Jurchen Empire The Jurchen were a Tungusic Manchu people whose homeland was in northern Manchuria and the adjacent region of southeastern Siberia across the Amur River. They were for­est dwellers whom the Khitans conscripted for their ritual hunts....

The early period of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–840 CE) saw the translation of Buddhist texts into not only the languages of East Turkistan, but also into Turkic languages and even some into Arabic, as Islam slowly spread into West Turkistan.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia tried to gain influence in Tibet by claiming Russia was Shambhala. Japan also tried to win over Tibetan and Mongolian support by claiming that Japan was Shambhala.

Before 1959, Tibetan Muslims living in Central Tibet were the descendents of Muslim merchants who spoke Tibetan and followed most Tibetan customs. In Indian exile as well, the Muslim and Buddhist Tibetan communities live in harmony, with religious tolerance.

Secondary sources on the history of Islam in Tibet.

Tibetan language and culture spread and interacted with many other civilizations. The Tibetan traditions have evolved over the centuries, and this process of evolution and growth must continue.