gambo, succeeded in obtaining the hand of a princess
of the imperial house of Tang against the will of the
emperor and after some years fighting.
The story of this • Srong-tsan-gambo is encrusted
with inconsistent legend. He appears to have been
a devout Buddhist, to have married also a Nepalese
princess, to have led an army into India, where, about
the year 648, he inflicted a defeat upon the King of
Magadha, from which place he carried off the famous
image which is to this day the chief and central treasure
of the Jo-kang. Another story says that it was presented
as a free gift from the Buddhists of Magadha by
the hand of the returning Tonmi-Sambhota, a minister
whom Srong-tsan-gambo had despatched to India to
enquire more perfectly about the Buddhist religion. The
legend that this man introduced writing, and his Chinese
wife several of the best-known arts of her own country,
merely reflects the impetus given to foreign influences
in Lhasa by the origin and travels of the two.
Srong-tsan-gambo’s grandson, Ti-srong-de-tsan, resumed
hostilities with China, and in 763 actually
sacked the capital, Changan, or Hsia-Fu. Before that
he also had given proof of his Buddhist zeal by inviting
the famous Buddhist saint Padma Sambhava to visit
his country. This was a more important matter than
it then appeared, and was destined to mould indefinitely
the future of T ib e t; for, apart from his personal influence
at the time, this man, known also as Padma
Pani or the Guru Rinpoche, founded the Sarnye
monasteries and the Red Cap school in 749, and eventually
reappears as the central figure of Lamaism—
actually more important than the Buddha himself in
its tradition ■ and ritual. And it is his soul, itself a
reincarnation of that of Amitab.ha, the Bodisat, which
is born again both in the person of the Grand Lama
of Tashi-lhunpo, and, vicariously, as Avalokiteswara
in the body of the Dalai Lama or Grand Lama of Lhasa
also. To this king Ti-srong-de-tsan must be credited
more than military skill or religious fervour. It is clear
that the position of Tibet as a sacrosanct centre of
religion is due to his recognition of the vast importance
to Tibet as offering a permanent home to the faith
which was being slowly but completely expelled from
India at this time. War after war followed his death,
and in or about 783 his successor, King Ralpachan,
made with the Emperor Tai-tsang the Second the treaty
which is engraved upon the Do-ring at Lhasa. It
is to be noted that the high-sounding epithets which
the contracting parties apply to themselves already reflect
the semi-sacred and mystic importance of Tibet.
These dry particulars are necessary in order to
understand much of later Lamaism, but the era of
important legend closes with the assassination of
Lang-darma, the younger brother of Ralpachan, who
had ascended the throne in 899. Lang-darma, who
had murdered his brother to clear the way for his own
succession, is the Buddhist Julian, and the assassination
of this persecutor of the faith is still annually observed
in Lhasa on the threshold of the Jo-kang, where a fanatic
monk achieved his purpose at the cost of his own
life. From this date onwards Tibet was divided into a
large number of petty principalities, and its history
is for many centuries obscure. Lamaism, however,
flourished at the expense of the body politic, and in
1038, Atisha or Jo Ji-pal-den again reformed the religion
of the country. In 1206 the country was conquered by
v o l . 1. 1*