Appendix D

Fiery Dragons: A Brief History of Tibet

The present-day loyalties, rivalries and acrimony amongst the Himalayan lamas in exile in India have a direct connection with what happened in Tibet and China during the last millennium and before that. Their mentalities and actions are governed, to a large extent, by episodes from the past.

It is said to date back to the Mahabharata period. During the mythological war of Mahabharata between the five Pandavas and the twelve legions of the Kauravas, a prince, named Rupati, deserted the battlefield and fled towards the snowy country of Tibet. Fearful of being pursued by the enemy or by his suzerain for deserting the field, he donned female attire, and with about 1000 followers took shelter in Tibet. He reached the country Pugyal (the ancient name of Tibet, which in later times was called Bod.) The land was inhabited predominantly by a race still in a primitive state. The inhabitants welcomed him and adopted him as their king. His mild and peaceful manners won him their affection and he ruled over them for many years.

Under his and his descendants' rule, the people enjoyed prosperity and developed the arts. From Rupati to the foundation of monarchy in Tibet by Nya-thri Tsaenpo, in the beginning of the fourth century before the current era (BCE), the history of Tibet is very obscure. During this long interval, after the fall of the house of Rupati, the country was partitioned into several petty states, ruled by insignificant native chieftains and princes.

Among the Tibetan ancient records, the Debther-Ngonpo or the Blue Annals, the Debther Marpo or the Red Annals and the Chho Jung are unique and rare historical records as their authors appear to have been less influenced by love for fanaticism and miracles, which marks all early oriental writings. According to the records, the country was peopled at the same time as India, in the beginning of the present kalpa, a fact accepted by most modern native historians. The Gyalrab or royal pedigree, written by the Vth Gyalwa Karmapa Rinpoche, and Mani Kahbum, one of the oldest legendary works, ascribed to King Srongtsaen Gampo, besides other works of historical fiction, give altogether a different and fabulous account of the origin of the Tibetans.

Bon Period (416 BCE to 617 CE)

In 416 BCE, 417 years after the nirvana of the Buddha, Nya-thri Tsaenpo, the first of the Tibetan kings who established universal sway over Tibet, was born in India. He was the fifth son of King Prasanjit of Kosala. Endowed with obliquely drawn eyes and light blue irises, the colour of turquoise, he was born into a royal family of undefiled race in order to spread Buddhism in Tibet. The spirit of Chenresig entered into him to make him one of the dynasty-holders of Prasanjit.

At birth, the infant was found possessed of webbed fingers and two rows of teeth, fully developed, and white as a conch shell. Apprehending great evil from such ominous signs in the infant, the parents packed him up in a copper vessel and dumped it in the river Ganga. The vessel was found by a farmer. He carried it to his wife who nursed the infant. Being a simple-hearted man, the farmer did not try to pass off the child as his own and revealed the truth; and the strange story of the foundling spread like wildfire.

Informed of the antecedents of his life, how he had been thrown into the Ganga by his royal parents and nursed by the good farmer's wife, the young mind was overcast with sorrow. Born a prince, he could not bring himself to adapt to the lowly pursuits of a farmer's life. After great anxiety and melancholy, he quit the farmer's house, bidding his country a mournful farewell, with a firm determination to either reign as a king or not live at all.

He proceeded northward to the Himalayan mountains where he subsisted on wild fruit. Unmindful of the difficulties of a mountainous journey or of death, he traveled further and further north till by the blessing of Chenresig (Avalokiteshwara) he arrived at the summit of the Lhari, snowy mountains of Tibet. His heart was gladdened by the sight of land on the north which was gradually descending as it were from heaven. Down the slopes, he arrived at Tsanthang, a great plateau with four passages on its four sides. Here he met many natives, who were struck by the graceful looks of the stranger. They asked him respectfully who he was and where he came from. He replied to them by signs (for he did not know their language) that he was a prince, and pointing his finger towards the top of Lhari, he showed the direction he had come from. The Tibetans, who were sure they had seen him coming from the direction of heaven, took him for a god who had descended from the celestial regions.

Prostrating before him, they entreated him to be their king, an offer which he gladly accepted. Then placing him on a chair, they carried him in a solemn procession to the central part of the country. From being borne on the back of men, seated on a chair, he was called by the name of Nya-thri Tsaenpo. He renovated the great palace of Yumbu Lagan, on the site of which Lhasa was built in later days. He married a Tibetan woman named Nam Mug-mug who, says the legend, was a fairy. He was succeeded by his son, Digum Tsaenpo who was killed by his own minister in an internecine war.

The minister, Lonam, married one of the widows of the late king, usurped the throne and obliged the three princes to fly towards Kongpo. The usurper reigned for several years. The widow of the late king and mother of the three princes, by invoking the goblin Yarlha Sampo, got a son, who eventually rose to the post of minister and killed the usurper. He now invited the three exiled princes from Kongpo, the eldest of whom ascended his ancestral throne. These kings are said to have ascended to the skies, being carried there by their queens who were regarded as celestial beings, in consequence of which their mortal relics were not left on earth. The ancient Tibetans, while giving an Aryan origin to their first sovereigns, did not fail to show greater regard for their country by giving their princes an altogether divine origin. All the queens of the monarchs were believed to be superhuman beings, such as fairies and sirens, who had assumed human form for enjoyment of earthly pleasures. They were believed to have gone to heaven with their bodies, taking their husbands with them. All the princes were said to be particularly favoured by Chenresig (Avalokiteshwara), though Buddhism was as yet unknown in Tibet.

In fact, those princesses were not chosen from Tibetan subjects but from the families of the independent sovereign princes of the border countries. In Tibet, a princess is called Lhamo (goddess). The queens who came next in succession were generally taken from among the subjects, and were therefore of human origin. The names of all these kings were formed by a combination of the names of their parents, the mother's name generally preceding that of the father.

It was in the 23rd generation of the royal succession that the Bon religion rose to the zenith of its power, and when the sun of Buddhism was shining in its meridian lustre all over Jambudvipa, snow-girdled Tibet remained buried in the 'impenetrable darkness' of Bon mysticism.

Bon was a primitive type of religion with the dominating streak of shamanism, a kind of sorcery working on psychic levels, a form of nature worship combined with sacrifice to vaguely defined gods of earth and sky. Shamanism is classified by anthropologists as an archaic magico-religious phenomenon in which the shaman is the great master of ecstasy. Shamanism is defined as a technique of ecstasy. A shaman may exhibit a particular magical specialty (such as control over fire, wind or magical fight). The distinguishing characteristics of shamanism are its focus on an ecstatic trance state in which the soul of the shaman is believed to leave the body and ascend to the sky (heavens) or descend into the netherworlds. The shaman employs spirit helpers, with whom he or she communicates, while retaining control over his or her own consciousness. (Example of possession occurs, but is an exception rather than the rule.)

A shaman is not just an initiate who has received inner and outer training, but is a master of shamanic journeying and techniques (ecstasy). They are the link between this world and the next. This is considered a sacred trust and a service to the community.

In 441 CE was born the famous Tibetan King Lha-tho-thori Nantsaen, believed to be the incarnation of Kuntuzangpo. He ascended the throne in the 21st year of his age. When he reached the 80th year of his age, in the year 521 CE, there fell from heaven on the top of the great palace of Yumbu Lagan a precious chest, which was found to contain sutrantra pitaka, a golden miniature shrine, a sacred treatise on palmistry and mysticism^ and .a chintamani gem and cup.

Being the first prince who was favoured by heaven with the precious gift of the sacred treasures, Lha-tho-thori Nantsaen has been deified by the Tibetans. Once, when the king, sitting in council with his ministers, was debating on the value and merit of the divine gift, there was heard a voice from heaven, saying that in the eighth generation the meaning of the contents should be revealed.

The king, therefore, carefully preserved them under the name of Sangwa Nanpo in his palace. Everyday he offered oblations to them. In consequence of such a rare instance of good fortune, the king retained his youthful vigour even at the advanced age of fourscore and ten. He died in 561 CE at the ripe age of 120, after a prosperous reign of a full century.

His great-grandson was disqualified from ascending the throne on account of his blindness. As there was neither a male heir, nor any possibility of the queen giving birth to a second son, the blind boy after a short interregnum was placed on the throne. At his coronation, the sacred treasures called Sangwa Nanpo were worshipped, by virtue of which the blind king regained his sight. The first object that he saw being a nan (wild sheep) running on the Tagri hill near Lhasa, he was given the name of Tagri Nan Zig (the seer of ovis ammon on the Tagri hills).

During the reign of his son, Namri Lontsaen, the Tibetans got their first knowledge of arithmetic and medicine from China. It is said the prosperity and cattle-wealth of the country was so great during this period that the king built his palace with lime moistened with the milk of the cow and the yak. Once, riding his fleet-footed steed which he had obtained from the banks of Dhragsum Dinma lake (north of Lhasa, not more than 20 mile round), he arrived at the northern desert plain where he slew a fierce don (wild yak) with terrible horns. Riding fast, he dropped the carcass of the yak, which he had bound with the straps of his saddle. In order to take it up, the king alighted from his horse. He found himself on an extensive salt bank. This was the inexhaustible mine which still supplies the large portion of Tibet with salt. Before the discovery of this salt mine, there was a very scanty supply of salt in Tibet. Namri Lontsaen died in 629 ad, leaving the throne to his son, Songtsaen Gampo, with whom opened a new era in the history of Tibet.

In the sacred books of Kalachakra, Manjusri mulatantra and Ashta-sahasrika, the Buddha foretold that his religion would be widely diffused in the snowy country of the north, where many saints would also appear.

With the antiquity of tantra tracing back to the Indus civilisation and with Mount Kailash as the focal point in tantra, there were regular contacts and exchanges between the siddhas on both sides of the Himalayas in pre-Buddhist and even pre-Vedic time. Some scholars surmise that the Indian tantra was even developed from the pre-Buddhist native religion of Tibet called Bon. On the other hand, the Tibetans believe that their tantrayana was imported from India.

The advent of Buddhism in Tibet opened a fresh chapter not only in the history of Tibet but also in the history of Asia and this chapter closed in the middle of the twentieth century with the occupation of Tibet by China.

Songtsaen, the most illustrious in the Buddhist annals of Tibet, was born around 610 CE. When he was in the womb, his mother had a vision that a saintly prince would be born of her. She, therefore, kept aloof from any defilement or unholy thing, in consequence of which she remained happy and cheerful. During this time the elder queen Namnan, jealous of Queen Kunju, feigned pregnancy by wrapping a cubit's length of cotton rag every day around her belly. When Kunju's time for delivery came, Namnan induced a midwife to give the former anaesthetic liquor. Kunju lost her senses and soon gave birth to a son, which the wicked Namnan removed to her chamber and replaced it with a female child of inferior parentage born the same day. As soon as she recovered her senses, Kunju was surprised to see a daughter instead of a son, about whom she had seen so many things in her dreams. Meanwhile, the news of Queen Namnan giving birth to a son reached the king and his ministers, who all came to witness the blessed child.

Queen Kunju, who was sidelined, strongly suspected her jealous counterpart. But in the absence of witnesses, she was unable to charge Namnan and so kept her grief to herself. Some of the ministers, who knew of the plot, dared not speak against Namnan. Kunju, however, once complained to the king about the probable wickedness, but as Namnan had, by taking some drugs, producd milk in her breasts, Kunju could not establish her case. Consumed with the desire for revenge she tried to bring damnation on Tibet by means of her incantations, and wrote treatises construing astrology in a perverse way.

When the prince was three, the king invited the maternal relatives of the prince and the princess to a grand festive celebration. Before all the nobles, chiefs and ministers of the realm, the king seated the prince and the princess on either side. Taking a cup full of wine in his hand, he addressed the former "My son, take this cup of wine and with your tender hands offer it to your maternal uncle." To the utter amazement of all present, the prince at once presented it to Kunju's brother, the Chinese prince, whom he thus addressed "I, Songtsaen, am thy nephew Namnan is not my mother, though she has nursed me for a period of three years. I now meet my maternal uncle, and my heart rejoices to behold him."

These words of the child prince filled all present with wonder. Namnan's wickedness was at last revealed, and she was overawed with shame. Kunju was overwhelmed with joy when the king presented the child to her. She now exerted herself to avert some of the evils she had brought on Tibet by her incantations; but as she did not fully succeed in correcting astrology, it is said that the Tibetans cannot make correct calculations.

Buddhist Period (630-917 CE)

. The first recorded event in Sino-Tibetan relations took place around 635 CE. The thirty-third Tibetan king, Songtsaen Gampo, married a Nepali princess, Belsa (Bhrikuti in Nepali), which brought him seven precious dowers, the images of Aksobhya and Maitreya, a sandalwood image of Tara, the gem named Ratnadeva and a mendicant's platter made of Vaidurya. She was said to be the incarnation of goddess Saraswati.

Then, hearing about the extraordinary beauty of the Chinese princess, Gyalsa (Wencheng in Chinese), the daughter of the King Thai-Tsung, son of the founder of the Tang dynasty, the king sent his celebrated minister Gar Tongstan to China. After repeated negotiations the proposal was finalised. There are stories galore about this marriage. According to one, as the number of candidates for the princess's hand was very large and the king, unable to decide whom to choose, at last declared that he would bestow the princess on that prince whose minister by dint of sharpness of sense and quickness of understanding would stand first in merit and intelligence. In the first ordeal, the king laid before the assembled ministers a hollow coil buckler of turquoise, with one end terminating in the centre and the other at the edge. He asked them to pass a string through the aperture of the coil from one end to the other. All failed except the shrewd Tibetan minister Gar Tongstan. He tied one end of the thread to the narrow waist of a queen ant and gently blew it forward through the coil. The ant, dragging the thread easily, came out at the other end to the great wonder of all.

The king, reluctant to send his favourite daughter to such a distant and barbarous country as Tibet, devised repeated trials. However, in all these, the cunning minister acquitted himself well. The reluctance of the king was at last overcome by various contrivances, but he made one last bid to outwit Gar Tongtsan. Five hundred beautiful girls of the princess's age were dressed exactly like her and along with her exhibited before the assembled ambassadors. The shrewd Tibetan had studied the countenance of the princess. Moreover having learnt the king's design, he had taken some tips on how to identify the princess from an old nurse in the royal household. Thus armed, the minister Gar Tongtsan at once recognised the real princess and gently pulling the edge of her robe, claimed her for his liege lord. The trials ended here.

When it was fully settled that the princess should go to Tibet, she addressed the king, "Sire, as it has pleased your Imperial Majesty to send me to Bod, a country where there is no religion, I pray that you will allow me to take with me the great image of the Buddha, and several volumes of Buddhist scriptures, besides a few treatises on medicine and astrology." The king accordingly granted her prayer and gave these as part of her dowry. The Chinese princess was revered as the incarnation of goddess Tara. It was an example of an equal if not weaker sovereign offering his daughter to a stronger one, as Tibet was militarily superior to China at the time. However, Song-tsaen Gampo's was not a politically motivated marriage. The Tibetan chronicles emphatically state that the king married two foreign princesses in order to get the two most venerable images of the Buddha for Tibet.

The union of incarnation of Chenresig (Avalokiteshwara) in Songtsaen, and of the two incarnations of the divine mothers (Saraswati and Tara) in the persons of the two princesses produced great joy and happiness in the palace of Yumbu Lagan. The two princesses coming from two great centres of Buddhism, viz., China and Nepal, jointly exerted their influence for the propagation of Buddhism. They prevailed upon the king to introduce Saddharma, i.e. Authentic Buddhism in Tibet, which in course of time became the state religion of Tibet. The king thus became very famous in the history of Tibet and was known as Chos-gyal (Dharmaraja).

Tibet, being situated in the centre of the four great continents, like the heaving breast of a Sinmo (Amazonian woman), the king thought of making it the fountain of religion by filling it with monasteries. In 639 CE the king founded Lhasa, the renowned capital of Tibet. The hill called Chagpori was considered the heart of the country. The king erected his new palace upon it. Songtsaen died in 649 CE and was succeeded by his grandson, Mangsong Mantsaen, who was still a child. In 654 CE Gar Tongtsaen, in the name of the Tibetan tsaenpo (emperor), composed the first Tibetan legal code, established military administrative divisions, and prepared a census of Tibetan subjects and a measurement of agricultural fields for purposes of taxation. Mantsen died in 667 CE. Sino-Tibet conflicts were frequent in those days.

The Gar clan, which had dominated Tibetan politics for some forty years, was challenged by a strong tsaenpo (emperor), Khri Dusong Mangje. In 704 ad Dusong died. His successor, Tride Tsugtsen, was a minor. Therefore, his mother, Trimalo, served as regent. Trimalo, a devout Buddhist, took the initiative to arrange peace with the Chinese by means of another marriage alliance. Her son, however, was not inclined towards this policy. He sent his armies to invade China. But the Tibetans were repulsed. Subsequently, an immense Chinese army marched upon Tibet with great uproar. Panic seized the Tibetans. They concealed the gold image of Sakya, brought by the Chinese princess, in the southern niches of the great temple near the gate called Melonchan, and deserted Lhasa. Soon after, the Chinese army overran the city and set ablaze the palace of Yumbu Lagan. They also succeeded in carrying Aksobhya's image for some distance, but because of its unwieldiness they left it behind. King Tsugtsen died at the early age of 27.

Trimalo was now able to revive her desire to improve relations with China and enter into matrimonial alliance with China. She did it on behalf of Tride Tsugtsen's son, and her grandson, Megasthom. The Tang Emperor, who was dominated by the Empress Dowager, a devout Buddhist, granted the request in 707 CE, and the princess, Jincheng, was sent to Tibet.

Megasthom discovered an inscription of his illustrious forefather which contained the prophecy that in the eighth generation Buddhism would greatly flourish. Megasthom's son Jantsha Lha was famous for his extraordinary beauty. The king sent messengers all over Tibet to find a match for the prince but to no avail. At last, he sent an ambassador to China, to propose a marriage between his son and the accomplished princess Kyimshan Kunju, the daughter of the Emperor Waijun. The princess, hearing the account of the extraordinary beauty of the Tibetan prince, prayed to her father to consent to the marriage, to which he at last acceded; and the princess started for Tibet. In the meantime one of the Tibetan chiefs, enraged at his king for not selecting his daughter as the prince's wife, treacherously murdered the prince. The king dispatched messengers to convey the bad news to the princess who was on her way to Tibet.

The princess, though deeply disappointed, did not want to return to China. Her fancy was captured by the snowy country of Tibet, and more especially the celebrated image of Sakya. She continued her journey to Tibet, where she was warmly welcomed by the king. She brought to light the hidden image of Sakya which had received no offerings for the last three generations, having been concealed near the gate Melonchan. Her beauty so charmed the king that he at once proposed to marry her. The princess at first declined, but after long deliberation she yielded, and to the great wonder and joy of the people the betrothed daughter-in-law became the bride of the father. She gave birth to the famous monarch Thri-Song De'u-tsaen, believed to be the incarnation of Manjusri, the god of wisdom and learning.

However, the Buddhist presence in Tibet remained superficial for another century. In fact, the progress of Buddhism was by no means smooth for the first 200 years as it had to reckon with the hostility of the Bon, the native religion. It was deeply rooted not only in the mind of the common man but was also strongly entrenched in the court itself. Ministers and even members of the royalty were often ambivalent and some of them continued to be diehard. The Bon priests disputed the authority of the Indian monks and challenged them to polemics and mysteries. Victory in doctrinal debates was easy for the scholar-monks who no doubt emphasized the doctrine of salvation for all. The field of magic was, however, not convenient for the monks from India as only a few of them were adepts in tantra. During the reign of Detsan J756-97), the Buddhist monks failed to match the Bon priests in performing miracles. The Bon elements in the court proclaimed the foreigners' defeat and reconverted the bulk of the population into their native faith. But the king did not yield and invited the Indian monk Shantaraksita to establish the first monastery at Samye. In order to accomplish his purpose, Shantaraksita is said to have had to call on another Indian yogi, and famous master of tantra, Guru Padmasambhava, who was considered as an emanation of Manju-Ghosa. The Guru answered the call and reached Samye or Lhasa, overcoming en route the demons set up by the Bon magicians, and, in a number of bouts, conclusively proved the superiority of Buddhist tantra. For example, he could divert a hailstorm conjured up by the native priests while the latter could not contain a similar scourge set by the Guru. In short, the superiority of Buddhist magic was indisputable and dharma emerged victorious in the field of mysteries also. Ambivalent believers soon sought refuge in Buddhism.

Another story says that his ministers were divided into two factions, designated the 'Buddhist' and the 'Heretic' ministers. The first faction, or chho-lon, advised the young king to encourage Buddhism, while their antagonists exhorted him to extirpate Buddhism from Tibet, which according to them had been productive of pernicious consequences. Despite opposition, the king, because of his great inclination towards Buddhism, sided with the former. The Buddhist party now, with the king's connivance, entered into a conspiracy against the life of Mashan, the minister. They managed the soothsayers and astrologers to declare that some great calamity was imminent over the king which could only be averted by two of the high officers of the kingdom entering grave-like cells and remaining there for a period of three months. The king, therefore, offered large presents to those who would undergo this self-sacrifice. The minister Mashan volunteered to do so, and was followed by the Buddhist minister. They both entered the cell, the depth of which was three times a man's height. At midnight, the Buddhist minister's friends threw a rope into the cell by means of which he climbed up and escaped. The unfortunate Mashan was left alone there, to realise the horrors of the cell. His mortal enemies, the 'Buddhist ministers', blocked the mouth of the cell with a huge rock and buried him alive.

In the meantime, King Detsan applied himself to study and undertake the critical examination of the ancient records in the archives of the state. The Buddhism introduced by him was not its pure form, but was an admixture of Buddhism and Shamanism prevalent in the Himalayan regions. But Buddhism which was introduced in Tibet by Padmasambhava was Mahayana with elements of tantra therein.

On Detsan's forehead there was an excrescence believed to be a symbolic representation of the Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light. Though bright and lustrous, he kept it covered with a red satin headband. During his reign were discovered, in certain caverns of rocks and recesses of mountains, many self-created images of Chenresig (Avalokiteshwara), the divine mother Tara, Hayagriva and other gods, besides many inscriptions including the six mystic syllables Om-mani-padme-hum.

The king made obeisance to these images. Toiling personally, he enlisted his subjects to build a lofty nine-storeyed palace atop the hill, where Potala now stands like a phoenix. He was a learned man and warlike too. He extended his conquests to the surrounding countries, and brought the neighbouring princes under his suzerainty. Having attended to matters military, he devoted his attention to the propagation of Buddhism in Tibet. Through royal edicts, he made his subjects to observe the ten virtues: (a) not to commit murder; (b) not to commit theft; (c) not to commit adultery; (d) not to utter lies; (e) not to speak evil or utter abusive language; (f) not to talk nonsense; (g) not to slander; (h) not to be covetous; (i) not to think on harming others; and (j) not to be averse to truth; besides the sixteen moral virtues: to have faith in Konchhog or the Three Jewels, study religious observance, to honour one's parents, to respect the meritorious and promote the talented, honour the elders as well as those who are of high birth, pay attention to relatives and friends, be patriotic and useful to one's own country, be honest and upright, know the good use of food and wealth, follow the example of the good, be grateful and return the kindness to benefactors, use just weights and measures, be free from jealousy by establishing concord and harmony with- all, not to listen to the words of women, be gentle and polite in speech and acquire skill in conversation, and to bear sufferings and distress with patience and meekness.

Shantarakshita undertook the responsibility of explaining to his pupils the sacred literature ranging from the Vinaya to the Madhyamaka philosophy. Padmasambhava and his colleagues taught the tantras to a few intelligent pupils, which enabled a few pious persons to obtain sainthood. Padmasambhava is still worshipped as the second Buddha and his image finds place by the side of the Buddha in some parts of Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan in lhakhangs (temples) and gompas (monasteries).

Buddhism as a universal religion acclimatized itself to the native genius of the country and the Guru's tradition of the Vajrayana undoubtedly became the national tradition of Tibet. Under this impact even the Bon priests had to admit ideas and images of Buddhism into their creed, though a contra or wrong meaning was read into each adaptation. Thus Buddhism did come to stay in Tibet in one form or the other.

The few Chinese exponents of dharma, who used to visit Tibet from the time of Song-tsaen Gampo's marriage with a Chinese princess, failed to comprehend the moral and spiritual needs of the 'barbarian' of Tibet. A Chinese sage named Hwashang came to Tibet to preach a strange form of sophistry. He held that the pursuit of evil as well as of good binds men equally to a course of recurring existence, and therefore affords no means of emancipation. In illustration of this theory, he observed — "Your condition remains the same whether you are bound by an iron or a golden chain; you are not liberated. Therefore, if the mind is purged of all thoughts, deliverance from recurring existence is secured." The doctrine which he promulgated was accepted by Tibetans; and for a time the philosophy and doctrine of the former Indian panditas such as Sahntarakshita were displaced, for the Chinese sage vanquished all in disputation by his powerful logic. The followers of Shantarakshita and other Indian philosophers diminished in number. In order to counter Hwashan's philosophy, the king invited Kamalashila, a very learned sage of that age, for a debate with the Chinese philosopher. In the final debate, the assembly of believers voted for the Indian exponent. Both views, it is now found, were correct but the Indian master had spoken the Tibetan mind. Hwashang was defeated in disputation, and his fallacies were exposed by Kamalashila in three series of books on meditative science. Kamalashila thus re-established the Indian school, its ritual and philosophy. The Tibetans ceremoniously expelled the Chinese exponent and banned the propagation of the Chinese brand of dharma in Tibet forever.

Both Shantarakshita and Kamalashila belonged to the Svatantra-madhyamaka school. Song-tsaen, who was a devout follower of Shantarakshita, forbade his subjects by royal proclamation from following Hwashang's theories under penalty of death. He ordered everyone to follow the Madhyamaka school. Although certain Indian panditas of the Yogachara school had visited Tibet, they failed to displace the earlier propagated Svatantra-madhyamaka school, which prevailed in Tibet till the accession of Langdarma to the monarchy of Tibet, when the last vestige of Buddhism disappeared from Tibet.

Padmasambhava came to be adored as Guru Rimpoche, that is, Guru Ratna. Guru Rimpoche was indeed the saviour of Buddhism in Tibet. While his miracles are a matter of belief, his achievements are factual. Besides proving the superiority of Buddhism over Bon, the Guru handled the great problem of a foreign religion with high statesmanship. He felt the imperative need for nationalising the church. Aided by Shantarakshita, he ordained the first seven natives into the sangha, thereby, founding the Lamaist Order. The Guru and Shantarakshita helped the king build a monastery on the river Tsangpo (Brahamputra); it was modelled on Odantapuri and named after Achintyapuri as Samye. Significantly enough some Bon mystic practices which, if not identical with, were not unlike the rituals of tantra.

Detsan had several wives, among whom Tshepon Sah was his favourite, by whom he had three sons. After a prosperous reign of 46 years, at the age of 59, he ascended to heaven. The eldest prince, Muni Tsanpo, succeeded Detsan to the throne. But before a year and nine months passed after his demonstration of devotion to the monastery, the promising king was poisoned by his mother, who wished to place her youngest son on the throne. The second son's accession to the throne being considered inauspicious by the astrologers and soothsayers, the youngest son, Muthri Tsaenpo, a boy eight or nine years old, was crowned. He is said to have miraculously received his lesson in sacred literature from the venerable Padmasambhava. He died at a ripe old age, leaving five sons. The eldest two seemed to have reigned, if they reigned at all, for a few years, having fallen victims to the intrigues of the Buddhist ministers.

The youngest Ralpachaen, even from his childhood, gave excellent proof of his intelligence and ability. His assiduity and aptitude for learning were very great. At the age of 18, he was raised to the throne by the Buddhist ministers who were very powerful, opposition being nearly extinct through the continued and rigorous persecution of the late kings.

Ralpachan, the fortieth king, was a Buddhist devotee, but a sickly and weak ruler who neglected state affairs. He invaded western China at the beginning of the ninth century. However, Chinese monks and Tibetan lamas mediated to bring peace. Lake Kokonor was declared the Sino-Tibetan border in the east, and the boundary was marked by stone pillars, erected in 821 CE. Similar pillars were erected in front of the imperial Palace in Changan and the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Mutual pledges were inscribed on these pillars both in Chinese and Tibetan stating that neither China nor Tibet should violate the newly-defined borderline. During his reign King Ralpachan organised the Buddhist Sangha and erected many temples and monasteries. He also invited several Indian pandits for translating religious books into Tibetan.

Contemporary chronicles describe King Ralpachan's expanded kingdom in poetic terms: 'Solong-Shen mountain like a curtain of white silk was the (eastern) frontier with the Chinese king of astrology; an iron pillar near the river Ganga was the (southern) frontier with the Indian king of dharma; the gate of Pata Shadung was the (western) frontier with the Persian king of wealth; and the ridge of sand resembling the back of Nyamangma was the (northern) frontier with the king of Beta.' But he met an unnatural death. Two ruffians, hired by the corrupt ministers, assassinated the king by twisting his neck to the back at the instigation of his brother, Langdarma, whose claim to the throne had earlier been set aside by the 'pious' ministers. After the assassination of Ralpachan, his younger brother, Tamo (Darma), succeeded to the throne. Tamo was fond of wine, a lover of field sports, and devoted to women, cruel, tyrannical, and ungracious. No wonder the troubles of the state increased.

The events that brought Ralpachan's brother, Langdarma, to power in 839 CE also resulted in the downfall of the Tibetan dynasty. In contrast to Ralpachan, Langdarma persecuted Buddhism and the clans that supported Buddhism in favour of Bon and its proponents. To slander the Buddha in blasphemous language was his great delight, and in no discourse did he indulge himself so much as in reviling the holy personage. Not content with demolishing the temples and monasteries of the country, he wreaked havoc even on the sacred shrines of Akshobhya and Sakya. He tried to throw those two images into water. However, he was restrained by some of his 'pious' ministers who pointed out to him the difficulty of lifting those heavy statues. He then contented himself by burying them in sand. On the verge of demolishing the temples of Sakya and Akshobhya, in Lhasa and Samye, respectively, he was forewarned that the guardian demons of those places would send plagues and ruin upon him if he destroyed the temples. Afraid of exciting the wrath of those dreaded spirits, he spared their charges, and satisfied himself with sealing their doors with mud walls. To please him, his ministers and flatterers painted those walls with abominable depictions of the drunken and lustful moods of human depravity.

While the King was thus engaged in overthrowing the sacred religion as well as its relics, saint Lhalungpal Dorje, sitting in deep contemplation in Yarpalbari mountain, had a vision. Goddess Palden Lhamo descending from heaven appeared before him and exhorted him in the following terms: "Oh saint, in these days there is none so powerful as thou. Wouldst thou deliver the country from the hands of that sinful tyrant Langdarma?" Next morning, the saint asked his servant about the condition of Tibet. The servant told him of the cruelties practised by Langdarma. The saint then mounted his white charger whose body he besmeared with charcoal. Clad in a black robe with white lining, with no other weapons than an arrow and a bow in his hands, he reached Lhasa.

The sleeves of the saint's robe were unusually wide so as to make room for the bow and arrow. The king was surrounded by his ministers when the saint arrived, dancing and leaping frantically. All ran to witness the curious dance. The king asked him to come near. The saint pretended to prostrate before the king. In the first prostration he set the arrow and the bow right, in the second he fitted the arrow to the bow, and in the third killed the king with it. Hence the origin of the lama war dance and the use of broad-sleeved robes by the Tibetan lamas.

The arrow shot at the king's back pierced right through his body. The lama then exclaimed, "I am the demon Yasher, and this is the way of killing a sinful king." He leaped on his horse and sped away. As the king fell, his ministers and attendants cried, "the king is dead, the king is dead," and the mob ran after the assassin, but the saint, spurring his horse, shot away like a meteor. While crossing a river the coal-black colour of the horse was washed away, revealing its white coat. The saint turned his robe inside out so as to show the white, flew as God Namtheo Karpo and escaped, leaving his pursuers far behind.

The king pulled out the fatal arrow with his hands, and in the agonies of the death, when his proud heart was subdued with anguish, exclaimed — "Why was I not killed three years back that I might not have committed so much sin and mischief, or three years hence, to enable me to root out Buddhism from the country." These were the last words he was fated to utter. His head sunk on his chest and he died.

With Langdarma ended the monarchy of Tibet founded by Nya-thri Tsaenpo, and his descendants henceforth ceased to exercise universal authority over the whole of Tibet. The sun of royalty had set, and there rose up numerous petty princes to shine with faded lustre in the pale realm of snowy Tibet.

917 to 1270 CE

The wicked Langdarma had two wives, the elder of whom, perceiving that the other was in the family way, shammed pregnancy. She also tried to secretly kill the newly-born, delivered at dusk. Failing to kill it, she tried to steal the baby but again was thwarted due to a lighted lamp in the room. The child was therefore given the name of Namdo Hodsrung (one protected by light). The elder queen then bought a beggar's child and declared she had given birth to it the previous evening. The minister was aghast as to how a newly-born child could have its teeth fully grown. But not daring to contradict the elder queen, they gave the name Thide Yumten (one upheld by his mother) to the fake newly-born.

During the interregnum, the Buddhist ministers directed the affairs of the state. They endeavoured to revive all the religious institutions that were nearly extinct. They reinstated images in their former places and rebuilt demolished monasteries and temples. Notwithstanding their feeble efforts to rebuild the edifice ruthlessly pulled down by Langdarma, Buddhism did not reach its former condition until 70 years after the death of Ralpacan.

As soon as the princes came of age, they quarreled and bickered for the possession of the throne. At last they divided the kingdom into two parts. Hodsrung took possession of western Tibet, and Yumten of the eastern provinces. The partition generated incessant quarrels and disturbances, with the brothers constantly engaging in wars against each other. Thus the descendants of Nya-thri Tsaenpo ceased to exercise universal sway over Tibet.

But this period witnessed the revival of Buddhism in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhist tradition identifies three kings as the primary promoters of Buddhism: Song-tsaen Gampo (629-649), Thri Srong De'u-tsaen (754-797) and Ralpachan (815-838). In addition, the father of Thri Song De'u-tsaen, Megasthom (704-754), and the father of Ralpachan, Sadnaleg (804-815) were known to have favoured and promoted Buddhism.

Jhanb Chhub-hod, a ruler, acquired great proficiency both in Buddhism and heretical philosophies. Greatly interested in restoring Buddhism to its pristine glory, he searched for an eminent Indian pandita profoundly versed in all the shastras and particularly qualified in the three branches of Buddhism, viz. theory, meditation and practice of rites and observances, besides possessing a thorough acquaintance with all aspects of Buddhist learning. His emissaries sought out and exhorted Dipankara Atisha Srijnana, a Bengali monk of the llth century (983-1054 CE) to reform Tibetan Buddhism which was becoming decadent. Atisha left India for Tibet in 1042 CE at the age of 59. Journeying through Tsang (western Tibet), he came across a little village in the state of Zangtu. At that time, Tibet had disintegrated into numerous petty states and principalities. There a miracle occurred. Atisha beheld a miraculously white, enormous disc, glowing with mystic symbols of the god Avalokiteshwara and the god Manjusri, on the centre of Ponto Hill. The hill formed a natural canopied backdrop to this blessed village. Dismounting, Atisha prostrated himself before the sacred signs. Today, a few weather-worn, yellowish mud-brick chortens (pagodas) stand as living monuments to Atisha's mystic trance. This place is called Chagtsal Gyap, the Pass of Prostration. At the place where the divine revelation took place is a conspicuous spot of white earth —- sakya is the Tibetan for 'white earth'. He died at the age of 78 in 1055 CE.

Not till the arrival of Atisha did the condition of Buddhism in Tibet improve. Until then it had remained practically in a moribund condition. Atisha was renowned for his learning, renunciation and wide travel. He also brought with him tantrik Buddhism and reformed Buddhism in Tibet. As a consequence, there originated a new sect known as the Kadampa sect.

The sages Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa, and Pandita Shakya Shri of Kashmir, besides many other Indian pandits who furthered the cause of Buddhism, belonged to the following centuries. Through translations of the sutras and shastras, Pandit Sakya Shri greatly promoted the diffusion of Buddhism. The ritual vow introduced by him was called panchhen domgyum. Similarly, the rituals introduced by Lachhen of Amdo were called lachhen domgyum. Buddhism managed to revive and flourish because by persecution the enemies of Buddhism had only succeeded in putting down the external observances and ritual of the clergy, while the real dharma and moral discipline continued to be secretly practised even under adverse circumstances. The basis of Buddhism being vinaya or moral discipline, the system of Domgyum is only necessary as an external observance.

Buddhism progressed more and more, branching out into numerous different orders as the result of its extraordinary growth. These, like the eighteen divisions of the Vaibhashika school of ancient India, were designated after the names of their respective teachers and places of origin. Some of the Tibetan lamas deriving their religious knowledge from Indian panditas and feeling great veneration for the theories themselves, named their respective sects after them. They did not follow the Indian patriarchs in their nomenclature, for all Indian Buddhist schools were designated after the general sense of their philosophies. For instance, the Sakya-pa, Jonang-pa, Shang-pa and Drigung-pa sects of Tibet were designated after the names of the localities where they were taught and originated; the Karmapa and Bulugpa sects, after the names of their respective teachers; the Kadampa, Dzogchhen-pa, Chhyag-chhen-pa and Shi-jhye-pa sects after their respective rituals or external Kriya.

All the various Buddhist orders of Tibet are classified under two schools: the Ancient school and the Gelug or the Reformed school. The difference between the schools lies in the tantras only while the sutras remain the same in both.

Sakya Hierarchy (1270-1340 CE)

That Tibet was a great military power in Central Asia from the seventh to the ninth centuries is indisputable. The impact of Lamaism in every sphere of life in Tibet came to predominate. Lamaism killed the military spirit of Tibetans, and Tibet as a great military nation vanished forever. This change from the conquest of other nations to the conquest of the human mind was extremely sudden. The religious Tibetan will pray earnestly: 'May I be born in the land of Buddhism, Holy Tibet' — an attitude that indicates the spiritual height to which Tibet had been elevated. Mahayana Buddhism had been safely uprooted from its birthplace, India, and transplanted remarkably well in the alien cultural climate of Tibet. There it miraculously flourished.

Scores of panditas from India and Nepal spent their lives in Tibet, helping the Tibetan lamas translate Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan; Tibetans studied Buddhism in India and returned home to transmit their knowledge. Tibet had certain rare Buddhist scriptures that were not available even in Sanskrit. Little wonder it was that Tibet came to be regarded as an 'abode of Buddhism', and that the Sakya lamas, Karmapas and, subsequently, the Dalai Lamas were thought to be bodhisattvas.

Tibet's status as the abode of Buddhism was maintained even at a time when it was split and rendered impotent after the reign of Langdarma. But this status was bound to be affected as a result of what then occurred — Ghenghiz Khan's conquest and the rise of the Mongolian Empire.

Tibet crumbled and succumbed to the mighty warrior in the beginning of the thirteenth century. In the whole of Tibet, without much resistance, the different chieftains and petty princes became his abject vassals.

The Mongols under Ghenghiz Khan attacked the Tangut in China in 1227. He was killed during the campaign, in retaliation for which the Tangut state was almost completely destroyed. Some of the residents of Tangut fled to Tibet. Ghenghiz was succeeded by his son, Ogadai. By 1234, the Mongols had conquered all of northern China. In 1236, Godan, the son of Ogadai, led a campaign against two provinces of China. In 1240, Godan again sent an expeditionary force. In 1241, all Mongol activities were suspended due to the death of Ogadai. Godan's forces withdrew from Tibet. Sakya Pandita arrived at the Mongol camp in 1245, but apparently met Godan only in 1247. Sakya Pandita then made his submission to Godan, and agreed to become the representative of the Mongol authority in Tibet.

It was the grandson of Ghenghiz, Mongke Khan, who established an administrative centre at Hochow, in the present province of Kansu, and the pacification bureaus at six places, all along the western border of present Szechwan.

Khubilai, who had commanded the forces that overran eastern Tibet on his way in 1253 to conquer Ta-li (in Yunnan), enforced the pacification policy of the Mongke Khan with even greater energy. In 1269, he established a pacification bureau in Wussutsang, which was further in the interior of Tibet and dominated the two principal provinces, Dbus (U) and Gtsang (Tsang). Later, he divided Tibet into districts (Chun and Hsein) as in China and established various offices and a system of local government.

Apparently, Khubilai Khan found the turbulent and warlike Tibetans a difficult people to rule. He resolved to reduce them to a condition of docility through the influence of religion. Buddhism was reaffirmed as the religion best calculated to tame the wild tribesmen of Tibet, and as it had already secured a firm foothold there, 'the project was by no means an impractical one. The policy was effectively enforced, and the cooperation of the Sakya Pandita of the large monastery at Sakya was secured by extending invitation to him to the Mongolian court.

According to the Chinese records, Sakya Pandita's nephew Drogon Chogyal Phagpa went to see Khubilai in 1253. Upon the return of Phagpa, Khubilai invited Karma Pakshi, the Ilnd Karmapa. He was known as a famous miracle-worker, and was reported to have astonished Khubilai by performing innumerable miracles. Khubilai is said to have entertained doubts that the Sakyas, represented by Phagpa, were as powerful as the Karmapa. Phagpa also performed an impressive miracle.

Phagpa asked for a sword and said, 'I shall transform my limbs into the five classes of Buddha, and you, Khan and ministers will get your request to be reborn in whichever of the five Buddha's fields you desire. If you do not so believe, visit where my limbless body rests on my bed!' He made the head Vairocana. The four limbs he transformed into the four other classes, and thus emerged the five classes of Buddhas. In 1254, or shortly thereafter, Phagpa conferred upon Khubilai initiations into the rites of Buddhism. Khubilai accepted Phagpa as his Guru, or teacher in religious matters.

The Khan asked, "What precepts must be observed?" Phagpa replied, "Having requested initiation, the lama takes the higher seat. The devotee physically prostates (himself to the teacher) and heeds whatever he says; and (the devotee) must not act contrary to the thoughs (of the teacher)." The Khan said,

"I would not be able to observe such precepts." The dispute was mediated by Chabi, Khubilai's favourite wife. She had already been initiated by Phagpa; she had become a Buddhist and a strong supporter of Phagpa. She proposed, "There is a solution to that. The teacher shall occupy the higher seat when giving teachings and when (only) a few people are present. The Khan shall take the higher seat when there are large assemblies of men such as vassal rulers and lords. The affairs concerning Tibetan regions shall be done according to the words (of the teacher). The Khan shall not give orders without consulting the lama. Apart from that, in all other affairs, big or small, the lama need not be consulted."

Khubilai made a 'donation' to Phagpa of the thirteen myriarchies of western and central Tibet. As a second offering, Phagpa was given the three districts of Tibet: U-Tsang (central and western Tibet), Do-toh (Kham) and Dome (Amdo).

When Mongke died in 1259, Khubilai emerged victorious in the succession war between him and his younger brother. In 1260, Khubilai named Phagpa "National Preceptor" and conferred the title of Tisri on him. Then onwards Tibet came to be ruled by the Sakya lamas as a Buddhist state. Phagpa was granted hereditary title to the throne and his successors the right to independent accession. He had received all the highest honours that could be conferred on a lama. He had a seat in Tibet called Sakya Dzong. Eventually Tibetan blood-thirstyness was converted and submerged into a passion for spiritual satisfaction.

Phagpa died in 1280, at the age of forty-five. It was suspected that he was poisoned. The title Tisri passed to another member of his family. The Sakya lamahood was hereditary. Twenty-eight such lamas in succession ruled over Tibet. They appointed their own subordinates without imperial consent. They established their own government, functioning quite independently in Sakya. During their reign, a number of Indian panditas visited Tibet, and Tibet's cultural relations with India became stronger than those with China. However, the tradition of sending a brother or son of the reigning Sakya lama to China as China's national mentor continued throughout the Sakya era.

Of all the Sakya lamas, Phagpa was undoubtedly the most illustrious and fortunate. But under his successors, things altered for the worse. Due to the imbecility of the regents, the prosperity of the people was greatly impeded, with chiefs and nobles fighting and quarreling with each other. The Sakya hierarchies were mostly puppets in the hands of the regents. The regents frequently embroiled the country in feuds, and themselves in war with each other. Quarreling, not to speak of insubordination, was the order of the day. Conspiracy, assassination and murder were rampant. One Mongol preferred one order, while his successor showered special favours to a different one, usually by means of giving land together with thousands of families for the maintenance of the monasteries under their charge. Numerous feudal chiefs were thus created. The Sakya priest-kings were reduced to mere figureheads.

China did not intervene in any way when in 1358 the twenty-eighth Sakya ruler was dethroned by the monk Jhangchub Gyaltsan, whose line ruled Tibet until 1435. This line ended in another struggle for supremacy. The founder of the new regime, Jhangchub Gyaltsan, better known by his name of Phagmodhru, was a member of the famous Kagyu order, although he visited the Sakya monastery at the age of 14 and stayed there for some time. During a dispute with the chiefs, nobles, and lamas of U and Tsang, the Chinese emperor decided in his favour, and bestowed on him, to be enjoyed as hereditary possessions, the province of U, leaving Tsang to the Sakyas. Five years later, he defeated the Sakyas and other rivals on the battlefield and annexed Tsang and became the undisputed master of the whole of Tibet. As the Chinese emperor made an extensive search for learned lamas, he could not have missed the great reformer Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), the Luther of Tibet. The Emperor invited him to the court but the latter excused himself on the pretext of illness. In 1413 the Emperor again sent an envoy asking the great reformer to dispatch a disciple on his behalf, if he himself could not come. At this, Tsongkhapa complied and sent one of his outstanding disciples.

Earlier, in 1403, the Chinese ruler Ming Cheng-tsu invited the Vth Karmapa, Dheshin Shegpa, to his court to perform the Buddhist faith and rebirth ritual for his predecessor. Cheng-tsu offered to send the Karmapa back to Tibet with titles and military escorts sufficient to establish the predominance of his sect over others in Tibet. The Karmapa refused the offer.

Tsongkhapa reformed Tibetan Buddhism drastically, and established a new order known as Gelugpa or the 'yellow hats'. (The Dalai and Panchen Lamas belong to this order.) Tsongkhapa was the most famous lama reformer; and his order was the most popular in Central Asia from the fourteenth century .onwards.,

During the civil strife, the Yellow order at first met with reverses in their struggle for power on account of the help which the powerful Chief of Tsang gave to the Red order. The Yellow order then sought the help of the Mongolian hordes, who helped them wrest back" their lost territorial endowments and their beloved monasteries. The Chief of Tsang, failing in his military enterprise, also sought in vain help from Mongolian chiefs.

In the ensuing further bloodshed, the new dynasty founded by Kagyus of Tsang province to replace the Sakya was overthrown by the Mongolian army under Gushri Khan who, at the earnest entreaties of the Yellow order, marched into Tibet to punish their enemies. Victorious over an 40,000 strong Tartar army of Chogthu Khan of Kokonor, who espoused the cause of the Red order, and reinforced by his annihilation of King Beri of Kham, who followed the Bon religion and who, like Langdarma, had destroyed all the Buddhist institutions of Kham belonging to the Red and the Yellow orders, the formidable Gushri Khan had little difficulty overcoming the resistance of Tsang. He put the defeated monarch to death, proclaimed his authority over the whole country and made the Vth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso, the undisputed spiritual ruler of Tibet. Four kings of the Ringpong. dynasty had ruled in succession from 1435 to 1565, followed by three Tsangpa kings between 1566 and 1645. In an otherwise almost static society, the only dynamism came from the Tibetan religious orders. These orders, founded obviously by the best available brains in Tibet, were responsible for every great movement in the country's cultural history.

The new order spread like wildfire in Mongolia. In 1578, Sonam Gyatso, the third 'pope' of the Yellow Hats, received the title 'Taa;a'i Lama¹ from the Mongol ruler Altan Khan. 'Dalai' is Mongol for 'ocean', and refers to the extent of Sonam Gyatso's knowledge. The Dalai Lama is neither the formal head of Tibetan Buddhism — a kind of Tibetan Buddhist equivalent to the Pope — nor the head of the Gelugpa order. The Khan became a dedicated follower of the Yellow Hats, and his subjects readily followed his example. With the help of the Mongols, in the 1640s the Vth Dalai Lama established supremacy over the other orders; and so the Dalai Lama ruled Tibet until the 1959.

Even in historical records, we find descriptions that at the time, the religious protocol dictated that the Illrd Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso, would have to pay obeisance firstly to the IXth Gyalwa Karmapa, Wangchug Dorje, and then to the Vth Kunzig Shamar, Kunchog Yenlag, by doing prostrations before their thrones during the religious ceremonies. However, all that was about to change in the seventeenth century, when in no time the Mongolian warlord invited by the Vth Dalai Lama flattened several Nyingma monasteries, slew the Desi Tsangpa and at least 250 Kagyu monasteries were violently turned into Gelugpa strongholds. Within a short span of less than three centuries, there had been three major struggles for supremacy in Tibet, all among the Tibetans themselves.

Right after the Gelugpa leaders became the rulers of Tibet, political intimidation and religious restrictions were directed at the Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu traditions in particular. Together with high taxes, derogatory laws were passed against those schools while exempting the ruling Gelugpas. The hostility and paranoia of losing power again led the ministers of the Dalai Lama to pass on harsh laws against his potential enemies. For example, the ministers of the Vth Dalai Lama, Lobzang Gyatso, decided that the Tsurphu monastery of the Karmapas could ordain no more than three monks a year. The recognition of tulkus carried out by the orders other than the Gelug have been, and are totally, independent of the Dalai Lama and his ministers. Ample evidence of this are the hundreds of incarnations autonomously recognised and enthroned by their respective spiritual hierarchs in the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya orders. In 1682, the Vth Dalai Lama died. Within the corridors of the Potala political intrigues lurked at every corner and the regent, Sangye Gyatso (reputed to have been the son of the Dalai Lama), kept the death of the pontiff a closely-guarded secret for about 15 years.

The Vlth Dalai Lama, Lobsang Rigdzin Tshang-yang Gyatsho, was a controversial figure. Instead of devoting himself to the study and practice of Buddhism, he spent his youth composing erotic verses. He would more often sneak away from the palace and make merry in the taverns of Lhasa. The name given to him by the Panchen Lama is translated as 'Precious Ocean of Pure Melody¹ and one wonders if the Panchen Lama had premonition that the young pontiff would one day be a writer of many songs. He was a true lover of wine, women and song, and of the latter he wrote many. His poems and songs were not pedantic but simple and expressive of the turmoil he was passing through. He wrote:

I went to my teacher, with devotion filled

To learn of the Lord Buddha

My teacher taught, but what he said escaped

For my mind was full of compassion,

Full of that Compassionate One who loves me,

She has stolen my mind.

He was the most enigmatic character in the history of Central Asia. Another unusual thing about him was that he was not Tibet-born but was from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, a state in India. He was extraordinary in many ways. He was a tantrik, an architect, an exponent of Tibetan monastic opera and, most of all, he was a man with human frailities. His antics and behaviour made the Tibetans and Mongols suspicious of his reincarnation. In 1706, the Chinese and Mongols murdered the young Dalai Lama, and installed a 25-year-old lama as the true incarnation. The Tibetans refused to recognise him, and discovered a new incarnation in Lithang in eastern Tibet. The Mongols also seconded the Tibetan choice.

Fearing a Mongol-Tibetan alliance, the Chinese Emperor Kang Hsi dispatched an army in 1718, but the Tibetans and Mongols defeated the Chinese troops. Hence the Tibetan nominee was enthroned as the Vlth Dalai Lama, disallowing Tsang-yang Gyatso's tenure of office. However, Tsang-yang Gyatso had then been reinstated as the Vlth Dalai Lama, and his successor was known as the Vllth. The Chinese imperial army remained in Tibet until 1723, when the new Emperor Yung Ch'eng ordered their evacuation and handed back territory annexed by China during the crisis over the Vlth Dalai Lama. The Chinese left behind two am bans (resident representatives of the emperor) with a small military escort in Lhasa.

In 1791, the Gurkhas of Nepal invaded Tibet and captured Shigatse. They were, however, defeated the following year by a combined Chinese-Tibetan army. The victory pillar erected by the Chinese in Lhasa states that the troops were composed of men from Solong, a district in the Tibetan province of Gyarong.

After the defeat of the Gurkhas, the Chinese ambans naturally got a stronger grip on the Tibetan administration. Ambans were posted at Shigatse, Tingri, Chamdo and Dhrayab, and Tibetan officials, both lay and ecclesiastical, were ordered to submit all vital decisions to them. The Dalai Lamas were highly respected, once they reached maturity; between 1804 and 1876, four of them (the IXth, Xth, Xlth and XIth) died at the ages of nine, twenty-one, eighteen and nineteen, respectively. It is possible that the Ambans had a hand in these premature deaths, for they could impose their authority on a regent more easily than on the Dalai Lama. The ambans were also to assist in the selection of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, and an imperial order was issued on the procedure of selecting high incarnates. The ambans exercised active power from 1720 to about 1840, and thereafter their power was nominal.

When the Limbu tribe of Nepal invaded Tibet, China did not help the Tibetans expel them; nor did she help when a Sikh and Dogra force of about 5,000 under Zorawar Singh invaded western Tibet in 1841. Tibetan troops on their own expelled both the invaders. In 1855, Nepalese forces invaded for the second time, under the pretext that their subjects were being treated shabbily. The Nepalese were victorious, and a treaty was signed by which Nepal gained extraterritorial rights in Tibet. In 1863, the Chinese invaded Gyarong in Eastern Tibet and annexed it to China.

In 1890, the British Government in India wanted to establish trade relations with Tibet, but was uncertain whether to approach China or Tibet. Knowing that the Chinese authority extended in Tibet during the eighteenth century, the British contacted China, and in 1893 signed a convention with her, without Tibet's knowledge. But when Britain applied for concessions, the Tibetan government rejected the convention, and the British came to realise how little influence the Chinese had over Tibet actually. Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India in 1899, was compelled to regard Chinese control over Tibet as a 'constitutional fiction — a political affection which has only been maintained because of its convenience to both parties.'

In 1904, Lord Curzon despatched a military mission under Colonel Francis Younghusband to impose a trade agreement. The Tibetan troops were defeated, and the Dalai Lama's Regent signed a convention with the British in Lhasa. Seals of the Dalai Lama, the kashag (ministerial council), national assembly and of the three big monasteries were stamped on the agreement, but the Chinese were not signatories.

The British military expedition and the subsequent convention made the Chinese realise that their power in Tibet had disappeared. So in 1910 China invaded Tibet, and the Dalai Lama fled to India. But Chinese control was short-lived; in China, revolution broke out, and in 1912, the Tibetans drove the remaining Chinese forces out of Tibet. 'With that', writes the Dalai Lama, Tibet became completely independent, and from 1912 until the Chinese invasion in 1950 neither the Chinese nor any other state had any power whatsoever in Tibet.'

The International Commission of Jurists report to the United Nations The Question of Tibet and the Rule of Law sums up conclusively: Tibet's position on the expulsion of the Chinese in 1912 can fairly be described as one of the de facto independence and there are, as explained, strong legal grounds for thinking that any form of legal subservience to China had vanished. It is, therefore, submitted that the events of 1911-12 made the re-emergence of Tibet as a fully sovereign state independent, in fact as well as in law, of Chinese control.'

For 38 years Tibet enjoyed de facto independence. She took no part in the Sino-Japanese war, refused permission to transport war supplies from India to China through Tibet during the Second World War, and participated in the conference of Asian countries held in Delhi. In 1948, she sent an official trade delegation with Tibetan passports which were recognised by India, China, France, Italy, Britain and the USA.

It was not only the fanatic and ignorant lamas but also the aristocrats, and specially the government officials, who were responsible for the tragedy of Tibet. Indifferent to their duty, they indulged in petty political squabbles and loose ways of living. It is said that, when the Amdo garrison fell to the invading Chinese army in 1950, an urgent message was sent to Lhasa. When the messenger arrived, he found the officials busy playing mahjong (a Tibetan indoor game). He was shouted down, told not to interrupt, and made to wait until they had finished their game.

After the XIIIth Dalai Lama's death in 1933, ill-feeling between the monks of the Sera monastery and the Lhasa government prevailed for years. Ultimately, the acrimony erupted in an armed clash. The abbot of the Radreng monastery was appointed regent. Under him, his monastic staff made the most of the opportunity to make the Radreng monastery rich and powerful, and it was rumoured that the abbot wanted to continue his rule indefinitely. Finally, in 1947, his political antagonists put him under arrest, and he died under mysterious circumstances.

The Tibetans are deeply religious. They perceive the Dalai Lama as the symbol of their religion, their culture and civilisation, if not political sovereignty, albeit it is psychological. Because, although the Tibetans both in and outside Tibet popularly perceive the Dalai Lama as their legitimate ruler, this does not mean the restoration of the ancient regime.

In the post-1950 period Sino-Tibetan conflicts, the Dalai Lama has increasingly figured as a pan-Tibetan figure, symbolising Tibetan cultural value and popular aspirations. He appears as the rallying point for ethnic mobilisation and opposition. As the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile and as a teacher of great spiritual authority in his own right, the present Dalai Lama remains a force for the Tibetan community's devotion and respect.

During the 1980s the portrait of the Dalai Lama became a symbol of Tibetan resistance. There grew a personality cult around the Dalai Lama and his family. The present Dalai Lama is a well-known media personality. He has also been conferred the coveted Nobel Prize for peace. Blessed with the good fortune of having authored and published ghost-written books, the constant Western mass media exposure has made him an instant hero in the present credulous and media-oriented age. A pastmaster at capturing the international media headlines, he has a charismatic influence among the Tibetans.

In the feudal power struggle, a characteristic of Tibet, the story of the Panchen Lama deserves mention in the annals of Tibet. In the time of the IIIrd Dalai Lama, the administration of the Trashilhunpo monastery at Shigatse was entrusted to a series of senior lamas who came to be regarded later as the predecessors of the Panchen Lamas. However, the formalisation and institutionalisation of the Panchen Lama owes its origin to the Vth Dalai Lama who declared that his tutor, Choekyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662), would reincarnate as the Ilnd Panchen Lama, and so the line continues up to this day. Before the Vth Dalai Lama's recognition, Tashilhunpo was headed by senior abbots, and not by reincarnates. They were simply called Panchen, a hybrid of two syllables: 'pan(dita)', a Sanskrit word meaning 'scholar' and 'chen(po)', Tibetan for 'great'. At that time, Trashilhunpo was endowed with three estates as its source of income.

In 1728, the then Panchen Lama was given considerable political power. During the Dzungar invasion (during which the then Tibetan authorities requested the Qing emperor to intervene on their behalf) the VIIth Dalai Lama and his family sided with the Dzungar forces. Partly to punish the Dalai Lama and partly to have a counter-balancing force within the Gelugpa hierarchy, the Qing emperor arranged that the Panchen should be made a ruler of Tsang (western Tibet). A special administrative office called Chizong (spyi-rzon) was established next to Trashilhunpo, administering sixteen districts in western Tibet from Shigatse. This was the beginning of the Chinese policy of divide and rule during the Gelug period of Tibetan history, which continues to this day.

When the XIIIth Dalai Lama began to consolidate his power and set in motion a certain degree of centralisation, the IXth Panchen Lama and Trashilhunpo were one of the first targets of the Tibetan government in Lhasa, as Trashilhunpo had been growing since 1728 as an autonomous local power centre due to Chinese and British encouragement. The XIIIth Dalai Lama's government sought to curtail the Panchen Lama's growing influence. Several of his estates were confiscated and political privileges of his court reduced. This created tension between Lhasa and Shigatse, and the IXth Panchen Lama and his entourage escaped to China in 1921. Both the British and the Chinese officials tried to intervene and mediate in this Dalai-Panchen dispute, but without much success, for at the heart of the dispute was a feudal power struggle. The Panchen Lama wanted a return to the earlier system (1728-1920) in which Trashilhunpo functioned autonomously from Lhasa. Besides, he wanted the right to maintain an armed force of his own. It was only after the XIIIth Dalai Lama's death that the IXth Panchen Lama could attempt to return to Tibet. He died en route in Jyejundo on 1 December, 1937.

In the Gelugpa historical records, the relations between the Dalai and Panchen Lamas are depicted as the 'sun' and the 'moon'; the 'father¹ and the 'son'. This idealistic state of affairs might have prevailed had the two parties not got embroiled in a political contest in Tibet, especially during the period 1445-1728. At such times, there was a kind of symbiotic or mutually beneficial relationship between the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. The incumbent, senior in age, tended to recognise the junior, giving sanctity and legitimacy to the 'new¹ lama. Thus, the IVth Panchen Lama recognised the Vth Dalai Lama. Subsequently, the Vth Dalai Lama recognised the Vth Panchen Lama. Later, the Vlth Panchen Lama recognised the Vlllth Dalai Lama who, in turn, recognised the Vllth Panchen Lama. The current Dalai Lama's recognition of the Xlth Panchen Lama may be said to be in keeping with this spirit of fraternal tradition, as both belong to the same order.

But politics soured the 'father' and 'son' relationship. High lamas, sometimes knowingly, sometimes under manipulation by their ambitious entourage, got entangled in the mundane world of power struggle. In this they were often encouraged by domineering neighbouring powers to promote their own national interest in Central Asia. Because high lamas wielded enormous influence among their followers, external powers found it expedient to pursue their interest in Tibet or Tibetan affairs through such holy men of influence. High lamas may have been men of great influence but they often acted as instruments of the great powers and tended to toe the line so long as their 'political' patrons did not interfere in their religious sphere.

Some time before the British mission to Lhasa, led by Col. F. Younghusband, it was reported to the Dalai Lama's government that the Panchen Lama's father had been murdered and that not only were the sorcerers engaged against the Lhasa administration but were also trying to usurp the authority of the Panchen Lama. Asked about this, the Panchen Lama replied that he wanted a thorough enquiry into the matter. Accordingly, a party of officials headed by Gsr-byung Shappe left Lhasa for that purpose. It discovered that the Panchen Lama's father had been having an affair with the wife of another prominent Trashilhunpo official, the Nyer-tshang Chenpo. In a bid to marry her paramour, the woman tried to poison the Panchen Lama's deaf and dumb mother. But the plot miscarried and it was the Panchen's father and some of his servants who ate the poisoned food. They were saved only by the skill of a doctor known as Badu Amchi.

A dog, which ate a part of the poisoned food, was less fortunate. It died. The Gnyer-tshang Chenpo's wife tried to pin the blame on her daughter but was found guilty and was banished. She was also fined heavily and flogged as well. The Panchen Lama's father, probably innocent in the matter, was also fined and imprisoned in the Phuntsholing dzong (prison). These proceedings were presumably carried out by the Panchen Lama's ministers; but the Nyer-tshang Chenpo, who was more influential among the ministers, wanted further vengeance. The in-charge of the Phuntsholing dzong was prevailed upon to club Panchen Lama's father to death. In the twists and turns to the entire affair, the senior-most minister was charged with attempt to bring the Dalai Lama's government under his influence by means of written magical charms which he kept beneath his seat and also of attempting to usurp the authority of Panchen Lama. Along with Nyer-tshang Chenpo he was heavily fined and degraded. All the fines were made over to the Panchen Lama.

Younghusband has recorded this incident in his memoirs. A Tibetologist later commented that Younghusband underestimated the Tibetan ability-to conceal shrewdness and strength of mind beneath a facade of calm and self-control and an assumed air of simplicity. In January 2000, Ashok Malik echoed the similar opinion when he wrote in India Today, a fortnightly magazine, "Tibetans are more secretive than a secret service".

The Xth Panchen Lama, Choekyi Gyaltsen, made a heroic departure in 1959 from this self-serving path and emerged as the hero of the Tibetan people under Chinese domination.

After the IXth Panchen Lama's death, the Tashilhunpo monastery organised searches for the reincarnation, finally shortlisting two candidates, one in Amdo and the other in Kham. The former was preferred and declared as the Xth Panchen Lama with the name Lobsang Trinley Lhundrup Choekyi Gyaltsen. But considerable complications preceded his formal recognition. A section of the previous Panchen Lama's court recognised the Amdo child in 1941. But a reincarnation of the Panchen Lama's stature would not be readily and widely accepted unless his authenticity was publicly confirmed by the Dalai Lama. With the then Dalai Lama still a minor, the Tibetan government insisted on the performance of all the traditional tests before the official confirmation. This delayed the Xth Panchen Lama's formal recognition by Lhasa. In 1951, China insisted that Gyaltsen be recognised as the true reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama recognised him. Throughout the 1950s, the young Xth Panchen Lama was considered 'pro-Chinese'. While the Chinese were trying to use him as a rival to the Dalai Lama and a counter-force to Tibetan nationalism, the young reincarnate was quietly undergoing his rigorous spiritual training that would transform a mere boy into a reincarnate lama, befitting the high status of Panchen Lama.

Immediately after the Dalai Lama's escape to India in 1959, the Chinese appointed the Panchen Lama as the acting Chairman of the 'Preparatory Committee for Tibet Autonomous Region' (the replacement of the Tibetan government at Lhasa), an office previously held by the Dalai Lama. The following year, the Chinese appointed him a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress. In the early 1960s, the Panchen Lama assumed the religious responsibilities of the absentee Dalai Lama in Tibet. For this, in 1964, he was deported to Beijing's Qin Cheng prison. For fourteen long years, he suffered such mental and physical agonies which only his prison inmates knew of. At one time he even attempted suicide/The lama refused to take food, saying he did not want to go on living under such terrible prison conditions.

In February 1978, the Chinese official news agency released a report that the Panchen Lama had attended the fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing. In 1980, he was reinstated a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress. With the permission of the Chinese authorities, he visited his homeland in June 1982.

During his house arrest in Beijing, which followed soon after his release from prison, the Panchen Lama had lost his celibate status to a Chinese woman. On his homecoming, he was reluctant to re-ascend the Panchen Lama's throne but his entourage urged him to do so. Even then he refused to wear the monk's robes again; in public he was seen wearing a yellow brocade chuba (the layman's dress). There was no trace of the Gelug chauvinism in him. He visited Lhasa six or seven times after 1978, and toured various parts of Tibet, including Kham and Amdo. His last visit was in January 1989 when he arrived at his traditional monastic seat, Tashilhunpo, in Shiagatse. On 28 January, 1989, the Xth Panchen Lama, 51, died at the Trashilhunpo monastery, where his previous incarnations had lived and died.

His death unleashed a fresh controversy. At the heart of the controversy was the political question: Who had the power and authority to recognise the Xlth Panchen Lama — the Dalai Lama or the Chinese government? The Dalai Lama's claim was based on religious convention and age-old practice, whereas the Communists based their claim on the legacy of the Qing imperial power. In practice, both used to be involved in the final recognition of a Panchen Lama, but the Dalai Lama more so than the Manchu emperor. The Manchu emperor's rubber stamp might add more prestige and power but it was the Dalai Lama's recognition (ngos-'dzin) that sanctified and legitimised the reincarnation in the eyes of the Buddhist world.

Ultimately, politics took precedence over piety. The issue remains of much political significance to Beijing. China's claim to rule Tibet largely rests on the imperial tradition of conferring titles on high lamas and on the imperial custom of sending am bans (representatives) to be present at the recognition and enthronement ceremonies of high reincarnate lamas. This traditional patron-priest relationship, as the Tibetans perceive it, has now been interpreted by the Communist authorities as China's right to 'appoint¹ high lamas to their posts.

Communist China claims that the presentation of a golden urn by the Manchu emperor Ch'ien-lung in 1792 (the lots drawing system) marked the height of Manchu influence in Tibet. That is why China takes the golden urn presentation in 1792 as the historic basis of its claim to 'confirm¹ the reincarnations of the Dalai and Panchen lamas.

Whereas, in fact, tagril is an ancient Tibetan tradition long predating the Manchu empire. This ancient Tibetan method involves encasing the names of candidates in dough balls of equal size and weight. The balls are put into a container and the container is rotated until one of them pops out. The candidate lucky enough to have his name inscribed on the ejected ball is declared the successful candidate.

With the subsequent spread of Buddhism, certain other Buddhist elements were added, such as praying to the Buddha and other deities and rotating the urn clockwise. Emperor Ch'ien-lung merely presented a golden urn which would hopefully replace the ordinary container. Tibetan lamas have sparingly used the emperor's urn since then. They mostly continue to adhere to their traditional practice. There have been six Dalai Lamas since Emperor Ch'ien-lung presented the urn in the eighteenth century, but it was used in confirming only three of them.

Soon after the Panchen Lama's death in 1989, Beijing appointed Jhadhrel Rinpoche, Abbot of Trashi-lhunpo, Chairman of the Search Committee. The official procedure between the Abbot and Chinese authorities included the following steps:

(i) mystical signs to identify the child candidate,

(ii) tests with objects to identify the most likely candidate,

(iii) oracles and divination to 'reconfirm' the final candidate,

(iv) the Golden Urn (lottery system), drawn by a government official, to single out the candidate from the short list and

(v) approval of the final decision by the Central Government.

As a pre-emptive as well as unilateral step, the Dalai Lama announced Geduen Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation of the Xlth Panchen Lama on 14 May, 1995. The Abbot was detained by the Chinese authorities after three days of the announcement. In the following months, 48 Tibetans were arrested on suspicion of helping the Abbot send messages about the child (Geduen Choekyi Nyima) to the Dalai Lama in exile in India. At the same time, the Chinese authorities appointed pro-Chinese Communist 'lamas' such as Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen as the head of Trashi-lhunpo and Bomi, and as the head of the Gelugpa sect in order to facilitate the staging of the Chinese candidate with some semblance of 'traditional procedures'.

Without the Dalai Lama's sanctification and legitimation, China bypassed the duly constituted search committee's recommendations and announced the name of Gyaltsen Norbu on 29 November, 1995 as the Xlth Panchen Lama. The decision was to 'invalidate¹ the Dalai Lama's candidate. It seems that China would have 'approved' Geduen Choekyi Nyima had it not been for the pre-emptive action of the Dalai Lama. Fully aroused to this fresh peril, the Dalai Lama dispensed with traditional procedures and took the whole issue in his hand. Such a departure, he might have felt, was in keeping with his unconventional spiritualism.

The Trashi-lhunpo monastery-in-exile in Mysore in India asked for the Dalai Lama's permission thrice to start the search, but the latter kept dilly-dallying. Later, the monks from the monastery were brought to Delhi to support the Dalai Lama's decision after China announced its candidate.

The Dalai Lama says he received over 30 names of potential candidates from 18 different places, both in Tibet and India. His divination in 1991 revealed that the reincarnation had been born in Tibet, but one performed in August of the same year indicated that the popularly believed reincarnation was not true. However, his divinations in 1993 and 1994 indicated that the time for the search was not ripe. The Nechung and Gatong oracles in early 1994 also prophesied that the Panchen's reincarnation would soon be found in Tibet. Spurred by the oracles' hints, the Dalai Lama speeded up the process. A divination performed on 3 December, 1994 suggested that the search process should begin, and in January 1995 the divination revealed that Geduen Choekyi Nyima was an 'extremely' good candidate. This was verified and confirmed by two more divinations performed in January 1995 at Dharamsala. As to the auspicious date of announcement of the reincarnation, the final divination performed on 13 May, 1995 declared 15 May, 1995 as being most auspicious.

The state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua says that the nine-year-old Panchen Lama, picked up by the Chinese government, visited Lhasa in June 1999. It claims that lamas from major Tibetan temples and ordinary Buddhist believers welcomed him. As expected, the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile criticised China and said "the litmus test will be to take the Panchen Lama to the sacred Trashi-lhunpo monastery in Shigatse and see how many locals come to see him. If there is no fear of the gun, nobody will go."

In other words, the Dalai Lama chose the divination method to select the Panchen Lama reincarnation, a method which enabled him to take personal control over the whole process. Whether the Dalai Lama's divination was the right method or not, the whereabouts of the six-year-old Geduen Choekyi Nyima, who disappeared from public view under 'official protection' are not known to this day.

It is surprising that the Dalai Lama acted in the way he did which ultimately served neither the Buddhist purpose nor the Tibetan cause. The Chinese authorities had nodded their approval to the Trashi-lhunpo monastery search party to seek the Dalai Lama's cooperation at the purely religious level, as was done in the Karmapa case.

The boy who was identified as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama should have been smuggled out of Tibet at an early stage. Such smuggling is not impossible; several monasteries in exile have done so since the early 1980s. As a seasoned politician, the Dalai Lama could not have been ignorant of the fact that one of the most important roles of the Panchen Lama was to identify the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, a point clearly recognised by Beijing.

In February 2000, a few weeks after the Karmapa boy 'fled' from the Chinese captivity, the nine-year-old boy picked up by China as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama appeared on Chinese Television and said, "I will be a living Buddha who is patriotic, who cherishes education, who protects the nation and benefits the people." Swatched in red robes, the chubby-cheeked, Xlth Panchen Lama added, "In recent years, no matter whether I have been in Tibet or in the motherland's interior, my life and studies have been very joyful. I have deeply felt the care of the motherland's large family." The boy turned 10 on 13 February 2000.