ABSTRACT
The beginning of the transmission of Buddhism to Tibet in earnest is associated with the reign of the king Srong btsan sgam po (pronounced: Song tsen gam po), who died c. 650 CE. This king was largely responsible for inaugurating a period of phenomenal Tibetan expansion which created over the next 200 years a vast empire in Central Asia which repeatedly defeated imperial Chinese armies and at one stage captured the Chinese capital of Chang’an (763) and established a short-lived puppet Chinese emperor. Tibetan imperial expansion led to surplus wealth which could finance the trappings of newly discovered and newly desired civilization. Buddhism was already well established in the areas overrun by Tibetan armies; it was an adaptable, civilizing force with willing missionaries. Srong btsan sgam po is held to have married, among others, two princesses, one Chinese and one Nepalese, although only the Chinese queen is known from relevant early documents. The queens are said to have brought from their homelands Buddhist artefacts and ideas. According to later tradition, the king had temples built in Lhasa (then known as Rasa) in order to house the Buddhist statues given by his queens. If true, these would be the oldest temples and the earliest statues of Tibetan Buddhism. However, while none of this would be very surprising, even if it happened it scarcely amounts to a wholesale propagation of the Buddhist faith. Later pious Tibetan tradition portrays Srong btsan sgam po (now said to be an emanation of Avalokitezvara) as a Buddhist convert and enthusiastic propagandist for Buddhism, but as far as we can tell the transmission of Buddhism was actually a far slower process. Per Kvaerne has pointed out that contemporary documents make no mention of Buddhism, and king Srong btsan sgam po appears to have died and been buried still adhering to the old pre-Buddhist cult centred on the divinity of the king and involving blood sacrifice.1 As late as 727 a Chinese traveller to India commented: ‘As far as the country of Tibet in the East is concerned, there are no monasteries there, and the teachings of Buddha are unknown’ (Hoffmann 1975: 127).
