History of Tibetan Buddhism
Samding Dorje Phagmo Buddhists, predominantly from India, first actively disseminated their practices in Tibet from the 6th to the 9th centuries CE.
The Gelugpa school, founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), rose to (political) prominence under Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617–1682), the 5th Dalai Lama (in office 1642–1682), who invited the Mongols to intervene in the Tibetan civil war of 1639–1642.
In the 19th century the Rimé movement provided a counter-weight against this dominance, trying to preserve the teachings of the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya schools.
[1][better source needed][2][3][4] According to tradition, in the reign of King Thothori Nyantsen (6th century),[note 1] a basket of Buddhist scriptures arrived in Tibet from India.
Songtsen Gampo is traditionally credited with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, influenced by his Nepali consort Bhrikuti, of Nepal's Licchavi dynasty, as well as with the unification of what had previously been several Tibetan kingdoms.
[7] According to Tibetan traditions, Bhrikuti was a devout Buddhist and brought many sacred images and expert Newari craftsmen with her as part of her dowry.
[9][note 3] The successors of Songtsän Gampo were less enthusiastic about the propagation of Buddhism, but in the 8th century King Trisong Detsen (755–797) established it as the official religion of the state.
[11] According to Tibetan tradition, Padmasambhāva wrote a number of important scriptures, some of which he hid for future tertons to find; these Terma "treasures" (revealed texts) are of particular significance to the Nyingma school.
Kim-sheng died during an outbreak of smallpox sometime between 739 and 741, and anti-Buddhist factions in Tibet began to blame the epidemic on the support of Buddhism by the king and queen.
[16] Tibetan king Trisong Detsen (742–797) invited the Chan master Moheyan[note 6] to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery.
"[25][note 10] From the outset Buddhism was opposed by the native shamanistic Bön religion, which had the support of the aristocracy, but it thrived under royal patronage, reaching a peak under King Rälpachän (r. 817–836).
A reversal in Buddhist influence began under King Langdarma (r. 836–842), and his death was followed by the so-called Era of Fragmentation, a period of Tibetan history in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Coinciding with the early discoveries of "hidden treasures" (terma),[30] the 11th century saw a revival of Buddhist influence originating in the far east and far west of Tibet.
Other seminal Indian teachers were Tilopa (988–1069) and his student Naropa (probably died c. 1040 CE).The Kagyu, the Lineage of the (Buddha's) Word, is an oral tradition which is very much concerned with the experiential dimension of meditation.
[34][35] The Mongols withdrew their soldiers from Tibet in 1241, and returned to the region in 1244, when Köten delivered an ultimatum, summoning the abbot of Sakya (Kun-dga' rGyal-mtshan) to be his personal chaplain, on pains of a larger invasion were he to refuse.
Tibetan Buddhism was adopted as the de facto state religion by the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), founded by Kublai Khan, that also ruled China.
Similarly, Mount Wutai, the sacred site of Bodhisattva Manjusri and the holy mountain of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, was greatly influenced by Tibetan Buddhism.
The Yuan dynasty based in China and Mongolia became the only division of the Mongol Empire not to embrace Islam, instead favoring Tibetan Buddhism until its demise.
[45] The rule of Jangchub Gyaltsän and his successors implied a new cultural self-awareness where models were sought in the age of the ancient Tibetan Kingdom.
In 1565 the Rinpungpa family was overthrown by the Tsangpa dynasty of Shigatse which expanded its power in different directions of Tibet in the following decades and favoured the Karma Kagyu sect.
[citation needed] The Ming assisted Altan Khan (1507–1582), King of the Tümed Mongols, when he requested aid in propagating Vajrayana Buddhism.
[52] Within 50 years nearly all the Mongols had become Buddhists, including tens of thousands of monks, almost all followers of the Gelug school and loyal to the Dalai Lama.
Altan Khan, the king of the Tümed Mongols, first invited Sonam Gyatso, the head of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism (later known as the third Dalai Lama), to Mongolia in 1569 and again in 1578, during the reign of the Tsangpa family.
They met at the site of Altan Khan's new capital, Koko Khotan (Hohhot), and the Dalai Lama taught a huge crowd there.
[57] Sonam Choephel requested the aid of Güshi Khan, a powerful Dzungar military leader to end decades of clan-wars in Dbus and Gtsang provinces, and the Tibetan civil war of 1639–1642.
His victory over Karma Tenkyong, the prince of Tsang in Shigatse, in 1642, completed the military unification of the country and the establishment of the Khoshut Khanate.
By subsequently formally recognizing the Fifth Dalai Lama's authority in 1642, Güshi Khan effectively made Gyatso the temporal ruler of all Tibet.
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has traveled the world and spoken about the welfare of Tibetans, environment, economics, women's rights, non-violence, interfaith dialogue, physics, astronomy, Buddhism and science, cognitive neuroscience, reproductive health, and sexuality, along with various Mahayana and Vajrayana topics.
