Purang-Guge Kingdom

[2] The original capital was at Purang (Tibetan: སྤུ་ཧྲེང་, Wylie: spu hreng) but was moved to Tholing in the Sutlej canyon southwest of Mount Kailash.

[4] Buddhist monuments at both Tsaparang and Tholing are now mostly in ruins except for a few statues and scores of murals in good condition, painted in the western Tibetan style.

The old city of Tsaparang, now in ruins, is a "fairy tale of caves, passageways, honeycombed in a tall ridge of ancient ocean deposits".

It was founded in the region of Purang south of the Kailash mountains (Wylie: gangs rin po che) by descendants of the Central Tibetan monarchy, Kyide Nyimagon, and scions of other noble families such as the 'Bro clan.

He also marginalized the esoteric forms of tantric practices (mostly by non-organised groups), which were prevalent then in Tibet and helped to consolidate the Tibetan Buddhist faith.

However, the contributions by Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055 AD) in translation of Sanskrit works and towards temple building during this period, which became part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, are monumental.

Due to the rivalries and disturbances following upon the death of Langdarma, there were serious conflicts among the rival groups claiming power, resulting in the collapse of the Tibetan Empire.

The eldest one, Kyide Nyimagon (Wylie: skyid lde nyi ma mgon), established himself at Purang and conquered a large area including Maryul (Ladakh) and parts of the Spiti Valley.

[9] Before that, at the initiative of the King, specially chosen batch of 21 young and bright students from the monastery were sent to India and Kashmir to be trained in Buddhism and to translate Sanskrit texts on religion and the Tibetan language and to study at Vikramashila, a specialist institution in tantra.

[4][9] During the reigns of the second and third kings, Indian Buddhist religious, artistic, architectural, scriptural and philosophical traditions permeated Tibet through Guge; this is known as the "Second Advancement".

"[2][4][9] He along with the first Abbot, Bin-chen Bzang-po, of Tholing were responsible for introducing the South Asian art to Tibet, particularly the murals depicting a fusion of Indian, Nepalese and Kashmir styles.

History also records that from 1624 to 1635 an effort was made by a mission headed by António de Andrade, a Portuguese Jesuit, to convert Guge to Roman Catholicism and some locals became Catholics and a church was also built.