Tibet was a rare sample that had been under feudal system almost throughout its history. Since the first Tibetan kingdom was founded upon aboriginal tribes’ union in the seventh century, it was not until early 20^th century that Tibet’s feudalism was endangered by external influences. The futile attempt to defend this decaying institution and the clashes inevitably followed, in spite of efforts towards a peaceful solution from both sides, finally resulted in the exile of 14^th Dalai Lama in AD1959. Months later, the serf class rose to the power.

To explore the history of Tibet, one has to bear in mind that there had been no capitalism, let alone socialism, but feudalism only. We will, as this booklet proceeds, rely a lot on this fact to interpret events and phenomena of this great nation that remains mysterious to most outsiders.

1. Origin of Tibetan

According to Tibetan mythology, Tibetans are descendants of a male macaque and a demoness who succeeded in her enduring efforts to seduce it. They reproduced six kids, which later proliferated to five hundred macaques. Fruits were soon exhausted and they had to grow cereal, during which they became human beings.

There are several points we could infer from this legend. Firstly, monkey was obviously the main totem of prehistoric Tibetan tribes. We could further conjecture that Tibetans possibly originated from Himalayan forests living on food-collection instead of from the barren Tibetan Plateau leading a nomadic life: there is hardly any monkey in this plateau at all. Most likely it was in the southeast edge of Himalayas along Yalutsangpu River Valley near Myanmar and Yunnan, where sub-tropical climate and abundance of protein enabled human beings to survive the last glacial period.

Secondly, the image of demoness reflects the reminiscence of cruel and violent female reign during matriarchy era ^[1], which is shared by most mythology all over the world. In a sense this demoness is the Tibetan counterpart of Amazon warriors. The description that this demoness stayed in a cave further proved that she represents a group of aboriginal Tibetans.

Thirdly, it described the transition from food-collection to food-production, which most races of mankind experienced during their childhood. It was followed with the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, expressed in various mythologies as goddess married to god. ^[2]

Then why did Tibetan migrate from fertile river valley or forest-covered mountain to the sterile Tibet Plateau? There are various hypotheses, among which the Qiang-influence hypothesis sounds most credible.

Qiang (Chiang) was an ancient nomadic nation that originated from Northwest China. After the agricultural Han Dynasty of China finally succeeded in expelling Huns, their northern nomadic feud, to Central Asia ^[3], Qiang became Han’s top threat. During the 2-3^rd century the two nations were constantly in fierce battles against each other. By the end of the 3^rd century, however, it seemed that Qiangs were inevitably losing the war. Some Qiang tribes stayed and mixed with Han into Chinese ^[4]. Some others moved southwards along the southeastern boundary of Tibetan Plateau and settled down in Kham area, which is now western Sichuan Province and northwestern Yunnan Province of China. They are the ancestors of many ethnic groups nowadays in this region, such as Naxi people of Lijiang, to name one famous example.

Chinese Annals claimed that Tibetan is a collateral branch of Qiang. This is very complicated to validate. Most historians believe that Qiang never entered any deeper into Tibetan Plateau other than Kham and Amdo, where they are now still living together with Tibetans and other ethnic groups. However, their migration into Kham doubtlessly caused drastic changes to local nations, including aboriginal Tibetans. Furthermore, Qiang’s nomadic tradition might have affected the economy structure of Tibetans, and pushed them to higher Tibet Plateau ^[5]. This was parallel to that Huns drove the Goth savages from Central Europe to the Western and the Southern Europe.

This hypothesis is based on assumption that Tibetans had firstly resided in the southeastern foothill of Himalayas. The lack of history records of early Tibetans made the restoration of Tibet history an extremely tough job. Nonetheless, the already few and broken mythology from which we could draw some information had been seriously interpolated by lamas, the only intellectual class of Tibet, in their interest.

Take the macaque-legend as an example, lamas adapted it to serve their religious propaganda. One version claims that the macaque was sent by Avalokitesvara, one of the most important bodhisattvas ^[6], to bring the vicious demoness under control. Another even claims that the monkey was an incarnation of Avalokitesvara himself ^[7]. Because of such interpolation, Tibetans regards Avalokitesvara as their savior. To apotheosize himself and solidify his power, each Dalai Lama claimed himself to be incarnation of this deity.

One more evidence to be raised before we end this chapter: although Tibetan language adopted its script from Sanskrit, it belongs to the Sino-Tibetan Language Family. There is active research to locate Tibetan origin by comparing linguistic features among languages used around Tibetan Plateau, especially the Qiang language.

Footnotes:

[1] It is noteworthy that, notwithstanding the fact that a patriarchy society was anthropologically more advanced than matriarchy one, the brutal image of the latter could have been created, or at least exaggerated, by the male chiefs in an attempt to smear the female chiefs from whom they grabbed leadership.

[2] A good example is the Hindu deity Krishna. He was from one of the five Aryan tribes, nomadic intruders into the subcontinent. The number of his wives was counted at, surprisingly, 16108, representing how the patriarchy Aryan assimilated with the aboriginal matriarchy nations: it enables both nations worship both deities together.

D.D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline, Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1998, p.130

[3] Many historians believed that this ousted nation was the same one that, after decades, arrived in east Europe under their vigorous leader Attila and built their country called Hungary. A chain-reaction took place soon. The Hun ousted Goth tribes from their native Central European forest to Western and Southern Europe, which was then Roman Empire territory. These savages finally destroyed and replaced Roman institution with their own, as France, Germany, Spain and England soon came into being.

[4] This ethnic union was not at all straightforward. Han Dynasty collapsed in AD220 and China fell apart one century later. Qiang, Hun and other nomadic nations that had been conquered and governed by Han took this opportunity to restore their states. Civil war broke out among them all over China. This was arguably the darkest period in China history. However, all these nations finally converted to Chinese culture and refreshed it. A short-lived Sui Dynasty reunified them in AD589 before it was replaced by Tang Dynasty in AD618. A restructured China entered a new prime time.

[5] The earliest Tibetan epic, Gesar of Ling, provided supporting evidence to this hypothesis. The epic is about how King Gesar of mountain state Ling fought with demons and Naxis, which was a Qiang branch now still living in Yunnan and Kham region. It illustrates that Tibetan probably originated in Kham region.

[6] Bodhisattva means savior in Buddhism.

[7] Avalokitesvara was allegedly a male disciple of Buddha Sakyamuni. He was once sent by the Buddha to turn into a beauty so as to convert a heretic. Probably because of this, Avalokitesvara became a female protective deity (Guan-Yin) when Buddhism spread to China. Since Tibetan Buddhism was influenced by both, this bodhisattva become bisexual. For example, the current 14^th Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation partly because of his female name Lhamo Dhondup, meaning Goddess to Fulfill Your Wish

2. Rise of Tibetan Kingdom

In AD602, Tibet nation evolved into the Tibetan Kingdom ^[1] based on a loose union of hundreds of tribes scattered in the southwestern corner of Tibetan Plateau. The northeastern part, Amdo, was controlled by a nomadic Qiang kingdom called Tuyuhun, while the southeastern part, Kham, was governed by China and its dependencies.

At roughly the same time Tang Dynasty was founded, which brought China into one of its prime times. In Tang’s early years, the Turks was the main enemy on its north frontier, while Tuyuhun was Turks’ ally threatening from Tang’s west. To address this danger, Tang Dynasty first defeated Tuyuhun in AD634. Tang expedition soon withdrew from the desolate Tibetan Plateau, while Tibetan Kingdom followed up to profit from its conquered neighbor and seized most of Amdo. This expansion laid the cornerstone of Tibet’s prosperity in the next two centuries.

From the same year Tibet started to raid Tang border but retreated soon after Tang reinforced a troop. King Songsten Gampo then proposed to marry a Tang princess when he saw Tang marry princesses to his neighboring nations, a traditional Chinese tactic to contain strategical rivals and forge alliance with them. Tang had no interest to hold a second frontier besides one with Turks. As a gesture of peace, Tang emperor agreed to marry a princess to Songsten Gampo in AD641.

It worked. Tang married two princesses to Tibet in seventy years, which resulted in Tang’s being able to focus on its war with the Turks, and won it finally. Like the Huns in the first century BC, the Turks were expelled out of Central Asia. The main part of them kept moving west, finally captured Byzantium, destroyed the Eastern Roman Empire and renamed this city as Istanbul.^[2]

The peace between Tibet and China was soon endangered. As mentioned, Tibetan Kingdom was a union of tribes. The kings were from the Yarlung lineage while the prime ministers were from Mgar family. The royal marriage forged close relation between Yarlung and Tang Dynasty ^[3], but not with the prime minister. After Songsten Gampo died in AD650, his grandson inherited the throne and the power was totally seized by the Mgar family, who controlled both cabinet and army. In AD663 Tibet started war to destroy Tuyuhun. Tuyuhun asked for help from Tang but the latter was fully engaged in war with Koguryo. A delayed reinforcement of 100,000-strong Tang troops attempting to restore Tuyuhun was defeated in AD670 when Tibet mobilized all its army of 400,000 ^[4].

The conquest of Tuyuhun opened for Tibet the gate to Central Asia. The transit between Tang and its Central Asia dependencies was then fully exposed to Tibetan cavalry. The latter soon started to raid trade caravans and towns. After one town near Dunhuang was sacked, for example, the Tibetan Annals happily recorded this robbery, saying that Tibetans could now wear silk clothes made in China. ^[5]

The Mgar family was exterminated in AD698 when the Yarlung lineage regained control of Tibet ^[6]. However, the relation between Tibet and China didn’t restore, as the great game in Central Asia had started right after Turks’ rout. It was among the four main players of the world at that time.

The previous ruler of Central Asia, the Turks, was resting in the Siberia steppe seeking opportunity of a glorious return, although the better part of them has moved to the west. Turks and Tibet made a constant vertical (north-south) alliance to attack their mutual enemy, Tang, as well as to block the new challenger, the Arabs, from entering this area.

The vigorous Tang Empire, in the east, regarded this region as the only frontier from which any external threats could arise ^[7]. It thus took an aggressive defense strategy that tried to make Xinjiang and Central Asia the buffer between the nomadic “barbarians” and the agricultural Chinese.

Tang controlled this region through numerous local state nations that shifted their loyalty from Turks to this new suzerain, as well as small but high-quality frontier troops protecting them. The silk-road came into being meanwhile as a by-product of this fortified military passage.

In the west, the Arab Empire, or Tazi as Persians first called them and later adopted by both China and Tibet as well, emerged almost the same time as Tibet did ^[8]. According to many, Arab Empire’s advance into South Asia and Central Asia was simply aimed to keep its idle generals occupied. Therefore, it was believed that the Arab Empire didn’t have much aspiration in Central Asia and granted its frontier commanders with great authority. The latter was easily satisfied after they conquered a land of their own ^[9]. A horizontal (west-east) alliance was tacitly forged between China and Tazi to separate the aggressive vertical alliance and to maintain the security and stability of Central Asia.

For the Tibetan Kingdom, which lies in the most barren land on the earth, since the Himalayas blocked from its west, Tang to its east, it could seek expansion only in the north, which is Central Asia.

Tang Emperor made one of the most foolish decisions in the history by granting Tibet the Hetao area, an alluvion of the Yellow River, as the dowry for its second Princess JinCheng married to Tibet in AD710. The sterile Tibet Plateau couldn’t sustain a large military force, but a fertile alluvion could. Tibet soon combined its nomadic and agricultural strengths and created a powerful cavalry army, which enabled it to seek aggression into Central Asia. ^[10]

The above comparison shows that of the four superpowers of that time, China and Arab were stronger. They sat at the two ends of the silk-road, content with Central Asia as a buffer between them. For Turks and Tibet, however, both regarded this region as their lifeline. A highly complicated quadrupole game of military and politics unfolded. ^[11]

Footnotes:

[1] Or Yarlung Dynasty since the leading tribe originated from Yarlung Valley

[2] The Turks always dreams to restore their glory in Central Asia. Some propose to unite from Turkey to Xinjiang into one big Turks nation. The Uigur separatists in Xinjiang (Sinkiang) Province of China, who share no racial relation with Turks, responded and pledged to build an East Turkistan country. They were funded by Turkey to engage in terrorism. These organizations were finally labeled as terrorist groups in AD2002 in exchange of China’s help in US-led anti-terrorism action in Afghanistan.

[3] When Tang envoy Wang Xuan-Ce was raided in North India in AD648, he simply sent a message to Songsten Gampo to organize a united army of Tibet and Nepal, then dependency of Tibet, and conquered the offensive Indian state.

[4] Even in AD1957 there were only 2.8 million Tibetans. Assume in 7^th century the population was the same, which was unlikely, 400,000 meant one soldier from every four men. This was obviously the entire military strength of Tibet.

[5] This paragraph of annal is very interesting that Appendix III is dedicated for its details and interpretation

[6] Only the marshal of Tibetan army escaped and fled to his enemy, Tang, seeking refuge.

[7] Unfortunately it proved later that the empire imploded.

[8] The rise of Tazi resulted from the decline of the Persian Sassanian Empire battered by the alliance of Byzantine and Turks from both sides. These two temporary friends soon engaged in war between themselves, whereas the Arab Empire conquered West Asia without much competition.

[9] This was essentially why Tazi didn’t follow when China withdrew from Central Asia in late 8^th century

[10] Wang Xiao-Fu, The History of Political Relations between the Tang Dynasty, Tibet and Arab in Central Asia, Peking University Press, 1992, p.351

[11] I will introduce only Tibet-related issues on this topic. A thorough introduction of this world war in Central Asia will be my next project.

3. Expansion of Tibet

Conflicts broke out when Tibetan Kingdom forced one of Tang’s protectorates, Palür, to convert to Tibet and built a fortress between Palür and Tang. This fortress blocked score of other nations of their route to China. All of them submitted to Tibet subsequently.

To revenge and to resume the silk-road that had been severed, Tang Empire sent out General Gao Xian-Zhi with a small troop in AD747 to regain the control in this area. An ethnic Koguryo ^[1] who was later titled by his Arab rivals as “Sahib jihal al-Sin”^[2], Gao secretly surmounted the prohibitive Pamirs, defeated the unaware Tibetan garrison of similar number to his expedition and captured the fortress in now Afghanistan. He then continued to cross the glacier-covered Hindu Kush and finally led this small expedition to occupy Palür in now Gilgit of Pakistan by surprise. Tang’s previous dependencies returned and Tibet’s first attempt of expansion into Central Asia was shattered.

Nonetheless, Tang Empire itself failed to control Central Asia for much longer. The wave of dominoes that Central Asian countries submitted to Tang Empire was soon stopped by the rising Arab Empire. ^[3]

In AD751 armies of Abbasid Dynasty and Tang Dynasty encountered at the Battle of Talas. Tang army was highly outnumbered ^[4]. Although Gao Xian-Zhi, now Tang’s governor in Central Asia, gained a temporary edge in the first five days of fighting, the betrayal of his ally, Qarluq, became the last straw that doomed his defeat.

Battle of Talas would not have been the end of competition over Central Asia between the Chinese and the Arabs. After the narrow success in Talas, Arab Empire never convinced itself to advance further, destroy Tang’s military bases in Xinjiang and drove Chinese out of Central Asia, whereas the battered Tang frontier troops ^[5] soon recovered. In AD753 the newly assigned governor Feng Chang-Qing actually initiated a new round of political and military expansion into this arena.

Before long, however, both General Feng and Gao were called back. ^[6]

The reason was: in AD755 Tang’s northeastern frontier commander, General An Lu-Shan, waged rebellion, which fired up a prolonged civil war that brought to an end the prime of Tang Dynasty. Tang government recalled its Central Asia troops to withstand the fierce rebel, resulting in an empty Xinjiang as well as hardly guarded Tang-Tibet border. The Chinese therefore forever lost Central Asia to Islam, while Xinjiang was regained almost one thousand years later during Qing Dynasty.

In AD763, eight year after Chinese civil war broke out, Tibet king Trisong Detsen stepped into throne and terminated peace with China. Tibetan army attacked Tang along a boundary over one thousand kilometers. They soon sacked the empty Tang capital of Chang’an.

In the south, Tibet gradually penetrated into Kham area, a remote region resided by minor nations and garrisoned by Tang frontier force. Because of the extensive civil war in the north, this army dwindled and was seriouly outnumbered by Tibetan troops. In one instance, Tibetans sent a girl to marry the gatekeeper of an important fortress, Weizhou. After 20 years her two sons opened the gate and the Tibetan army flowed into the fortress. ^[7]

Without enough military strength to fight on both frontiers, Tang government sought peace negotiation with Tibet. The latter correctly analyzed the situation that, although it was impossible for Tibetan Kingdom to destroy Tang Empire and conquer China, negotiation would mean the end of pirating in this abundant country. Therefore, its strategy was to prolong negotiation, meanwhile kept profiting from China’s civil war. In AD787 the two parties finally agreed to sign a truce in Pingliang. It only proved to be another trap. Tibetan troops ambushed the Tang mission right outside the summit meeting venue, leaving only the Tang prime minister narrowly escaped. ^[8]

Tang had to give up any expectation for reconciliation with Tibet. But the problem remained that it didn’t afford to fight on two frontiers. Tang then turned to its dependencies. In the north it constructed close alliance with Uigur, a newly rising power after Tang withdrew from Xinjiang. This area was shortly occupied by Tibet around AD792 but the local Uigurs soon drove them out. Uigur reinforcement inflicted heavy loss to Tibet army, which soon retreated from China. In the south, Tang called on its dependency in Yunnan to fight the Tibetan intruders, which suffered great loss and withdrew too.^[9]

By the end of eighth century, the expansion of Tibet into China had been successfully curbed.

However, at that moment Tibet was still a decisive player in the world. It could have become another Mongol Empire and conquered the neighboring civilizations such as India and China. Nobody would have imagined its rapid degeneration and later falling as a part of China, the key factor being Lamaism.

Footnotes:

[1] Koguryo was an ancient kingdom that recently became China’s dependency. It covered part of North Korea and northeastern China.

[2] It means “Chinese Lord of Mountains”.

[3] In AD750 Abu al-Abbas and his army captured Damascus and overthrew the Umayyad Dynasty of Arab Empire. Since then Baghdad witnessed the new empire, Abbasid Dynasty, survive over five hundred years until Mongol invasion.

[4] Tang: ~20,000 Chinese soldiers and ~10,000 alliance troops; Tazi: ~40,000 Arab soldiers and over ~100,000 alliance troops

[5] Right after the Battle of Talas there were in total only several thousand frontier troops in Tang’s Central Asia bases.

[6] Gao and Feng, Tang Dynasty’s best generals, were executed on the same day in the same court, at a cost for their defeats in the civil war because the untrained army they were given collapsed at the first encounter.

[7] Shen Xu, (Old) Tang History, Vol.41, p.1690

[8] Fan Wen-Lan, A Brief Chinese General History, Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 2000, p.87

[9] Now Tibet Government in Exile claims all these territory, including Xinjiang and Yunnan provinces, to be Tibet territory because more than twelve hundred years ago Tibetans cavalry arrived there.

4. Entry of Buddhism

Buddhism was introduced to Tibet by two princesses from Nepal ^[1] and China from both sides of the Plateau. The Tang princess, WenCheng, alone brought 360 scrolls of Buddhism scriptures, a Buddha sculpture as well as lots of monks to Tibet. To accommodate them, his husband King Songsten Gampo built the first Buddhism temple, Jokhang ^[2], in Lhasa.

Before that, Tibet’s dominant religion was Bonism, a type of Shamanism ^[3]. It is now still alive, mixed with Lamaism and called the Black-Hat Sect of Lamaism. As in any other counterpart during transition from slavery to feudalism, the Tibet king was merely the leader of many feudal lords, which evolved from tribe chiefs. Like them, he had to obey the instruction from Bon priests, who were masters of rituals. This remnant of slavery regime obviously restricted his power. The king hence sought to get rid of Bon priests’ influence from politics, and Buddhism became the best choice, at least he thought so.

Therefore, Tibetan kings became fervent promoters of Buddhism. Trisong Detsen, the king who ended peace with China, invited Shantarakshita and Padmasambhava^[4] from India around AD780. He never realized what a terrible decision he had made, which would before long cost his dynasty and broke Tibet into parts.

The name Padma-sambhava means Lotus Born. Lamaism scripture has it that, born in buds of a lotus on Lake Danakosha near Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Mr. Padmasambhava was the incarnation of Buddha Amitabha. Others adulated him as the incarnation of Avalokitesvara, therefore he was the previous incarnation of Dalai Lama. Before he was invited to Tibet, he had lived 3600 years in India, he claimed. ^[5]

When he was still a boy he was so brave to kill a sleeping baby with a stone in head, then wisely justified it with the pretense that the child would have become a malignant magician who would have harmed many people in his later life. A minister put him into confinement but he successfully escaped and stood on the roof, holding a trident and a vajra (essentially a metal stick) in hands. When he spotted the minister with his wife and son, without warning his trident speared through the heart of the mother and the vajra penetrated the brain of the boy. We don’t know what happened to the minister who attempted to bring justice to the murdered baby.

It is also recorded that Padmasambhava was once put on a pile of sandalwood by another evil-minded governor to be burnt to death, but he miraculously transformed the fire into a huge lake filled with lotuses. Another story in circulation crowed about how he killed a king and impregnated his 900 wives so as to produce children who were devoted to the Buddhist teaching. ^[6]

It is obvious that Mr. Padmasambhava himself made up this curriculum vitae to his bewildered Tibetan audience. I leave to my readers to analyze the mental status of this magician who dreamed himself to be so powerful to slay women and children.

Indian historians found that Mr. Padmasambhava was actually born in a minister’s family in Uddiyana, a renowned cradle of tantric practicers. According to Indologist Ramachandra Rao, in the early phase of Tantrism the membership of a particular religion was in no way the deciding criterion for a yogi’s worldview. Rather, it was the tantric technique which made them members of an esoteric community^[7]. Therefore, it’s unconvinced whether Mr. Padmasambhava was a genuine Buddhist in the first place, or rather, another Voldemort-style sorcerer.

Mr. Padmasambhava demanded his own weight in gold bars as his fee for “enlightening Tibet with Buddhism”. When this wizard, who held a rod bearing three tiny impaled human skulls as his brand scepter, first met King Trisong Detsen, the latter demanded his bow. Scripture recorded that Padmasambhava sprayed lightning from his fingertips and made the king kneel down instead. This is well above what a wizard could achieve and probably another afterwards gilding.

Moreover, it is contradicting to what Lamaism scripture claims that the first four Tibetan kings who promoted Buddhism were reincarnations of four brothers, whose mother was born from the tear of Avalokitesvara. Complicated, isn’t it? It’s saying that Avalokitesvara, the savior of Tibet, wept for the backward Tibet (we could thus assume this bisexual bodhisattva is female in this case). Goddess Gangchungma was then born from her tear, and her four sons swore to promote Buddhism in Tibet during their reincarnation as Tibet kings. Trisong Detsen was one of them. Then why should Trisong Detsen, essentially the messenger from Avalokitesvara, clash with Padmasambhava, the incarnation of Avalokitesvara itself?

After all, we couldn’t expect religious statements to be consistent. Let’s behave tolerance and move on.

Padmasambhava energetically helped Trisong Detsen to remove any political obstacles in his way toward autocracy, in a brutal way. Bon priests and their aristocrat followers were forced to convert to Buddhism. Those refused to do so were ruthlessly executed, their corpses deserted into rivers. Many fled to wilderness to survive this horrible massacre led by this “Buddha Amitabha” ^[8]. The Tibetan army, where Bonism priests had been highly influential, must have suffered severe purge and never recovered its strength.

Apparently there would be resistance, one coming from Trisong Detsen’s wife, Tes Pongza, who warned that Padmasambhava was not a noble Buddhist but a tantric Hindu magician bringing disaster to Tibet. Padmasambhava and his disciples loathed her but couldn’t take any action other than write in their scripture that Tes Pongza opposed Padmasambhava simply because she fell in deep love to him but was rejected by this holy Buddha.

Furthermore, Padmasambhava dedicated to topple the old social order, which to large extent was the remnant of tribal public ownership: what the tribe raised in field and what it captured from battles belonged to the whole tribe. Tibetan chronicles have the story of how the king attempted, for three times, to redistribute wealth evenly among the entire Tibetan populace—only to discover that the previously wealthy continue to get wealthier and the poor, poorer. When the king complained about his inability to carry out his plan, the sorcerer was alleged to have said to him that our condition in this life is entirely dependent upon the actions of our previous life and nothing can be done to alter the scheme of things.

This story is certainly apocryphal, since it’s impossible for wealth reallocation, if there was ever any, to finish thrice during Padmasambhava’s “fifty” years in Tibet. It was doubtlessly intended as a lesson to whomever might question his or her lowly social status and to reinforce the notion that struggle for change would be fruitless. With such trick Padmasambhava solidified the new social order, which came along with territory expansion and economy development.

That is to say, besides being a Buddhism missionary, Padmasambhava acted as a political advisor and brought to Tibet its most wanted institution when Tibet was undergoing a social transition from aboriginal tribes to feudalism.

Padmasambhava started the prosperity of Buddhism, or more exactly, Lamaism, in Tibet. In his request, on May 15^th of AD799 Trisong Detsen built the Samye Monastery, which became the holiest monastery for Lamaism, like Mecca for Islam. Samye was built to facilitate Buddhism indoctrination to Tibet aristocrats. It’s the cradle of Lamaism, which is a medley of two primeval religions, namely Tantrism of South India and Bonism of Tibetan Plateau, and, last and least, cloaked with Buddhism.

Footnotes:

[1] Tibet interfered in Nepal royal struggle and propped up a pro-Tibet government that married the princess to Songsten Gampo in acknowledgement. Shen Xu, (Old) Tang History, Vol.198, p.5290

[2] Jokhang remains to this day one of the most important temples in Tibet, and Dalai Lama had claimed it to be his property ever since his sect grabbed Tibet regime in 17^th century. After the 14^th Dalai Lama settled in Dharamsala of India, he ordered his government in exile build a simplified Jokhang there.

[3] Evidences suggest that Tibetan Bonism may have been deeply affected by Parseeism from Central Asia. Chapter 10&11 gives more details.

[4] Known by common Tibetans as Guru Rinpoche, meaning Master of Jewel.

[5] After his “3600 years” life in India, he lived in Tibet for merely fifty years and three months, a figure itself is doubtfully long.

[6] Stories about Padmasambhava are compiled by Victor and Victoria Trimondi, Der Schatten des Dalai Lama: Sexualit, Magie und Politik im Tibetischen Buddhismus (The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism), Patmos, 1999, Part II Chapter 5

[7] Ramachandra Rao, S. K., Sri-Cakra, Delhi, 1989, p. 42

[8] As a result, the remote North Tibet for the first time in history saw large immigration.

5. Civil War

Now the Bon priests felt the fatal threat. Were all Tibetans converted to Buddhism, no matter voluntary or forced to do so, they would end up jobless and lost all their privilege and power. They had to fight back. In AD838, they murdered the drunken king Tritsu Detsen, a fanatical adherent of Buddhism who pushed through a harsh regime of monastic despotism that placed the rights of the monks far above those of ordinary people, and sent his brother Langdarma to the throne. The first decree of the new king was prohibition of Buddhism.

In the Lamaism scripture Tritsu Detsen was of course depicted as one of the four messengers from Avalokitesvara. It smeared Langdarma as the incarnation of a donkey, who belonged to but loathed his four owners. ^[1]

Soon came the counterattack from the Lamaism side. In AD842 they sent Palgyi Dorje, disguised as a black-hat Bon priest requesting to meet Langdarma, to commit regicide. In order to bring the murder into accord with the Buddhist commandment against any form of killing, lamas evaluated it as a gesture of compassion: in being killed, Langdarma was prevented from collecting even more bad karma and plunging ever more people into ruin. In this sense Palgyi Dorje didn’t kill Langdarma but nobly and mercifully liberated him from further bad karma.

The assassin’s heroic deeds have been ever since dramatized in Tibetan Opera, Vcham. It’s still on play annually in Samye Monastery. ^[2]

The assassination irreversibly destroyed the fragile political balance of Tibetan Kingdom, a loose tribe union, and facilitated feudal lords to mushroom. It triggered a bloody civil war that lasted for centuries.

Lamaism, the only beneficiary, thrived during this period. From now on I will no longer refer to this Tibetan religion as Buddhism, since I regard it discredit to categorize Lamaism as a genuine denomination of Buddhism. Buddhism was no doubt one of the main origins of Lamaism. Nonetheless, just like Christianity is not a denomination of Judaism (I am not saying Christianity is a degeneration of Judaism), Lamaism is essentially, if not completely, different from Buddhism.

Historically Buddhism was founded to counter Brahmanism, the predecessor of Hinduism. It emphasizes equality and mercy to counter caste, atheism^[3] to counter polytheism, and meditation to counter rituals. Buddhism denies any god who could affect, let alone govern, the fate of human being. Instead it interprets the suffering and inequality that current life is simply retribution of what one has done in previous one, or karma. In this sense, it’s not god but human being itself who determines its future and next life. The ultimate aim of life is nirvana, meaning to leave this incessant cycle of life and suffering.

As you could see, by nature Buddhism reflects ancient Asian wisdom and philosophy rather than religion.

Buddhism has experienced three phases: Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana. In Sanskrit Yana means “vehicle”. Hina, Maha and Vajra means “small”, “great” and “diamond” respectively. Collectively they mean various vehicles towards nirvana.

The three teachings are radically different from each other. Generally speaking, Hinayana (popular in Southeast Asia) focuses on one's own nirvana; Mahayana (popular in East Asia) on how to help the others. Both encourage meditation to grasp the ultimate truth.

In contrast, as the last phase of Buddhism, Vajrayana was profoundly affected by Hindu Tantrism, which focuses on ritual rather than wisdom. It came into being when the elite Buddhism was gradually eroded by the grass-root Hinduism. Vajrayana Buddhism was then claimed by Hinduism as one of the latter’s numerous denominations, and Buddha the tenth incarnation of Vishnu, an important deity of the latter. Spiritually assimilated by Hinduism, Buddhism was also battered by the intruding Islam from Central Asia. Consequently this once glorious philosophy finally vanished in India.

Lamaism is the most important denomination of Vajrayana. The way lamas meditate is absolutely different from monks of Hinayana or Mahayana Buddhism. What lamas seek is not to find the universal truth by their own meditation, but to restore the psyche of ancient yogis. Lamaism scripture logs in great details how ancient yogis thought and acted. Generation by generation, lamas study these scriptures trying to get rid of their own mind and replace it with the ancient yogi's. The aim is to revive an ancient soul in a new body. This whole process is essentially what they called “reincarnation”.

Buddhist is never eager to seize power, while lamas always are. Trisong Detsen meant to employ Buddhism to weaken the power of the mighty nobles and the caste of the Bon priests. However, we will soon see how lamas totally seized all the power.

The most important event during this period was that various Lamaism sects, ten influential ones at least, took form. Among them are: Nyingma (meaning old), or Red-Hat Sect, the oldest and fundamentalism sect that conserved most Tantrism from their alleged originator Mr. Padmasambhava; Sakya (meaning white earth), or Color-Hat Sect, was founded in AD1073 and remained the leader among sects and dominant force of Tibet until the secular regime prevailed again; Kagyud (meaning instruct orally), or White-Hat Sect, the secret community that proliferated into four big denominations and at least eight sub-denominations. Kagyud also invented “reincarnation” for their inheritance.

After two hundred years’ war, in 11^th century different sects of lamas were in such disorder that actually each monastery was a warlord. Black art, promiscuity and other evils related with lamas were at their prime time in Tibet history. Then in AD1032 Atisha was invited from Bangladesh to restore order. He organized a summit meeting of various sects and institutionized rules for them to obey. This was the so-called Atisha Reform, which was incomplete and almost futile to stop the chaos of Tibet. But later a local guru set the milestone of Lamaism development by building up a pyramid hierarchy of lamas. His name is Tsong Khapa.

Tsong Khapa compiled and edited Lamaism scripture, which were all written in India before translated and commented in Tibet. The highest one of them is Kalachakra Tantra, which the current Dalai Lama loves to make sermon of. Kala means sky or time, Chakra means wheel and Tantra means secret. So we can call it Secret Scripture of Time Wheel. It defines the fundamental hierarchy and rules of Lamaism. In this hierarchy various Lamaism sects were well organized, therefore made it ready for a clerical regime.

Footnotes:

[1] It’s simply a shame that, as Lamaism grows, Buddhism degenerated to such low level of mud-throwing.

[2] Dharamsala propaganda claims that Vcham has been destroyed by communist China but narrowly conserved by Tibetans in exile, which is merely a politically-oriented story.

[3] As time went on, unfortunately, Buddhism was philistinized as it spread from a few wise men to the mass. These wise men who grasped the truth were apotheosized as gods. Nowadays most Buddhists went to monasteries to worship them instead of meditate for truth as they did.

6. Achievements in Diaspora (I)

Tsong Khapa set up his hierarchy in AD1409 when he created his own sect, Geluk, or Yellow-Hat Sect, in Lhasa. But long before this, Lamaism has already gained ground outside Tibet.

Due to its seemingly endless civil war, large number of Tibetan lamas, mainly of Sakya Sect, sent themselves on exile, most to China for career opportunity. They generally failed to promote Lamaism there, since China had already developed an array of mature denominations of Mahayana Buddhism, Zen to raise one example, thus they couldn’t get a share in this market.

They then headed north. A nomadic nation to the north of China recently evolved into a superpower which soon conquered East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Russia and East Europe. It’s Mongol.

Mongol was also dominated by Shamanism at that time. It was in thirst of an advanced religion, and Lamaism arrived at the right time to drench it.

Mongol leaders were so eager to find religion to help them control their fierce warriors that they tried almost everything that approached them, including Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Islam, Judaism and Lamaism. Khubilai Khan, who finally united China and became the emperor of Yuan Dynasty, trusted that there had been four prophets: Buddha, Moses, Jesus Christ and Mohammed. He believed that by worshiping all of them, the Gods would bless him. In AD1288, Khubilai crushed a rebel fellow-prince, whose troop believed in Christianity. People of other religions thus scorned these defeated Christians that God was not on their side. Khubilai comforted these losers by saying that: their lord was not loyal, therefore the Cross didn’t assist him. It shows that the Cross is efficacious^[1]. How sly this Khan was!

More sly is the lamas. One of them was courted by a Mongol queen to pray for her sick baby, who unfortunately died soon after. When the queen reproved the lama, he sophisticated that the protection of Lamaism to the life from death is like that of a lantern to a candle from wind. However, it’s unable to save the candle from burning out. The queen was fooled and Lamaism was further adored by the Mongol monarchy in a priest-patron way^[2].

Citizens got hands amputated when they hit the lamas, or tongues cut when they scolded them, which was originally a Tibetan law set by the brutal Padmasambhava^[3]. Meanwhile lamas took no punishment for any crime, as long as they were not involved in rebellion^[4]. One advisory Lama, during the final days of Mongol governance of China, even suggested the last Mongol emperor to execute all Chinese with the most popular surnames such as Wang, Zhang and Li, so as to put out Chinese rebellion. See how merciful these lamas were!

The Mongols didn’t invade Tibet since the latter acknowledged allegiance. Some Chinese historians claim that Tibet was under China government since Yuan Dynasty. This is not convincing. Mongol is now a component of the Chinese nation, but it’s dubious whether emperors of Yuan Dynasty regarded themselves as Chinese Emperors. This is different from Manchus who also conquered China in 17^th century but soon completely converted to Chinese culture and claim themselves to be a collateral branch of Chinese.

Therefore, I prefer to remain cautious that Yuan Dynasty was not a Chinese dynasty, and thus Tibet was not part of China by 13^th century.

When the Mongols were ousted in AD1368, the Chinese Ming Dynasty inherited nominal sovereignty over Tibet from Yuan Dynasty, and conferred the Kagyud Sect as the religion leader of Tibet. Then the Tsong Khapa Reform took place in AD1409, as I have mentioned in previous chapter.

Until then, hardly any Chinese visited Tibet. Chinese merchants dragged their way up to Kham and Amdo, which were inhabited by various small nations. These nations then completed the rest of work to trade Chinese products, mainly tea, into Tibet.

Footnotes:

[1] Fan Wen-Lan, A Brief Chinese General History, Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 2000, p.522

[2] It is noteworthy that Lamaism was popular only among Mongol aristocrats at this time.

[3] Fan Wen-Lan, p.523

[4] The relationship between monarch and religion could therefore be observed. In order to efficiently control the mass, a king allows his clergy servants do whatever they want, as long as it’s not threatening his power

7. Live Buddha

There are five main sects remaining in current Lamaism: Bon (Black-Hat) is the Lamaism-affected Shamanism; Sakya (Color-Hat) was the leading sect during 12-14^th century; Geluk (Yellow-Hat) was founded by Master Tsong Khapa in AD1409 and the leading sect till now; Nyingma (Red-Hat) derived from Padmasambhava the sorcerer from India; and Kagyud (White-Hat), the inventor of “Reincarnated Live Buddha”.

Live Buddha is a free translation of Tibetan word “Rinpoche”, which literally means “jewel of people”. It is the title for lama of certain high level. There are two kinds of Live Buddha: reincarnated and non-reincarnated. The latter enjoy privilege only in his lifetime, while the former could pass it to his next reincarnation. When a reincarnated Live Buddha is dying, he gives some vague information on the direction and location where his reincarnated successor should be found^[1]. After his death his acolytes will go towards that direction trying to find a baby who is recently born, and appoint him to be the next Live Buddha.

(The next paragraph involves text that could cause strong antipathy. Readers are recommended to skip it)

Before Live Buddha scheme was introduced, it was recorded by Lamaism scripture that senior guru passed his “wisdom” to his disciple in a process called Fifteen Levels of Initiations. After step by step strict ritual, finally the disciple should bring ten female relatives^[2],
[3] from which the guru would choose one and practice copulation with her, or the so-called merge of vajra with lotus. It is believed in Lamaism that the male wisdom is stored in somewhere back in one’s skull and then circulate along the spine until the tip of penis and is ejaculated as sperm. However, male wisdom needs to be mixed with its female counterpart, so the guru copulates with a woman (called mudra or wisdom enchantress) and uses an ivory spoon to take out the mixture of his sperm and the lady’s vaginal secretion (called sukra or life juice). The disciple would drink it with great pleasure, as the wisdom is therefore passed to him. He would then practice copulation with the rest nine women, without ejaculation. If he failed, he would need to use his tongue to recollect his ejaculation from her vagina^[2], otherwise his initiation aborted and he would stay in hell. ^[4]

A poem about such Lamaism sexual ritual:

In the sacred citadel of the vulva of

a superlative, skillful partner,

do the praxis of mixing white seed

with her ocean of red seed.

Then absorb, raise, and spread the nectar—

A stream of ecstasy such as you’ve never known ^[5]

Obviously such repulsive sexual ritual inherited more from Hindu Tantrism than Buddhism. However, it soon proved to be an inappropriate way of legacy transition when the cleric no longer lived reclusively in secret India jungle but as powerful warlords in Tibetan Plateau.

Kagyud invented Live Buddha institution to solve the problem of power inheritance when it was shortly in power during a break of civil war. However, it is the Geluk that benefited most from this invention when they came into power. Why this solution is so efficient? It eliminated the chance of the leaders’ acolytes and folks (an exception being the bastard of 5^th Dalai) to inherit the power, thus reduced power struggle and made the handover peaceful.