IBET emerges from barbaric darkness only with the dawn of its Buddhism, in the seventh century of our

era.

Tibetan history, such as there is-and there is none at all before its Buddhist era, nor little worthy of the name till about the eleventh century A.D.-is fairly clear on the

From a photograph by Mr. Hoffmann.

point that previous to King Sroń Tsan Gampo's marriage in 638-641 A.D., Buddhism was quite unknown in Tibet.1 And it is also fairly clear on the point that Lamaism did not arise till a century later than this epoch.

Up till the seventh century Tibet was inaccessible even to the Chinese. The Tibetans of this prehistoric period are seen, from the few glimpses that we have of them in Chinese history about the end of the sixth century,2 to have been rapacious savages and reputed cannibals, without a written language, and followers of an animistic and devil-dancing or Shamanist religion, the Bön, resembling in many ways the Taoism of China.

Early in the seventh century, when Muhammad (" Mahomet ")

1 The historians so-called of Tibet wrote mostly inflated bombast, almost valueless for historical purposes. As the current accounts of the rise of Buddhism in Tibet aro so overloaded with legend, and often inconsistent, I have endeavoured to sift out the more positive data from the mass of less trustworthy materials. I have looked into the more disputed historical points in the Tibetan originals, and, assisted by the living traditions of the Lamas, and the translations provided by Rockhill and Bushell especially, but also by Schlagintweit, Sarat, and others, I feel tolerably confident that as regards the questions of the mode and date of the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet, and the founding of Lāmaism, the opinions now expressed arc in the main

correct.

The accounts of the alleged Buddhist events in prehistoric Tibet given in the Mani-Kah-bum, Gyal-rabs, and other legendary books, are clearly clumsy fictions. Following the example of Burma and other Buddhist nations (cf. Hiuen Tsiang, Julien's trans., i., 179; ii., 107, etc.) who claim for their King an ancestry from the Şakya stock, we find the Lamas foisting upon their King a similar descent. A mythical exiled prince, named gNah-Kri-bTsan-po, alleged to be the son of King Prasenjit, Buddha's first royal patron, and a member of the Licchavi branch of the Sakya tribe, is made to enter Tibet in the fifth century B.C. as the progenitor of a millennium of Sroń Tsan Gampo's ancestors; and an absurd story is invented to account for the etymology of his name, which means "the back chair"; while the Tibetan people are given as progenitors a monkey (“Hilumandju,” evidently intended for Hanumanji, the Hindu monkey god, cf. ROCK., LL., 355) sent by Avalokiteswara and a rakshasi fiendess. Again, in the year 331 A.D., there fell from heaven several sacred objects (conf. Rock., B., p. 210), including the Om mani formula, which in reality was not invented till many hundred (probably a thousand) years later. And similarly the subsequent appearance of five foreigners before a King, said to have been named T'o-t'ori Nyan-tsan, in order to declare the sacred nature of the above symbols, without, however, explaining them, so that the people continued in ignorance of their meaning. And it only tends still further to obscure the points at issue to import into the question, as Lassen does (Ind. Alt., ii., 1072), the alleged erection on Mt. Kailās, in 137 в.C., of a temporary Buddhist monastery, for such a monastery must have belonged to Kashmir Buddhism, and could have nothing to do with Tibet.

2 BUSHELL, loc. cit., p. 435.

They used knotched wood and knotted cords (RÉMUSAT'S Researches, p. 384).

was founding his religion in Arabia, there arose in Tibet a warlike king, who established his authority over the other wild clans of central Tibet, and latterly his son, Sron Tsan Gampo,1 harassed the western borders of China; so that the Chinese Emperor T'aitsung, of the Tang Dynasty, was glad to come to terms with this young prince, known to the Chinese as Ch'itsung-luntsan, and gave him in 641 A.D.2 the Princess Wench'eng, of the imperial house, in marriage.1

5

Two years previously Sroń Tsan Gampo had married Bhrikuți, a daughter of the Nepal King, Amṣuvarman; and both of these wives being bigoted Buddhists, they speedily effected the conversion of their young husband, who was then, according

1 Called also, prior to his accession (says ROCKHILL, Life, p. 211) Khri-ldan Srońbtsan (in Chinese, Ki-tsung lun-tsan). His father, g'Nam-ri Sron-tsan, and his ancestors had their headquarters at Yar-lun, or "the Upper Valley," below the Yarlha sam-po, a mountain on the southern confines of Tibet, near the Bhotan frontier. The Yar-lun river flows northwards into the Tsang-po, below Lhāsa and near Samye. This Yar-lun is to be distinguished from that of the same name in the Kham province, cast of Bathang, and a tributary of the Yangtse Kiang. The chronology by Bu-ton (t'am-c'ad K'an-po) is considered the most reliable, and Sum-pa K'an-po accepted it in preference to the Baidyur Kar-po, composed by the Dalai Lūma's orders, by De-Srid San-gyas Gya-mts'o, in 1686. According to Bu-ton, the date of Sron Tsan Gampo's birth was 617 A.D. (which agrees with that given by the Mongol historian, Sasnang Setzen), and he built the palace Pho-dan-Marpo on the Lhasa hill when aged nineteen, and the Lhasa Temple when aged twenty-three. He married the Chinese princess when he was aged nineteen, and he died aged eighty-two. The Chinese records, translated by Bushell, make him die early. Csoma's date of 627 (Grammar, p. 183) for his birth appears to be a clerical error for 617. His first mission to China was in 634 (BUSHELL, J.R.A.S., New Ser., xii., p. 440).

2 According to Chinese annals (BUSHELL, 435), the Tibetan date for the marriage is 639 (C., G., p. 183), that is, two years after his marriage with the Nepalese princess. 3 Kong-jo="princess" in Chinese.

4 The Tibetan tradition has it that there were three other suitors for this princess's hand, namely, the three greatest kings they knew of outside China, the Kings of Magadha, of Persia (sTag-zig), and of the Hor (Turki) tribes. See also HODGSON'S Ess. and ROCKHILL'S B., 213; Csoma's Gr., 196; Bodhimur, 338.

3 Amṣuvarman, or "Glowing Armour,” is mentioned by Hiuen Tsiang (BEAL'S Ed. Si-yu-ki, ii., p. 81) as reigning about 637, and he appears as a grantee in FLEET's Corpus Insern. Ind. (iii., p. 190) in several inscriptions ranging from 635 to 650 A.D., from which it appears that he was of the Thakuri dynasty and a feudatory of King of Harshavardhana of Kanauj, and on the death of the latter seems to have become independent. The inscriptions show that devi was a title of his royal ladies, and his 635 A.D. inscription recording a gift to his nephew, a svāmin (an officer), renders it probable that he had then an adult daughter. One of his inscriptions relates to Sivaist lingas, but none are expressedly Buddhist. The inscription of 635 was discovered by C. BENDALL, and published in Ind. Ant. for 1885, aud in his Journey, pp. 13 and 73. Cf. also Ind. Ant., ix., 170, and his description of coins in Zeitchr. der Deutsch.

to Tibetan annals, only about sixteen years of age, and who, under their advice, sent to India, Nepal, and China for Buddhist books and teachers.2

It seems a perversion of the real order of events to state, as is usually done in European books, that Sron Tsan Gampo first adopted Buddhism, and then married two Buddhist wives. Even the vernacular chronicle, which presents the subject in its most flattering form, puts into the mouth of Sron Tsan Gampo, when he sues for the hand of his first wife, the Nepalese princess, the following words: "I, the King of barbarous Tibet, do not practise the ten virtues, but should you be pleased to bestow on me your daughter, and wish me to have the Law,5 I shall practise the ten virtues with a five-thousand-fold body

if you so desire

though I have I shall build 5,000

not the arts
temples." Again, the more reliable Chinese history records that
the princess said "there is no religion in Tibet"; and the
glimpse got of Sron Tsan in Chinese history shows him actively
engaged throughout his life in the very un-Buddhist pursuit of
bloody wars with neighbouring states.

The messenger sent by this Tibetan king to India, at the instance of his wives, to bring Buddhist books was called Thonmi Sam-bhota. The exact date of his departure and return are uncertain, and although his Indian visit seems to have been within the period covered by Hiuen Tsiang's account, this history makes no mention even of the country of Tibet. After a stay in India® of several years, during which Sam-bbota studied under the

1 The Gyal-rabs Sel-wai Melon states that S. was aged sixteen on his marriage with the Nepalese princess, who was then aged eighteen, and three years later he built his Pho-dan-Marpo Palace on the Red Hill at Lhasa.

The monks who came to Tibet during Sroń Tsan Gampo's reign were Kusara (? Kumāra) and Sankara Brāhmaṇa, from India; Sila Mañju, from Nepal; Hwashang Maha-ts'c, from China, and (E. SCHLAGT., Gyal-rabs, p. 49) Tabuta and Ganuta, from Kashmir.

3 Mirror of Royal pedigree, Gyal-rabs Sel-wai Melon. mT'ah-'k'ob.

s K'rims.

Sambhota is the Sanskrit title for "The good Bhotiya or Tibetan." His proper name is Thon-mi, son of Anu.

632 A.D. is sometimes stated as date of departure, and 650 as the return; but on this latter date Sron Tsan Gampo died according to the Chinese accounts, although he should survive for many (48) years longer, according to the conflicting Tibetan records. "Southern India" (Bodhimur, p. 327).

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Brāhman Livikara or Lipidatta1 and the pandit Devavid Sinha (or Sinha Ghosha), he returned to Tibet, bringing several Buddhist books and the so-called "Tibetan" alphabet, by means of which he now reduced the Tibetan language to writing and composed for this purpose a grammar.2

This so-called "Tibetan" character, however, was merely a somewhat fantastic reproduction of the north Indian alphabet current in India at the time of Sam-bhota's visit. It exaggerates the flourishing curves of the "Kutila," which was then coming into vogue in India, and it very slightly modified a few letters to adapt them to the peculiarities of Tibetan phonetics. Thonmi translated into this new character several small Buddhist texts,* but he does not appear to have become a monk or to have attempted any religious teaching.

3

Sron Tsan Gampo, being one of the greatest kings of Tibet and the first patron of learning and civilization in that country, and having with the aid of his wives first planted the germs of Buddhism in Tibetan soil, he is justly the most famous and popular king of the country, and latterly he was canonized as an incarnation of the most popular of the celestial Bodhisats, Avalokita; and in keeping with this legend he is figured with his hair dressed up into a high conical chignon after the fashion of the Indian images of this Buddhist god, "The Looking-down-Lord.”

His two wives were canonized as incarnations of Avalokita's consort, Tārā, "the Saviouress," or Goddess of Mercy; and the fact that they bore him no children is pointed to as evidence of their divine nature. The Chinese princess Wench'eng was deified

1 Li-byin = Li + "to give."

2 sGrahi bstan beh'os sum ch'u-pa.

3 The cerebrals and aspirates not being needed for Tibetan sounds were rejected. And when afterwards the full expression of Sanskrit names in Tibetan demanded these letters, the five cerebrals were formed by reversing the dentals and the aspirates obtained by suffixing an k, while the palato-sibilants ts, tsh, and ds were formed by adding a surmounting crest to the palatals ch, chh, and j. It is customary to say that the cursive style, the "headless" or U-med (as distinguished from the full form with the head the U-ch'en) was adapted from the so-called "Wartu" form of DevanagriHODGSON, As. Res., xvi., 420; SCHMIDT, Mem. de l'Ac. de Pet., i., 41; Csoma, G., 204; SARAT, J.A.S. B., 1888, 42.

The first book translated seems to have been the Karanda-vyuha sutra, a favourite in Nepal; and a few other translations still extant in the Tän-gyur are ascribed to him (CSOMA, A., and Rock., B., 212.

5 His issue proceeded from two or four Tibetan wives.