Theos Bernard

I

I spent the rest of the day in making a review of the rise and spread of Buddhism from the time it entered China in 61 A.D. and Japan in the sixth century, until it came to Tibet in the seventh, and flowered there in its own fashion. This event occurred in the reign of King Srong-tsan-Gampo who, as I have already told, had been converted to Buddhism by his Nepalese and Chinese wives, both ardent adherents of the faith.

He was given the Chinese princess, Wench’eng, by the Emperor of China, T’ait-sung of the Tang dynasty, in order to induce him to forego his military pursuits on the border. The Nepalese princess, Brikuti, daughter of King Amsuvarman, was first taken in marriage when he was only sixteen; so the Tibetan annals report. When the Tibetan King asked for this princess, he is reputed to have said: “I, 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, I shall practise the ten virtues with a five-thousandfold body … though I have not the arts … if you so desire … I shall build five thousand temples.” The Chinese assert that there was no religion in Tibet at this time. As a result of his conversion the Tibetan King sent Thon-mi Sam-bhota to India to acquire the teachings, and this gave rise to the Tibetan alphabet. The Chinese princess became the White Tara (“Lady of Mercy”), while the Nepalese princess became the Green Tara, but this was as far as it went, and nothing was done for the religion. It was not until the reign of his powerful descendant, Thri-Srong-Detsan, in the eighth century, that the real foundation was laid; it was he who brought Guru Rimpoche, also known as Padma Sambhava, to Tibet. On the advice of Guru’s brother-in-law, Santa-rakshita, who was made the head Abbot of Samye, the first monastery of Tibet was built in 747. The first Lama was Pal-bans, who succeeded Santa-rakshita, and the first ordained monk was ByaKri-Gzigs. The most brilliant follower was Vairocana, who translated many Sanscrit works into Tibetan. This marked the beginning of the Nyingmapa sect. The same King founded many other Lamaseries and gave a strong impetus to their literary efforts. Consequently, his era is looked upon as the Primitive or “Augustine,” followed by the Medixval, then by the Reformation and the Modern, to the beginning of the line of King-Priests of the Dalai Lamas of the seventeenth century. It was in the reign of Ralpachan, Thri-Srong-Detsan’s grandson, that the translation of the scriptures and commentaries of Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Vasunbandhu, etc., was prosecuted. Because of the great devotion of this King, he was murdered; his younger brother, Lan Darma, on assuming the throne, did all he could to uproot the religion, and he, in his turn, was assassinated in the third year of his reign. His efforts had merely served to give greater vigor to the faith. The last-named episode gave rise to the famous Black Hat dance, of which every visitor to Tibet must have heard. The story is that a dancer came performing outside the palace walls to win the interest of the King and the opportunity to perform within the walls of the court. He had hidden under his robes a bow and arrow, with which he hoped he would be able to dispose of the King who was destroying the religion. It was not long before his skill as a dancer gained him the favor of the King, and he was invited within, to entertain and dance. At the first opportunity that arose he drew his bow and arrow from their hiding place and shot the poisoned arrow deep into the’s Kings heart. Then the dancer fled on his horse, which was covcered with soot. When the rider came to the Lhasa River he removed the soot, and turned his own black gown inside out, thus transforming the appearance of himself and his beast and making escape possible. Since that day to this, the story has enacted by the dancers of Tibet, who go through all the tions of the Black Hat dancer in the drama of his rise to favor his assault on the King, and his escape from punishment, having saved the religion from destruction. In 1038 came Atisha, and started the Kadampa sect, which later developed into the Gelupa and gained the principal power of the state under the leadership of Tsong-Khapa in 1407. It was not until 1640 that it became the ruling power with the rise of the fifth Dalai Lama. With the advent of Atisha and the reformed Kadampa sect came the semi-reform sects of Kargyupa and Sakya, the latter gaining the dominating control through the great Chinese Emperor Khubla Khan, a descendant of Ghenghiz Khan, who captured Tibet in 1206 A.D. In searching for a religion for his people, he took over Lamaism and made the Abbot of Sakya head of the church in much the same manner as Charlemagne created the first Pope. During the Ming dynasty in 1368 the ruler deemed it advisable to raise the heads of the other sects to the level of those in Sakya, in order to eliminate quarrelling amongst them and thereby make it easier to rule the country. In the fifteenth century Tsong-Khapa reorganized the work of Atisha and created the Gelupa sect, which took the lead in 1640 under the fifth Grand Lama, Nag-wan Lo-zang. He induced Gusri Khan to capture the country and make a present of it to him; in 165o he was given the Mongol title of Dalai, or “Vast as the Ocean.” He held himself to be a God-incarnate, and built the palace temple on the hill in Lhasa; it was named the Potala, after his divine prototype, Avolokita, “The Lord Who Looks Down From On High.” So we have Buddhism coming to Tibet with its final perfected Theocracy, which continues to rule the country to this day. Now its power is on the wane, and the prediction is that it will not be many more years before the civil authorities will have taken over the country