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CHAPTER 2

Buddhism Turns Toward Tibet

One mind pervading all life. It is the primal state, that goes unnoticed. It is brilliant, boundless intelligence that is ignored. It appears everywhere and always, but is not seen.

—Padmasambhava in T. Freke, The Wisdom of the Tibetan Lamas

The tapestry of Tibetan history interweaves myth with fact, religion with politics. Primary in this tapestry is Buddhism. Tibetans mark their important events around the time of the introduction and development of Buddhism in their country. Religion is so closely woven into everyday life that Tibetans consider spiritual realms just as real as material ones. They think symbolically and metaphorically, readily moving between relative and absolute levels of reality, often without making any distinctions. Such interlacing may be unfamiliar to Westerners, but it presents new possibilities for interpreting this interesting and colorful people.

MYTHIC BEGINNINGS

The true origin of the Tibetan people is uncertain, but the myth is clear. Originally, Avalokitesvara (Kannon to the Japanese and Kuan Yin in Chinese), a bodhisattva of compassion, lived alone in Tibet, incarnated as a monkey. Far away, in another part of Tibet, lived a wildly emotional and lustful ogress. When the ogress discovered she was alone, she cried loudly. The monkey heard her pitiful cries and felt compassion for her suffering. He found her, and they had six human children. These offspring were the first Tibetans. In mythical terms, Tibetans are the missing link in evolution, from ape to human.

Tibetans believe that much of their early cultural and political evolution came from India. According to legend, the first king of Tibet grew up in India. He was slightly deformed at birth and felt rejected by his family. So he left home as a young man and journeyed all the way to the Yarlung valley in Tibet, located southeast of Lhasa. The Tibetans noticed his gentle spirit, not his deformed body, and asked where he came from. Not speaking their language, he tried to communicate with gestures and pointed up to the sky. They interpreted this to mean he was sent from heaven to rule them. They made him their chief and gave him the name Nyatri Tsenpo, heavenly born lord. Nyatri Tsenpo introduced many advances from Indian civilization, including building the first house. He is known as the first ruler of the first dynasty, the Yarlung dynasty.

BUDDHISM TAKES HOLD

The early people of Tibet were warring tribes who personified nature and the forces of life in spirits and deities, both friendly and threatening. Their Bon religion gave these spirits form in roles and rituals. By the seventh century, the Yarlung king Songsten Gampo (A.D. 618-650) united the tribes into an empire. The Tibetan army ventured outside its borders to conquer parts of China, India, and Burma (in A.D. 635). In all the countries they attacked and conquered, the troops noticed two things: the countries were more advanced than Tibet and Buddhism flourished. The king decided that Buddhism was the key.

To remedy this, the king imported two wives for himself, one from China and the other from Nepal. Both were devout Buddhists. Through these marriages, he brought Buddhism to Tibet and a spiritual conversion for himself. He built the Jokhang Temple for his Nepalese wife and the Rampoche Temple for his Chinese wife. Both became centers for Buddhism in Tibet.

The king also recognized that his country lacked a universal written language. He had a language brought back from India, establishing the standards for Tibet’s native tongue.

The Bon religions many deities maintained their strong hold on the daily life of Tibetans, with the people trying to please the good deities and appease the evil ones. Buddhism, lacking gods, seemed weak in comparison.

King Trisong Detsen (790–798) decided to change this apparent imbalance by bringing the wise Indian Buddhist scholar Santaraksita to teach in Tibet. The king’s ministers, firm believers in Bon, opposed the visit. When Santaraksita’s journey was impeded by several natural disasters, the Tibetans saw it as a sign that the visit angered their gods.

Not to be stopped, the king sought out the Indian Buddhist Padmasambhava, who had a reputation as a great and powerful sorcerer. Padmasambhava practiced a form of Buddhism that incorporated tantra, a mental and ritual practice that enhanced personal powers. When combined with Buddhism, it was believed to speed practitioners on the Buddhist path. Padmasambhava accepted the challenge to overcome the angry Bon gods. On the way to Tibet, he encountered a ferocious snowstorm. He took shelter in a cave and meditated deeply. The snowstorm subsided and he arrived safely, easily defeating the demons. The people of Tibet were so impressed that they accepted his presence and welcomed Santaraksita’s return. Padmasambhava’s teachings developed into the first Tibetan Buddhist sect, known as Nyingma, or Old School.

In 775, Padmasambhava and Santaraksita established the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, Samye. The buildings were arranged in a mandala pattern, symbolizing one of the tantric practices that uses mandalas to deepen Buddhist insight (see Chapter 7).

Buddhism continued to grow and develop from the influence of the Indian, Nepalese, and Chinese scholars who came to Tibet. Many Buddhist texts were translated during this time, helping to spread the understanding of Buddhism.

Two forms of Buddhism evolved: one from India and the other from China. The Indian method believed in slowly accumulating wisdom and skills in meditation, a practice called gradual cultivation. This method combined Buddhist principles with tantric practices. The approach from China believed that understanding comes in a flash of insight, sudden enlightenment. This form, influenced by Buddhism combined with Chinese Taoism, is best known as Zen (Japan) or Ch’an (China).

The Lhasa intellectuals felt that the two approaches were incompatible. But they were not sure which one was best for Tibet. The king decided to hold a public debate between a prominent representative from each method. The winning approach would be taught in Tibet. Everyone gathered to watch the duel of wits. After a heated discussion back and forth, the King chose the master from India. A gradual cultivation incorporating both Mahayana and tantra became the nationally accepted form of Buddhism in Tibet.

The third religious king, Rebachen (reigned 815–836) gave Buddhism lavish support but neglected his political duties. As a result, his ministers became angry with him, feeling Buddhism was distracting him from his duties. They had him assassinated and placed Lang-Dharma (reigned 838–842) in power. This king was devoted to the older Tibetan religion, Bon. He attacked Buddhism, sending Buddhist monks into hiding. Outwardly, Buddhism seemed to be destroyed, but the seeds remained. Intrigue and power struggles continued, leading to the assassination of Lang-Dharma. His death marked the end of the long-standing Yarlung dynasty and sent Tibet into chaos. Tibet remained isolated, never again to stretch an imperialist hand outside its borders.

RETURN OF BUDDHISM

The second dissemination of Buddhism came from the Indian monk Atisa (982–1054), one of the greatest teacher-reformers of Tibet. He was from a dying breed in India, where Buddhism was waning, yet he had a great influence on Tibetan Buddhism. He was able to influence the king and bring new life to Buddhism. His writings are filled with good advice to common people and kings alike:

Behave like one with eyes with regard to your own faults but as the blind with regard to the faults of others. Avoid arrogance and egoism and always meditate on the void. . . . Purify all actions, physical, oral, and mental, and never indulge in any sinful act. (Chattopadhyaya 1967, 19–20)

Atisa encouraged people to live morally and to selflessly sacrifice for others. His teachings started the Kadampa sect that eventually became the Gelukpa sect. As Buddhism became firmly rooted in Tibet, new branches began to grow.

MONGOL INFLUENCE

During the thirteenth century, the Mongols were conquering the known world. In 1240, under the leadership of Godan Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, the Mongols attacked Tibet. Godan became acquainted with the Tibetan Buddhist leader from the Sakya tradition, Gurga Gyeltsen Bel Sangpo (1182–1251). He liked Buddhism and decided to convert. The two men set up a joint government arrangement they called priest-patron between the Sakya priests, known as lamas, and the Mongol khans. Thus Buddhism continued to develop in conjunction with Mongol rule.

Mongol influence lessened in the early 1300s and Tibetans took back the full leadership of their country. They returned to the older Tibetan rites and customs that integrated with Buddhism, which had been forbidden during Mongol rule.

ORIGINS OF THE DALAI LAMA

The Sakya sect became less central as a newer, reform school grew, the Gelukpa, System of Virtue. This was the first eclectic school to draw its roots from Tibet, not India. One of the Gelukpa leaders, Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588) visited the Mongol chief Altan Khan. Although all priests in Tibet were called lamas, Altan conferred on Sonam Gyatso the title Dalai Lama, which meant “Ocean of Wisdom.” Altan Khan decided to retroactively make Sonam Gyatso’s two predecessors the first and second Dalai Lamas, and Sonam Gyatso was to be the third. The authority for this title was conferred by the Mongols, but eventually the Dalai Lama would become the sole leader of the country without any outside authority to authenticate the title.

The fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso (1617-1682), was a talented, dynamic individual who had a profound influence on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. He had the rare ability of being competent as both statesman and religious teacher. He united Tibet politically into one country and spiritually under the Gelukpa sect. Although he maintained the priest-patron relationship with the Mongols, he gradually shifted the source of the Dalai Lama’s power from the Mongols to the Tibetan patron-saint Avalokitesvara. In this way, the Dalai Lamas came to be seen as incarnations of Avalokitesvara. He built a palace, the Potala, in Lhasa, where the Dalai Lamas of the future would live and rule, making Lhasa the spiritual and political capital of Tibet.

THE MANCHU INFLUENCE

In 1664, the Manchus conquered China and established the Ch’ing dynasty, which maintained control of China until 1911. Although the Manchus continued to be linked with Tibet, like the Mongols before them, the interactions were often vague and irregular. Tibet became more isolated from its neighbors. Although the Dalai Lama tradition continued, a truly strong leader did not come along until the thirteenth Dalai Lama.

The thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tupden Gyatso (1876-1933), was a competent, somewhat controversial leader who had a lasting influence on Tibet’s course as he carried it into the twentieth century. During the early years of Tupden Gyatso’s reign, the Manchu general Chao Erh-feng tried to take control of Tibet. Though he met with resistance from the people as he marched to Lhasa, the unarmed farmers could do little to stop him. The Dalai Lama, warned of the invasion, fled to India. When Chao finally arrived at the Tibetan capital to negotiate surrender, he found no Tibetan government to negotiate with! Chao’s quest for control was finally put to an end when the Manchu government fell to the Chinese Nationalists in 1911. Chao was executed by China’s new government, and the Dalai Lama returned to rule his country.

The thirteenth Dalai Lama’s experiences showed him that Tibet had become too isolated from the international community, militarily weak, and socially underdeveloped. He decided to alter Tibet’s direction. He created an army and encouraged young Tibetans to study in England as a way to introduce them to Western-style thinking. Both plans met with some opposition from the monastic establishment, but the wheel of modernization had begun to turn.

CONCLUSION

Tibet’s history shows how, despite great adversity through the ages, Tibetan Buddhism’s ancient wisdom has been a great source of strength. Carefully passed along from gum to student, these timeless insights inspire us today as they have inspired people in the past, proving that there is hope for the inner development of all humanity.

Padmasambhava in the form of Guru Drakpoche, Pictured embracing his female consort, Thangka, late 17th century, Tibet, The Newark Museum/Art Resource, N.Y.