Changing Relations 35
worship clubs. It furthermore allowed them to recite the texts they chose—
without having to pay reverence to the Tibetan Emperor as well.66
2.4 The End of Tibetan Rule
It is well known that the private army of Zhang Yichao with the help of the
head of the clergy Hongbian (洪辯)67 drove the Tibetans out of Dunhuang in
848. Apart from the fact that at that time the power in Central Tibet seems to
have been divided between two rulers, there is no indication that Buddhism
was no longer supported in Dunhuang. In fact, the contrary is true. This is espe-
cially visible from the Tibetan manuscript P. tib. 999, which stipulates that a
great donation was made for the benefit of the Tibetan infant ruler Osung (Tib.
’Od srung, either 843–905 or 847–885) and his mother who had the power over
the Eastern provinces (which included Dunhuang).68 This occasion was organ-
ised by the monks and nuns of Dunhuang for 2700 lay people.
The Tibetan presence in Dunhuang itself was not strong—only a handful of
officials and their servants lived there. It is known that the tongsar (Tib. stong
sar) unit comprised 9.5 Tibetan crews (Tib. rkya), which amounts to about
20 Tibetan families, who most likely were the servants of the eleven Tibetan
officials.69 The members of the two military units of thongkhyab (Tib. mthong
kyab) lived at the periphery of Dunhuang—at least 15 km away from the
town. Moreover, not being Tibetans themselves and having been transferred
from their home,70 they had probably become indifferent to a revolution from
inside. Thus the army of Zhang Yichao had only to deal with members of the
66 Yamaguchi, Zuiho, “The Fiction of King Dar-ma’s Persecution of Buddhism,” in Haute
études orientales de Dunhuang au Japon, ed. Jean–Pierre Drège (Geneva: Droz, 1996), 237
transliterates and translates two such prayers: P. tib. 134 and P. tib. 230.
67 Hongbian died between 853 and 863.
68 Petech, Luciano, “The Disintegration of the Tibetan Kingdom,” in Tibetan Studies:
Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, held at
Fagernes 1992, vol. 2, ed. Per Kvaerne (Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human
Culture, 1994).
69 P. tib. 1120 transliterated, translated in Taenzer, Dunhuang Region during Tibetan Rule, 257.
It is evident that these families did not have fields in the area. There were two other mili-
tary units but it is not known whether Tibetans lived on their area.
70 The names of their units as well the names of their families show their non-Tibetan ori-
gin. See Taenzer, Dunhuang Region during Tibetan Rule, 90 for a detailed research as to
their origin.