THE LATER SPREAD OF BUDDHISM IN TIBET
Sven Bretfeld (University of Berne)- Introduction
There is a simple and a complex answer to the question of what
Tibetans mean by the “later spread” of Buddhism in Tibet (bstan-pa
phyi-dar, or simply phyi-dar). The simple answer might read roughly like
the following: The “later spread” is a collective term for the missionary
movements in Tibet of the late tenth to around the thirteenth century.
During that period numerous Buddhist masters—Indians and Tibetans—
brought Indian traditions of Buddhist exegesis, philosophy and ritual
to Tibet and thereby revived what was left of Tibetan Buddhism after
the collapse of the old empire. This period can be regarded as forma-
tive for Tibetan Buddhism as we know it today, since the origins of
the monastic traditions with all their social and doctrinal diversities are
connected to these early movements in some way or another.
The complex answer has to deal with the ideological implications of
the concepts used in Tibetan statements concerning the “later spread”
and the meaning of these statements in Tibetan cultural communica-
tion. Such an answer can, of course, not be given within this paper.
However, a few words on the problems involved may be said in this
introduction. The problems can perhaps be demonstrated if we ask
what sources on the “later spread” are available apart from religious
texts. The simple, but maybe surprising, answer is: none. Of course, we
have other sources, architectural, artistic, archaeological, textural etc.,
that shed light on the period of Tibetan history in question. But these
do not say anything about a thing called “later spread”. This is due to
the fact that this concept only makes sense within a speci c religious
framework of commemoration of the past. Thus, writing an article on
the “later spread” means to write about a speci c notion deeply rooted
Tibetan religious culture.
Our main sources on the “later spread” of Buddhism in Tibet are
texts belonging to different genres of Tibetan historiography.^1 These
(^1) See the section on the phyi-dar group of sources in the contribution of K. Kollmar-
Paulenz in this book. My presentation relies largely on the same choice of sources.