the buddhist way into tibet 311
as in rock inscriptions that not only Buddhism, but also Nestorianism
and Manichaeism were well known by Tibetans during the rst mil-
lennium.^10
- Tibet Under the Reign of Srong-btsan-sgam-po:
the Beginnings of the DHARMA
The son of gNam-ri-srong-btsan, Srong-btsan-sgam-po, who succeeded
his father to the throne in approximately 620 AD, was able to consolidate
the power of the newly founded dynasty and even extended his military
conquests further. He conquered the adjacent kingdom of Zhang-
zhung^11 and moved the capital of his kingdom to Lhasa (then called
Ra-sa, “seat of the goats”). He built a palace on the place where later, in
the seventeenth century, the fth Dalai Lama erected the Potala palace,
thus drawing on the powerful image of the realm of Avalokitevara
whose incarnation according to later Buddhist belief this rst Tibetan
king was. Srong-btsan-sgam-po successfully stabilised his military and
political power through marriage alliances with the ruling houses of
the neighbouring countries. Among several other wives legend credits
him with marrying a Chinese and a Nepalese princess. The marriage
to a Chinese wife from one of the small Chinese kingdoms is attested
to in Chinese sources, whereas historical evidence for his marriage to
a Nepalese princess in Nepalese sources is still lacking. As the Tibetans
had close contacts to Nepal during the reign of Srong-btsan-sgam-po, it
is, however, entirely credible that he secured his dominance by marital
ties to one of the Nepalese ruling houses.
In Buddhist historical records of the phyi-dar group the introduction
of Buddhism to Tibet is closely connected to Srong-btsan-sgam-po and
his reign, especially his marriage politics. Buddhist historians claim that
both wives of the kings were pious Buddhists and managed to arouse
interest in this religion in the king. The cultural stereotype behind this
argument is obvious: the king of a barbarian nation is “tamed” by the
in uence of a woman and a religion devoted to non-violence. We will
see later that the dichotomy inherent in this cliché is an important
Tibetan strategy to establish cultural-religious identity in opposition to
a Barbarian, “non-Buddhist” other.
(^10) Uray 1995 [1983], pp. 399–429.
(^11) Cf. Uray 1979, pp. 289–299.