322 karénina kollmar-paulenz
maintenance would be secured. The bTsan-po obliged and according
to the dBa’-bzhed assigned three subject-households to each monk and
200 to one monastery. Other sources speak of 100 subject-households
for one monastery. These subjects assigned to the monasteries were
withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the state and placed under the
monastery’s jurisdiction.
Apart from the general monastic community a group of monaster-
ies (the so-called ring-lugs)^33 was af liated with the royal palace and
received even more generous support, including 70 khal of barley every
month.
The emperor’s active promotion of Buddhism also led to a number
of changes in the legal system. Corporal punishment like blinding
people or cutting off the noses of women unfaithful to their husbands,
were forbidden by royal edict. The restraint from corporal punishment
was also enforced under the emperor Ral-pa-can, who exempted the
monastic members of his government from carrying out acts of corporal
punishment, because these were contradictory to the monastic vows.
The most important privilege the sagha received during the reign of
Khri-srong-lde-btsan was, however, the exemption of the monks from
tax-payments and military service.
Ye-shes-dbang-po seems to have been a shrewd politician, because
he persuaded the king who wanted to attribute seven households to
each monk to reduce this number to three households, a precaution
that the generous grants would not meet with too much resistance from
the nobility. The reduction was, however, challenged by Myang-ting-
nge-’dzin who himself played an important role in the spread of the
doctrine, but was more inclined to Chinese Buddhism, as we shall see.
Due to Myang-ting-nge-’dzin’s opposition Ye-shes-dbang-po withdrew
from his leading position in the monastic community. The emperor
immediately appointed a successor, dPal-’byangs, who also came from
the dBa’ clan, as spiritual leader of the Buddhist community.
Myang-ting-nge-’dzin was held in high esteem also after Khri-
srong-lde-btsan’s death. He acted as guardian to the young Khri-lde-
srong-btsan (r. 800–815 AD) and helped him establish his power. The
inscription at the Zhwa’i-lha-khang, a small temple some fty miles
to the northeast of Lhasa, on two pillars anking the entrance of the
lha-khang record the privileges granted by the king to Myang-ting-nge-
(^33) See Dargyay 1991, pp. 111–127.