334 karénina kollmar-paulenz
endeavours which usually led to unstable marriage alliances between
the Tibetans and the Chinese. In 821/822 AD the emperor Muzong
concluded a peace treaty with the Tibetan emperor Ral-pa-can
and his monk-minister dPal-gyi-yon-tan, who, in the inscription com-
memorating the treaty, is said to have been “carrying out the adminis-
tration with power over both outer and inner affairs.”^56 This bilingual,
Tibetan-Chinese inscription recording the treaty which was apparently
rati ed at Lhasa, is probably the most important of the early Tibetan
inscriptions. It is engraved on a stone pillar outside the Jo-khang in
Lhasa. The treaty was solemnly conjured through indigenous religious
and Buddhist rituals:
... in order that this agreement establishing a great era when Tibetans
shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China shall never
be changed, the Three Jewels, the body of saints, the sun and moon,
planets and stars have been invoked as witnesses; its purport has been
expounded in solemn words; the oath has been sworn with the sacri ce
of animals; and the agreement has been solemnised.^57
The lasting signi cance of the indigenous religious beliefs even in the
late royal period are testi ed to, not only by the fact that these rituals
performed for the treaty were to be put in force; but also by a number
of terms in the inscription which characterise the Tibetan kings as ’phrul-
gyi-lha, “supernaturally wise divinit[ies]”, who “came from being gods
in heaven to be lords of men” (gnam-gyi-lha-las/myi’i-rgyal-por-gshegs-te/)^58
and whose power is symbolised in the might of their helmet (dbu-rmog).
Buddhism during the time of Ral-pa-can had rmly taken root in Tibet,
but the indigenous Tibetan religious tradition was equally present in
people’s minds. This co-existence of the two different belief systems
during the snga-dar prepared the ground for the interdependence of
Buddhist and indigenous religious concepts which in the early phyi-dar
provided the basis for Tibetan Buddhism as we encounter it today.
The political tensions prevalent in the reign of Ral-pa-can between
the supporters of the new faith and the nobility that anxiously wanted
to preserve their privileges, brought about the downfall of the king in
- A group of ministers, led by the dBa’ clan, brought about the
disgrace and death of dPal-gyi-yon-tan and afterwards assassinated the
(^56) North Inscription, see Richardson 1985, p. 129.
(^57) West Inscription, see Richardson 1985, pp. 125–127.
(^58) East Inscription, see Richardson 1985, pp. 108, 109.