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split into a multitude of small political units ruled by local chieftains.
Tucci described this situation with the following words:
[ Tibet] split up into a number of self-governing states, nearly always at
loggerheads. It is perhaps too ambitious to call them states: they were
simply wealthy families, owning much land and pastures, which with
their offshoots, kinsfolk, clients and retainers, exercised sovereignty over a
whole region. These families formed a local aristocracy, whose power was
based on the resources of the territory under their control; they claimed
a divine origin, tracing their ancestry to ancient heroes, and could count
upon armed forces which were the true foundation of their power.^8In some areas, Glang-dar-ma’s descendants participated in the com-
petition for hegemony over the scattered remnants of the old empire,
but none of them succeeded to establish himself as the undisputed
heir of the old kingdom. It is important to note, that this fragmented
situation formed the political background when the “later spread of
Buddhism” began.
The century immediately following the empire’s breakdown is pre-
sented as a “dark age” in later literary sources. Especially the sources
of the chos-’byung genre characterise these years as an interruption of
the religious advances that had been achieved in the glorious days
when the empire was ourishing. Thus, in the historical narrative
constructed in these sources, this “dark age” serves as an intermediate
period between the “earlier” and the “later spread of the doctrine”.
This is not undisputed within Tibetan historiography. A controversial
point is how far-reaching the extinction of Buddhism in Tibet actually
was. In some contexts, this point was of considerable importance for the
legitimation of later religious institutions, especially since the rNying-
ma-pa school traces its traditions back to the tantric systems allegedly
introduced by Padmasambhava and some others in the eight century
and, therefore, had an interest to prove that these texts and teachings
had been transmitted without interruption by tantric lay-practitioners
throughout the “dark age”.^9 A major part of the chos-’byungs, however,
speak of a complete eclipse of Buddhist traditions at least in the central
Tibetan provinces dBus and gTsang from the time after Glang-dar-ma
(^8) Tucci 1999, p. 3.
(^9) Dudjom Rinpoche (20th century) even states in his history of the rNying-ma-pa
school (1991, p. 612) that Glang-dar-ma explicitly spared the tantric master gNubs
sangs-rgyas ye-shes from prosecution, whom the rNying-ma-pas include in their lineage
of tradition-bearers, together with his followers.