The Spread of Buddhism

the later spread of buddhism in tibet 347

until the “later spread” began. The exact dating was a matter of dis-
cussion among Tibetan historians.^10
This “dark period” was not only “darkened” by the absence of Bud-
dhism from Central Tibet, but, as the chos-’byungs state, also by ignorant
pseudo-Buddhist monks and tantrics who, longing for material reward,
pretended to keep up Buddhist traditions and spread false doctrines
under the name of Buddhism. To quote the words of Bu-ston as one
example out of many similar statements in other texts:

At that time in dBus and Tsang religious discipline, the exposition of the

Doctrine, and the study and preaching of it had altogether ceased. The

stewards of the monasteries wore petticoats with collars, called themselves

Sthaviras and Arhats, and said that they were observing the monastic rules.

In reality, they kept (only) the 4 basic precepts during a very short time,

namely the 3 months of the summer retreat. Then, having performed the

rite of pravraa (which concludes the summer retreat), they did no more

observe (any) precepts. The tantrists did not understand the meaning of

the Tantras and followed wrong methods like sbyor and sgrol.^11

However, even if Bu-ston informs us about people using Buddhist
terminology (Sthaviras/Arhats)^12 to represent themselves, and about
(apparently different) people following Buddhist tantric texts, he likewise
explicitly says that the Buddhist doctrine had ceased to exist during
that time. For him these “monastery stewards” and the tantrists who
practiced sexual rites (sbyor) and ritual killing (sgrol) were completely
mistaken about what Buddhism “really” was. They were not real
Buddhists and, therefore, no Buddhists at all.
Unfortunately we have only very few sources that can be dated to
the early post-imperial period and that could throw some more light
on the religious culture of this time. However, there is some amount
of indirect evidence speaking on behalf of quite a different picture
of Buddhist activities during the so-called “dark age” than the later
sources would have us believe. 1.) The rNying-ma-pa school claims that
its tantric transmissions never disappeared since they were introduced
to Tibet by Padmasambhava and some other masters of the “early
spread”. It is dif cult to judge the extent of historical accurateness

(^10) The different attempts to date the beginning and the end of the “dark age” were
discussed by ’Gos lo-ts 11 -ba gZhon-nu-dpal, Blue Annals, pp. 60ff.
Bu-ston 146b–147a; translation Obermiller 1999, p. 203, partly modi ed.
(^12) Sthavira (Tib. gnas-brtan) means a monastic elder (Pli thera); Arhat (Tib. dgra-bcom)
is the term for someone who has reached nirva, without having ful lled the bodhisattva
path (i.e., without having become a fully enlightened Buddha).