the later spread of buddhism in tibet 369
tendency is mainly due to the 5th Dalai Lama’s special inclination
towards this practice and is also represented for example by the 13th
and 14th Dalai Lamas.
4.3.3. The Bon Religion
In order to complete the picture, a word on Tibet’s largest non-Buddhist
religion should also be added. Western research on Bon is still at the
beginning.^57 Several theories have been propounded to explain the
origins of Bon. They range from considering it to be a religion strongly
in uenced by Manichaeism^58 to the theory that Bon is a form of Bud-
dhism brought to Tibet from Sogdia and Bactria during the “dark age”
that then constructed its own myths and restyled its religious vocabulary
in order to differentiate itself from the Buddhist traditions emerging
with the “later spread”.^59
The Bon-pos themselves view their tradition as the old indigenous
religion of Tibet that existed there long before Buddhists ever set a foot
on Tibetan soil. According to them, Bon was transmitted to Central
Tibet from the Zhang-zhung country, what was the ancient name of
Western Tibet. Ultimately the teachings of Bon were attributed to the
founder gen-rab, who had lived in sTag-gzig—an unidenti ed country
still further west—ca. 18. 000 BC [!]. Consequently, Bon-po historio-
graphers draw a completely different picture of early Tibetan history
than their Buddhist colleagues: To them the old Tibetan kings were
devoted followers of Bon religion prior to the advent of Buddhism.
With the triumph of Buddhism the adherents of the old religion had
to face hard times: What is a triumph for the one, is a disaster for the
others. Thus, Bon historiography tells of the great suffering Bon-pos
endured under the early Buddhist kings of Tibet, who also conquered
the kingdom of Zhang-zhung and eliminated its great Bon tradition
completely. In Central Tibet the situation is said to have been hardly
better: Bon priests were expelled by Khri-srong-lde-btsan, their faith
and practices prohibited.^60
(^57) Important steps were taken by D. Snellgrove, S. G. Karmay, P. Kvaerne and
D. Martin. For an extensive bibliography on Bon studies and sources, see Martin
- 58
This was the opinion of the German Tibetologist H. Hoffman, the pioneer of
Bon studies; many others followed his theory. 59
This theory was put forward by D. Snellgrove.
(^60) Cf. Martin 2001, p. 8.