and demons which required sacrifices of animals and human
beings and other disgusting practices. History has it that when
Santaraksita, the famed Abbot of Nalanda Monastery, was
invited by King Trison-Detsun to teach the Doctrine to the
Tibetans, he met considerable opposition from the spirits and
priests of the local faith, the primitive Bon cult. In anger, the
Bon spirits caused great destructions through flood and famine
across the land so that Santaraksita had no choice but to ask the
king to send for Guru Padmasambhava, who was then residing
in Nepal, to take over the task of conversion of these very stub-
born and powerful opposing forces. us the great guru arrived
in Tibet in the year 747.In Tibet Padmasambhava lived up to his fame as a demon-
tamer, subduing the defiant spirits and sparing only those who
accepted the Buddhist faith and agreed to become its defenders.
As a reward, he included them into the Mahayana Pantheon so
that they would be properly worshipped. Blending native beliefs
with certain elements of Tantrism, he developed a new kind of
Buddhism which is known to the world as Lamaism. Padmasam-
bhava thus became the Precious Guru of all the lamas and is
regarded as highly as the Buddha himself. e Nim-ma-pa or
‘Red-Hat’ sect regards him as their founder and worships him
in various forms, both gentle and fierce, expressive of his dif-
ferent moods at different times. rough his efforts the famous
Samye Monastery near Lhasa was built and it became the centre
of Buddhist studies in Tibet. Santaraksita was appointed as its
first abbot.