Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia

42. TIBET AND THE CONTINENT FROM THE TENTH TO

THIRTEENTH CENTURIES

David Gray

Introduction

The period of the tenth through thirteenth centuries was one of the
most important eras in Tibetan religious history, and one that sub-
sequently impacted Central Asian religious history. This was the era
characterized by Tibetan Buddhists as the second or “latter dissemina-
tion” (phyi dar) of Buddhism to Tibet. During this period the trans-
mission of Buddhism from South Asia to Tibet resumed. This occurred
in a relatively decentralized political environment, and thus was not
subject to the censorship that appears to have characterized the early
imperial period. It is also the first era in Tibetan history for which
abundant documentary evidence has survived.^1

The Latter Dissemination of Buddhism to Tibet

In approximately 842 C.E., the Tibetan empire collapsed with the
assassination of King Lang Darma by the monk Lhalung Pelgi Dorjé
(lha lung dpal gyi rdo rje), allegedly motivated by the king’s persecu-
tion of Buddhism. Tibet then entered a period known as the “time
of fragmentation” (sil bu’i dus), characterized by political disunity,
with power shifted from the political center, the region of Ü (dbus) in
Central Tibet, to regional kingdoms such as Gugé (gu ge) in Western
Tibet.^2 For approximately one hundred years, from the mid-ninth to
mid-tenth centuries, the transmission of Buddhism from India and
China, and the associated translation of Buddhist scriptures, was
halted. Tibetan histories report that Buddhism almost disappeared in
Central Tibet, with surviving monks fleeing to the far northeast to the

(^1) For an introduction to Tibetan historiography, see Martin 1997. A quick exami-
nation of this bibliography dramatically illustrates the sources available for the study
of Tibetan history. Only eight entries are listed for works composed prior to the
twelfth century.
(^2) For an excellent overview of Tibetan history see Kapstein 2006, 51–174.