Timeline
Important key events and influential Buddhist figures in the History of Tibet, India, And The Himalayan Region
Post Nyatri Tsenpo is said to have been the first king of Tibet. [2] [11] [i8]
Figure Asanga (left image) and his elder half-brother Vasubandhu were the greatest Buddhist authorities of Ancient India. Asanga was founding father of the other great Sastra བསྟན་བཅོས། school of the Mahayana ("Great Vehicle"), namely the Yogacara རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ (or Chittamatra སེམས་ཙམ་པ་, "Mind Only"). Asanga received teachings from Maitreya བྱམས་པ་ and transcribed them as the ‘Five Treatises of Maitreya’ བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་. [2] [3]
Figure Chandrakirti was a renowned Indian scholar. He was the author of Introduction to the Middle Way དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་, Clear Words ཚིག་གསལ་ and other key works on the Middle Way. [2] [7]
Video Hsüan-tsang (also written Xuanzang) was a Buddhist monk and Chinese pilgrim to India who translated the sacred scriptures of Buddhism from Sanskrit into Chinese and founded in China the Buddhist Consciousness Only school. His fame rests mainly on the volume and diversity of his translations of the Buddhist sutras and on the record of his travels in Central Asia and India, primarily to Nalanda university. [14] [i7]
Thonmi Sambhota is the Tibetan grammarian credited with inventing the Tibetan alphabet and writing the most important treatises on Tibetan grammar. According to Tibetan tradition, King Songtsen Gampo sent a young man of the Thönmi clan to India in the year 632 with other youths, to learn the alphabet. The ancient annals of Tun-huang records the year 655 that 'the text of the laws was written'. [2] [4] [i4]
Figure Shantideva was a great Indian master, scholar, and bodhisattva བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་, who was the author of the Bodhicharyavatara བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་. He is also counted among the eighty-four mahasiddhas གྲུབ་ཐོབ་བརྒྱད་ཅུ་རྩ་བཞི་. [2] [12]
Figure Kamalashila was an Indian master and professor of Nalanda University. He was the main disciple of Shantarakshita ཞི་བ་འཚོ་. He is known for winning the Samya debate. [2]
A famous debate at Samye བསམ་ཡས་ or Lhasa in between an Indian faction, headed by Kamalaśīla པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་ and a Chinese faction, headed by the teacher Hvashang Mahayana. The Indian opinion supporting gradual awakening is said to have prevailed. [1]
Figure Atisha Dipamkara Shrijñana ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་མར་མེ་མཛད་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ (or Jowo Jé Palden Atisha ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་) was a great Indian master and scholar, and author of many texts including the Lamp for the Path of Awakening བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་སྒྲོན. He spent the last ten years of his life in Tibet, teaching and translating texts, and was instrumental in reinvigorating Buddhism there after a period of persecution. His disciples founded the Kadampa བཀའ་གདམས་པ་ school. [2]
Figure Indian Buddhist teacher who studied at both Nalanda ནཱ་ལེནྡྲ། and Vikramashila རྣམ་གནོན་ཚུལ། Monasteries. Maitripa is famous for brining his lineage Tibet by teaching the Mahamudra philosophy and practice to Marpa Lotsawa མར་པ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ། [2] [16]
Sonam Gyatso was the first to be named Dalai Lama. The title goes back to the sixteenth century and to Gelug དགེ་ལུགས་ relations with the Mongols, whose ruler, Altan Khan, declared Sonam Gyatso, the third in a line of reincarnating Gelugs lamas, 'an ocean (Mongolian dalai) [of wisdom]'. Sonam Gyatso was thus subsequently regarded as the third Dalai Lama. [1] [i5]
The Potala Place, the main palace and residence of the Dalai Lamas, constructed in Lhasa by Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, the Fifth Dalai Lama. Its construction started in 1645 on a large hill upon the ruins of an old palace and hermitage, erected on 637 by King Songtsen Gampo སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ . Up until the Chinese invasion, it also housed Tibet's central administration and the Namgyal རྣམ་རྒྱལ། Monastery. [2] [6]
Sources
[1] Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford Paperbacks; 1st edition (July 1 1998). p. 14, 40-42, 57, 254, 266-267, 270-273.
[2] rigpawiki.org – Rigpa Shedra Wiki,. an online encyclopedia of Tibetan Buddhism.
[3] plato.stanford.edu – The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
[4] R. A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization. (1972), Stanford University Press. p. 51, 58.
[5] kagyuoffice.org – Office of the 17th Karmapa. Naropa, Tilopa, Marpa, Milarepa.
[6] Michael Dillon, China: A Cultural and Historical Dictionary, Routledge (1998). p. 184.
[7] Douglas S. Duckworth, Jamgon Mipam: His Life and Teachings. Shambhala Publications (2011), intro, p. 20, 25-26, 33, 40, 43, 55.
[8] Rangjung Yeshe Wiki – Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Institution of higher learning for Buddhist philosophy and practice.
[9] The British Museum – The British Museum in London, England, is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture.
[10] dalailama.com – Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
[11] Erik Haarh, Extract from “The Yarlung Dynasty“, in: The History of Tibet, ed. Alex McKay, Vol. 1, London (2003).
[12] Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryavatara), Translated by The Padmakara Translation Group, Shambhala Publications (1997).
[13] ancient.eu – World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization.
[14] Encyclopedia Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia – Xuanzang.
[15] Longchen Nyingtik Project – A project to translate the Core Texts of the Longchen Nyingtik.
[16] Himalayan Art Resources – Artworks from Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India, China and Mongolia
Images
[i1] All images that are not attributed are from TheThangka.com and Rinchen Ling Art School in Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal.
[i2] Adobe Stock.
[i3] Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
[i4] Sahil Bhopal, Tashi Mannox, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
[i5] Gombojab Tsybikov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[i6] Moszczynski, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[i7] Eugene a, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[i8] Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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