(B) Dynasty, 7th century to 9th century.
(1) The initial contacts between Tibetan, Huen People and Tang (Han) people.

Just after the Jian people moved eastward to the central part of China and established their kingdoms, a nomad, Huen people, moved westward from the central-north of China to Jian Land (Qinghai or Amdo in Tibetan). It happened around the 4th century A.D.. Who was the Huen people? It was not clear in the Annals of Tang Dynasty, and was simply called the Huen people. Note that the kings of Huen people had surname `Mu-Yuon' which will classify them as a relative of Manchu nowaday.

Huen people firmly established the Kingdom of Tu-Yu (may be wrongly pronounced as Tu-Gu) Huen in the major part of Qinghai in 7th century, while the Tang people held the fertile corner of Qinghai.

As usual, there were disputes between the farmers in the fertile corner of Qinghai and the nomads around them. The Emperor, Tang Tai-Chung , sent the famous General Li Jin to lead an army with General Li Dau-Chung (we will read about him later on) to attack Tu-Yu Huen. Tu-Yu Huen was defeated and become a tributary of Tang (635 A.D.). the Emperor selected a girl from the extended royal family and she was given a title of `princess' to marry with the king of Tu-Yu Huen.

The system of marrying `princess' with kings of other tribe or countries should be studied further. In general, Tang will marry a `princess' away only if the king had some statues. Although Tang Tai-Chung had 22 daughters, the real princess, none of them was married away. Furthermore, when one of an influential member of the court of Empress Wu went to marry a Turk princess, the whole court was against the marriage. They believed that it was not right and against the rule.

Apparently, after Tu-Yu Huen was weakened by Tang army, Tibetan started attack it from the south (Tibet proper). Tibetan further sent a commission to the court of Tang to ask the hand of a Tang princess. However, Tu-Yu Huen was against and blocked the marriage.

Tibetan became angry at Tu-Yu Huen and sent a large army to attack and drive it from the valleys around the source of Yellow river. Tu-Yu Huen hid at the northern shore of Lake Qinghai. The conflicts between Tibetan and Tang people started. After several indecisive battles, Tibet resent the commission with the old proposal. The court of Tang apparently recognized Tibet as a local power and became receptive.

In the mean time, Tang conquered Turks to the north, and was interested in conquering Korea. A secured front in Qinghai was beneficial, and the marriage proposal was accepted.

(2) The marriage of Princess Wen-Cheng and King Srong-tsan-gam-po (Songtsen Gampo)

It was according to the story of Tibet that there were 27 kings before King Srong-tsan-gam-po (Songtsen Gampo). Most of them were just names. The history of Tibet in general began with him. We do not know very much about him either. For instance, we are not sure about his date of birth.

Who was Princess Wen-Cheng? We are not sure either. She was a member of the extended royal family of Tang Dynasty of 18 years old when sent off. General Li Dau-Chung (King of Jiang-Xia ) spent 2 years in traveling with her to Tibet. There were at least three versions of the marriage,

(a) Tang Annals told us that the marriage happened in 641 A.D.. The King of Tibet was very grateful and behaved properly as a son-in-law in receiving General Li Dau-Chung. He admired the Han clothes and ceremonies. He built a palace for Princess Wen-Cheng and sent royal members to Tang to be educated. The King passed away after 9 years in 650 A.D. and his grandson succeeded him. Princess Wen-Cheng stayed in Tibet for another 30 years.

(b) According to the 5th Dalai Lama, the King was 25 years old and sent four columns from all four doors of Lhasa to meet Princess Wen-Cheng. Princess Wen-Cheng used her power of goddess to present her train of court to all four columns of the receptionists. The King had a Nepal Princess Tsu-Tsuang (Bhrikuti, daughter of King Amsuvarman) as wife. Although the Nepal Princess out rank Princess Wen-Cheng as wives, Princes Wen-Cheng out rank Nepal Princess (reincarnation of goddess Frown-Mother ) as goddess. Everything balanced out, the three lived happily thereafter, with some minor problems which made the story interesting. Princess Wen-Cheng built the Potala palace and `Ramoqe (Xiao-Zhau) temple' (which faces the capital of Tang Dynasty). Nepal Princess built the much larger `Da-Zhua temple' (Jokhang) (which faces Nepal. Later on Princess Jin-Cheng from Tang moved all relics of Princess Wen-Cheng from Xiao-Chau to Da-Chau). Both Princess had no offsprings. The King had several Tibetan wives. Later on, a disease was transmitted from a maid to Nepal Princess and then to the King, and then to Princess Wen-Cheng. The three died at the same time, and lived happily in the heaven.

(c) Some Tibetan writers claimed that the King was 70 years old, and the Nepal Princess did not allow them to see each other. After about one year, they finally met and lived together for two years and the king passed away.
What can one make out from the above? My guess is that Princess Wen-Cheng was a daughter of General Li, and the King was a middle aged man (35 years old ?) as indicated by the words that the King `behaved properly as a son-in -law to General Li' who fought many battles later on, and hence unlikely to be an old man at that time. The marriage lasted 9 years until the King passed away. In that nine years, the Nepal Princess had more influence (by the sizes of the two temples which had been partially preserved to this date). The Potala palace was built at that time by Tang engeneers under the instructions of Princess Wen-Cheng. The Princess indeed lived for another 30 years as proved by her occasional receptions of Tang monks on their way to visit India.