(4) The story of Tibet (641--877)

(a) The stories of Kings.

To help the reader, I will add an numeral artificially at the end of the names of Tibetan Kings.

As pointed in my previous sections, a grandson of Srong-tsan-gam-po (Songtsen Gampo(1)) succeeded him. The throne passed down successively to the fourth King, Khri-de-tsung-tsan (TseDeTsuZan(4)) (704). His grandmother was the regent and she sent a missionary to Tang court asking the hand of a Tang princess for the King (6 years old).

During this time, Tang was ruled by the gentleman Emperor Chung-Chung who showed his respect to his mother, Empress Wu, every 10 days after she was de-throned, and was very soft to his sister, wife, and daughters. After hesitation and self doubt, he decided to let go his adopted and beloved daughter, Princess Jin-Cheng of 16 years old.

According to the 5th Dalai Lama, the story was different. The beautiful Tang Princess heard about the handsome crowned prince, a son of Khri-de-tsung-tsan (TseDeTsuZan(4)), and decided to marry him. When Tang princess arrived, the crowned prince just passed away, and then she married the King.

According to Tang Annals, Princess passed away in 739 (possibly 45 years old). According to Tibetan history the King was murdered in 754 (possibly 56 years old). The next king, Khri-srong-de-tsan (TseSonDeZan(5)), was born in 742. This is very possible. At least, Khri-srong-de-tsan (TseSonDeZan(5)) could not possibly be a son of Princess Jin-Cheng. However, the 5th Dalai Lama told us a different story: Khri-srong-de-tsan (TseSonDeZan(5)) was a son of the Tang Princess Jin-Cheng. Just after birth, Khri-srong-de-tsan (TseSonDeZan(5)) was stolen by a Tibetan wife of the King. When he could walk, during a party of the court, he was requested by the King to bring a cup of wine to his uncle on the mother side. To every body's surprise, he went directly to the side of Princess Jin-Cheng, and showed every body who his mother really was, and was thus nicknamed.

Khri-srong-de-tsan (TseSonDeZan(5)) was a important figure in promoting Buddhism. He will be discussed later on. He passed away in 797, and Tibet Dynasty was decaying. His son, Mu-ne-tsan-po (MuNiZanBoo(6)), succeeded him. Mu-ne-tsan-po (MuNiZanBoo(6)) was a true believer of Buddhism, and ruled three times that all properties should be equally distributed. On the other hand, he married a young wife of his father, possibly while his father was still alive. Note that this was not against the rule. Anyway, for one reason or other, his mother got him murdered, and the throne passed to another son of his mother and his father, Khri-de-srong-tsan (TseDeSonZan(7)). The King passed away in 815, and his son Khri-tsug-de-tsan (TseTsuDeZan(8)) succeeded. For Buddhism, the three Kings, Srong-tsan-gam-po (Songtsen Gampo(1)), Khri-srong-de-tsan (TseSonDeZan(5)) and Khri-tsug-de-tsan (TseTsuDeZan(8)), were important, and were named Guardian-Kings (Fa Wang).

Khri-tsug-de-tsan (TseTsuDeZan(8)) ruled for some time, and was murdered by the prime minister. The throne was passed to his brother Dar-ma(9) who married Khri-tsug-de-tsan's (TseTsuDeZan(8)) wives. After a couple years of promoting Buddhism, Dar-ma(9) changed side and decided to destroy Buddhism and to revive the native religion `Bon'. The Buddhists believed that Dar-ma(9) was a re-incarnation of an ox, and called him Lang (ox) Dar-ma(9). A Buddhist (non-monk) dressed in a clothes which was black outside and white inside, and rode on a white horse which was colored by black charcoals, killed Dar-ma(9) with an arrow at Lhasa (842). Once the deed was done, the Buddhist ran away. He passed a river where he turned his clothes inside out which became white, and his horse was washed white in the river. Therefore, the chasers lost his tracks. According to Buddhism, this Buddhist was a re-incarnation of a god, who befriended the ox in the past reincarnation.

After Dar-ma(9) passed away, his second wife produced a son after a few months. His first wife produced a baby too. However, the baby was old enough to have teeth. Therefore, rumors spread, and the royal family was divided into two groups to fight a 20 years war. The hell broke loose in Tibet, every one fought the next person. It was described as `one bird flies high, the whole flock follows'. The royal families fought against each other, the warlords fought against each other, the slaves fought against the masters. The Dynasty was completely destroyed (877).

Since then, Tibet entered the feudal period and lost all conquered lands, Central Asia, Southern Xinkiang, Silk-road (Gansu) and Qinghai (Amdo in Tibetan). The Tibetan tribes and the descendents of Tibetan army occasionally set up local powers and kingdoms in Qinghai and Silk-road (Gansu) where there were pots of racial mixing. Otherwise Tibet almost became a geographic term, and there were very little news about Tibet for long time. We have to use Tibetan documents for this period. Those are the topics of my later reports.