Yarlung dynasty
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The Yarlung dynasty (Tibetan: བོད་ཀྱི་གདོད་མའི་མངའ་མཛད།; Chinese: 雅礱王朝),[1] is a historical Tibetan dynasty of 42 kings, dating from 127 BCE to 842 CE that gave rise to the Tibetan Empire period, which itself dates from 614 CE and the reign of the 33rd king Songsten Gampo, to the murder date of the 41st king Rapalchen in 838 by his brother the future 42nd king Ü Dum Tsen, who in turn ruled for one year (841-842)[2] until his death. The dissolution of the empire occurred by 848.
The early Yarlung dynasty chiefs and kings lived before the Tibetan language was created,[3] and their reigns and lives were documented through the lineage of verbal history until c. 650[4] when in the reign of the 33rd king of the Yarlung Dynasty Songsten Gampo, the Tibetan alphabet and grammar were created.[5] Some scholars feel unsure of the definitive existence due to the lack of written records before 650.[6]
History
[edit]The Yarlung dynasty started in 127 BCE with Nyatri Tsenpo. He built the first building in Tibet, the Yumbulagang Palace, on a hill overlooking the banks of the Yarlung Tsangpo River. It is situated on the south-east Tibetan Plateau which included the areas of Yarlung, Kongpo, due south of the future capital at Lhasa.[7] The early history of the dynasty comes largely from a verbal history lineage.
According to verbal history, King Nyatri Tsenpo and his six immediate successors ascended upwards by a "sky rope", so the location of their tombs are not to be found. The tombs of the later kings, from the eighth king Digum Tsenpo, and onward are located in the Yarlung Valley at Chongye,[8] in U-Tsang.
The first mention of the dynasty outside Asia was in "Geography" by Claudius Ptolemy (87-165 CE). The country was named as "Batai" derived from the Tibetian word "Bod"
Tibet traditionally consisted of multiple polities until the kings Tagri Nyensig and Namri Songtsen (570-620 CE) unified the plateau after a series of wars and revolts. Namri Songtsen would later establish a capital in the Lhasa River which would form into the Rasa settlement. Successive rulers would continue to expand the settlement and build on mountain Marpori overlooking what would later be named the city of Lhasa, Tibet's traditional capital.
During the life of Songtsen Gampo (601-683 CE), Tibet became the most powerful empire in Central Asia. His reign saw multiple developments in Tibetan society such as the establishment of a structured system of land use, the formal creation of state funds, the division of the emergent empire into six provinces, and the re-organization of the military.
He is also the patron of Tibet's writing system, giving Thonmi Sambhota the task of inventing and developing what would become the Tibetan script that he created after closely studying various Indian scripts. The script is believed to be based on both the Brahmi and the Gupta script. But Songtsen Gampo is best remembered because of his introduction of Mahayana Buddhism to Tibet, for which he became the first Dharma King (Chogyal Gyalpo).
Songtsen Gampo retired to study the Tibetan script and grammar and passed the crown to his son Gungsong Gungtsen, but at the age of eighteen he would die, forcing Songtsen Gampo to once again take the throne. It is believed that an internal power struggle occurred at this time.[citation needed]
The northern territories of Burma (modern-day Myanmar) are believed to have been annexed by the Tibetan empire at this time as well as a kingdom in Nepal, by 640.
The Empire of Tibet continued expanding. After Songtsen Gampo came two more powerful kings that extended the empire of Tibet. The second great king was Trisong Detsen who invited Guru Padmasambhava to Tibet and founded Tibetan Buddhism of the Vajrayana. He commissioned the Samye Monastery, that was completed in 780 CE (Schaik 2013:36). Ralpachen was the third great king who embraced and furthered Tibetan Buddhism and was therefore also honored with the title of "Dharma King". Ralpachen was killed by Langdarma in 838 CE, after which the Tibetan empire fragmentated by 848.
In 663, Tibet defeated and occupied Tuguhun.[citation needed] The integration of the Qiang, Sumpa, Asha and other Tibetian tribes in the north-eastern periphery began in 7th century. In 634, Tibet attacked Dangsyan. On 12 September 638, Tibet invaded a village in Xuizhou district which was inhabited by Dangsyan.[citation needed] In December 640, the Tibetan dignitary Tontsen Yulsung brought five thousand liangs of silver and hundreds of gold objects to Chang'an.[citation needed]
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Beckwith, Christopher I. (1977). A Study of the Early Medieval Chinese, Latin, and Tibetan Historical Sources on Pre-Imperial Tibet. Indiana University PhD Dissertation.
- ^ Arthur Mandelbaum, "Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje", Treasury of Lives, 2007.
- ^ R A Stein,Tibetan Civilization. Stanford University Press, 1972, pg 51-58.
- ^ Samten Chhospel, "Tonmi Sambhota", Treasury of Lives, 2010.
- ^ "Ancient Tibet: Research Materials from the Yeshe De Project". Berkeley: Dharma Publishing,1986, pg 192-193.
- ^ Haarh, Erik: Extract from "The Yar Lun Dynasty", in: The History of Tibet, ed. Alex McKay, Vol. 1, London 2003, p. 147; Richardson, Hugh: The Origin of the Tibetan Kingdom, in: The History of Tibet, ed. Alex McKay, Vol. 1, London 2003, p. 159 (and list of kings p. 166–167).
- ^ Kuzmin, Sergius L. (2011-01-01). Hidden Tibet: History of Independence and Occupation. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. ISBN 978-93-80359-47-2.
- ^ Claude Arpi,Glimpes on the History of Tibet, Dharamsala: The Tibet Museum, 2013.
Kapstein, M.T. (2006). The Tibetans. Blackwell Publishing. Schaik, S. van. (2013). Tibet a History. London, Yale University Press.
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