Tibetan Buddhism is a branch of the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism which developed in Tibet and is practised in parts of Asia. Tibetan Buddhism evolved as a form of Mahayana Buddhism stemming from the latest stages of Buddhism (which included many Vajrayana elements). It thus preserves many Indian Buddhist tantric practices of the post-Gupta early medieval period (500–1200 CE), along with numerous native Tibetan developments. In the pre-modern era, Tibetan Buddhism spread outside of Tibet primarily due to the influence of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, founded by Kublai Khan, who ruled China, Mongolia, and parts of Siberia. In the Modern era, Tibetan Buddhism has spread outside of Asia because of the efforts of the Tibetan diaspora (1959 onwards). As the Dalai Lama escaped to India, the Indian subcontinent is also known for its renaissance of Tibetan Buddhism monasteries, including the rebuilding of the three major monasteries of the Gelug tradition.
Apart from classical Mahāyāna Buddhist practices like the ten perfections, Tibetan Buddhism includes tantric practices, such as deity yoga and the Six Dharmas of Naropa, as well as methods that are seen as transcending tantra, like Dzogchen. Its main goal is Buddhahood.Compare: The primary language of scriptural study in this tradition is classical Tibetan.
Tibetan Buddhism has four major schools, namely Nyingma (8th century), Kagyu (11th century), Sakya (1073), and Gelug (1409). The Jonang is a smaller school that exists, and the Rimé movement (19th century), meaning "no sides", is a more recent non-sectarian movement that attempts to preserve and understand all the different traditions. The predominant spiritual tradition in Tibet before the introduction of Buddhism was Bon, which has been strongly influenced by Tibetan Buddhism (particularly the Nyingma school). While each of the four major schools is independent and has its own monastic institutions and leaders, they are closely related and intersect with common contact and dialogue.
It is followed by a majority of the population in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, and in Bhutan and Mongolia. Sizeable populations are found in parts of the Himalayas in Nepal and in parts of all of India's Himalayan states, including Ladakh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh (Lahaul, Spiti and Kinnaur), West Bengal (Darjeeling), Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir (Paddar) and Uttarakhand. Smaller groups of practitioners can be found in Central Asia, some other regions of China such as Northeast China, Gansu, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and some regions of Russia, such as Tuva, Buryatia, and Kalmykia. It was also formerly practiced in the Baltistan region of Pakistan. Following China's annexation of Tibet, a large number of Tibetan Buddhist refugees, including the religious leadership such as the 14th Dalai Lama, have fled to India and other parts of the world.
Nomenclature
The native Tibetan term for Buddhism is "The Dharma of the insiders" (nang chos) or "The Buddha Dharma of the insiders" (nang pa sangs rgyas pa'i chos). "Insider" means someone who seeks the truth not outside but within the nature of mind. This is contrasted with other forms of organized religion, which are termed chos lugs (dharma system). For example, Christianity is termed Yi shu'i chos lugs (Jesus dharma system).
Westerners unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism initially turned to China for understanding. In Chinese, the term used is Lamaism (literally, "doctrine of the lamas": lama jiao) to distinguish it from a then-traditional Chinese Buddhism ( fo jiao). The term was taken up by western scholars, including Hegel, as early as 1822.Damien Keown, ed., "Lamaism", A Dictionary of Buddhism (Oxford, 2004): "an obsolete term formerly used by Western scholars to denote the specifically Tibetan form of Buddhism due to the prominence of the lamas in the religious culture. . . should be avoided as it is misleading as well as disliked by Tibetans." Robert E. Buswell Jr. and David S. Lopez Jr., eds., "Lamaism", The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton, 2017): "an obsolete English term that has no correlate in Tibetan. . . Probably derived from the Chinese term lama jiao, or "teachings of the lamas", the term is considered pejorative by Tibetans, as it carries the negative connotation that the Tibetan tradition is something distinct from the mainstream of Buddhism." John Bowker, ed., "Lamaism", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (Oxford, 2000): "a now antiquated term used by early W[estern] commentators (as L. A. Waddell, The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism, 1895) to describe Tibetan Buddhism. Although the term is not accurate [it] does at least convey the great emphasis placed on the role of the spiritual teacher by this religion." Insofar as it implies a discontinuity between Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, the term has been discredited.
Another term, "Vajrayāna" (Tibetan: dorje tegpa) is occasionally misused for Tibetan Buddhism. More accurately, Vajrayāna signifies a certain subset of practices and traditions that are not only part of Tibetan Buddhism but also prominent in other Buddhist traditions such as Chinese Esoteric Buddhism and Shingon in Japan.
In the west, the term "Indo-Tibetan Buddhism" has become current in acknowledgement of its derivation from the latest stages of Buddhist development in northern India. "Northern Buddhism" is sometimes used to refer to Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, for example, in the Brill Dictionary of Religion.
Another term, "Himalayan" Buddhism is sometimes used to indicate how this form of Buddhism is practiced not just in Tibet but throughout the Himalayan Regions.see for example the title of Suchandana Chatterjee's Trans-Himalayan Buddhism: Reconnecting Spaces, Sharing Concerns (2019), Routledge.
The Provisional Government of Russia, by a decree of 7 July 1917, prohibited the appellation of Buryat and Kalmyk Buddhists as "Lamaists" in official papers. After the October revolution the term "Buddho-Lamaism" was used for some time by the Bolsheviks with reference to Tibetan Buddhism, before they finally reverted, in the early 1920s, to a more familiar term "Lamaism", which remains in official and scholarly usage in Russia to this day.
History
Pre–6th century Centuries after Buddhism originated in India, the Mahayana Buddhism arrived in China through the Silk Route in 1st century CE via Tibet.Lee Injae, Owen Miller, Park Jinhoon, Yi Hyun-Hae, 2014, Korean History in Maps, Cambridge University Press, pp. 44–49, 52–60.
During the 3rd century CE, Buddhism began to spread into the Tibetan region, and its teachings affected the Bon religion in the Kingdom of Zhangzhung.
First dissemination (7th–9th centuries)
While some stories depict Buddhism in Tibet before this period, the religion was formally introduced during the Tibetan Empire (7th–9th century CE). Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India were first translated into Tibetan under the reign of the Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (618–649 CE). This period also saw the development of the Tibetan writing system and classical Tibetan.William Woodville Rockhill, , United States National Museum, page 671Berzin, Alexander. A Survey of Tibetan History - Reading Notes Taken by Alexander Berzin from Tsepon, W. D. Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1967: http://studybuddhism.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html .
In the 8th century, King Trisong Detsen (755–797 CE) established it as the official religion of the state (discusses the political background and the motives of the ruler). and commanded his army to wear robes and study Buddhism. Trisong Detsen invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court, including Padmasambhāva (8th century CE) and Śāntarakṣita (725–788), who are considered the founders of Nyingma (The Ancient Ones), the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Padmasambhava, who is considered by the Tibetans as Guru Rinpoche ("Precious Master"), is also credited with building the first monastery building named "Samye" around the late 8th century. According to some legend, it is noted that he pacified the Bon demons and made them the core protectors of Dharma. Modern historians also argue that Trisong Detsen and his followers adopted Buddhism as an act of international diplomacy, especially with the major power of those times such as China, India, and states in Central Asia that had strong Buddhist influence in their culture.
Yeshe Tsogyal, the most important female in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage, was a member of Trisong Detsen's court and became Padmasambhava's student before gaining enlightenment. Trisong Detsen also invited the Chan master Moheyan to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery. Some sources state that a debate ensued between Moheyan and the Indian master Kamalaśīla, without consensus on the victor, and some scholars consider the event to be fictitious.定解宝灯论新月释
Era of fragmentation (9th–10th centuries) A reversal in Buddhist influence began under King Langdarma (r. 836–842), and his death was followed by the so-called Era of Fragmentation, a period of disunity during the 9th and 10th centuries. During this era, the political centralization of the earlier Tibetan Empire collapsed and civil wars ensued.
In spite of this loss of state power and patronage however, Buddhism survived and thrived in Tibet. According to Geoffrey Samuel this was because "Tantric (Vajrayana) Buddhism came to provide the principal set of techniques by which Tibetans dealt with the dangerous powers of the spirit world [...] Buddhism, in the form of Vajrayana ritual, provided a critical set of techniques for dealing with everyday life. Tibetans came to see these techniques as vital for their survival and prosperity in this life." This includes dealing with the local gods and spirits (sadak and shipdak), which became a specialty of some Tibetan Buddhist lamas and ngagpas (mantrikas, mantra specialists).
Second dissemination (10th–12th centuries)
The late 10th and 11th centuries saw a revival of Buddhism in Tibet with the founding of "New Translation" (Sarma) lineages as well as the appearance of "hidden treasures" (terma) literature which reshaped the Nyingma tradition. In 1042 the Bengali saint, Atiśa (982–1054) arrived in Tibet at the invitation of a west Tibetan king and further aided dissemination of Buddhist values in Tibetan culture and in consequential affairs of state.
His erudition supported the translation of major Buddhist texts, which evolved into the canons of Bka'-'gyur (Translation of the Buddha Word) and Bstan-'gyur (Translation of Teachings). The Bka'-'gyur has six main categories: (1) Tantra, (2) Prajñāpāramitā, (3) Ratnakūṭa Sūtra, (4) Avataṃsaka Sūtra, (5) Other sutras, and (6) Vinaya. The Bstan-'gyur comprises 3,626 texts and 224 volumes on such things as hymns, commentaries and supplementary tantric material.
Atiśa's chief disciple, Dromtön founded the Kadampa school of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the first Sarma schools. The Sakya (Grey Earth) school, was founded by Khön Könchok Gyelpo (1034–1102), a disciple of the great scholar, Drogmi Shākya. It is headed by the Sakya Trizin, and traces its lineage to the mahasiddha Virūpa.
Other influential Indian teachers include Tilopa (988–1069) and his student Nāropā (probably died ca. 1040). Their teachings, via their student Marpa, are the foundations of the Kagyu (Oral lineage) tradition, which focuses on the practices of Mahāmudrā and the Six Dharmas of Nāropā. One of the most famous Kagyu figures was the hermit Milarepa, an 11th-century mystic. The Dagpo Kagyu was founded by the monk Gampopa who merged Marpa's lineage teachings with the monastic Kadam tradition.