Chapter 29 Tibetan Buddhism

"You're saying someone deliberately led us here?" Bai Ye thought of everything that happened during this time, as well as the experience of being in the underground palace as if he was in another world, and a trace of coolness appeared in his heart. But I really can't figure out who it will be.

"However, it was Grandpa and He Lao who kept arranging the itinerary for us."

Mo Tianya looked up at the sky, the night in the countryside was very quiet, the stars in the sky were twinkling with a faint light, and suddenly there was a gust of wind, and after the dark clouds drifted away, a crescent moon appeared in the sky.

"Maybe Doctor Liu and they are also in this game and have become chess pieces."

Not long after, after I returned, I happened to hear Tashi introduce Tibetan Buddhism to everyone:

Tibetan Buddhism, also known as Tibetan Buddhism, commonly known as Lamaism, refers to the branch of Buddhism introduced to Tibet, China. Tibetan Buddhism is spread in Tibetan-inhabited areas (Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan) and Mongolian-inhabited areas (Inner Mongolia, etc.) in China, and abroad in Mongolia, Bhutan, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh and Dharamsala, and in Kalmykia, Tuva and Buryatia in Russia.

Tibetan Buddhism began in the middle of the 7th century, and there are different views on when Buddhism was introduced to Tibet, among which there are two that have a slightly greater influence, one is that Buddhism was introduced after Songtsen Gampo married Princess Qizun and Princess Wencheng, and the other is that the Tibetan translation of Buddhist scriptures during the Songtsen Gampo period is the sign that Buddhism was truly introduced to Tibet.

In the 28th generation of Zampuratoto, the gods descended from the sky, and the gods were: a cubit of golden pagoda, "Hundred Worship Confession Sutra", "Treasure Sutra" and the six-character Daming heart mantra.

The large-scale introduction of Buddhism to Tibet should have begun when Songtsen Gampo established the Tibetan Dynasty. Buddhism came in from two directions, Han and Tianzhu. At that time, the Tibetan king of Songtsen Gampo converted to Buddhism under the joint influence of his two wives, Princess Tang Wencheng and Princess Vikugyu of Nepal, the Tibetan name of Chizun. He sent 16 people, including the minister Duanmei Sanbodhi, to Tianzhu to study Sanskrit and Buddhist scriptures, and after returning, he created the Tibetan script and began to translate some Buddhist scriptures, and formulated a law ordering the people to believe in Buddhism, and Buddhism began to spread in Tibet.

Tri Song Detsen played a great role in the development of Buddhism. During his reign, he adopted various administrative measures to translate Buddhist scriptures, establish temples, and establish sangha to spread and promote Buddhism. First of all, the monks of Yingtianzhu and Padmasambhava entered Tibet. After the completion of Samye Monastery, Trisong Dezan specially sent people to Gu Tianzhu to invite 12 monks to ordain 7 Tibetan aristocratic youths.

The ordination of these seven people is an extremely important event in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, and it is the beginning of the Tibetan monks, and they are respected as the "Seven Enlightened Scholars" in Tibetan historical books. He also asked the translator to translate a large number of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit, as well as some Buddhist scriptures from Chinese. Therefore, the Three Jewels of Buddhism – Buddha, Dharma and Sangha – are finally complete. At this time, the business of translating scriptures began to flourish. During this period, three catalogs were compiled: the Pantang Catalog, the Tanga Catalog, and the Qingpu Catalog.

The three tsangpu after Tri Song Detsen also vigorously supported Buddhism, and monks were exempt from taxes and manual labor; A dojo dedicated to the "Three Jewels" of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha was set up in the palace to allow monks to participate in state affairs.

Trizu Detsen (also known as Trirepajan) once again played a great role in promoting the development of Buddhism. There is an incident that shows his attitude towards Buddhism: when the monks were preaching, Trizu Detsen sat in the middle, his hair braided in two and stretched out in a long ribbon on the monk's seat, and then let the monk sit on it as a sign of his respect for the monk.

The main measures taken by Trizu Dezan Xing Buddha were: the construction of Wuxiangduo Monastery, the establishment of the regulations on the provision of seven households for monks (stipulating that every seven households of civilians are responsible for supporting the livelihood of one monk), the determination of the script (the second time in the history of Tibet), and the unified translation of the rules (the promulgation of a decree on the determination of new words and terms, and the provision of three translation examples). During this period, there were many famous translators, known as the "Three Elders" (Birujana, Damazmang, Kashmira Ananda), the "Three Middles" (Nirvana Prajnagumara, Jo Ruyi Wangpo, and Ma Rinchencho) and the "Three Young" (Gawa Bjīze, Gyoro Luyi Gyaltsen, and Shan Yishid).

Due to the outstanding contributions of Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, and Trizu Detsen, these three generations of Zampu are called "the three kings of ancestors and grandchildren" in history.

However, in the middle of the ninth century, Tibetan Buddhism was destroyed for a time, the so-called Langdarma Extinction, and for a period of time (842-978) Buddhism fell silent. Called the "Dark Ages".

Trizu Detsen's measures to revive Buddhism and the practice of handing over the military and political power of the dynasty to Buddhist monks caused dissatisfaction among the nobles. After the nobles murdered Trizu Detsen and established Langdarma as Zampu, they launched a large-scale campaign to ban Buddhism. Famous monasteries such as Samye Temple were sealed, Jokhang Temple was converted into a slaughterhouse, and statues of Shakyamuni and others were buried.

Because it was Princess Wencheng who brought the statue of Sakyamuni Buddha from the mainland and made Tibet have Buddhism, Princess Wencheng was said to be the reincarnation of the devil by the banned Buddha. The monks were ordered to convert to Bon, and the monks who refused to obey and abstained from killing were forced to take up bows and arrows and take hunting dogs to the mountains.

After the murals in the Buddhist temple were erased, the monks were painted drinking and having fun. Many Buddha statues were dragged out of the monastery and nailed and thrown into the river, and a large number of Buddhist scriptures were burned or thrown into the water. The blow to Buddhism was so severe that the Tibetan religious history books refer to the nearly 100 years after Langdarma as the "Dharma-Destroying Period" or the "Dark Age."

Practitioners, and only laymen in white clothes, practice the stages of the birth cycle in their own homes or on the side of pure mountains, so that the Tantric Vinaya tradition can be continued. According to the other common Dharmas, all the sutras translated by the three generations of Tibetan kings have been well preserved, so most of them have survived to this day.

One hundred years after Langdarma destroyed the Buddha, it was introduced to the Tibetan region from Amdo, Kham, Ali and other places, and Tibetan Buddhism was revived. The spread of Buddhism in Tibet before Langdarma's destruction of the Buddha is called the "pre-propagation period" of Tibetan Buddhism, and then the "post-propagation period". The post-propagation period of Tibetan Buddhism is divided into upper and lower routes according to the different routes of Buddhism.

Shanglu Hongchuan refers to the entry of Buddhist forces from Ali into the Tibetan region. Notable monks who contributed to the development of Buddhism weed, Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055), and Atisha (982-1054) were notable monks who contributed to the development of Buddhism.

Rinchen Zangpo translated 17 sutras, 33 treatises, 108 tantras, and built 108 monasteries.

Atisha wrote The Lamp of the Bodhi Path and made a great contribution to the development of Tibetan Buddhist theory. His disciple Drom Dumba founded the Kadampa tradition. At the same time, he was also a promoter of Guanyin and Tara's beliefs.

In this way, Buddhism gradually revived in Tibet and developed into Tibetan Buddhism with unique characteristics of the plateau people, and from the 11th century onwards, various branches were formed one after another, and it was not until the formation of the Gelug school in the early 15th century that the sectarian branches of Tibetan Buddhism were finally finalized.

There are mainly the four major schools in the early stage, such as the Nyingma school, the Kadam school, the Sakya school, and the Kagyu school, and the Gelug school in the later period. After the rise of Gelugpa, Kadampa merged into Gelugpa and did not exist alone.

The differences in the schools of Tibetan Buddhism are not like the 18 schools of Hinayana because of the different precepts they follow, and unlike the Mahayana schools because of the different teachings they advocate.

The differences in sects are due to factors within Buddhism such as different teachers, different professors, different scriptures based and different understandings of the scriptures, and extra-religious factors such as different regions and different donors. This is another characteristic of Tibetan Buddhism.

After listening to this, everyone has some understanding of Tibetan Buddhism.

Everyone still wants to know a little more, and at this time, Bai Ye's golden armor suddenly reacted!