Tibetan
History
Tibetan
history can be traced thousands of years back. However, the written history only
dates back to the 7th century when Songtsan Gampo, the 33rd Tibetan king, sent
his minister Sambhota to India to study Sanskrit who on his return invented the
present Tibetan script based on Sanskrit. Tibet's
history can be diveded into four period - The
Tsanpo's Period
This period
starts from Nyatri Tsanpo, the first of the Tsanpos, in 127 B.C(historians differ
in view of the date, but this date is taken from the White Annales, a reliabl
book on Tibetan history) and ends in 842 A.D. at the death of Lang Dharma, the
last of the Tsanpos, who was assassinated by a buddhist monk owing to Lang Dharma's
ruthless persecution of Buddhism. During this period some 42 Tsanpos had ruled
over Tibet among which Songtsan Gampo's rule was considered as the zenith. Songtsan
Gamoi was an outstandingruler, he unified Tibet, changed his capital to Lhasa,
sent Sambhota to India to study Sanskrit and promulaged a script for the Tibetan
on the latter's arrival to tbiet, married Princess Wencheng of the tang Court
and Pricess Bhrikuti Debi of Nepal, built the Potala and the temple and the temple
of Jokhang - The period
of Decentrailzation
This
period began in 842 A.D. the year of Lang Dharma's assassination, and ended in
about 1260 A.D, when Pagpa, the Abbot of Sakya monastery, became a vassal of Kublai
Khan, the first Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. During this period a little is known
in history except that Tibet vecame decentralized into a number of petty principalities.
- The period of Sakya, Pagdu, and Karmapa's
Rule
This period
began with Sakya's rule over Tibet, followed first by Pagdu's rule in Lhaoka and
then by Karmara's rule in the Tsang region(Shigatse). The sakya period was the
time whten tbiet officially became an inseparable part of China. This period
lasted from 1260 A.D to 1642 A.D during which political powers centered in the
three regions of Sakya, Pagdu, and tsang successively ruled over Tibet. - The
period of the gandan Podrang's Administration
This
period is the period in which the Dalai Lama ruled Tibet. It started in 1642 A.D.
when the 5th Dalai Lama overtook the ruling power from the Tsang ruler. It basically
ended in 1951 when tibet was liberated and came to a complete end in 1959 when
rebellion led by the Dalai Lama was pacified and the People's Government of the
Tibet, Autonomous Region was set up. |