Tibetan Political Maneuverings at the End of 8th Century

Tibetan Relations with China

Tibet and China had first established diplomatic relations in 608 when Emperor Songtsen-gampo’s father, Namri-lontsen (gNam-ri slon-mtshan), had sent the first Tibetan mission to the Chinese court at the time of the Sui Dynasty. Songtsen-gampo, in turn, had sent a mission to the Tang court in 634 and had married the Han Chinese princess, Wencheng, in 641. Four years later, he had commissioned the first Tibetan temple on Wutaishan (Wu-t’ai shan, Tib. Ri-bo rtse-lnga), the sacred Chinese Buddhist mountain southwest of Beijing. Since then, Tibet had periodically sent further envoys to the Tang court, despite frequent warfare between the two empires.

Emperor Me-agtsom, a century later, had been particularly interested in Han Chinese Buddhism, undoubtedly due to the influence of his Han Chinese Buddhist wife, Empress Jincheng. Despite the weak state of Buddhism in Tang China after the restrictions imposed upon it by Emperor Xuanzong in 740, Me-agtsom had sent a mission there in 751 to learn more about the religion. The interest in Buddhism that his young son, the future Tibetan emperor Tri Songdetsen (Khri Srong-lde-btsan) (742-798), had shown also purportedly prompted his delegation of the mission. It was led by Ba Sangshi (sBa Sang-shi), the son of a previous Tibetan envoy to Tang China.

In 755, xenophobic opposition ministers assassinated Emperor Me-agtsom. This was the same faction that sixteen years earlier had expelled the Han Chinese and Khotanese monks from Tibet that the ethnic Han Chinese Empress Jincheng had invited. The assassination occurred in the same year as the An Lushan rebellion and, as before, the ministers probably feared that the Emperor’s leanings toward Buddhism and Tang China would bring disaster to Tibet. Perhaps, also, the Abbasid overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 and the An Lushan rebellion encouraged their bold move. Reminiscent of the attack against Han Chinese Buddhism perpetrated by An Lushan, the xenophobic ministers instigated a suppression of Buddhism in Tibet that lasted six years. Its aim, however, was more likely the pro-Tang faction in court.

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