More than 2000 years ago, the Tibetans were living in small groups or small villages in the mountains. Later, a town was formed in the Kongpo area, also known as the “Monkey Nose” It was situated at the southern part of Tibet. It was the first Tibetan town. Tibet did not have a king then. There were village headmen only.
On one fine day, news spread around in the town that there was a very special person had appeared in the mountain. The people flocked into the mountain to meet this very special person. And that person was actually a prince from India. He was from a royal family known as "Lib-Stham-Bee", a very special race, known as the race of the Deva, the gods.
This prince was actually in exile from his country. He wandered around and happened to come to that area. He could not speak Tibetan language and neither those people speak his language. However, they noticed that he was a very special person. Since he was a prince, he has better appearance than them. So they were curious about him. They asked him where he had come from. Since he could not speak Tibetan, he just pointed his finger into the sky. Then the people thought that he was from the Devas. They bowed to him thinking that he was a Deva. They made a throne and carried him on their shoulders to the “Monkey Nose”. They appointed him as the king.
Since that time on, the monarchy system was well established in Tibet. Lha Thothori Nyantsen was the 26th king. "Lha" means the devas, the gods. Thothori Nyan was his name. He was a very special person. He had built the first palace in Tibet. It is known as “Yumbu Lagan” It was very well built. It is still there in Tibet.
This palace had a very unique design. It had a tower. On the top of the tower, there was a place where the king could sit and contemplate. On one fine day while he was sitting there with his hands folded together, a very strong feeling aroused inside him. He had a strong aspiration for wanting to do something meaningful for his people. He realized that he had not done enough by being just a good king but he did not know what it was. Amidst his strong feeling, suddenly from the sky, sounds and lights appeared and all aspects of incredible; it seemed like a little bit of a magical thing happening around him. He sat still, waiting anxiously. Suddenly, a shining cloud appeared. It moved down slowly towards him. Then he was totally covered by this shining cloud. He could not see anything at all. Then he felt something heavy was placed on his hands. After some time, the cloud disappeared and he remained sitting on the tower of his palace. In his hands there was a box. It looked special. He opened it. He was so happy when he saw a statue, a stupa, and a booklet written “OM MANI PEDME HUNG” a mantra. There was a voice telling him that in the future, a king, five generations from him, would understand the meaning of all those items in the box. So the king kept the box with those items inside with his utmost devotion and faith. That was the first connection for the Tibetan people with Avalokitesvara, (in Chinese- Kuan Yin ), the manifestation of the essence of loving kindness and compassion of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This event showed the manifestation, the blessing of Avalokitesvara specifically for Tibet and generally for the world.
Hence, this lineage had somehow started from this king Lha Thothori Nyantsen by receiving the auspicious box with those auspicious items in it. But later, after the 5th generations from him, a king called King Songtsen Gampo became the 1st in the line of kings in the Tibetan history.
King Songtsen Gampo is considered by the Tibetan as one of the manifestations of Avalokitesvara. By that time he had understood about the value of what his great, great, great grandfather had received from the manifestation of Avalokitesvara. In order for him to be able to learn and understand completely about this inheritance, he put lots of effort to bring the profound teachings of Buddha from India to Tibet. He was a great king. He became the king of Tibet when he was only 13 years old. Though he was so young, he conquered all over Tibet. Prior to this, there were many small kingdoms all over Tibet. Most of them were bandits, behaved like barbarians. So he united them as a sort of a united kingdom by conquering all of them.
After that, King Songtsen Gampo brought lots of profound teachings from all the neighboring countries; from China, Nepal and India. And he was able to cause Buddhism to flourish tremendously in Tibet when he married a princess from Nepal and a princess from China. These two princesses had brought along with them the most precious things - one Buddha statue from Nepal and one Buddha statue from China. And these two Buddha statues were most precious for Tibetan Buddhism until today. Besides the Buddha statues, they had also brought with them many texts of Buddha teachings. The Buddha statue which was brought by princess Wen-Cheng (文成公主) from China is highly venerated by all Tibetans until today. It was enshrined in the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa (大昭寺)
From the teachings of the Buddha, King Songtsen Gampo had learnt about the causes of suffering of his people. He had learnt that they were suffering because they had 5 poisons i.e. desire, anger, ignorance, jealousy and pride. Those who had more of these poisons, they would have more sufferings. For those who had less poison in their mind, they would have less suffering. Happiness is not obtainable from the health, neither from their wealth, nor the fame. Happiness is obtained from our insight, the understanding or wisdom. As a result, he had understood that all the sufferings were caused by 5 poisons together with the stinginess as the 6th poison or in other words, the defilements in our mind.
He had also learnt the meaning of OM MANI PADME HUNG. This mantra is to pacify the obstacles of 6 poisons. There are 6 syllables in it and is able to help to develop the 6 special qualities out of the foundation of loving kindness and compassion. He propagated the OM MANI PADME HUM, the mantra of Avalokitesvara throughout Tibet..
To help to develop the essence of universal peace from Tibet, being the plateau of the world, King Songtsen Gampo combined the teaching of the Buddha and the great knowledge of ancient China which was the geomancy (风水), he built 108 stupas covering from Bhutan to Chengdu and also 12 main temples with a special one - the 13th temple . These stupas and temples were built on a very special location from Tibet to Bhutan and to Chengdu. The landscape, viewing from the sky, was like a human being lying on his back. The temples and the stupas were built on this human-like landscape in specific locations. He had built the special central temple in Lhasa on a lake named Milky Lake. It was a white lake, a very special one, and it was totally covered with earth. He had built this central temple there as his gratitude towards all the masters who had brought the Buddha dharma to Tibet and also to show his gratitude towards his queens who had brought the special Buddha statutes into Tibet. This temple was known as "Lhasa Thur Nam". It is still there. Thus, this action signified the beginning for creating the universal peace especially for mankind was nailed and established totally on the plateau of the earth.
From then on, the strong establishment of Buddha dharma in Tibet had taken place. After another 6 generations had gone by, Trisong Detsen became the King of Tibet. He too was a great king. He invited Guru Padmasambhava to Tibet. Guru Padmasambhava was an Indian Mahasidha also known to the Tibetan as the Second Buddha. (He is commonly venerated as Guru Rinpoche by all the Buddhists who practice Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.) With the help of the occult power of Guru Rinpoche, King Trisong Detsen was able to complete the building of the first Buddhist monastery named "Samye Ling". It remains till today. Samye Ling is a holy place for pilgrimage.
Through the patronage of King Trisong Detsen, all the three yanas of Buddha Teachings; the Theravada, the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana were brought purely from India to Tibet where these Teachings slowly developed into 8 lineages. They were:1) Nyingma, 2)Kadam, 3)Lamdrey, 4)Marpa Kagyu, 5)Shangpa Kagyu, 6)Chicheh, 7)Dorje Sumjin and 8) Andrup. At present, there are 5 surviving lineages: 1)Ningma is Ningmapa. Kadam has divided into old Kadam and the new Kadam which known as 2)the Gelukpa. And 3)Lamdrey is the Sakyapa. 4)The Marpa Kagyu is the lineage in which the Karma Kagyu belongs to. The 5th lineage is the Shangpa Kagyu. Its lineage holder was the late V. Ven. Kalu Rinpoche. These are the five surviving lineages of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. All the other 3 were somehow absorbed to these 5. There is no special separate lineage, but somehow they were absorbed into it. This is the way how Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism fit to the present time and still surviving well. This is a brief history of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.
