Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan, and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as in Nepal. Smaller groups of practitioners can be found in Central Asia, some regions of China such as Northeast China, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and some regions of Russia, such as Tuva, Buryatia, and Kalmykia.
Tibetan Buddhism evolved as a form of Mahayana Buddhism stemming from the latest stages of Buddhism. It thus preserves many Indian Buddhist tantric practices of the post-Gupta early medieval period, 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. 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 also 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. The primary language of scriptural study in this tradition is classical Tibetan.
Tibetan Buddhism has four major schools, namely Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug. The Jonang is a smaller school that exists, and the Rimé movement, 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. 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.

Nomenclature

The native Tibetan term for Buddhism is "The Dharma of the insiders" or "The Buddha Dharma of the insiders". "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 ''. For example, Christianity is termed Yi shu'i chos lugs .''
Westerners unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism initially turned to China for understanding. In Chinese, the term used is Lamaism to distinguish it from a then-traditional Chinese Buddhism. The term was taken up by western scholars, including Hegel, as early as 1822. Insofar as it implies a discontinuity between Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, the term has been discredited.
Another term, "Vajrayāna" 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.
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.
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. Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India were first translated into Tibetan under the reign of the Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo. This period also saw the development of the Tibetan writing system and classical Tibetan.
In the 8th century, King Trisong Detsen established it as the official religion of the state and commanded his army to wear robes and study Buddhism. Trisong Detsen invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court, including Padmasambhāva and Śāntarakṣita, who are considered the founders of Nyingma '', the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Padmasambhava, who is considered by the Tibetans as Guru Rinpoche, 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.

Era of fragmentation (9th–10th centuries)

A reversal in Buddhist influence began under King Langdarma, 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 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,'' which became a specialty of some Tibetan Buddhist lamas and ngagpas.

Second dissemination (10th–12th centuries)

The late 10th and 11th centuries saw a revival of Buddhism in Tibet with the founding of "New Translation" lineages as well as the appearance of "hidden treasures" literature which reshaped the Nyingma tradition.
In 1042 the Bengali saint, Atiśa 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 and Bstan-'gyur. The Bka'-'gyur has six main categories: Tantra, Prajñāpāramitā, Ratnakūṭa Sūtra, Avataṃsaka Sūtra, Other sutras, and 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 school, was founded by Khön Könchok Gyelpo, 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 and his student Nāropā. Their teachings, via their student Marpa, are the foundations of the Kagyu 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.
All the sub-schools of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism surviving today, including the Drikung Kagyu, the Drukpa Kagyu and the Karma Kagyu, are branches of the Dagpo Kagyu. The Karma Kagyu school is the largest of the Kagyu sub-schools and is headed by the Karmapa.

Mongol dominance (13th–14th centuries)

Tibetan Buddhism exerted a strong influence from the 11th century CE among the peoples of Inner Asia, especially the Mongols, and Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism influenced each other. This was done with the help of Kublai Khan and Mongolian theologians influenced by the Church of the East.
The Mongols invaded Tibet in 1240 and 1244. They eventually annexed Amdo and Kham and appointed the great scholar and abbot Sakya Pandita as Viceroy of Central Tibet in 1249.
In this way, Tibet was incorporated into the Mongol Empire, with the Sakya hierarchy retaining nominal power over religious and regional political affairs, while the Mongols retained structural and administrative rule over the region, reinforced by the rare military intervention. Tibetan Buddhism was adopted as the de facto state religion by the Mongol Yuan dynasty of Kublai Khan.
It was also during this period that the Tibetan Buddhist canon was compiled, primarily led by the efforts of the scholar Butön Rinchen Drup. A part of this project included the carving of the canon into wood blocks for printing, and the first copies of these texts were kept at Narthang monastery.
Tibetan Buddhism in China was also syncretized with Chinese Buddhism and Chinese folk religion.