བྱང་ཆབ་ལམ་གྱ་སྒྲན་མ p6

p6

The story of Atiśa’s invitation to Tibet is one of the most legendary in the Buddhist history of the country. Toward the end of the tenth century, the king of the Western Tibetan kingdom of Purang-Guge (pu hrangs gu ge), Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, sent twenty-one young Tibetans to Kashmir with the aim of reviving uncorrupted Buddhist teachings in his kingdom. This was prompted by the belief that Buddhism had fallen into a state of intense moral decay with the collapse of the Tibetan empire. Nineteen of the youths perished on the journey, marking the first of many supreme sacrifices required to bring Atiśa’s pure Dharma to Tibet. One of the two young men who survived was the great translator Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055), who informed the king of master Atiśa, whose fame had spread from eastern India all the way to the western mountains of Kashmir.