The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c31.s1.20

c31.s1.20

During the long reign of Thi-(or Khri-)srong-de-tsan (*A.D.* 743–789)² the development of Buddhism in Tibet was encouraged with a zeal which did not shrink from persecution of the adherents of the rival indigenous Bon (or Pon) religion. The Indian sages, Sānta-rakshita and Padma-sambhava, were invited to court, and with their aid a system of clerical government was instituted, which survives to this day as Lamaism. The work of Thi-srong-de-tsan was continued and carried further by King Ralpachan (*A. D.* 816–38), but his successor, Langdarma, hated Buddhism, and did his best to extirpate it. A Lama avenged the wrongs of his co-religionists by assassinating the king, *A. D.* 842. During the eleventh century (*A.D.* 1013 and 1038), Buddhist missionaries from Magadha securely re-established Buddhism as the official and predominant religion of Tibet.³