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JAYANANDA : THE KASHMIRIAN TIBETOLOGIST
Narendra Kumar Dash
Before Budhism, the Bon religion was prevalent in Tibet. This earliest religion of Tibct was founded by Shenrab Miwo Shang-shung in western Tibet.1 According to the veiw of the said religion the founder of the Bon religion was a contemporary to Lord Buddha. Some others claim that he was an incarnation of Buddha. Contrary to these is the assertion by still others that Shenrab Miwa was an incarnation of an ardent Buddhist Paņdit, who later opposed the Doctrine of Buddhism 3
Though the Buddhist teaching first spread to Tibet during the reign of the twenty-eighth king of the Tibetan empire of the early kings i.e. Hla-the-theri Gnyan-bstan (early 3rd century A.D.), still the actual propagation of Buddhism began in the seventh century A. D., when king Songtsen Gampo ascended the throne. He married Bhệkuți Devi, the daughter of the Nepalese king Amshuvarman and also to Wen-ch'eng kungchu the daugher of the Chinese Emperor T'ai-tsung. The Tibetan called the princess of Nepal and China as Belsa'means to Nepalese consort' and Gyasa, means the Chinese consort' respectively-Belsa took with ter the image of the Akşobhya Buddha. That image is considerd sacred by the Tibetans as it is said to have been blessed by Lord Buddha. On the otherhand, Gyasa arrived at Lhasa with the image of Sbākyamuni, the Gautama Buddha. This is also considered to have been blessed by Lord Buddha. Both the queens requested the king to build temples for the images of Buddha they had brought to Tibet. Gyasa had her temple built and it was called Ramoche Tsukla-khang The temple meant for the image brought by Belsa was called Rasa Trulnang Tsukla-khang" and later it became known as the Jokhang. Gradually the temples and Monasteries ware built in Tibet, the Buddhist texts also translated into Tibetan as a part of s read of Buddhism and many Indian Pandits were invited to Tibet to propagate the Doctrine. So many Tibetans were visited India to learn Sanskrit and the Buddhist texts from Indian Pandits. The Indian pandits as Sāntaraksita, Kamalasila, and Padmasambhava visited Tibet, translated and disseminated many sūtras, tantras and commentaries
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