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Songtsen Gampo

1st Tibetan Emperor and 33rd King of Tibet (d.650)

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His queen mother is identified as Driza Thökar (Tibetan: འབྲི་བཟའ་ཐོད་དཀར་, Wylie: 'bri bza' thod dkar). The exact date of his birth and his enthronement are not certain, and in Tibetan history it is generally accepted that he was born in an Ox year of the Tibetan calendar. According to Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa, he ascended the throne at age thirteen, in 614, and reigned at least until 648.

As Tibetan kings usually ascended to the throne around age 13, several earlier dates are also suggested for the birth of Songtsen Gampo include 569, 593 or 605.

According to traditional beliefs, his legendary minister Thonmi Sambhota was credited for creating the Tibetan script and Classical Tibetan, the first literary language of Tibet. However, it is difficult to verify the historical existence of Thönmi Sambhoṭa, and the legend of his invention of the Tibetan script which is in any case now usually seen as developing later.

Early life and cultural background

It is said that Songtsen Gampo was born at Gyama in Meldro, a region to the northeast of modern Lhasa, the son of the Yarlung king Namri Songtsen. The book The Holder of the White Lotus says that it is believed that he was a manifestation of Avalokiteśvara, of whom the Dalai Lamas are similarly believed to be a manifestation. His identification as a cakravartin and incarnation of Avalokiteśvara began in earnest in the indigenous Buddhist literary histories of the 11th century.

Family

Songtsen Gampo's mother, the queen, was a member of the prominent Tsépong clan (Wylie: tshe spong, Tibetan Annals Wylie: tshes pong), which played an important part in the unification of Tibet. Her name is recorded variously but is identified as Driza Tökar ("the Bri Wife named White Skull Woman", Wylie: 'bri bza' thod dkar, Tibetan Annals Wylie: bring ma tog dgos).

Songtsen Gampo had six consort queens, of whom four were Tibetan and two were foreign born. The highest-ranking consort was Pogong Mongza Tricham (Wylie: pho gong mong bza' khri lcam, also called Mongza, "the Mong clan wife", who is said to have been the mother of Gungsong Gungtsen. Other notable wives include a noble woman of the Western Xia known as Minyakza ("Western Xia wife", Wylie: mi nyag bza'), and a noble woman from Zhangzhung. Well-known even today are his two foreign wives: the Nepali princess Bhrikuti ("the great lady, the Nepalese wife", Wylie: bal mo bza' khri btsun ma) as well as the Chinese Princess Wencheng ("Chinese Wife", Wylie: rgya mo bza'). Songtsen sponsored the building of two temples to house the images of Buddha brought by his Nepalese and Chinese wives, however he showed little interest in propagating Buddhism otherwise, and was buried according to pre-Buddhist protocols and rituals when he died.

Songtsen Gampo's heir, Gungsong Gungtsen, died before his father, so his younger son Mangsong Mangtsen inherited the throne. Two Dunhuang sources give different mothers for Mangsong Mangtsen: the Tibetan Annals say the mother was the Tsenmo (Princess Wencheng) of Songtsen while the Genealogy says it was Mangmoje Trikar Wylie: mang mo rje khri skar). It is unlikely that the mother was the Tsenmo because the Annals did not use the honorific kinship term yum (mother) for her.

Tibetan Empire-era documents found at Dunhuang say that Songtsen Gampo also had a sister Sad-mar-kar (or Sadmarkar) and a younger brother bTzan-srong who was betrayed and died in a fire, c. 641. According to one partially damaged scroll from Dunhuang, there was hostility between Sadmarkar and bTzan-srong, who was then forced to settle in gNyal (southeast of the Yarlung River and across the 5,090 metres (16,700 ft) Yartö Tra Pass, which borders on modern Bhutan, and Arunachal Pradesh in India).

When the prince Gungsong Gungtsen reached the age of thirteen (twelve by Western reckoning), his father, Songtsen Gampo, retired, and the prince ruled for five years, which could have corresponded to the period when Songtsen Gampo was working on a new Tibetan constitution. Gungsong Gungtsen is also said to have married 'Azha Mang-mo-rje when he was thirteen, and they had a son, Mangsong Mangtsen (r. 650–676 CE). Gungsong Gungtsen is said to have only ruled for these five years and died at eighteen. Songtsen Gampo, returned to the throne. Gungsong Gungtsen is said to have been buried at Donkhorda, the site of the royal tombs, to the left of the tomb of his grandfather Namri Songtsen (gNam-ri Srong-btsan). According to Tibetan tradition, Songtsen Gampo was enthroned while still a minor as the thirty-third king of the Yarlung dynasty after his father was poisoned circa 618. He is said to have been born in an unspecified Ox year and was 13 years old (12 by Western reckoning) when he took the throne. This accords with the tradition that the Yarlung kings took the throne when they were 13, and supposedly old enough to ride a horse and rule the kingdom. If these traditions are correct, he was probably born in the Ox year 605 CE. The Old Book of Tang notes that he "was still a minor when he succeeded to the throne."

The current head of the Royal House of Tibet and king in exile is a direct descendant of the Dharma kings and has been crowned King of Tibet by Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama. His Majesty King Lhagyari Trichen Namgyal Wangchuk lives in the United States and travels the world speaking out for the human and religious rights of the Tibetan people, under the occupation of the People's Republic of China.

Cultural accomplishments

Songtsen Gampo sent his minister Thonmi Sambhota and other young Tibetans to India to devise a script for Classical Tibetan, which led to the creation of the first Tibetan literary works and translations, court records and a constitution. After Thonmi Sambhota returned from India, he stayed in retreat at Kukhamaru Palace in Lhasa while creating the Tibetan script. He then presented the script to the court and taught the king. Songtsen Gampo then retired for four years to learn the written language, after which he translated twenty-one tantric texts on Avalokiteshvara, and the Mani Kumbum.

Songtsen Gampo moved the seat of his newly unified kingdom from the Yarlung Valley to the Kyichu Valley, site of the future city of Lhasa. The site itself was originally a herding ground called Rasa ("the place of goats") but the name was changed to Lhasa ("the place of gods") on the king's founding of the Jokhang Temple. The name Lhasa itself originally referred simply to the temple precincts.

He is also credited with bringing many new cultural and technological advances to Tibet. The Jiu Tangshu, or Old Book of Tang, states that after the defeat in 648 of an Indian army in support of Chinese envoys, the Chinese Emperor, Gaozong, a devout Buddhist, gave him the title variously written Binwang, "Guest King" or Zongwang, "Cloth-tribute King" and 3,000 rolls of multicoloured silk in 649 and granted the Tibetan king's request for "silkworms' eggs, mortars and presses for making wine, and workmen to manufacture paper and ink."

Traditional accounts say that, during the reign of Songtsen Gampo, examples of handicrafts and astrological systems were imported from China and the Western Xia; the dharma and the art of writing came from India; material wealth and treasures from the Nepalis and the lands of the Mongols, while model laws and administration were imported from the Uyghurs of the Second Turkic Khaganate to the North.

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