1.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
2.
Shannan, Tibet
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Shannan, or Lhoka, is a prefecture-level city in the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shannan includes Gonggar County within its jurisdiction with Gongkar Chö Monastery, Gonggar Dzong, located on the middle and lower reaches of the Yarlung Valley, formed by the Yarlung Tsangpo River, Lhoka region is often regarded as the birthplace of Tibetan civilization. It is bounded by the city of Lhasa to the north, Nyingchi to the east, Shigatse on the west, the city measures 420 kilometres east to west and 329 kilometres from north to south. Its uniqueness stems from the fact that Tibets earliest agricultural farmland, its first palace and it also has the distinction of having held the first lhamo performance. Tibetan people constitute 98% of the population, the remaining 2% being Han, Hui, Mönpa, Lhoba, Shannan has 1 district and 11 counties and its capital is Tsetang, which is located 183 kilometres from Lhasa. It covers an area of 79,700 square kilometres, which includes South Tibet and its topography averages 3,700 metres above sea level. The population of Tsetang city was 330,100 as of 2007 with Tibetans accounting for 96% of the total population, Lhoka region has not only an ancient historical background but is also the most prosperous in Tibet. A legend that attests to the position of Lhoka region in the annals of Tibetan history states that human beings are the creation of a union between a monkey and women. According to archaeological findings and legends and ancient documents, people lived in this area up to four years ago. A primitive civilization grew up in the Yarlung Valley and a field in the village of Sare near Tsetang Town, is said to be the first farming field in Tibet. The first king in Tibetan history, Nyatri Tsenpo, really a chief of the Yarlong tribe. He founded the Fan Kingdom and established a hereditary monarchy, during the reign of the ninth king, Budegong, agriculture flourished and he was able to mobilize the people to excavate canal, channelling water to irrigate the flatland. A formal forming system came into existence during the reign of Yixiulie, the eleventh king, six palaces were built in the region between the rule of the ninth and fifteenth kings. Around the 6th century AD, the Yarlung Valley became a society, smelting iron, copper and silver to produce weapons. The 31st king of Yarlung, Langrilunzan, was an expansionist and invaded neighbouring tribes, the 32nd king, Songtsän Gampo conquered Subi tribe, Yangtong tribe and many others and established the Tubo Regime, or the Tibetan Empire. Although transferred his capital city from Qiongjie to Lhasa, many of his descendant of the lineage still lived in the Lhoka region. He made Yungbulakang Palace his summer palace, which by this time was an important centre for Buddhism, in 641 AD, Gampo married Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty. However, continued conflict led to famine and eventually the collapse of the Tubo regime
3.
Tibet
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Tibet is a region on the Tibetan Plateau in Asia, spanning about 2.4 million km2 and nearly a quarter of Chinas territory. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an elevation of 4,900 metres. The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earths highest mountain, the Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century, but with the fall of the empire the region soon divided into a variety of territories. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century, following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qing soldiers were disarmed and escorted out of Tibet Area. The region subsequently declared its independence in 1913 without recognition by the subsequent Chinese Republican government, later, Lhasa took control of the western part of Xikang, China. There are tensions regarding Tibets political status and dissident groups that are active in exile and it is also said that Tibetan activists in Tibet have been arrested or tortured. The economy of Tibet is dominated by agriculture, though tourism has become a growing industry in recent decades. The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, in there is Bön, which is similar to Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is an influence on the art, music. Tibetan architecture reflects Chinese and Indian influences, staple foods in Tibet are roasted barley, yak meat, and butter tea. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod བོད་, means Tibet or Tibetan Plateau, although it meant the central region around Lhasa. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod, is transcribed Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription, Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription and Poi in Tibetan pinyin. Tibetan people, language, and culture, regardless of where they are from, are referred to as Zang although the geographical term Xīzàng is often limited to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing dynasty in the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor through the addition of a prefix meaning west to Zang, the best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo. This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th century, in the Middle Chinese spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter, 土番 was pronounced thux-phjon and 吐蕃 was pronounced thux-pjon. Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include Wusiguo, Wusizang, Tubote, the English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that Tibet names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat orTūbātt, itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd, literally, according to Matthew Kapstein, From the perspective of historical linguistics, Tibetan most closely resembles Burmese among the major languages of Asia. More controversial is the theory that the Tibeto-Burman family is part of a larger language family, called Sino-Tibetan
4.
Qing dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
5.
Lhasa
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Lhasa is a city and administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. Lhasa is the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining and, at an altitude of 3,490 metres, the city has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. It contains many culturally significant Tibetan Buddhist sites such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa literally means place of the gods. Lhasa is first recorded as the name, referring to the temple of Jowo. By the mid 7th century, Songtsän Gampo became the leader of the Tibetan Empire that had risen to power in the Brahmaputra River Valley, Bhrikuti is said to have converted him to Buddhism, which was also the faith attributed to his second wife Wencheng. In 641 he constructed the Jokhang and Ramoche Temples in Lhasa in order to house two Buddha statues, the Akshobhya Vajra and the Jowo Sakyamuni, respectively brought to his court by the princesses. Lhasa suffered extensive damage under the reign of Langdarma in the 9th century, when the sites were destroyed and desecrated. A Tibetan tradition mentions that after Songtsän Gampos death in 649 C. E. Chinese troops captured Lhasa, Chinese and Tibetan scholars have noted that the event is mentioned neither in the Chinese annals nor in the Tibetan manuscripts of Dunhuang. Lǐ suggested that this tradition may derive from an interpolation, tsepon W. D. Shakabpa believes that those histories reporting the arrival of Chinese troops are not correct. From the fall of the monarchy in the 9th century to the accession of the 5th Dalai Lama, however, the importance of Lhasa as a religious site became increasingly significant as the centuries progressed. It was known as the centre of Tibet where Padmasambhava magically pinned down the earth demoness, islam has been present since the 11th century in what is considered to have always been a monolithically Buddhist culture. Two Tibetan Muslim communities have lived in Lhasa with distinct homes, food and clothing, language, education, trade, by the 15th century, the city of Lhasa had risen to prominence following the founding of three large Gelugpa monasteries by Je Tsongkhapa and his disciples. The three monasteries are Ganden, Sera and Drepung which were built as part of the puritanical Buddhist revival in Tibet, the scholarly achievements and political know-how of this Gelugpa Lineage eventually pushed Lhasa once more to centre stage. The 5th Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, unified Tibet and moved the centre of his administration to Lhasa in 1642 with the help of Güshi Khan of the Khoshut. With Güshi Khan as a largely uninvolved overlord, the 5th Dalai Lama, the core leadership of this government is also referred to as the Ganden Phodrang, and Lhasa thereafter became both the religious and political capital. In 1645, the reconstruction of the Potala Palace began on Red Hill, in 1648, the Potrang Karpo of the Potala was completed, and the Potala was used as a winter palace by the Dalai Lama from that time onwards. The Potrang Marpo was added between 1690 and 1694, the name Potala is derived from Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the Dalai Lamas divine prototype, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The Jokhang Temple was also expanded around this time
6.
11th Dalai Lama
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Khedrup Gyatso was the 11th Dalai Lama of Tibet. He was recognised as the Eleventh Dalai Lama in 1840, having come from the village as Kelzang Gyatso. In 1841, Palden Tenpai Nyima, 7th Panchen Lama, gave him the pre-novice ordination, cut his hair, however, he died less than one year later, thus becoming the third successive Dalai Lama who died at too young an age to consolidate his power. He wrote a book of stanzas, Story of the Monkeys and it is an allegory of the war at the end of the 18th century between the Tibetans and the Gurkhas. In the last years of his reign the Nepalese invaded Tibet and he died suddenly in the Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet on 31 January 1856. The Fourteen Dalai Lamas, A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation, pp. 361–367
7.
13th Dalai Lama
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Thubten Gyatso was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet. In 1878 he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and he was escorted to Lhasa and given his pre-novice vows by the Panchen Lama, Tenpai Wangchuk, and named Ngawang Lobsang Thupten Gyatso Jigdral Chokley Namgyal. In 1879 he was enthroned at the Potala Palace, but did not assume power until 1895. Thubten Gyatso was a reformer who proved himself a skillful politician when Tibet became a pawn in British. Laird gives his birthdate as 27 May 1876, and Mullin gives it as dawn on the 5th month of the Fire Mouse Year, in 1879, he was enthroned in the Grand Reception Hall at the Potala Palace. The ceremony was approved by an imperial edict, according to Qing historian Max Oidtmann, the Lhasa ambans were involved in the installation of the three-year-old incarnation on his dais. On the first day the young Dalai Lama was taken before the image of emperor Qianlong and performed the “three genuflections and nine prostrations” before it. Agvan Dorzhiev, a Khori-Buryat Mongol, and a Russian subject, was born in the village of Khara-Shibir, not far from Ulan Ude and he left home in 1873 at 19 to study at the Gelugpa monastery, Drepung, near Lhasa, the largest monastery in Tibet. Having successfully completed the course of religious studies, he began the academic Buddhist degree of Geshey Lharampa. He continued his studies to become Tsanid-Hambo, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy and he became a tutor and debating partner of the teenage Dalai Lama, who became very friendly with him and later used him as an envoy to Russia and other countries. Mannerheim met Thubten Gyatso in Utaishan during the course of his expedition from Turkestan to Peking, Mannerheim wrote his diary and notes in Swedish to conceal the fact that his ethnographic and scientific party was also an elaborate intelligence gathering mission for the Russian army. The 13th Dalai Lama gave a blessing of white silk for the Russian Tsar and in return received Mannerheims precious seven-shot officers pistol with an explanation of its use. Obviously, the 14th Dalai Lama said, The 13th Dalai Lama had a desire to establish relations with Russia. To the English he was a spy, but in reality he was a good scholar, the Dalai Lama spent over a year in Urga and the Wang Khuree Monastery giving teachings to the Mongolians. In Urga he met the 8th Bogd Gegeen Jebtsundamba Khutuktu several times, the content of these meetings is unknown. The Dalai Lama insisted that if Russia would not help, he would even ask Britain, his former foe, after the Dalai Lama fled, the Qing dynasty immediately proclaimed him deposed and again asserted sovereignty over Tibet, making claims over Nepal and Bhutan as well. The Treaty of Lhasa was signed at the Potala between Great Britain and Tibet in the presence of the Amban and Nepalese and Bhutanese representatives on 7 September 1904, the provisions of the 1904 treaty were confirmed in a 1906 treaty signed between Great Britain and China. The Dalai Lama was suspected of involvement in the anti-foreign 1905 Tibetan Rebellion, the British invasion of Lhasa in 1904 had repercussions in the Tibetan Buddhist world, causing extreme anti-western and anti-Christian sentiment among Tibetan Buddhists
8.
Tibetan Buddhism
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Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the regions surrounding the Himalayas and much of Central Asia. It derives from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism and preserves the Tantric status quo of eighth-century India, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Religious texts and commentaries comprise the Tibetan Buddhist canon, such that Tibetan is a language of these areas. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million. Westerners unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism initially turned to China for an understanding, there the term used was lamaism to distinguish it from a then traditional Chinese form. The term was taken up by 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 used mistakenly for Tibetan Buddhism. More accurately, it signifies a certain subset of practices included in, not only Tibetan Buddhism, the native Tibetan term for all Buddhism is doctrine of the internalists. There is an association between the religious and the secular the spiritual and the temporal in Tibet. The term for this relationship is chos srid zung brel, 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. Tibetan Buddhism comprises the teachings of the three vehicles of Buddhism, the Foundational Vehicle, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna, the Mahāyāna goal of spiritual development is to achieve the enlightenment of buddhahood in order to most efficiently help all other sentient beings attain this state. The motivation in it is the mind of enlightenment — an altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas are revered beings who have conceived the will and vow to dedicate their lives with bodhicitta for the sake of all beings, Tibetan Buddhism teaches methods for achieving buddhahood more quickly by including the Vajrayāna path in Mahāyāna. Buddhahood is defined as a free of the obstructions to liberation as well as those to omniscience. When one is freed from all mental obscurations, one is said to attain a state of continuous bliss mixed with a simultaneous cognition of emptiness, in this state, all limitations on ones ability to help other living beings are removed. It is said there are countless beings who have attained buddhahood. Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously perform activities to all sentient beings. However it is believed that ones karma could limit the ability of the Buddhas to help them, there is a long history of oral transmission of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
9.
Schools of Buddhism
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Schools of Buddhism refers to the various institutional and doctrinal divisions of Buddhism that have existed from ancient times up to the present. That have made up or currently make up the whole of Buddhist traditions, the sectarian and conceptual divisions of Buddhist thought are part of the modern framework of Buddhist studies, as well as comparative religion in Asia. The most common classification among scholars is threefold, with Mahāyāna itself split between the traditional Mahāyāna teachings, and the Vajrayāna teachings which emphasize esotericism, Vajrayāna, primarily in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and the Russian republic of Kalmykia. The following terms may be encountered in descriptions of the major Buddhist divisions, Ekayāna Mahayana texts such as the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra sought to unite all the different teachings into a single great way. These texts serve as the inspiration for using the term Ekayāna in the sense of one vehicle and this one vehicle became a key aspect of the doctrines and practices of Tiantai and Tendai Buddhist sects, which subsequently influenced Chán and Zen doctrines and practices. In Japan, the teaching of the Lotus Sutra also inspired the formation of the Nichiren sect. Esoteric Buddhism usually considered synonymous with Vajrayāna, some scholars have applied the term to certain practices found within the Theravāda, particularly in Cambodia. It is considered a term when applied by the Mahāyāna to mistakenly refer to the Theravāda school. Moreover, Hīnayāna refers to the now non extant schools with limited set of views, practices and results and its use in scholarly publications is now also considered controversial. Lamaism an old term, still used, synonymous with Tibetan Buddhism. Mahāyāna a movement that emerged from early Buddhist schools, together with its later descendants, Vajrayāna traditions are sometimes listed separately. The main use of the term in East Asian and Tibetan traditions is in reference to spiritual levels, mainstream Buddhism a term used by some scholars for the early Buddhist schools. Mantrayāna usually considered synonymous with Vajrayāna, the Tendai school in Japan has been described as influenced by Mantrayana. Newar Buddhism a non-monastic, caste based Buddhism with patrilineal descent, nikāya Buddhism or schools an alternative term for the early Buddhist schools. Non-Mahāyāna an alternative term for the early Buddhist schools, northern Buddhism an alternative term used by some scholars for Tibetan Buddhism. Also, a term still sometimes used to encompass both East Asian and Tibetan traditions. It has even used to refer to East Asian Buddhism alone. Secret Mantra an alternative rendering of Mantrayāna, a literal translation of the term used by schools in Tibetan Buddhism when referring to themselves
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