Trisong Detsen
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Trisong Detsen () was the 38th King of Tibet, ruling from 755 until 797. He is important to Tibetan Buddhists as one of the three Dharma Kings who brought Buddhism to Tibet. According to tradition, Trisong Detsen invited the great Indian gurus, Shantarakshita and Padmasambhava, to Tibet to teach the dharma, thereby first initiating what would later be recognized as Tibetan Buddhism.
Trisong Detsen inherited an empire which had declined somewhat from its greatest extent under King Songtsen Gampo. In 694 Tibet lost control of several cities in Turkestan and in 703 Nepal broke into rebellion. Arab forces vied for influence in along the western border lands.
Trisong became king in 755 and soon thereafter invited Padmasambhava, Shantarakshita, Vimalamitra, and various other Indian teachers to come to Tibet to spread the latest understanding of the teaching. The two pandits began by establishing Samye Monastery as the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. Several Tibetans were eventually initiated as monks and a vast translation project was undertaken translating the Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan.
In a famous two year debate later in his reign (792-794), Trisong Detsen pitted the Chinese Buddhist monk Mo-ho-yen against Kamalashila, a Tantric Buddhist. The Hoshang school (which much later would generate the Japanese Zen school) held that enlightenment could be attained instantly. Kamalashila argued for the Tantric approach, insisting that only after extensive moral and mental training under a master could enlightenment be attained. Ultimately the King sided with Kamalashila and afterwards established Tantric Buddhism as the Buddhist religion of Tibet.
In 763 Trisong Detsen responded to Chinese pressure from the north by sending an army of 200,000 men to the border, defeating the forces there and then continuing on to take Chang'an, the Chinese capital, forcing the Emperor to flee the capital. In 783 a peace treaty was negotiated between China and Tibet giving Tibet all lands in the Kokonor region.
The King also formed an alliance with King Imobsun of Siam in 778, joining forces to attack the Chinese in Sichuan.
Trisong Detsen next sought to expand westward, reaching the Oxus River and threatening the Arab Caliph, Harun al-Rashid. The Caliph was concerned enough to establish an alliance with the Chinese emperor, and perhaps this alone prevented Tibet from taking control of the Middle East and points beyond. Through the remainder of his reign the King would be preoccupied with Arab wars in the west, taking pressure off his Chinese opponents to the east and north, until his rule ended in 797.
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