For more than a hundred years, from the seventh century to the latter part of the eighth century, Tufan's slave-owning class, including the royal house and the nobility, pursued a policy of military expansion. Such a policy resulted in sharpening the class contradiction between the royal house, the nobility and the people.
In the face of the class contradiction King Khri-srong-Ide-btsan and several succeeding rulers went to great pains to patronize Buddhism. They attempted to ue it as a curb on the aristocrats, who for the most part professed the Bon religion for their own ends. Above all, by advocating the Buddhist doctrines on ''paradise'', ''happiness in next life'' and the lke, they hoped to persuade the labouring people into forbearance, submission and into giving up their struggle to imporve their lot. Evidently, the Buddhist doctrines whould serve the interests of the Tufan court better than thouse of Bon.
In the days of King Srong-btsan sgam-po, Buddhism had not long been implanted in Tufan and the influence of Bon was still dominant in society. It was only by the time of King Khri-srong-Ide-btsan that Buddhism had found a footing in Tufan society. Things took a drastic turn as a result of a set of measures taken by the king to atronize Buddhism while proscribing Bon.
Around 770 the king paved the way for the rise of Buddhism by suppressing the nobles, including remarkable Stag-sgra klu-khong who oosed Buddhism. He invited famed monks from India and the Tang to Tufan and arranged to have monasteries built for them to preach in. The first of such establishments in Tufan who the Bsam-yas Monastery, construction of which was comleted in 779. It was put in the charge of the Indian monks, 'Santaraksita and Padmasambhava, on orders of the king. Beginning in 781 the king invited monks from the Tang to reach on a two-year rotation. While vigorously promulgating Buddhism, he persecuted the Bon religion by banning it outright, destroying its shrines and condemning to death those Bon text writers who plagiarized Buddhist scriptures. All this had disastrous ettects on Bon.
Furthermore, the king appointed a monk, Chos-blon, as minster to act as a counterweight to the preponderant influence of the nobility at the royal court. This created a precedent for a monk to intervane in Tufan's political affairs.
By the end of the eighth century, however, class polarization in Tufan society had become even more serious with a glaring discrepancy between the rich and the poor in the possession of property. Unevenness in social develoment was becoming ever more marked as shown in the fact that large areas under Tufan's occupation, such as Longyou (in modern Gansu Province), had laready entered into feudalism and that the slave-owning Tufan society saw elements of feudalism develop steadily within itself. All theis indicates that the energetic patronization of Buddhism failed to take the edge off class ontradiction as expected.
In the face of the class contradiction King Khri-srong-Ide-btsan and several succeeding rulers went to great pains to patronize Buddhism. They attempted to ue it as a curb on the aristocrats, who for the most part professed the Bon religion for their own ends. Above all, by advocating the Buddhist doctrines on ''paradise'', ''happiness in next life'' and the lke, they hoped to persuade the labouring people into forbearance, submission and into giving up their struggle to imporve their lot. Evidently, the Buddhist doctrines whould serve the interests of the Tufan court better than thouse of Bon.
In the days of King Srong-btsan sgam-po, Buddhism had not long been implanted in Tufan and the influence of Bon was still dominant in society. It was only by the time of King Khri-srong-Ide-btsan that Buddhism had found a footing in Tufan society. Things took a drastic turn as a result of a set of measures taken by the king to atronize Buddhism while proscribing Bon.
Around 770 the king paved the way for the rise of Buddhism by suppressing the nobles, including remarkable Stag-sgra klu-khong who oosed Buddhism. He invited famed monks from India and the Tang to Tufan and arranged to have monasteries built for them to preach in. The first of such establishments in Tufan who the Bsam-yas Monastery, construction of which was comleted in 779. It was put in the charge of the Indian monks, 'Santaraksita and Padmasambhava, on orders of the king. Beginning in 781 the king invited monks from the Tang to reach on a two-year rotation. While vigorously promulgating Buddhism, he persecuted the Bon religion by banning it outright, destroying its shrines and condemning to death those Bon text writers who plagiarized Buddhist scriptures. All this had disastrous ettects on Bon.
Furthermore, the king appointed a monk, Chos-blon, as minster to act as a counterweight to the preponderant influence of the nobility at the royal court. This created a precedent for a monk to intervane in Tufan's political affairs.
By the end of the eighth century, however, class polarization in Tufan society had become even more serious with a glaring discrepancy between the rich and the poor in the possession of property. Unevenness in social develoment was becoming ever more marked as shown in the fact that large areas under Tufan's occupation, such as Longyou (in modern Gansu Province), had laready entered into feudalism and that the slave-owning Tufan society saw elements of feudalism develop steadily within itself. All theis indicates that the energetic patronization of Buddhism failed to take the edge off class ontradiction as expected.
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