On January 23, 2009, His Holiness was invited to give a lecture at Tibethaus in Frankfurt, Germany, as a sort of preview of his forthcoming book on the early Tibetan empire. Tibethaus is an institution in the tradition of the Tibet Houses in New Delhi, New York, London and Barcelona. It is dedicated to preserve Tibetan civilization and its profound wisdom and to provide a bridge between Tibet’s unique culture and Western society. The Tibethaus is under the patronage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Prior to his lecture His Holiness granted an audience requested by Ani Konchok Tsecho from the Drikung Kagyu Dharmakirti Center in Heuchelheim. More than 25 sangha members came to receive blessings from the Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang, who then addressed them about the Drikung Kagyu lineage in general, as there were quite a few members new to the group.

Thereafter His Holiness delivered his lecture to a general audience about his own research into early Tibetan history based on new evidence from the documents found in the caves of Dunhuang on the Silk Road. There, an unimaginable wealth of texts in various languages dating from the 4^th to the 11^th centuries was discovered roughly a century ago after lying buried and hidden for the better part of a millennium. These manuscripts and manuscript fragments range in subject matter from bilingual glossaries to texts on military affairs, the political and economic history of the Tibetan empire, the pre-Buddhist Bön religion, ancient legends and rituals, geography and neighboring peoples, medicine and Buddhism. Furthermore, lying untouched for so long, they form a collection of the earliest sources available for scholars and are thus of priceless value to the study of Tibetan history. Thus these ancient texts provide a vast array of material on the earliest periods in Tibet’s history when the country became a united realm under the emperors of the Pugyal dynasty.

The unification of the territory of the high Tibetan plateau started during the first century CE. It was followed by a vast expansion far beyond the snowy ranges and exposed the Tibetan civilization to a wide variety of peoples, languages, systems of writing, thought and government each of which left its mark on Tibet. The Dunhuang library materials provide us with contemporary information on this important historical process, and Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche is uniquely qualified to study these texts in depth thanks to his knowledge of both Tibetan and Chinese.

Kyabgön Rinpoche’s explanations began with the prehistoric settlement of the Himalayan region and the Tibetan plateau during the Paleolithic age. He argued that Tibet was settled as part of the eastward migration of modern humans, out of Africa, across Central Asia, and on to Southeast and East Asia. This theory will likely be corroborated as more archaeological evidence is brought to light.

In his lecture Kyabgön Rinpoche’s main emphasis was on the Pugyal empire of Great Tibet spanning a period of more than a thousand years. Traditional accounts of Tibetan history begin with the era of the Twelve Sovereigns (c. 1250-1060 BCE) followed by the Scattered Kingdoms (c. 1060-390 BCE). Not many hard historical facts are known about these epochs in Tibetan history.

Even the early phase of the Pugyal dynasty (sometimes called the Yarlung dynasty) is largely shrouded in mystery. It was established by Nyatri Tsenpo (gnya' khri btsan po) who lived from 417-345 BCE and reigned from 390-345 BCE. According to Bön histories he is said to have descended from heaven on the sacred mountain Lhari Gyangto (Mount Bonri in Kongpo). Instead, as His Holiness pointed out, in the texts from Dunhuang it is clearly stated that Nyatri Tsenpo was a self-assertive and powerful martial personality, and he went about conquering the so-called Scattered Kingdoms until he reigned unchallenged, amassing territory and subjects in the process.

Kyabgön Rinpoche then recounted the further development of the empire centered on its capital at Chingwa Taktse ('phying pa stag rtse) in the Yarlung Valley. He also presented interesting insights on Tibetan social structure during the period corresponding to China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), especially about the practice of matrilineality in two parts of the Tibetan Empire. One of these regions was in Western Tibet, where the Zhang Zhung civilization flourished around Mt. Kailash, extending far into the west, south and north. His Holiness found during his recent travels to Limi, a remote region in Nepal bordering on the Tibetan areas of Purang and Mt. Kailash, that there are quite a few districts in this part of Tibet where matrilineality is still practiced. He also encountered there the remnants of old Zhang Zhung traditions in dances and songs that elsewhere have been lost to the ages.

His Holiness gave many interesting details and presented new findings concerning the later Pugyal emperors, such as Namri Songtsen (gnam ri srong btsan, 562-629 CE) who began the empire’s territorial expansion and gave the unified country its new name, “the land of Pen” ('phan yul) which later became “Bö” (bod) through phonetic change (and possibly even English’s “Tibet”); about Namri Songtsen’s famous son Songtsen Gampo (srong btsan sgam po, 617-650 CE); and the lesser known empress Droza Trimalo ('bro bza' khri ma lod) who reigned twice, first in lieu of her young son from 675-689 CE and later from 704-712 to secure the throne for her grandson.

Kyabgön Rinpoche finished his lecture with a historically balanced view of the reign of Tri Uidumtsen (khri u'i dum brtsan), later known as Langdarma (glang dar ma), who reigned from 838 to 841 CE and is generally held to be the great persecutor of Buddhism. From Dunhuang manuscripts it becomes clear that Langdarma did many virtuous deeds. But since his reign was plagued by numerous external troubles and all higher civil posts were taken by Buddhist monk officials, he tried to gain political control by breaking the power of the Buddhists clergy.

In such a short time, His Holiness could only present a fraction of his work on this fascinating material. The audience therefore is very much looking forward to the publication of his book on this subject which is expected early next year.