Tibetan history can be traced
thousands of years back. However, the written history
only dates back to the 7th century when Songtsan Gampo,
the 33rd Tibetan king, sent his minister Sambhota to
India to study Sanskrit who on his return invented the
present Tibetan script based on Sanskrit.
Tibet's history can be divided into four period:
1. The Tsanpo's Period
This period starts from Nyatri Tsanpo, the first of the
Tsanpos, in 127 B.C (historians differ in view of the
date, but this date is taken from the White Annales, a
reliable book on Tibetan history) and ends in 842 A.D.
at the death of Lang Dharma, the last of the Tsanpos,
who was assassinated by a Buddhist monk owing to Lang
Dharma's ruthless persecution of Buddhism. During this
period some 42 Tsanpos had ruled over Tibet among which
Songtsan Gampo's rule was considered as the zenith.
Songtsan Gamoi was an outstanding ruler, he unified
Tibet, changed his capital to Lhasa, sent Sambhota to
India to study Sanskrit and promulaged a script for the
Tibetan on the latter's arrival to Tibet, married
Princess Wencheng of the tang Court and Pricess Bhrikuti
Debi of Nepal, built the Potala and the temple and the
temple of Jokhang
2. The period of Decentrailzation
This period began in 842 A.D. the year of Lang Dharma's
assassination, and ended in about 1260 A.D, when Pagpa,
the Abbot of Sakya monastery, became a vassal of Kublai
Khan, the first Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. During this
period a little is known in history except that Tibet
became decentralized into a number of petty
principalities.
3. The period of Sakya, Pagdu, and Karmapa's Rule
This period began with Sakya's rule over Tibet, followed
first by Pagdu's rule in Lhaoka and then by Karmara's
rule in the Tsang region (Shigatse). The sakya period
was the time whten tbiet officially became an
inseparable part of China.
This period lasted from 1260 A.D to 1642 A.D during
which political powers centered in the three regions of
Sakya, Pagdu, and tsang successively ruled over Tibet.
4. The period of the Gandan Podrang's Administration
This period is the period in which the Dalai Lama ruled
Tibet. It started in 1642 A.D. when the 5th Dalai Lama
overtook the ruling power from the Tsang ruler. It
basically ended in 1951 when Tibet was liberated and
came to a complete end in 1959 when rebellion led by the
Dalai Lama was pacified and the People's Government of
the Tibet, Autonomous Region was set up.
