Some of these early revealers were the direct descendants of influential clans that enjoyed wealth and power during the empire––who else might have collected and concealed these texts as Tibet descended into anarchy? And who better to inherit the clues that would lead to their recovery in later, safer centuries? As treasure recovery was popularized, normalized, and crystallized into a tradition, it swiftly came to rely on the rhetoric of visionary experience, magic, and mysticism to contextualize and legitimate its fortuitous recoveries. And while the core translations that would become the foundation of the Tibetan Buddhist canon persisted, as did some controversial esoteric scriptures that would be excluded from it, many of the empire’s loose-leaf manuscripts were lost, never to be seen again––or so it seemed.īy the eleventh century, “treasure revealers” emerged claiming to recover ancient manuscripts and relics from secret caches as the hidden legacy of the imperium. Stele inscriptions memorializing some great personages, events, and treaties weathered the fall, and thereby stood as testaments to a swiftly fragmented and soon forgotten history. And yet as the Pugyal empire collapsed in the middle of the ninth century, its countless folios were stolen and scattered such that by the eleventh century, Tibetan historians already referred to the previous era as a “dark age,” virtually unilluminated by documentation of any sort. Moreover, the majority of this work was completed within a hundred years.
Prior to the empire Tibet lacked a written language, but a script and grammar were designed and developed for the express purpose of translating the entire corpus of Tibet’s Indic Buddhist inheritance from Sanskrit––a vast and complex undertaking that stands as one of the most significant literary and linguistic achievements in the history of the world. Even beyond its political and military exploits, the Pugyal empire is renowned for its literary production, as well as the distinctly Tibetan forms of Buddhism that arose as a direct result of it. 7th–9th century C.E.) rivaled the great Tang dynasty and briefly set its own puppet emperor upon the throne of China. A Most Fortuitous Find at Dunhuang, China (1900 C.E.)Īmong its many accomplishments, the Pugyal empire of Tibet (ca.
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