The Golden Age of the Tibetan Empire | The Animated History of Tibet | Episode 2

For a brief period of time, the Tibetan Empire was one of the greatest military and political forces in the entire world, rivalling the Chinese Tang Dynasty, the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate, and even the once-mighty Roman Empire. In the 9th century, however, the entire empire suddenly collapsed, vanishing into history and myth. How did Tibet emerge to become one of the dominant political factions in Central Asia? And why did the empire collapse?

In this episode of The Animated History of Tibet we cover the reigns of the emperors Tri Dusong (aka Tridu Songtsen) and Tri Songdetsen, during which Buddhism emerges as an influential religious and cultural force and the Tibetan Empire survives a violent civil war to become one of the dominant powers in Central Asia.

Watch episode one, "The Rise of the Tibetan Empire" here:    • The Rise of the Tibetan Empire | The ...  

The writer and director of the series, Dr. Alexander K. Smith, holds a PhD in Tibetan and Himalayan history from the University of Paris, France, and an MA from Oxford University.

For an in-depth discussion of the early Tibetan Empire and the topics discussed in this episode, check out part two of our interview with Professor Brandon Dotson, a specialist in imperial-era history, at Georgetown University:    • Professor Brandon Dotson | On the Ris...  

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Buy the maps featured in this episode and other original artwork from our merch store: https://armchairacademicsstore.com/

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Western-language Works Cited
Below you'll find a number of the major secondary sources that we used in writing this episode. There are, however, a significant number of historical articles, book chapters, and primary Tibetan-language sources that have also contributed to our understanding of Tibetan imperial history. Due to limited space (YouTube only gives you 5,000 characters!), these are not referenced below. If you are interested in learning more about Tibetan history, I recommend visiting our Patreon where you will find expanded reading lists and annotated bibliographies for each episode (none of which are paywalled and are all free to use). The complete reading list for this episode is available here:   / almost-reading-98275071  

Beckwith, Christopher I. 1987. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton University Press.

Dotson, Brandon. 2009. The Old Tibetan Annals: An Annotated Translation of Tibet’s First History. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Kapstein, Matthew T. 2000. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. Oxford University Press.

Kapstein, Matthew T. 2006. The Tibetans. Blackwell Publishing.

Karmay, Samten G. 1998. "The Origin Myths of the First King of Tibet as Revealed in the Can lnga" in Karmay. The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet. Mandala Book Point.

Schaeffer, Kapstein, and Tuttle (eds). 2013. Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Columbia University Press.

Schaik, Sam van. 2011. Tibet: A History. Yale University Press.

Smith, Warren W., Jr. 1996. Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. Westview Press.

Sørensen, Per K. 1994. Tibetan Buddhist Historiography: The Mirror Illuinating the Royal Genealogies: An Annotated Translation of the XIVth Century Tibetan Chronicler: rGyal-rabs gsal-ba’i me-long. Harrassowitz Verlag.

Stein, R. A. 1972. Tibetan Civilization. Stanford University Press.

Takeuchi, Tsuguhito. 1995. Old Tibetan Contracts from Central Asia. Tokyo: Daizo Shuppan.

0:00 Introduction
1:52 Civil war between the clans and the imperial court
3:44 The destruction of the Gar Clan
4:57 The final years of Tri Dusong's reign - plague and civil strife
6:00 The geopolitcal situation of Tibet in the early 8th century
6:58 How the Ann Lushan Rebellion changed the world
7:44 The enthronement of the Emperor Tri Songdetsen
8:26 The early conquests of Tri Songdetsen's reign
9:40 The Tibetan capture of Chang'an
11:32 Buddhism in the early Tibetan Empire
12:21 Why did Tri Songdetsen choose Buddhism as an imperial religion?
13:48 The construction of Samye Monastery
14:50 Myth: Padmasambhava taming the wrathful gNyen - an excerpt from the Dba' bshed
15:57 The Samye Debate (aka the Council of Lhasa)
18:53 Conclusion
20:21 Credits and Patreon pitch