Tri Tsukdetsen (Ralpacan)

Biography

Family and Accession

Tri Tsukdetsen was born in 806 (the first year of Yuanhe of the Tang). Chinese sources call him Kelikezu, also the Yitai Emperor. His father Tri Desongtsen was the fortieth Tsenpo of Tibet. He had four elder brothers: the eldest, Tsangma, embraced Buddhism and became a monk; the second, Laje, died young; the third, Lendrup, died in childhood; and the youngest, Darma, was "given to drink and meat, violent and graceless."

In 815 (the tenth year of Yuanhe), Tri Tsukdetsen succeeded as Tsenpo. Carrying on his father's purpose, he vigorously promoted Buddhism, taking as mentors the two Banchenpo (high monk-ministers) and employing them to assist in governance.

The Changqing Alliance

To ease the financial exhaustion and sharpening class contradictions caused by Tibet's ceaseless warfare since the mid-eighth century, when it had exploited the An Lushan rebellion's weakening of Tang frontier defenses, and in response to the weariness of war and desire for peace among both Tibetan and Chinese peoples, Tri Tsukdetsen repeatedly sent envoys to the Tang requesting an alliance. In the seventh and eighth years of the Tibetan Yitai era (821–822), he sent the special envoy, Minister of Rites Lun Neluo (properly Lun Xinuore), to Chang'an, where a covenant was sworn at the Xingtang Temple in the western suburbs with the Tang chancellors Cui Zhi, Wang Bo, and seventeen others. After the covenant, the Tang sent the Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review Liu Yuanding to Tibet with Neluo to covenant with the Tibetan chancellor and his ministers. In the fifth month of the following year, a further covenant was held with the Banchenpo Yundan, the Marshal Shang Qixin'er, and other Tibetan officials in the eastern suburbs of Lhasa—together known as the "Changqing Alliance," or the "Uncle-Nephew Alliance."

In 823 (the third year of Changqing), Tang and Tibet each erected three steles at their capitals and at Chiling in Qinghai (near present-day Ming Shan), with inscriptions in both Tibetan and Chinese covering politics, military affairs, boundaries, trade and markets, intermarriage, personal and place names, calendars, language, and stone-carving art—documents of high historical value. Tibet also erected the "Tang-Tibet Alliance Stele" (also called the "Changqing Uncle-Nephew Alliance Stele") beneath the Princess's willow before the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, carved in both Tibetan and Chinese, which still stands before the Jokhang today. From then on the conflicts between Tang and Tibet essentially ended and the frontier was at peace: "gold, jade, and silks passed back and forth; missions met each other on the roads, and friendly intercourse never ceased." In 824 (the fourth year of Changqing), Tri Tsukdetsen sent envoys to request a painting of Mount Wutai, the Buddhist holy site within Tang territory, presenting yaks, golden cups, and silver rhinoceroses, sheep, and deer as tokens of goodwill. Thereafter he revised the legal codes and instituted standards of weights and measures down to the sheng, liang, and qian, to stabilize social and commercial order.

Cultural Reforms

During Tri Tsukdetsen's reign Tibetan Buddhism flourished, marked above all by the movement to standardize the Tibetan script. He sent to India for the panditas and translators Vinamitra, Surendrabodhi, Dhanashila, and others, who revised the accumulated body of translated scriptures against their Sanskrit originals. The reform had four principal elements:

1. Reform of script forms and sounds: adapting to changes in pronunciation, inert elements were deleted and spelling rules unified, simplifying the structure of certain letters and altering some sounds (some of the changed old pronunciations still survive in the Amdo dialects);
2. Improvement of Tibetan grammar: the letter 'a' was no longer written after the thirty consonants, though the sounds they formed were preserved, simplifying grammatical construction;
3. Standardized translation terminology: vocabulary was fixed to revise and harmonize scriptures translated from Indian, Uddiyana, Nepali, and Chinese sources; after repeated collective review the standard terms were made official reading texts for the whole realm, and no one was permitted to coin new terms privately—any necessary new term required reasons and explanations, submitted for approval to the Translation Bureau and the Tsenpo;
4. Compilation of the scripture catalogs: the three catalogs of Dankar, Chimpuk, and Pangtang were completed, with the rule that scriptures listed in them need not be retranslated.

The Tibetan script used thereafter is the standardized script that emerged from this reform. Tri Tsukdetsen also founded the Vinaya Academy (the disciplines of wisdom, purity, and worthiness), the Academy of Exposition (teaching, debate, and composition), and the Academy of Practice (hearing, reflection, and cultivation), and established study organizations of thirty divisions of lamas (like faculties), advancing monastic education beyond what it had been under Tri Songdetsen. With the growth of translation and the improvement of the language, literature and art flourished—attested by the ancient Tibetan manuscripts unearthed at Dunhuang—and medical works such as the Four Kinds of Medical Treatment and Five Methods of Divination and Healing appeared, showing the development of Tibetan medicine and pharmacology.

Fatal Devotion to Buddhism

Tri Tsukdetsen was the most devout Buddhist of all the Tsenpos of Tibet. He built temples of jade and erected more than thirty monasteries and shrines, entrusted matters great and small to monks, and, to honor the clergy, sat in the middle when lamas preached with his hair woven into two braids bound with long silks stretched out to either side for the lamas to sit upon (another version holds that he would remove his headscarf, spread it on the ground, let monks walk over it, and then put it back on)—whence his name "Ralpachen," "the man with braids." He established the system of "seven households supporting one monk," requiring every seven commoner households to support one non-producing monk and perform labor for him, and decreed that "whoever points at a monk with an ill finger shall lose the finger; whoever looks on a monk with malice shall lose the eyes"; he urged parents to send their children into the monasteries.

These acts consumed the realm's wealth and burdened the commoners, provoking popular anger and noble resentment. Bon-faithful ministers and certain noble commanders plotted to destroy the Buddhist establishment: first they slandered his eldest brother Tsangma, falsely claiming that though a monk he broke the monastic rules, and induced the Tsenpo to banish him; then they spread the rumor that the Banchenpo Banchenpo Bayi Yundan (Bayi Yundan), who truly administered the government, was having an affair with the queen. Tri Tsukdetsen believed it, executed Bayi Yundan, and the queen hanged herself in despair. With these obstacles removed, in 841 (the first year of Huichang) three Bon-faithful ministers led by Ba Trikya Tagnak staged a coup and strangled Tri Tsukdetsen with a cord, at the age of thirty-six. His brother Darma (Lang Darma) succeeded as Tsenpo.

Chizu Dezan, also called Keli Kezu and Chirebajin, was a Tibetan and son of the Tibetan ruler Chide Songtsen, born at Wuxiangduo. He succeeded to the throne in 815 with the era name Yitai. In his reign he promoted Buddhism and created the office of the chanpo, the monk minister, authorizing monks to take part in framing religious rules and state law, giving Buddhism an unprecedented place in Tibetan political and legal life; he also directed the translation and arrangement of the scriptures and instituted such provisions as the maintenance of monks by seven households, greatly raising their standing.

In diplomacy, in 821 and 822 he sent envoys to conclude an alliance with the Tang at the Xingtang temple in Chang'an and east of Lhasa, known as the Changqing alliance or the alliance of uncle and nephew. The text was inscribed on stone before the Jokhang in Lhasa — the Tang-Tibetan alliance stele that survives today — written in both Chinese and Tibetan, an important source for the study of Tang-Tibetan relations and Tibetan history. The agreement confirmed the frontier in what is now Gansu and Qinghai, and the border was comparatively quiet for several years afterward.

His excessive promotion of Buddhism provoked the resentment of nobles and ministers who followed Bon. In 841 he was strangled by the minister We Jiaduore and others at thirty-six. After his death Tibet fell into civil war and quickly divided, the unified Tibetan kingdom coming to an end, so that his reign is regarded as the last phase of its greatness.

Tibetan relations with the Tang were comparatively stable in his reign. After the Changqing alliance the two sides ceased large-scale fighting, envoys passed frequently, and trade and cultural exchange along the border partly revived. The stele's phrase about uncle and nephew deliberating as one realm sums up the peace resting on their marriage tie, an arrangement that held for about twenty years.

The creation of the chanpo office was an important change in Tibetan political history. Previously nobles and ministers divided military and civil power under the ruler; he made a monk his minister, bringing the Buddhist order directly into government with authority even above the traditional nobles. This measure worked together with his legal and religious reforms to form the pattern of combined religion and government in late Tibet, a pattern inherited after the division by the regimes of the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Accounts of him come chiefly from Tibetan sources such as the Feast of the Wise and the Dunhuang Tibetan historical documents, and from the Tibetan chapters of the old and new histories of the Tang. The Tibetan and Chinese materials agree broadly on his promotion of Buddhism, the creation of the monk minister's office and the Tang-Tibetan alliance, and may be checked against each other; the Tibetan documents from Dunhuang also preserve official papers from around the alliance, direct material for the relations of the period.

Before him Tibet had passed through a period in which Buddhism and Bon gained and lost ground in turn. His father, Chide Songtsen, had already favored Buddhism and he pushed the policy to its limit: not only building monasteries and enlarging the number of monks but giving their privileged status legal form and setting severe penalties for encroaching on monastic property. These measures raised Buddhism's standing and at the same time sharpened the conflict between clergy and lay nobles.

After he was strangled his brother Langdarma came to the throne and at once began a great persecution: monasteries destroyed, scriptures and images cast aside, monks forced to return to lay life or flee. Langdarma was assassinated within a few years, and Tibet then fell into prolonged division and fighting, never regaining unity. The violent turn between his reign and Langdarma's is the key juncture of Tibet's passage from strength to decline and marks the close of what Tibetan Buddhist history calls the earlier diffusion of the faith.

The alliance of Changqing was concluded in two stages, at Chang'an and at Lhasa: in 821 the envoys swore at the Xingtang temple in Chang'an and in 822 an altar was raised east of Lhasa for the covenant, after which the stele was inscribed to keep faith. It still stands before the Jokhang, its text declaring that uncle and nephew deliberated as one realm and made a great covenant of peace never to be broken — one of the most famous documents in the history of Tang-Tibetan relations.

His twenty-odd years were a time of comparatively stable foreign relations: besides the alliance with the Tang, Tibet maintained contact with Nanzhao and the peoples of the western regions. At home he built several monasteries and organized translators to revise earlier renderings and standardize terminology, work that laid the groundwork for the later Tibetan canon. His translation enterprise and his promotion of Buddhism are two sides of one policy, together forming an important phase in Tibetan cultural history.

Tibetan sources attribute his killing chiefly to the resentment of Bon nobles at the expansion of Buddhism, connected also with his policy of reducing noble power and employing monks. The persecution under his successor Langdarma was a further reaction on that basis. The Tibetan royal house then split, nobles holding separate regions, and Buddhism was for a time interrupted in central Tibet until its reintroduction from Ngari and Amdo after the tenth century, the period known as the later diffusion.

Tibetan histories judge him favorably, calling him Reba Jin, "the long-haired," because he wore his hair long and spread his hair on the ground for monks to walk on in reverence. The detail is widely repeated in Tibetan Buddhist narrative and shows that his image in religious history stands alongside later discussion of his political acts.

Politics in Tibet changed sharply after his death: Langdarma's persecution provoked fierce Buddhist resistance and he was assassinated by the monk Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje; his two sons then contended for the throne and Tibet split among regional powers, the unified royal polity gone. His reign is therefore often taken as the dividing line between the Tibetan kingdom's strength and its decline.

His alliance with the Tang marks an epoch in their relations: since Princess Wencheng's marriage into Tibet the two had been joined by a marriage tie yet accompanied by long military conflict, and the Changqing covenant was the first to confirm their standing and frontier by an agreement of equals, after which no large war occurred between them. The change is connected both with the Tibetan court's promotion of Buddhism and with the Tang's weakening strength.

His promotion of Buddhism had deep later effects: after Tibet's division, Tibetan Buddhism gradually became the dominant force in its society, and the tradition of combined religion and government, though often altered, endured — its source lying in this period. Tibetan histories name Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen and Chizu Dezan together as the three key rulers in the rise and growth of Buddhism in Tibet.

He died at only thirty-six, his sons still young, and the resulting succession crisis is one reason politics fell apart so quickly after his death.

Part of the translation work of his reign is preserved in the later Tibetan canon, forming an important component of Tibetan Buddhist scripture.

Tibet under him was still active militarily, though on a smaller scale than in earlier reigns, the emphasis having shifted to religion and domestic construction.

His era name Yitai is recorded in Tibetan sources, while Chinese documents date events by the year of the Changqing alliance.

His name is written somewhat differently in Tibetan and Chinese, "Keli Kezu" in Chinese and Chirebajin and other forms in Tibetan.

Major Activities

• Sent envoys repeatedly to seek an alliance with the Tang, achieving the Changqing Alliance of 821–822, after which Tang-Tibet conflicts essentially ended and the frontier was at peace
• Established the "seven households supporting one monk" system, empowered the Banchenpo to administer the government, and built more than thirty monasteries
• Directed the standardization of the Tibetan script: revised spelling rules, improved grammar, fixed standard translation terms, and compiled the Dankar, Chimpuk, and Pangtang catalogs
• Founded the three academies of Vinaya, exposition, and practice, and the thirty divisions of lama study
• Ranked with Songtsen Gampo and Tri Songdetsen as the three great "Dharma Kings" of the Tibetan Empire

Personal Relations

• | Relation | Person | Notes |
• |---| --- |---|
• | Father | Tri Desongtsen | Fortieth Tsenpo of Tibet |
• | Eldest brother | Tsangma | Became a monk; later banished |
• | Youngest brother | Darma (Lang Darma) | Succeeded as Tsenpo; suppressed Buddhism |
• | Chief minister | Bayi Yundan (Banchenpo) | Monk-minister, destroyed by slander |
• | Tang envoy | Liu Yuanding | Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, went to Tibet for the covenant |

Historical Assessment

The policies of Tri Tsukdetsen promoted the spread of Buddhism throughout the realm, advanced the reform of the Tibetan language and the culture of Tibet, and created favorable conditions for the development of Tibetan Buddhism—the achievements of its literature and art are reflected in the ancient Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang. But his extreme pro-Buddhist policies increased the burdens on his subjects and aroused the deep resentment of the noble ministers, leading to renewed internal strife for power and finally to the coup that killed him.