Category:Early History of Tibet

For conveniences sake, two reasonably reliable dates can be taken to indicate the official Tibetan adoption of Buddhism: the establishment of bsam yas monastery in 774/5 and the ordination of the first Tibetan sangha in 779. However it seems obvious that there must have been some considerable contact between the tibetan peoples and Buddhism before this official adoption. From the reign of srong btsan sgam po onwards, early tibetan records describe a gradual move on behalf of the Tibetan emperors’ towards Buddhism, culminating with khri srong lde-btsan’s patronage of the sangha in the latter part of his reign.

source: Dargyay, E. K. ‘Sangha and State in Imperial Tibet’, in Steinkellner, Ernst (1991): Tibetan History and Language, Wien, Austria.