THE WORLD ATLAS

Empire · 618–842 · East Asia

Tibetan Empire

Also known as Tufan Empire

The Tibetan Empire was forged in the early 7th century when Namri Songtsen and his son Songtsen Gampo, kings of the Yarlung valley, united the clans of the Tibetan plateau. Songtsen Gampo founded Lhasa, married Nepalese and Chinese princesses, and is credited with introducing Buddhism and a writing system adapted from Indian scripts.

Tibetan armies became a major military power: they fought Tang China for control of the Silk Road oasis cities of the Tarim Basin, and in 763 briefly captured the Tang capital, Chang'an. Under Trisong Detsen Buddhism became the state religion and the first monastery, Samye, was built. A peace treaty with China was carved in stone in 822. After the assassination of King Langdarma around 842, succession disputes broke the empire apart.

Follow its story on the map

Samye, Tibet's first Buddhist monastery, founded c. 775–779 under Emperor Trisong Detsen (the buildings have been restored since)
Samye, Tibet's first Buddhist monastery, founded c. 775–779 under Emperor Trisong Detsen (the buildings have been restored since) Gyurmed · CC0
Years
618–842
Capital
Lhasa (Rasa)
Greatest extent
800, about 4.60 million km²
Region
East Asia

From the Tarim Basin to Bengal and western China; c. 4.6M km² (Taagepera 1997; Turchin et al. 2006, for 800); c. 4.6M km² in 800 (Taagepera 1997; Turchin, Adams & Hall 2006)

Legacy

The empire unified Tibet's language and identity and planted the Buddhist tradition that has defined Tibetan civilisation ever since.

Timeline of Tibetan Empire

  1. Princess Wencheng leaves China to marry Songtsen Gampo

    Songtsen Gampo had united the clans of central Tibet and built a military power that threatened China's western frontier. After he attacked the Tuyuhun and the Chinese border town of Songzhou, demanding a royal bride, the Tang court agreed in 640 to a marriage alliance. Princess Wencheng, from a minor branch of the imperial family, then travelled to Tibet (sources date her departure to 640 or 641). The marriage brought peace and recognition for the young empire. Tibetan tradition credits her, with the king's Nepali wife Bhrikuti, with helping to bring Buddhism to Tibet.

  2. c. 645: Songtsen Gampo overruns the kingdom of Zhangzhung

    Zhangzhung was an ancient kingdom in western Tibet, around Mount Kailash, ruled by the Lig myi dynasty. Songtsen Gampo married his sister to its king, Lig-myi-rhya, and when the king neglected her, she helped her brother defeat him. The date is disputed: Chinese annals say Zhangzhung submitted by 634, the scholar Rolf Stein places the conquest in 645, and some think it came only under Trisong Detsen a century later. Its conquest extended the empire far to the west across the plateau.

  3. Tibet conquers the Tuyuhun (Azha) kingdom around Koko Nur

    The Tuyuhun, or Azha, were a kingdom of Xianbei origin around Lake Koko Nur (Qinghai), controlling key trade routes between Tibet and China. Songtsen Gampo had already raided them in the 630s, and they served as a buffer between Tibet and the Tang. In 663, under the powerful minister Gar Tongtsen, who ran the government for the young king, the Tibetan army defeated the Tuyuhun, who were gradually absorbed. With Koko Nur in Tibetan hands, the empire now bordered China directly in the north-east, which set up decades of war with the Tang.

  4. Tibet takes the Tang's Four Garrisons in the Tarim Basin

    Pushing north from the plateau, Tibet wanted the rich Silk Road oases of the Tarim Basin, guarded by the Tang's Four Garrisons of Anxi. Between 665 and 670 it brought Khotan under its control. In the spring of 670 Tibetan armies, with Khotanese troops, captured Aksu, and the Chinese abandoned the region. The same year Tibet routed a large Tang army at the Dafei river near Koko Nur. Tibet now held all Four Garrisons, ending two decades of Chinese control, and the map stretches north across the Kunlun Mountains into today's Xinjiang.

  5. Tang China regains the Tarim Basin

    Tibet held the Tarim Basin for 22 years, but its grip depended on alliances with Western Turkic tribes and on the loyalty of the oasis cities. Under Empress Wu, the Tang sent a fresh army west, and in 692 Chinese forces retook the Four Garrisons of Anxi, including Kucha and Khotan. Tibet's northern frontier fell back to the Kunlun Mountains. The two empires went on fighting for these oases for another half century, and by 750 the Tibetans had lost almost all their Central Asian possessions.

  6. Nanzhao in Yunnan comes under Tibetan control (to 794)

    Nanzhao was a kingdom in Yunnan, in south-western China, with its capital near Dali. In 750 its king Geluofeng quarrelled with the local Chinese governor and went to war with the Tang, and he defeated large Chinese armies in 751 and 754. To protect himself he allied with Tibet, which treated Nanzhao as a vassal. The Tibetan Empire article says Nanzhao remained under Tibetan control from 750 to 794. The alliance extended Tibetan influence far to the south-east and let the two powers fight China together.

  7. Trisong Detsen is crowned; the empire grows again

    In 756 the prince Song Detsen, then about 13, was crowned with the name Trisong Detsen after a period of turmoil at court. He became one of Tibet's greatest rulers. With the Tang crippled by the An Lushan rebellion, he pushed deep into Chinese territory and won back influence in Central Asia. He also invited Indian Buddhist teachers such as Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita, who built Samye, Tibet's first monastery. Under him the empire grew larger than ever before, with Tibetan armies holding much of today's Gansu and Qinghai.

  8. Tibetans capture the Tang capital Chang'an for 15 days

    The An Lushan rebellion forced the Tang to pull its frontier armies back to defend the heartland, and the Tibetans swept into the undefended lands of the north-west. In late 763 a Tibetan army under the general Takdra Lukhong reached the Tang capital Chang'an, which the emperor Daizong had fled. The Tibetans occupied the city for fifteen days and installed a puppet emperor before withdrawing. The raid showed how far the balance had shifted. Tibet went on to hold the Hexi Corridor, cutting the Tang off from Central Asia.

  9. Treaty with the Tang defines the frontier

    After decades of fighting, Tibet and the weakened Tang made a peace treaty in 783 that fixed the frontier between them, in Tibet's favour. It confirmed Tibetan control of large areas of today's Gansu, Qinghai and western Sichuan that the empire had taken since the 750s. The peace did not last long, as fighting broke out again within a few years. Still, the treaty marks the high point of Tibetan power. On the map the empire now reaches deep into what had been Chinese territory.

  10. Nanzhao turns on Tibet and helps China defeat it at Shenchuan

    Nanzhao had been Tibet's ally and vassal since the 750s, but Tibetan demands for troops and tribute grew heavy. In 794 the Nanzhao king Yimouxun switched sides to the Tang. He attacked the Tibetans at Shenchuan and helped the Chinese inflict a serious defeat on them. Nanzhao and the Tang kept up the pressure, beating off Tibetan counterattacks in 799 and 801. Tibet lost its foothold in Yunnan, and its south-eastern frontier pulled back.

  11. c. 812: Tibet's governor of Kabul submits to the Abbasids

    Under Tride Songtsen (Sadnalegs), Tibet fought a long war with the Abbasid Caliphate on its far western frontier. Tibetan forces were active as far west as Samarkand and Kabul, and the Tibetans had a governor in Kabul. As Abbasid forces gained the upper hand, this governor submitted to the caliphate and became a Muslim, in about 812 or 815 (the sources differ). Tibet lost its grip on Kabul and the Hindu Kush, and its western expansion came to an end.

  12. Sino-Tibetan peace treaty (821/822), later inscribed in Lhasa

    Both Tibet and the Tang were worn down by more than a century of war, and both faced threats from the Uyghurs to the north. Under King Ralpachen (Tritsuk Detsen) the two empires agreed a peace treaty in 821–822. It confirmed the borders, and a bilingual text in Tibetan and Chinese was later carved on a stone pillar that still stands outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa. The treaty brought peace for more than two decades and fixed the empire's eastern frontier at its greatest extent.

  13. Ralpachen is murdered; his brother Langdarma takes the throne

    Ralpachen was a devoted patron of Buddhism who gave monks great privileges, which angered nobles loyal to the older Bön religion. In 838 he was murdered, either by his younger brother Langdarma or by two pro-Bön ministers who then placed Langdarma on the throne. Langdarma's reign was plagued by trouble. Tibetan Buddhists remember him for persecuting monks and nuns and destroying monasteries. Imperial patronage of Buddhism, which had lasted about eighty years, came to an end.

  14. Langdarma assassinated; the empire disintegrates

    In 842 Langdarma was assassinated, traditionally by a Buddhist monk, Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje (some sources date the killing to 846). His death left a disputed succession between two young heirs, Yumtän and Ösung, backed by rival factions. Civil war broke out, and the empire dissolved into competing lordships, beginning Tibet's Era of Fragmentation. The Tibetan Empire disappears from the map, and its frontier lands in Gansu and Central Asia were lost over the following years.

Periods and reigns

Rulers

Realms on the map

Chapters

Sources