Songtsen Gampo History

Songtsen Gampo was highly praised as the greatest and important Zampo of Tibet because of his glorious achievements in Tibet history. Zampo was the name of the King of Tibet. During the rule of Songtsen Gampo, he unified all the tribes in Tibet and finally consolidated the imperial power during Tubo Dynasty.

Regarding the politics, Sognsten Gampo ordered his man to set many offices and established many new administrative systems. To organize a complete political power, there is another officer who took charge of managing all the political affairs besides Zampo. All the officers of Tubo Dynasty were traditionally added Lun or Shang to their names. Officers who named Lun were not related to the royal families, but officers who named Shang were actually the relatives of imperial families.

Regarding the laws of Tubo Dynasty, a complete legal system is the base to support the normal operation of a State. Hence, Songtsen Gampo ordered his officers to formulate a relatively feasible legal system according to Tibetan Buddhism at that time. The legal system was not only the laws which ordinary people should abide by but also the social morality. The criminals were punished according to the laws, and the ordinary people were asked to follow the laws.

Regarding the culture, Songtsen Gampo ordered the scholars to learn the Buddhism and characters in India and other places according to Tibet history. After the scholars came back, Tibetan characters were created and established. Creating the Tibetan characters was a great achievement of Songtsen Gampo during Tubo Dynasty, which was praised higher than the achievements in his official career and his military exploit.

The scholar who was sent to India was named Tonmi Sangpu. He created the Tibetan characters based to the Sanskrit and Bengalese. So today's Tibetan language is similar with Indian language and Bengalese. After he came back to Tubo Dynasty, Songtsen Gampo started spent 3 years to learn the Tibetan characters with many other people.

When comes to AD 634, Tubo Dynasty and Tang Dynasty were both promoted and stared to communicate with each other.

During a period of great prosperity of Tang Dynasty, Tubo Dynasty grew up and developed very fast and even influenced the Kingdom of Nepal in the west, Sinkiang in the north, Nanzhao in the south and Gansu Province in the east. These were two amazing and marvelous starts during that century, and they finally started to approach to the relationship between each other in Gansu Province.

The profound and age-old culture of Tang Dynasty was introduced into Lhasa City through Hexi Corridor. Songtsen Gampo was deeply attracted by the culture and decided to learn from Tang Dynasty. It has to say that Songtsen Gampo was really an open-minded leader and hero. He sent his man to ask for marriage with the princess of Tang Dynasty in AD 638 with the promise of peace at the border of Tubo Dynasty and Tang Dynasty. At first time, Emperor Taizong of Tang refused. When Songsten Gampo asked for the marriage again after two years later, Princess Wencheng got married with Songtsen Gampo.