The princess who promoted Buddhism in early Tibet

Although Buddhism arrived in the region around the mid-7th century, when Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) left Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi province) to marry Songtsan Gambo, king of the Tubo kingdom, the present-day Tibet autonomous region, about 3,000 kilometers to the west.

Seeing that Buddhism, which flourished during the Tang period, had not spread to the Tubo Kingdom, the princess promoted the building of temples and donated pagodas, scriptures and statues of the Buddha she had brought with her.

The Ramoche Temple was the first to be built, and the princess named the eight surrounding mountains after the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism, which are still in use today, thus paving the way for the religion to spread within Tubo. Goats were mobilized to carry earth to fill in a pond for the construction of the Jokhang Temple, and the main hall contains a statue of Sakyamuni, an alternative title for the Buddha, that Wecnhang had taken to Tubo.