Snga dar

snga dar (T. སྔ་དར་; pronounced "nga dar") is translated as "early dissemination," "early transmission," "early spreading of the dharma," etc. It refers to the first period of transmission of the dharma from India to Tibet.

Tibetan scholars typically discuss the transmission of Buddhist texts and doctrine from India to Tibet in terms of two great waves, or periods of transmission. The first period began during the reign of king Songtsen Gampo in the 600s CE, and lasted until the fall of the Tibetan Empire around 842. This period is referred to as the "earlier dissemination" (T. snga dar).

Cortland Dahl states:

The first transmission of Buddhism to Tibet was initiated by a series of Tibetan monarchs that ruled the land at the height of its prestige and influence—in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries CE. King Songtsen Gampo was the first of these rulers. In addition to building numerous Buddhist temples, Songtsen Gampo formed links with the Buddhist cultures that bordered Tibet through his marriages to Chinese and Nepali princesses. Perhaps the most important development during his reign, however, was the creation of the Tibetan alphabet. In the middle of the seventh century, the king sent one of his ministers, Tönmi Sambhota, to India to study the Sanskrit language. The alphabet system created by Sambhota later allowed for the translation of the entire Buddhist canon into the Tibetan language and also served to bridge the geographic and cultural chasms that existed in Tibet at the time.

Though Songtsen Gampo is often credited with beginning the process of bringing Buddhism to Tibet, it was during the reign of his descendent, King Trisong Deutsen, that the Buddha’s teachings truly took root in Tibetan soil. King Trisong Deutsen, who ruled the country in the eighth and ninth centuries and vastly expanded the Tibetan territory with fierce military campaigns, undertook the arduous tasks of building a major monastic center, translating the Buddhist canon, and inviting teachers from India to transmit the Buddha’s teachings. The king also invited the abbot Shantarakshita and tantric adept Padmasambhava from India. Together, these two masters worked under the king’s patronage to establish Samyé, Tibet’s first monastery. Trisong Deutsen’s work was later continued by his grandson, King Ralpachen, the third of Tibet’s three “Dharma Kings.” Along with many other scholars and translators, these monarchs inaugurated a tradition of Buddhist study and practice that continues to this day.

After this flourishing of Buddhist activity during the seventh to ninth centuries, the spread of Buddhism suffered a major setback at the hands of Langdarma, the brother of King Ralpachen. Langdarma was bitterly opposed to the spread of Buddhism, which he saw as a threat to the indigenous Bön tradition. During his short reign, Langdarma worked to undo the efforts of his predecessors. His violent persecution dismantled the community of ordained monks and nuns—nearly destroying Tibet’s fledgling Buddhist community—and plunged the country into a period of political and cultural fragmentation.

Buddhism was not entirely wiped out during this dark period, however. While Langdarma and his cohorts decimated most of the monastic community, a few monks escaped to Amdo in northeastern Tibet, where they preserved the lineage of monastic ordination. The community of lay practitioners survived as well, and many tantric lineages that were transmitted by Padmasambhava and other Buddhist masters continued to be taught and practiced in secret. Thus, despite the great upheavals that took place in the ninth century, the work of Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Deutsen, and Ralpachen made a lasting impact in Tibet. The lineages that stem from this first spreading of Buddhism to Tibet came to be known as the Nyingma, or Ancient School.

The "later dissemination" (T. phyi dar) began during the 11th century when King Yeshe O of Western Tibet became concerned with the decline of the dharma in Tibet and he sponsored new translations of Indian texts and invited the scholar-yogi Atisha to Tibet.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Dahl, Cortland (2009), Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminary Practices, Shambhala