The Canon · No. 051
Vajrayana Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism; the Diamond Vehicle; Tantric Buddhism
c.7th c. CE – present · Dharmic / Indian · Living · Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, Ladakh, Buryatia; global diaspora
V. THE MEDIEVAL WORLD — c.500 – 1500 CE
How many
Roughly 20 million.
Who began it
No single founder. Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche, is credited with establishing it in Tibet in the 8th century; the Indian tantric adepts (mahasiddhas) developed the practices.
What it is for
To reach buddhahood in a single lifetime rather than over countless aeons, by using every faculty — including desire, anger and the body itself — as fuel rather than obstacle.
What it worships
Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and an immense pantheon of tantric deities including wrathful forms (Mahakala, Yamantaka, Vajrakilaya) whose terrifying appearance represents the ferocity required to destroy ego, not malevolence. Female buddhas, especially Tara. Dharma protectors. All are understood as expressions of mind, not external beings, at the level of realised practice.
What it holds
Mahayana doctrine — emptiness, compassion, the bodhisattva vow — plus tantric method. The guru is indispensable: the teacher-student bond (samaya) is treated as the foundation of practice, which is both the tradition's great strength and the structural condition that has enabled documented abuse by several prominent teachers. Buddha-nature is already present; practice reveals rather than creates it.
What it does
Deity yoga — visualising oneself as an enlightened being until the ordinary self-image loses its grip. Mantra recitation, above all om mani padme hum. Mandalas, created and then destroyed. Prayer wheels and flags. Prostrations, often 100,000 of them as preliminary practice. Advanced practices: tummo inner heat, dream yoga, phowa transference of consciousness at death. The tulku system of recognised reincarnate teachers, unique to Tibet. Long retreats, traditionally three years, three months and three days.
After death
The bardo, the intermediate state, mapped in more detail than anywhere else in world religion: forty-nine days between death and rebirth, in which the deceased encounters the clear light of reality, then peaceful and wrathful deities, and finally the pull toward a womb. The Bardo Thodol is read aloud to the dying and the dead as a guidebook — recognise these appearances as your own mind and be liberated; fail, and take rebirth. Sky burial disposes of the body, understood as a final act of generosity to the vultures.
Its texts
The Kangyur (the Buddha's word, 108 volumes) and Tengyur (commentaries, 225 volumes). Tantras. Bardo Thodol, known in the West as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a title invented by its 1927 editor. Milarepa's songs. Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo. Terma, treasure texts held to have been hidden by Padmasambhava for later discovery.
Its branches
Nyingma (oldest, Padmasambhava, Dzogchen), Kagyu (Milarepa, mahamudra), Sakya, Gelug (Tsongkhapa, the Dalai Lamas). Plus Jonang, and Bon as a parallel tradition.
Of note
The tulku system means Tibetan Buddhism has an institutional succession problem no other religion has, and it is now a live geopolitical dispute between a Buddhist leader in exile and an officially atheist state.
Its timeline
- c.640 CE King Songtsen Gampo; first contact with Buddhism.
- c.775 CE Samye, the first Tibetan monastery, founded under Trisong Detsen with Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita.
- c.792–794 CE The Samye debate: the Indian gradualist position defeats the Chinese Chan sudden-enlightenment position, setting Tibet's direction.
- c.842–978 CE Persecution under Langdarma and a dark period.
- c.1042 CE Atisha arrives; the second diffusion; the Kadam and then Kagyu and Sakya schools form.
- 1040–1123 CE Milarepa, murderer turned yogi, Tibet's most beloved saint.
- 1357–1419 CE Tsongkhapa founds the reformist Gelug school.
- 1578 CE The Mongol ruler Altan Khan confers the title Dalai Lama on Sonam Gyatso, retroactively counted as the third.
- 1642 CE The Fifth Dalai Lama, with Mongol military backing, becomes temporal ruler of Tibet.
- 1950–1959 CE Chinese annexation; the 1959 uprising; the 14th Dalai Lama flees to India.
- 1966–76 CE Cultural Revolution destroys the majority of Tibet's monasteries.
- 1995 CE The Dalai Lama recognises a Panchen Lama; the six-year-old and his family are taken into Chinese custody and have not been publicly seen since. Beijing installs its own.
- 2011 CE The Dalai Lama relinquishes political authority to an elected Tibetan government in exile.
- 2007–present China legislates that reincarnations require state approval — a government asserting jurisdiction over rebirth.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.