Buddhist community and royal power in the early Tibet: evolution and specificity of the relationships

The paper deals with the issues of the evolution of relationships between early Tibetan state of Yarlung dynasty and Buddhist monastic community. It shows that archaic Tibetan worldview and conceptions of royal power served as fertile soil for Indo-Buddhist political thought and intermingled with it producing a unique Tibetan model of State-Sangha interface. On the early stage of Tibetan history of VII-X c. Buddhist community has fallen into dependence on the State patronage and greatly contributed to the deification of Tibetan Emperors as embodiments of Avalokitesvara.