This event is said to have occurred in 747 and the epoch is noticeable for two reasons.  Firstly Tibet, which had become an important military power, was now brought into contact both in peace and war with China and Central Asia.  It was predominant in the Tarim Basin and ruled over parts of Ssu-chuan and Yunnan.  China was obliged to pay tribute and when it was subsequently refused the Tibetans sacked the capital, Chang-an.  In 783 China made a treaty of peace with Tibet.  The king was the son of a Chinese princess and thus blood as well as wide experience disposed him to open Tibet to foreign ideas.  But in 747 relations with China were bad, so he turned towards India and invited to his Court a celebrated Pandit named Santarakshita, who advised him to send for Padma-Sambhava.

Secondly this was the epoch when Amogha flourished in China and introduced the Mantrayana system or Chen Yen.  This was the same form of corrupt Buddhism which was brought to Tibet and was obviously the dominant sect in India in the eighth century.  It was pliant and amalgamated easily with local observances, in China with funeral rites, in Tibet with demonolatry.

At this time Padma-Sambhava was one of the most celebrated exponents of Tantric Buddhism, and in Tibet is often called simply the Teacher (Guru or Mahacarya).  His portraits represent him as a man of strongly marked and rather angry features, totally unlike a conventional monk.  A popular account of his life[915] is still widely read and may contain some grains of history, though the narrative as a whole is fantastic.  It describes him as born miraculously in Udyana but as having studied at Bodhgaya and travelled in many regions with the intention of converting all the world.  According to his plan, the conversion of his native land was to be his last labour, and when he had finished his work in Tibet he vanished thither miraculously.  Thus Udyana is not represented as the source and home of Tantric Buddhism but as being like Tibet a land of magic and mystery but, like Tibet, needing conversion:  both are disposed to welcome Tantric ideas but those ideas are elaborated by Padma-Sambhava not in Udyana but in Bengal which from other sources we know to have been a centre of Tantrism.

Some other points of interest in these legends may be noticed.  Padma-Sambhava is not celibate but is accompanied by female companions.  He visits many countries which worship various deities and for each he has a new teaching suited to its needs.  Thus in Tibet, where the older religion consisted of defensive warfare against the attacks of evil spirits,[916] he assumes the congenial character of a victorious exorcist, and in his triumphant progress subdues local demons as methodically as if he were suppressing the guerilla warfare of native tribes.  He has new revelations called Terma which he hides in caves to be discovered by his successors.  These revelations are said to have been in an unknown language.[917] Those at present existing are in Tibetan but differ from the canonical scriptures in certain orthographical peculiarities.  The legend thus admits that Padma-Sambhava preached a non-celibate and magical form of Buddhism, ready to amalgamate with local superstitions and needing new revelations for its justification.