He built the monastery of Samye[918] about thirty miles from Lhasa on the model of Odantapuri in Bengal.  Santarakshita became abbot and from this period dates the foundation of the order of Lamas.[919] Mara (Thse Ma-ra) was worshipped as well as the Buddhas, but however corrupt the cultus may have been, Samye was a literary centre where many translations were made.  Among the best known translators was a monk from Kashmir named Vairocana.[920] It would appear however that there was considerable opposition to the new school not only from the priests of the old native religion but from Chinese Buddhists.[921]

Numerous Tibetan documents discovered in the Tarim basin[922] date from this period.  The absence in them of Buddhist personal names and the rarity of direct references to Buddhism indicate that though known in Tibet it was not yet predominant.  Buddhist priests (ban-de) are occasionally mentioned but the title Lama has not been found.  The usages of the Bonpo religion seem familiar to the writers and there are allusions to religious struggles.

When Padma-Sambhava vanished from Tibet, the legend says that he left behind him twenty-five disciples, all of them magicians, who propagated his teaching.  At any rate it flourished in the reign of Ralpachan (the grandson of Khri-sron-lde-btsan).  Monasteries multiplied and received land and the right to collect tithes.  To each monk was assigned a small revenue derived from five tenants and the hierarchy was reorganized.[923] Many translators were at work in this period and a considerable part of the present canon was then rendered into Tibetan.  The king’s devotion to Buddhism was however unpopular and he was murdered[924] apparently at the instigation of his brother and successor Lang-dar-ma,[925] who endeavoured to extirpate Lamaism.  Monasteries were destroyed, books burnt, Indian monks were driven out of the country and many Lamas were compelled to become hunters or butchers.  But the persecution only lasted three years,[926] for the wicked king was assassinated by a Lama who has since been canonized by the Church and the incident of his murder or punishment is still acted in the mystery plays performed at Himis and other monasteries.

After the death of Lang-dar-ma Tibet ceased to exist as a united kingdom and was divided among clans and chieftains.  This was doubtless connected with the collapse of Tibetan power in the Tarim basin, but whether as effect or cause it is hard to say.  The persecution may have had a political motive:  Lang-dar-ma may have thought that the rise of monastic corporations, and their right to own land and levy taxes were a menace to unity and military efficiency.  But the political confusion which followed on his death was not due to the triumphant restoration of Lamaism.  Its recovery was slow.  The interval during which Buddhism almost disappeared is estimated by native authorities as from 73 to 108 years, and its subsequent revival is treated as a separate period called phyi-dar or later diffusion in contrast to the sna-dar or earlier diffusion.  The silence of ecclesiastical history during the tenth century confirms the gravity of the catastrophe.[927] On the other hand the numerous translations made in the ninth century were not lost and this indicates that there were monasteries to preserve them, for instance Samye.