Of Tibetan Buddhism anterior to 747 there is little to be said.  It consisted in the sporadic introduction of books and images from India and did not assume any national character, for it is clear that in this period Tibet was not regarded as a Buddhist country.  The first phase deserving the name of Lamaism begins with the arrival of Padma-Sambhava in 747.  The Nying-ma-pa or Old School claims to represent his teaching, but, as already mentioned, the various sects have interacted on one another so much that their tenets are hardly distinctive.  Still it is pretty clear that what Padma-Sambhava brought with him was the late form of India Buddhism called Mantrayana, closely allied to the Chen Yen of China, and transported to Japan under the name of Shingon and also to the Buddhism of Java as represented in the sculptures of Boroboedoer.  The Far East felt shy of the tantric element in this teaching, whereas the Tibetans exaggerated it, but the doctrinal basis is everywhere the same, namely, that there are five celestial Buddhas, of whom Vairocana is the principal and in some sense the origin.  These give rise to celestial emanations, female as well as male, and to terrestrial reflexes such as Sakyamuni.  Among the other features of Padma-Sambhava’s teaching the following may be enumerated with more or less certainty:  (a) A readiness to tolerate and incorporate the local cults of the countries where he preached. (b) A free use of spells (dharani) and magical figures (mandala) for the purpose of subduing demons and acquiring supernatural powers. (c) The belief that by such methods an adept can not only summon a deity but assume his form and in fact become the deity. (d) The worship of Amitabha, among other deities, and a belief in his paradise. (e) The presentation of offerings, though not of flesh, in sacrifice[1018] and the performance of ceremonies on behalf of departed souls. (f) The worship of departed and perhaps of living teachers.  His image is a conspicuous object of veneration in the Nying-ma-pa sect but he does not appear to have taught the doctrine of hierarchical succession by incarnation.  Grunwedel[1019] has pointed out that the later corruptions of Buddhism in northern India, Tibet and Central Asia are connected with the personages known as the eighty-four Mahasiddhas, or great magicians.  Their appearance as shown in pictures is that of Brahmanic ascetics rather than of Buddhist Bhikshus, but many of them bear names which are not Indian.  Their dates cannot be fixed at present and appear to cover a period from the early centuries of our era up to about 1200, so that they represent not a special movement but a continuous tendency to import into Buddhism very various currents of thought, north Indian, Iranian, Central Asian and even Mohammedan.