Setting aside the earliest period, the history of Buddhism in Tibet is briefly that it was established by Padma-Sambhava about 750, reformed by Atisa about 1040 and again reformed by Tsong-kha-pa about 1400.  The sects correspond to these epochs.  The oldest claims to preserve the teaching of Padma-Sambhava, those of middle date are offshoots of the movement started by Atisa, and the newest represents Atisa’s principal sect corrected by the second reformation.  The oldest sect is known as Nying-ma-pa or rNyin-ma-pa, signifying the old ones, and also as the Red Church from the colour of the hats worn by the clergy.  Among its subdivisions one called the sect of Udyana,[1058] in reference to Padma-Sambhava’s birthplace, appears to be the most ancient and still exists in the Himalayas and eastern Tibet.  The Nying-ma Lamas are said to have kept the necromancy of the old Tibetan religion more fully than any of the reformed sects.  They pay special worship to Padma-Sambhava and accept the revelations ascribed to him.  Celibacy and abstinence are rarely observed in their monasteries but these are by no means of low repute.  Among the more celebrated are Dorje-dag and Mindolling:  the great monastery of Pemiongchi[1059] in Sikhim is a branch establishment of the latter.

Of the sects originating in Atisa’s reformation the principal was the Kadampa,[1060] but it has lost much of its importance because it was remodelled by Tsong-kha-pa and hence hardly exists to-day as an independent body.  The Sakya sect is connected with the great monastery of the same name situated about fifty miles to the north of Mount Everest and founded in 1071 by Sakya, a royal prince.  It acquired great political importance, for from 1270 to 1340 its abbots were the rulers of Tibet.  The historian Taranatha belonged to one of its sub-sects, and about 1600 settled in Mongolia where he founded the monastery of Urga and established the line of reincarnate Lamas which still rules there.  But shortly after his death this monastery was forcibly taken over by the Yellow Church and is still the centre of its influence in Mongolia.  In theology the Sakya offers nothing specially distinctive but it mixes the Tantras of the old and new sects and according to Waddell[1061] is practically indistinguishable from the Nying-ma-pa.  The same is probably true of the Kar-gyu-pa[1062] said to have been founded by Marpa and his follower Milarapa, who set an example of solitary and wandering lives.  It is sometimes described as a Nying-ma sect[1063] but appears to date from after Atisa’s reforms, although it has a strong tendency to revert to older practices.  It has several important sub-sects, such as the Karmapa found in Sikhim and Darjiling, as well as in Tibet, the Dugpa which is predominant in Bhotan and perhaps in Ladak,[1064] and the Dikung-pa, which owns a large monastery one hundred miles north-east of Lhasa.  Milarapa (or Mila), the cotton-clad saint who wandered over the Snow-land in the light garments of an Indian ascetic, is perhaps the post picturesque figure in Lamaism and in some ways reminds us of St. Francis of Assisi.[1065] He was a worker of miracles and, what is rarer in Tibet, a poet.  His compositions known as the Hundred Thousand Songs are still popular and show the same delicately sensitive love of nature as the Psalms of the Theragatha.