Darma U Dum Tsen (Tibetan: དར་མ་འུ་དུམ་བཙན, Wylie: dar ma 'u dum btsan), better known as Langdarma (Tibetan: གླང་དར་མ།, Wylie: glang dar ma, THL: Lang Darma, lit. "Mature Bull" or "Darma the Bull"), was the last king of the Tibetan Empire who in 838 killed his brother, Tritsuk Detsen, then reigned from 841 until his assassination in 842. His reign led to the dissolution of the Tibetan Empire, which had extended beyond the Tibetan Plateau to include the Silk Roads with the Tibetan manuscript center at Sachu (Dunhuang), and neighbouring regions in China, Afghanistan, and India. He was assassinated by a Buddhist monk Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje.
Contents
History
Earlier in his life as a Tibetan prince, Langdarma was Buddhist, but under the influence of Wégyel Toré (Wylie: dbas rgyal to re), he became a follower of Bon, after which he assassinated his brother King Ralpachen, in 838. Following this, he widely persecuted Tibetan monks, nuns, and destroyed their monasteries which were those of the Nyingma school, the only school of Tibetan Buddhism at that time.
Langdarma only reigned for a year to a year and a half, before his own death. Another source says the reign was either six or thirteen years. A Buddhist hermit or monk named Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje is often credited with assassinating Langdarma in 842, or in 846, but other sources credit Nyingma master Nubchen Sangye Yeshe with frightening him to death after Langdarma threatened the practitioners in Nubchen Sangye Yeshe's monastic institute. His death was followed by civil war and the dissolution of the Tibetan empire, leading to the Era of Fragmentation.