Tibet's Lotus-Born guru was hired, in the oldest telling, to subdue angry local gods
When floods and lightning convinced Tibet's court that local spirits opposed Buddhism, a tantric adept from Oddiyana was called in to tame them. Padmasambhava cleared the way for Samye, Tibet's first monastery, then was asked to leave amid fears he wanted power. Later legend made him a second Buddha.
The earliest chronicle, the Testament of Ba, sets the scene under King Trisong Detsen, who reigned from 755. The king had invited the Indian abbot Shantarakshita to found a monastery at Samye, but a flooded temple and a lightning strike on the palace turned courtiers against the project. Shantarakshita retreated to Nepal and returned with Padmasambhava, who called out the local gods, threatened them into submission, taught tantric yoga and performed rituals for the king's long life. Manuscripts from Dunhuang also mention a demon-taming master of that name, though without linking him to the king.
Earlier Tibetologists doubted he existed at all; Lewis Doney says his historicity is now cautiously accepted. Of the many writings credited to him, the likeliest genuine ones include The Garland of Views, a commentary on part of the Guhyagarbha tantra. His teachings were circulating in Tibet by the 10th century.
From the 12th century the legend snowballed. The treasure-revealer Nyangrel Nyima Ozer produced The Copper Palace, the first full biography, in which the guru appears as an eight-year-old boy seated in a lotus on Lake Dhanakosha. Other versions give him a royal mother or have him materialise on a Sri Lankan peak. In the 14th century Orgyen Lingpa's Lotus Testament of 1352 set out his 11 deeds in full, and tradition eventually counted 9,999 biographies. Stories place him at Rewalsar Lake with the princess Mandarava, in caves in Nepal and at Muktinath before he crossed into Tibet.
By the end of the 12th century his story had eclipsed rival founding narratives. The Nyingma school treats him as its founder and believes he hid treasure texts for later discoverers. He is venerated across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and the Indian Himalaya.
Source: Padmasambhava
