SRONG-BRTSAN-SGAM-PO

born c. 608 died 650 Tibetan king (crowned 629) who extended his dominion to include Nepal and parts of India and China and whose reign marked the beginning of recorded history in Tibet. He commissioned a court scholar to create the Tibetan written language using an Indo-European model for the script. Because two of his wives, a Nepalese and a Chinese princess, were Buddhists, he is credited by lama historians with introducing Buddhism into Tibet. To house the famous image of the Gautama Buddha brought to Tibet by his Nepalese bride, he built in Lhasa, the capital, the Gtsug-lag-khang temple, which remains Tibetan Buddhism's most sacred place.