Protests and uprisings in Tibet since 1950 The minor kingdoms and tribal states of the region were first united under Songtsen Gampo to form the Tibetan Empire in the seventh century CE Under the influence of his Chinese bride and first Nepali wife Bhrikuti, the Emperor converted to Buddhism and established it as the religion of Tibet. An influx of Chinese culture, the Indian alphabet, and Buddhist monks followed, combining with the native customs and animistic religion Bön to give birth to what has become today's ethnic Tibetan people and Tibetan Buddhism, also known as Lamaism, After the break-up of the Tibetan Empire in the mid-9th century,
Yana (Buddhism) of the Nyingma school, Dudjom Rinpoche emphasizes the eight lower vehicles are intellectually fabricated and contrived: Another schema associated with Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna sources: Yana (Buddhism) Yāna (Sanskrit and Pāli: "vehicle") refers to a mode or method of spiritual practice in Buddhism, and in particular to divisions of various schools of Buddhism according to their type of practice. In form, yāna is a neuter noun derived from the Sanskrit root yā- meaning to "go to" or "move" or "reach". The suffix employed to form this noun may have different values: while primarily yāna is understood to refer to the means