eses
Hod and Atisa. The first appears to have been a Tibetan but the pupil of
a teacher who had studied in Nepal. Lo-chen was a Kashmiri and several
other Kashmiri Lamas are mentioned as working in Tibet. Yeses Hod was a
king or chieftain of mNa-ris in western Tibet who is said to have been
disgusted with the debased Tantrism which passed as Buddhism. He
therefore sent young Lamas to study in India and also invited thence
learned monks. The eminent Dharmapala, a monk of Magadha who was on a
pilgrimage in Nepal, became his tutor. Yeses Hod came to an unfortunate
end. He was taken captive by the Raja of Garlog, an enemy of Buddhism,
and died in prison. It is possible that this Raja was the ruler of
Garhwal and a Mohammedan. The political history of the period is far from
clear, but evidently there were numerous Buddhist schools in Bengal,
Kashmir and Nepal and numerous learned monks ready to take up their
residence in Tibet. This readiness has been explained as due to fear of
the rising tide of Islam, but was more probably the result of the revival
of Buddhism in Bengal during the eleventh century. The most illustrious
of these pandits was Atisa[929] (980-1053), a native of Bengal, who was
ordained at Odontapuri and studied in Burma.[930] Subsequently he was
appointed head of the monastery of Vikramasila and was induced to visit
Tibet in 1038.[931] He remained there until his death fifteen years
later; introduced a new calendar and inaugurated the second period of
Tibetan Buddhism which is marked by the rise of successive sects
described as reforms. It may seem a jest to call the teaching of Atisa a
reform, for he professed the Kalacakra, the latest and most corrupt form
of Indian Buddhism, but it was doubtless superior in discipline and
coherency to the native superstitions mixed with debased tantrism, which
it replaced.

As in Japan during the eleventh and twelfth centuries many monasteries
were founded and grew in importance, and what might have happened in
Japan but for the somewhat unscrupulous prescience of Japanese
statesmen actually did happen in Tibet. Among the numerous contending
chiefs none was pre-eminent: the people were pugnacious but
superstitious. They were ready to build and respect when built the
substantial structures required to house monastic communities during
the rigorous winter. Hence the monasteries became the largest and
safest buildings in the land, possessing the double strength of walls
and