Tibetan Empire in the context of "Lhasa"

While the Tibetan Plateau has been inhabited since pre-historic times, most of Tibet's history went unrecorded until the creation of Tibetan script in the 7th century. Tibetan texts refer to the kingdom of Zhangzhung (c. 500 BCE – 625 CE) as the precursor of later Tibetan kingdoms and the originators of the Bon religion. While mythical accounts of early rulers of the Yarlung dynasty exist, historical accounts begin with the introduction of Tibetan script from the unified Tibetan Empire in the 7th century. Following the dissolution of Tibetan Empire and a period of fragmentation in the 9th–10th centuries, a Buddhist revival in the 10th–12th centuries saw the development of three of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

After a period of control by the Mongol Empire and the also Mongol led Yuan dynasty, Tibet effectively became independent in the 14th century and was ruled by a succession of noble houses for the next 300 years. In the 16th century, the Dalai Lama title was created by Altan Khan, and as requested by the family of Altan Khan, seal of authority was granted to the Dalai Lama by the Wanli Emperor. In the 17th century, the senior lama of the Gelug school, the Dalai Lama, became the head of state with the aid of the Khoshut Khanate. Seal of authority and golden sheets were granted by the Shunzhi Emperor to both the Dalai Lama and the founder Güshi Khan of Khoshut Khanate in 1653. In 1717, the Dzungar Khanate invaded Lhasa, killed Lha-bzang Khan of the Khoshut Khanate, which effectively destroyed the Khoshut Khanate. The Qing dynasty then sent military troops in the same year to fight the Dzungars, but failed.

Tibet (/tɪˈbɛt/ ), Xizang or Hsi-tsang is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau. It is the homeland of the Tibetans. Other ethnic groups also reside on the plateau, including Mongols, the Monpa, the Tamang, the Qiang, the Sherpa, the Lhoba, and since the 20th century, the Han and the Hui. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 4,380 m (14,000 ft). Lying within the Himalayas, the highest point in Tibet is Mount Everest – the highest peak on Earth, standing 8,848 m (29,000 ft) above sea level.

The Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century. At its height in the 9th century, the Tibetan Empire extended far beyond the Tibetan Plateau, from the Tarim Basin and Pamirs in the west, to Yunnan and Bengal in the southeast. It then collapsed and divided into a variety of territories in the 9th century after the battle of U-Yor (Chinese:伍约之战 Tibetan:དབུ་གྱོར་བཁྲུག་པ་བྱས). Lhasa was central part of Wu Ru (Chinese:伍如 Tibetan: དབུ་རུ), the battle of U-Yor lasted for 12 years in Wu Ru and also marked the end of Wu Ru.

The Uyghurs, alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as the titular nationality of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China. They are one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities.

The Uyghurs have traditionally inhabited a series of oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin. These oases historically functioned as independent states or came under the control of various civilizations, including Chinese, Mongol, Tibetan, and Turkic powers. The Uyghurs gradually started to become Islamized in the 10th century, and most Uyghurs identified as Muslims by the 16th century. Islam has since played an important role in Uyghur culture and identity.

The Yarlung dynasty (Tibetan: བོད་ཀྱི་གདོད་མའི་མངའ་མཛད།) was a Tibetan dynasty that existed from 127 BCE to 842 CE. It produced 42 rulers and gave rise to the Tibetan Empire period from 614 CE to 848 CE, credited to the 33rd monarch Songtsen Gampo, and lasting through to the 40th monarch Ralpachen. Ralpachen was murdered in 838 by his brother, the future 41st monarch Ü Dum Tsen, who in turn ruled for only one year (841–842) until his own murder. The dissolution of the empire occurred by 848.

The early Yarlung dynasty rulers lived before the Tibetan script was created, and their reigns and lives were documented through the lineage of verbal history until c. 650 when in the reign of the 33rd king of the Yarlung Dynasty Songtsen Gampo, the Tibetan alphabet and grammar were created and the royal record keeping of people and events called the Chronicle of Ba began. While some scholars feel unsure of the definitive existence due to the lack of written records before 650, the verbal lineage of Tibetan history is considered definitive for most scholars.

The Era of Fragmentation (Tibetan: སིལ་ཆད་དུ་འཆད་པ) was an era of disunity in Tibetan history lasting from the death of the Tibetan Empire's last emperor, Langdarma, in 842 until Drogön Chögyal Phagpa became the Imperial Preceptor of the three regions of Tibet in 1253, following the Mongol conquest in the 1240s. During this period, the political unity of the Tibetan Empire collapsed following the Battle of U-Yor [zh] between Yumtän (Yum brtan) and Ösung (’Od-srung), after which followed numerous rebellions against the remnants of imperial Tibet and the rise of regional warlords.

Emperor Daizong of Tang (11 November 726 – 10 June 779), personal name Li Yu (name changed in 758 after being created crown prince), né Li Chu (Chinese: 李俶), was an emperor of the Chinese Tang dynasty.

Emperor Daizong was the eldest son of Emperor Suzong – the first emperor of the Tang dynasty to succeed as the eldest child. During the Anshi Rebellion (which Emperor Suzong's entire reign was dedicated to fighting), he served as a general of Tang and Huige joint operations that recaptured the capital Chang'an and the eastern capital Luoyang from the rebel state of Yan, and the Anshi Rebellion was finally put down early in his own reign, in 763. However, thereafter, the Tang state was plagued by warlords such as Tian Chengsi, Li Baochen, and Liang Chongyi who essentially governed their realms as independent states while only pledging nominal loyalty to the emperor. This would prove disastrous for future generations as subsequent Tang emperors were unable to remove or control these warlords and the central government's power was thus slowly eroded and diminished. The power of the warlords would not prevent the Tang western territories from being overrun by Tibetan invasions and eventually lost to the Tibetan Empire, which even managed to capture Chang'an in 763 for a short period before being expelled.

Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 1878 – 26 October 1945) was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and Chinese texts at the Sachu printing center storage caves (Dunhuang), known as the Dunhuang manuscripts.

A hyperpolyglot, he spoke 13 Oriental languages, including among othersMandarin and Cantonese , Turkish, Russian, Mongolian, Hebrew, Uzbek, Pashto, and Tagalog, as well as Sanskrit, and even rarer languages such as Uyghur, and extinct languages Sogdian, and Tocharian.

Buddhism in Central Asia mainly existed in Mahayana forms and was historically especially prevalent along the Silk Road. The history of Buddhism in Central Asia is closely related to the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism during the first millennium of the common era. Buddhism dominated in Pre-Islamic Central Asia. It has been argued that the spread of Indian culture and religions, especially Buddhism, as far as Sogdia, corresponded to the rule of the Kidarites over the regions from Sogdia to Gandhara.

Buddhism has now been largely replaced by Islam in modern Central Asia. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have the most Buddhists, largely practiced by their Koryo-saram minority, although the former has the lowest percentage of Buddhists. Due to historical Tibetan, Mongol and Manchurian influence, Kyrgyzstan has the highest percentage of Buddhists in Central Asia.