The Treasury of Lives

Few details are known of the life of Takdra Lukong (stag sgra klu khong) of the Ngenlam (ngan lam) clan outside his service to the Tibetan empire. A pillar inscription erected in his honor describes Takdra Lukong's achievements and emphasizes his role in the Tibetan sack of the Tang capital at Chang'an in 763. This pillar inscription now stands in Zhol, at the base of the Potala, but, as Guntram Hazod has demonstrated with recourse to murals in the Potala and textual sources, it has only been in this location since the late seventeenth century. At that time Desi Sanggye Gyatso (sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, 1653-1705) moved the pillar inscription from the Si (sri) Valley, located to the north of Lhasa and Penyul ('phan yul). The Si valley, also known as Tri (kri), lies in the area of Ngenlam, the ancestral homeland of the eponymous clan. The pillar stood here at the base of a large tomb, which is most likely that of Takdra Lukong.

The stone inscription, customarily referred to as the Zhol Pillar, but nowadays also as the Si Pillar, is often cited as the earliest extant Tibetan writing. It is also remarkable for the fact that it includes our earliest extant Tibetan biographical writings, which are of a eulogistic character. The south-face inscription tells us that Lukong served as a councilor under Tri Detsuktsen (khri lde gtsug rtsan, 704-c.754) during the coup that resulted in this king's assassination in c. 754. It states that Lukong exposed the chief conspirators, Lang Nyezig (rlang myes zigs, died c. 756) and Bel Dongtsab ('bal ldong tshab, died c. 756), to the young king Tri Songdetsen (khri srong lde brtsan, 742-c.800), and in this way restored order. Lukong was appointed as a councilor of the interior, and offered loyal service.

The final two thirds of the south-face inscription describe how he was appointed general in charge of the campaign against the area of Kartsen (khar tsan), and how he and other Tibetan generals sacked Chang'an after the Tang emperor refused to pay an agreed annual tribute to Tibet. The narrative is punctuated with formulaic praise, and it is with such praise that it closes: “Lukong was loyal, and performed difficult duties for the benefit of the realm.” The brief east-face inscription mentions Takdra Lukong's appointments as great interior minister and great judicial officer, but it is mostly devoted to eulogistic praise concerning Lukong's loyal performance of difficult duties for the benefit of the Tibetan people.

Other roughly contemporary sources give us a mixed picture of Lukong's career. An administrative record, the Old Tibetan Annals, mentions his role in the sack of Chang'an. A narrative history, the Old Tibetan Chronicle, leaves him out of its narration of this event. Lukong is found, however, in the Old Tibetan Chronicle's succession of chief councilors, where he serves between Chim Gyelzik Shuteng (mchims rgyal zigs shu teng, fl. 760s–783) and Nanam Gyeltsen Lhanang (sna nam rgyal mtshan lha snang, fl. late-8th century). The Samye Edict (bsam yas bka' gtsigs), preserved in the Scholar's Feast (mkhas pa'i dga' ston) similarly lists Lukong as the second councilor to swear the oath to uphold the Buddhist religion, behind the chief councilor Chim Gyelzik Shuteng. The Tangshu, which may know Lukong by the name Ma Zhongying (马重英), never mentions him in this context, but records the succession of office from Chim Gyelzik Shuteng to Nanam Gyeltsen Lhanang in the year 782. Assuming that Lukong did hold this office, we can assume that he did so for such a short time that the Chinese were unaware of it.

The unevenness of this portrait is due in part to the respective characters of these sources. The Zhol Pillar / Sri Pillar is a eulogistic praise; the Old Tibetan Annals and the Tangshu are largely administrative records, and the Old Tibetan Chronicle is a chronicle-epic. The Chronicle's elision of Lukong from its account of the sack of Chang'an, however, might be seen as a clue to the subsequent portrayals of Lukong as an anti-Buddhist villain. Barring a fall from grace, e.g., losing his post (and in all likelihood his life) as chief councilor, it is difficult to square the representation of Lukong as a hero in the Zhol Pillar/ Sri Pillar and in the Old Tibetan Annals with the representation of him as a villain in later Tibetan Buddhist histories.

The dissonance is such that some have even contended that it is due to the conflation of two Takdra Lukongs, a point that can be easily dismissed. In the Testimony of the Ba Clan (sba bzhed), his name is spelled slightly differently as Ngenlam Takra Lugong (ngan lam rtag ra klu gong), and he appears as an ally of the notorious Mazhang Trompakye (ma zhang khrom pa skyes, fl. mid-8th century) in his opposition to Tri Songdetsen's attempts to convert the Tibetans to Buddhism. In the Buddhist versus Bon debate, Lukong is a speaker for the Bon. At the construction of Samye Monastery, Lukong builds the black stupa into which Bon texts would be interred during an anti-Bon purge. In the end, he baldly states his hatred for Buddhism and his love for Bon, and Tri Songdetsen banishes him to the north. This basic outline of Lukong's career was taken up by subsequent Tibetan histories such as Khepa Deu’s (mkhas pa lde'u, 13th century) Extended history of Buddhism in India and Tibet  (rgya bod kyi chos 'byung rgyas pa), the Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies (rgyal rabs gsal ba'i me long), and the Scholar's Feast.

A less famous but no less colorful image of Lukong as an anti-Buddhist villain is found in the Instructions for Overturning and Destroying the Demonic (man ngag sri can sbubs gshig) of Lelung Zhepe Dorje (sle lung bzhad pa'i rdo rje, 1697-1740). Here Lukong insists on having a Bon funeral, as a result of which he is reborn as repentant ant in a pile of dung.

Predictably, Bon histories such as the Utterance Resounding in the Jeweled Realm (bsgrags pa rin chen gling grags) see the situation otherwise. Here, Takdra Lukong and Mazhang Trompakye are exemplary councilors who try to talk sense into Emperor Tri Songdetsen, a wayward and vacillatory figure. Despite their valiant efforts, Lukong flees to the north during one of the anti-Bon purges. This is essentially the inverse of the narrative in the Testimony of the Ba Clan, but one that is almost equally dissonant with regard to the depiction of Lukong in contemporary sources.

Lukong's legacy to his descendants, as published in the north-face inscription of the Zhol Pillar/ Si Pillar, included ministerial insignia of the greater silver rank, preferential treatment with regard to promotions and also to charges brought against them, and inalienable rights to their service tenure lands. They were also granted leadership of the royal guard district of Penyul. Only Lukong's father, Dagong (zla gong) and his grandfather Seleb (gsas slebs), are mentioned by name. One Dunhuang document, ITJ 149, however, mentions a younger brother of Lukong, a certain Ngenlam Gyelchokyong (ngan lam rgyal mchog skyong, mid-8th century), who lived as a Buddhist hermit. Otherwise, Lukong's descendants are unknown.