Tibetans

The Empire of Tibet was one of the major powers struggling for control and influence in central Asia from the 7th to the 9th centuries. Over the years Tibet was in conflict with China and the Arabs. The tides of influence ebbed and flowed, often as a result of warfare and political alliances forged to check one great power or another. This story opens in the year 756-757 AD, when the T’ang Chinese influence over the trade-rich Tarim Basin was on the wane.

As the T’ang withdrew their garrison troops to quell the internal rebellion of An Lu Shan, a new “Boy Emperor” comes to power in Tibet.

Born in the year 740, the Emperor Trisong Detseng became known as one of the three great “Dharma Kings” of Tibet. Under his reign Tibet began to expand into the western provinces of the Tarim Basin, and east towards China itself.

As a corollary to this effort, Trisong Detseng invited the Indian holy man Padma to the imperial court, where he supported the interpretation of a new offshoot of Buddhism as Tibet’s “official” state religion. This move created conflict with both the older Bon Po priests of Tibet and the T’ang Chinese Hinayana Buddhist monks that had infiltrated Tibet over the years. Thus Trisong Detseng began to wage war on the T’ang along both religious and military/political fronts.

Militarily, Tibet’s initial aim was to roll back the fortress lines built by the Chinese General Koso Khan along their eastern border. The campaign was aided by a Tibetan alliance with the native peoples of this region. Secondly, Tibet aimed to isolate and weaken the T’ang empire by cutting off the rich trade routes leading into China from the west. To accomplish this, Tibet began to slowly re-occupy the Tarim Basin.

The armies of Tibet were more than a match for the T’ang generals under normal circumstances. China often relied on foreign generals and an infusion of mercenary troops from her outlying provinces, sometimes with disasterous consequences. As this story occurs, most of the Chinese troops in the Western garrison region of the Taklamakan have been withdrawn to the Capitol at Chang’an because of the rebellion fomented by the mercenary general An Lu Shan. Even the T’ang emperor was forced to flee from the capitol city!

Now, with the Chinese distracted by the An Lu Shan rebellion, Tibet was eventually able to cut off the remnant of the Chinese garrisons in the Tarim Basin. They pushed so far that they actually occuppied the capital of China, Chang’an, for a brief period, installing their own puppet emperor there!

Taklamakan-Cover3inch

Tibetan Khur Khan Leader

In Taklamakan, the initial military probes into the Tarim Basin are now underway. They are led by relatively small forces, all loyal house troops from various Tibetan clans that were geographically close to the major infiltration routes north. One such clan is the House of Rana Tenpai, a principal character in the novel. Rana Tenpai is charged with the mission of ascertaining T’ang strength in the region while making emissary to the great city-states of Khotan, Kashgar, Kucha and A’k Su, where the bulk of the Chinese “Four Garrisons” still clung to power.

Rana hopes to reach Khotan and make contact with the emperor’s older sister, the Princess Jewa Drogma, who was given in marriange to the King of Khotan some twenty years earlier. His encounter with the knowledgable trader Tando Ghazi Khan, and his able scout, Artuk of Khotan, provide him with two strong allies in the major character set. As the story progresses, however, Rana is opposed by an alliance of disgruntled clan leaders, Omu Seng Tu and the Tark.

Omu and the Tark are both followers of the old religion of the Bon. They resist the emperor’s decrees concerning Buddhisim, stubbornly clinging to their old rites and religious practices. They are also among the many clan leaders who initially oppose the ascention of Trisong Detseng to the imperial throne in Tibet, believing him to be an ineffective “Boy Emperor” at the time of this story.

This larger civil conflict is played out through the struggle between the various clan leaders as Omu allies himself with the Tark. Rana Tenpai finds himself trying to maintain a delicate coalition under the imperial banner of Tibet. Only the emerging external threat of the T’ang serves to temporarily quell the tides of discontent in the Tibetan ranks, but subtle treachery and betrayal threaten to lead to open conflict between the Tibetan clan leaders as the story progresses


		NOW AVAILABLE IN QUALITY TRADE PAPERBACK

	6” x 9” 568 Pages, 4 maps Author’s Introduction 72 Chapters & Epilogue Afterword Paperback: $17.50 E-Book: $5.50