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Meaning "to fly and never fall",
Tholing is famous through Ngari, founded by Yeshi-O, an outstanding king
of Guge Kingdom at the beginning of 10th century. Yeshi-O was a devout
Buddhist, who ever sent 21 youths to learn Tantric Buddhism in Kashmir.
Only Rinchen Zangpo and another survived and returned. Rinchen Zangpo,
a greatest Buddhist adepter and translator, started to translate Buddhist
sutras and develop Buddhism at Tholing, which was set up by Yeshi-O for
that purpose. Later Yeshi-O was defeated and captured in an ambitious
aggression he launched in order to plunder enough gold to invite Atisa
to his Guge Kingdom to push forward Buddhism. He sacrificed his life to
send his ransom to Atisa. After his arrival, the monastery gained higher
reputation and once became a religious center in Tibet under the royal
patron of the Guge Kingdom. Although it faded after the collapse of the
Guge Kingdom, Tholing still maintains an important place in Tibet after
900 years in consideration of its significance in the second transmission
of Buddhism into Tibet.
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