ŚĀNTARAKṢITA (c. 725–788 CE), an Indian Buddhist scholar and monk also known as Śāntirakṣita and the Great Abbott Bodhisattva, was renowned for his synthesis of diverse streams of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophical thought and for his seminal role in the early transmission of Buddhism to Tibet. Scholarly consensus and Tibetan tradition maintain that Śāntarakṣita made two visits to Tibet, both during the lifetime of the Tibetan king Khri srong lde btsan (c. 740–798). There, Śāntarakṣita supervised the construction of Bsam yas, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, where he ordained the first Tibetan Buddhist monks and taught Buddhist meditation, ethics, and reasoning to the king and his entourage. According to tradition, when the king and his court converted to Buddhism, local Tibetan spirits were upset and caused floods and other calamities throughout Tibet...