Princess Wencheng

Princess Wencheng (Tibetan: Mung-chang Kungco; Chinese: 文成公主; pinyin: Wénchéng Gōngzhǔ; Wade–Giles: Wen-ch'eng Kung-chu; 628–680/2), surnamed Li, was a member of a minor branch of the royal clan of the Chinese Tang dynasty. In 641, she was granted by Emperor Taizong of Tang to King Songtsän Gampo of Tibet for marriage, an involuntary actor of the emperor's heqin (marriage alliance) policy. She is popularly known in Tibet as Gyasa, or "Chinese wife".

Much of her life has been mythified and used for propaganda purposes. Chinese sources since the Tang dynasty credit her with introducing Chinese culture to Tibet, whereas Tibetan sources credit her, along with Songtsän Gampo's Nepalese wife, Bhrikuti, with introducing Buddhism to Tibet. Traditional Tibetan histories consider both Wencheng and Bhrikuti as physical manifestations of the bodhisattva Tara, although the historical veracity of Bhrikuti is still debated among scholars.

Chinese records mention receiving envoys and tributes in 634 from Songtsän Gampo wherein the king requested (Tibetan sources say demanded) to marry a Chinese princess and was refused. In 635/636 the Tibetan king's forces attacked and defeated the Tuyuhun, who lived around Lake Koko Nor in present-day Qinghai, along an important trade route into China. Songtsän Gampo attacked the Chinese frontier city of Songzhou (OTA l. 607) – Chinese sources say a Tang force defeated his army and he retreated and sent an apology to the Tang emperor. Taizong then agreed (under threat of force, according to Tibetan histories) to marry a Chinese princess to the Tibetan king.

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