Muné Tsenpo () also known as ''Murub Tsenpo'' was the second son of King
Trisong Detsen and the de-facto
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
of
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
(r.797-799), from the
Yarlung dynasty. Since his older brother died at a young age, Muné Tsenpo was enthroned when his father retired, and only reigned for one year and seven months. His name is a
Zhangzhung name, meaning 'Namkha Tsenpo' or 'Sky King'.
King
Trisong Detsen had three sons. The eldest, Mutri Tsenpo, apparently died young. When Trisong Detsen retired in c.797 to take up residence at the Nyugmakhar Palace (sMyug ma mkar) in Zungkhar (Zung mkhar), he handed power to the next eldest surviving son, Muné (Munrub) Tsenpo.
Most sources say that Muné Tsenpo's reign lasted only about a year and a half during which time he held important spiritual convocations at Samye and sponsored legal bills until his death at the age of 17 years. Some western historians believe this would have been too short and suggest he reigned from 797 to 804. The ''Deb-ston'' erroneously records a reign of 17 years, which was his age at death, and may be attributed to a misreading of the Chinese accounts.
The ''
Testament of Ba'' states that Muné Tsenpo insisted that his father's funeral be performed according to Buddhist rather than the
Bon rites.
The Ba source say he tried three times to ensure the equitable distribution of land and property in Tibet; but
Shakabpa writes each time the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. He established four major shrines to worship the
Tripitaka and the
abhisambodhi.
In 799, after a brief reign, Muné Tsenpo was reportedly poisoned on the orders of his mother, Tsephongsa, who was jealous of his wife's beautiful looks. After his death, his brother
Mutik Tsenpo (
Sadnalegs) took the throne and was presumably ruling by 804 CE.
Some sources due to clerical errors have incorrectly listed Mutik Tsenpo and Sadnalegs as two different people. These sources erroneously say that the youngest brother Mutik was said to have been banished to Lhodak Kharchu (lHo-brag or Lhodrag) near the
Bhutan
Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...
ese border for murdering a senior minister, and that Sadnalegs took his place on the throne, although some other people believe he ruled for an indeterminate period.
[Richardson, Hugh. ''A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions'' (1981), p. 44. Royal Asiatic Society, London. .]
References
Sources
Central Asian Studies (Germany)*http://dabase.org/padma-lb.htm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mune Tsenpo
Emperors of Tibet
Buddhist monarchs
8th-century monarchs in Asia
8th-century Tibetan people
8th-century births
Date of birth unknown
Date of death unknown
8th-century Buddhists