King Nya Tri Tsanpo - 1st king of Tibet

In the second century BC, Nya Tri Tsanpo from India decided he would like to travel to Tibet, (as you do). He set off and when he reached the southern mountains of Tibet, he met some herdsmen. They asked him where he came from, but neither understood the other's language. So they communicated with sign language, (as you do).

Nya Tri Tsanpo gestured in the direction of India, but the herdsmen misunderstood the communication and thought that he was pointing to the sky. As everyone there knows, anyone who comes from the sky is very wise, so they asked Tsanpo to be their leader. Tibet at the time had no leader and the population just wandered around and lived in caves. There were no buildings.

Tsanpo agreed to become their king and set about having the first Tibetan building constructed. It was his palace and stood on the site now occupied by the Potala Palace, which was built on the remains of the original Tsanpo palace, 900 years later.

King Tsanpo followed the Bon religion, which was the original Tibetan pagan religion, involving among other things, the worship of animals.