Making the God-King: The Religious Reinvention of Founding Figures in Imperial Tibet and Warhammer 40,000.
The founding ruler of the Tibetan Empire, Songtsen Gampo (d. 650), is widely described within Tibetan historiography as an incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, the patron bodhisattva of Tibet. Thus made man, Avalokiteśvara is depicted as working for the benefit of the Tibetan people and the propagation of Buddhism through mundane and miraculous means.