The so-called First Diffusion of the Doctrine (Tib., snga dar) - also named Ngagyur (Tib., snga 'gyur; "Early Translations") - is mainly associated with Tibetan individuals such as king Trisong Detsen and Yeshe Tsogyal (a young wife of his), the Indian masters Santarakshita, Kamalasila, Vairocana, and Vimalamitra, wandering yoginis such as Mahasukhasiddhi and - last not least - Padmasambhava, the accomplished Tantric and Buddhist adept invited from western Uddiyana.
Of these, it was especially Padmasambhava who actively taught and initiated many Tibetan women and men, spreading those teachings which became established - though much later - as the Nyingmapa lineage (see stage 4). Most often, the so-called Twenty Five Siddhas of Chimphu are regarded as his most important and earliest students, yet Guru Rinpoche also seems to have had not only his innermost circle of five major consorts, but also another Inner Circle of Thirty Extraordinary Women with Wisdom, mentioned and so named in a Dzogchen text entitled A Very Clear Picture.
Simultaneously with this oral spread of new teachings, more than a hundred Indian panditas (i.e. learned scholars) aided an equal number of Tibetans in translating Sanskrit scriptures (both Buddhist Sutras and Hindu Tantras) into Tibetan.
Although the activities during this period did engender the establishment of the first Tibetan monastery (Samye, founded in 779) and of Vajrayana as the official state religion, the main result of the large scale import of Sutras and Tantras was a growing group of non-monastic and non-celibate practitioners of this so-called "Esoteric Buddhism" or "Buddhist Tantra".