The Cha-Bonism period started from the reign under Drigum Tsenpo (ca. the 2nd century BC), the eighth king of the Tubo Kingdom, to the reign under Songtsen Gampo (the 7th century). It was an important period when the Bon religion underwent qualitative changes. The great reform and development of the religion in this period was mainly due to the open measures issued by Drigum Tsenpo, the eighth king of the Tubo Kingdom. For example, Drigum Tsenpo "invited three masters of the Bon religion from Kashmir, Gilgit and Shangshung respectively to drive away evil spirits and to have luck as well as practising other religious activities. Among them, the first master had the ability to ride on a drum to soar up to the sky to seek secret treasures relying on his sorcery and witchcraft. He also showed his magic power through cutting a piece of iron with a feather. The second one practiced divination with colored threads, oracles, fresh blood and others to foretell weal and woe. The third one was adept at cracking down the malicious ghosts, helping the dead in ascension and other funeral and death rituals." The quotation describes Drigum Tsenpo’s reform or enrichment to the outdated Bon religion through introduction of superb sorcery from peripheral regions. From then on, the Bon religion ended its primitiveness and immaturity and entered a new stage featuring active introduction of senior practical theurgies.

According to the Great Chinese-Tibetan Compendium, “during the reign of Drigum Tsenpo, the new teachings of the Bon religion was introduced from Shangshung and Gilgit. During the reign of Prince Pude Gungyal, the teachings of Drungkhen and Terdrung appeared, and there arose the Tanponpo Rinpoche Sect of the Bon religion." It indicated that, during the reign of Drigum Tsenpo, the Bon religion started to gradually end the history of relying simply on sorcery while lacking of teachings and rituals, and formed its own "theoretical system". In his book Tibetan Civilization, Rolf Alfred Stein pointed out: "Dragonpa, a Tibetan theologist in the 12th century, said that the Cha-Bonism is the starting point of the Bon religion with an established philosophical system, and the phenomenon was influenced by the teachings of the Siva Sect." Siva, meaning freedom of worldly cares in Sanskrit, is one of the principal gods of Brahmanism and Hinduism, representing the god of creation, destruction, asceticism and dancing. On Deva Nirvana states that the world is the body of Siva, and the void is its head and the land its trunk. Siva, with two other gods, Brahma and Vishnu, symbolize the creation, existence and destruction of the universe. No idols are enshrined in some monasteries of Siva Sect, and instead, a cow or the male genitalia is worshiped as symbols of Siva for prayer and sacrifice practice. Records on Folklore in Tibet also points out: "Thereafter, Master Qingqoin, a famous scholar of the Bon religion, introduced into Tubo the theories of six philosophical sects in the period of Buddha Sakyamuni, and combined these exotic theories with local Bon religion to form a new set of theory, that is the Cha-Bonism."

From the aforesaid records, we can learn that the Cha-Bonism was formed through the combination and integration of the local Bon religion in the Dor-Bonism with the exotic religious thoughts introduced from India and other peripheral regions, and reached a certain theoretical level. And, Cha-Bonism, taking shape based on Dor-Bonism, stemmed from the Dor-Bonism with a close linkage between them.