Zhang Zhung culture (Tibetan: ཞང་ཞུང་; OTT: Shangshung) is an ancient culture of western and northwestern Tibet which pre-dated Tibetan Buddhism and is best known as the source of the Bön religion. Also known as the Shang Shung, the Zhang Zhung are mentioned frequently in ancient Tibetan texts as the original rulers of central and western Tibet. Only in the last two decades have archaeologists been given access to do archaeological work in the areas controlled by the Zhang Zhung; also the exile of Bönpo priests to India in the wake of Communist takeover has brought to light a great deal of historical information about the Zhang Zhung that was previously suppressed by the ruling Gelugpas. Om Mani Padme Hum, the primary mantra of Tibetan Buddhism written in the Tibetan script, on a rock outside the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. ... The official Tibetan transcription is based on the Lhasa dialect and reflects the pronunciation very accurately, except that it doesnt mark tones. ... Tibet (older spelling Thibet; Tibetan: བོད་, Bod, pronounced pö in Lhasa dialect; Chinese: 西藏, Pinyin: XÄ«zàng or Chinese: 藏区, Pinyin: ZàngqÅ« [the two names are used with different connotations; see Name section below]) is a region in Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. ... Tibetan Buddhism is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the Himalayan region, Mongolia, Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia (Russia), and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). ... Bön has typically been described as the shamanistic religion in Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism in the 7th century. ... The Geluk (dge lugs) School was founded by Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), Tibets best known religious reformer and arguably its greatest philosopher. ...

Recently, a tentative match has been proposed between the Zhang Zhung and an Iron Age culture now being uncovered on the Chang Tang plateau of northwestern Tibet. Iron Age Axe found on Gotland This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age, for the mythological Iron Age see Iron Age (mythology). ...

Extent of the Zhang Zhung kingdoms

According to Annals of Lake Manasarowar, at one point the Zhang Zhung civilization was comprised of 18 kingdoms in the west and northwest portion of Tibet. The Zhang Zhung culture was centered around sacred Mount Kailash and extended west to Sarmatians and present-day Ladakh, southwest to Jalandhara, south to the kingdom of Mustang in Nepal, east to include central Tibet, and north across the vast Chang Tang plateau and the Taklamakan desert to Shanshan. Thus the Zhang Zhung culture controlled the major portion of the "roof of the world". Mount Kailash (also Hindi कैलाश पर्वत,Mount Kailas, Kailasa, Kangrinbogê Feng, or Gangdise Shan) is the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia: the Indus River, the Sutlej River and the Brahmaputra River. ... Sarmatia Europæa separated from Sarmatia Asiatica by the Tanais (the River Don), based on Greek literary sources, in a map printed in London, ca 1770. ... Tikse monastery, Ladakh Ladakh is the largest district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, covering more than half the area of the state (of which it is the eastern part). ... small alley in Jalandhar, close to the fish-market rikshaws with bananas in Jalandhar, close to the fish-market Jalandhar is a city in the state of Punjab, India. ... Mustang (Mustan) is part of the Kingdom of Nepal, in the north-east of that country, bordering Tibet on the Central Asian plateau between the Nepalese provinces of Dolpo and Manang. ... Tibet (older spelling Thibet; Tibetan: བོད་, Bod, pronounced pö in Lhasa dialect; Chinese: 西藏, Pinyin: XÄ«zàng or Chinese: 藏区, Pinyin: ZàngqÅ« [the two names are used with different connotations; see Name section below]) is a region in Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. ... The Taklamakan is a desert of Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Shanshan (鄯善; pinyin: Shànshàn ) is the Chinese name for Loulan, a kingdom that existed roughly from 200BC-1000AD at the north-east of the Taklamakan desert. ...

The Zhang Zhung capital city was said to be Khyunglung Ngülkhar, the "Silver Palace of Garuda Valley", southwest of Mount Kailash, which is identified with ruins found in the upper Sutlej Valley, in the modern Kinnaur District of Himachal Pradesh, India. Garuda according to Ida Made Tlaga, an 19th century Balinese artist. ... Mount Kailash (also Hindi कैलाश पर्वत,Mount Kailas, Kailasa, Kangrinbogê Feng, or Gangdise Shan) is the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia: the Indus River, the Sutlej River and the Brahmaputra River. ... The Sutlej is a river that flows through Northern India, with its source in Tibet. ... Kinnaur is one of twelve administrative districts of Himachal Pradesh, India. ... Himachal Pradesh (Devanagari: िहमाचल प्रदेश), formally the Punjab Hill States, is a mostly mountainous state in northwest India. ...

The Zhang Zhung built a towering fort, Chugtso Dropo, on the shores of sacred Lake Dangra, from which they exerted military power over the surrounding district in central Tibet.

The fact that the some of the ancient texts describing the Zhang Zhung kingdom also claimed the Sutlej valley was Shambhala, the land of happiness (from which James Hilton possibly derived the name "Shangri La"), may have delayed their study by Western scholars. The Sutlej is a river that flows through Northern India, with its source in Tibet. ... In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala (also spelled Shambala or Shamballa) is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas. ... James Hilton (September 9, 1900 - December 20, 1954) was a popular English novelist of the first half of the 20th century. ... Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the novel, Lost Horizon, written by British writer James Hilton in 1933. ...

History of the Zhang Zhung

Paleolithic findings

Pollen and tree ring analysis indicates the Chang Tang plateau was a much more liveable environment until becoming drier and colder starting around 1500 BC. One theory is that the civilization established itself on the plateau when conditions where less harsh, then managed to persist against gradually worsening climatic conditions until finally expiring around 1000 AD (the area is now used only by wandering nomads). This timeframe also corresponds to the rise of the Tibetan kingdoms in the southern valleys which may also have contributed to the decline of the plateau culture. SEM image of pollen grains from a variety of common plants: sunflower (Helianthus annuus), morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea), hollyhock (Sildalcea malviflora), lily (Lilium auratum), primrose (Oenothera fruticosa), and castor bean (Ricinus communis). ... Pinus taeda Cross section showing annual rings Cheraw, South Carolina Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the method of scientific dating based on the analysis of tree ring patterns. ... (Redirected from 1500 BC) Centuries: 17th century BC - 16th century BC - 15th century BC Decades: 1550s BC 1540s BC 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC - 1500s BC - 1490s BC 1480s BC 1470s BC 1460s BC 1450s BC Events and Trends Stonehenge built in Wiltshire, England The element Mercury has been... // Events World Population 300 million. ... Kazakh nomads in the steppes of the Russian Empire, ca. ...

Iron Age culture of the Chang Tang — the Zhang Zhung?

Recent archeological work on the Chang Tang plateau finds evidence of an Iron Age culture which some have tentatively identified as the Zhang Zhung. This culture is notable for the following characteristics: Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and Sichuan Province of China lie on the Tibetan Plateau. ...

• a system of hilltop stone forts or citadels, likely used as a defense against the steppe tribes of Central Asia, such as the Scythians
• burial complexes which use vertical tombstones, occasionally in large arrays, and including up to 10,000 graves in one location
• stone temples located in the mountains adjacent to the plains, characterized by windowless rooms, corbelled stone roofs, and round walls
• evidence of a stratified social structure, as indicated by royal or princely tombs
• petroglyphs which shows the culture was a warrior horse culture

These characteristics more closely match the Iron age cultures of Europe and the Asian steppes than those of India or East Asia, suggesting a cultural influence which arrived from the west or north rather than the east or south. Fortifications (Latin fortis, strong, and facere, to make) are military constructions designed for defensive warfare. ... A steppe in Western Kazakhstan in early spring In physical geography, a steppe (Russian степь or step and pronounced in English as step) is a plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); it is similar to a prairie, although a prairie is generally considered as being dominated by... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by an Indo-Aryans known as the Scythians. ... Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, southern Utah, USA Petroglyphs are images incised in rock, usually by prehistoric, especially Neolithic, peoples. ... The term Horse culture is used to define a tribal group or community whose day to day life revolves around the herding and breeding of horses. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... Geographic scope of East Asia East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. ...

Defeat of the Zhang Zhung in 644 AD

In 644 AD the Zhang Zhung were defeated by Songsten Gampo, the 33rd King of Tibet, in a battle near Lake Dangra. The Tibetan king and the Zhang Zhung king had married each other's sisters in a political alliance. However the Tibetan wife of King of Zhang Zhung complained of poor treatment by the king's principle wife. War ensued and the Zhang Zhung were decisively defeated and Tibet unified for the first time. However their Bön traditions were absorbed into the greater Tibetan culture and would become the distinctive elements of Tibetan Buddhism. Events Births Deaths Paulinus of York, bishop of Northumbria November: Omar, Second caliph of Islam by assassination. ... King Songsten Gampos statue in his meditation cave at Yerpa Songtsen Gampo (617-650) is the 33rd king of the Yarlung Dynasty of Tibet. ... Bön has typically been described as the shamanistic religion in Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism in the 7th century. ... Tibetan Buddhism is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the Himalayan region, Mongolia, Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia (Russia), and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). ...

The Zhang Zhung language

A handful of Zhang Zhung texts and 11th century bilingual Tibetan documents attest to an Zhang Zhung language which was related to Old Tibetan, although it included words of Kinnaur origin. The exact relation to Old Tibetan is subject to dispute. The Bönpo claim that the Tibetan writing system is derived from the Zhang Zung alphabet, while modern scholars consider the question open. Given the rarity of text samples, another possible explanation is that the 11th century Bönpo, struggling for legitimacy as Kadampa and Nyingmapa sought to marginalize Bön, resorted to creating an artificial ancient writing system. Kinnaur is one of twelve administrative districts of Himachal Pradesh, India. ... Bön has typically been described as the shamanistic religion in Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism in the 7th century. ... The Kadampa (Bka-gdams-pa) Tradition was a Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist school. ... The Nyingma tradition is one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. ...

Modern-day Zhang Zhung speakers

A language called Zhang Zhung is still spoken by approximately 2,000 native speakers in the Sutlej Valley of Himachal Pradesh[1]. It is not clear if this language, of the Himalayish family of the Tibeto-Burman family, derives from the language spoken by the Zhang Zhung, or if they are the descendants of the Zhang Zhung as claimed, although this is quite plausible. The Sutlej is a river that flows through Northern India, with its source in Tibet. ... The Tibeto-Burman linguistic subfamily of the proposed Sino-Tibetan language family is spoken in various central and south Asian countries: Myanmar (Burmese language), Tibet (Tibetan language), northern Thailand (Mong language), Nepal, Bhutan, India (Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and the Ladakh region of...

Bön claim that Buddhism came through the Zhang Zhung

It is noteworthy that the Bönpo tradition claims its own form of Buddhism did not come from Tibetan Buddhism but actually predated it. The standard model is that Bön was a shamanistic and non-Buddhist religion that was merged into Tibetan Buddhism. The Bön maintain otherwise, however, and claim a transmission which predates Padmasambhava (the father of Tibetan Buddhism), and even predates the Shakyamuni Buddha. This has led some to speculate that Buddhism arrived in Tibet not through the Gandhara culture in the northwest of India but from the western borders of the Zhang Zhung, which would mean through Persia. The Zhang Zhung language is Sino-Tibetan in origin, not Indo-European, so we would not conclude that the Zhang Zhung themselves came from Iran. Buddhism is a religion and philosophy focusing on the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni (Siddhārtha Gautama), who probably lived in the 6th century BCE. Buddhism spread throughout the ancient Indian sub-continent in the five centuries following the Buddhas death, and propagated into Central, Southeast, and East Asia... Tibetan Buddhism is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the Himalayan region, Mongolia, Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia (Russia), and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). ... Guru Rinpoche - Padmasambhava statue - near Kulu Padmasambhava (also Padmakara or Padma Raja) (Ch: 蓮華生上師; Tib: Padma Jungne), in Sanskrit meaning lotus-born, founded the Tibetan or Tantric school of Buddhism in the 8th century. ... Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE. Gautama Buddha was a South Asian spiritual leader who lived between approximately 563 BCE and 483 BCE. Born Siddhartha Gautama in Sanskrit, a name meaning descendant of Gotama whose aims are achieved/who is efficacious in achieving aims, he... Buddhas First Sermon at Sarnath, Kushan Period, ca. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau. ... Sino-Tibetan languages form a language family of about 250 languages of East Asia, second only to Indo-European in terms of the number of speakers. ... The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred languages and dialects (443 according to the SIL estimate), including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many in Southwest Asia, Central Asia and Southern Asia. ...

See also

• History of Tibet

Tibet is situated between the two ancient cultural centers of India and China but its location on the remote Tibetan plateau served to isolate it from both. ...

External links

• website of John Bellezi, an archeologist researching the Zhang Zhung
• Berzin archive article on Bon and the Zhang Zhung