Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 4,380 m (14,000 ft). Located in the Himalayas, the highest elevation surrounding the Tibetan plateau is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) above sea level. The Alexandrian known as Claudius Ptolemy, 100 – c. 170 AD identified the country Batai at an Eastern perimeter in his seminal work Geographia. Proceeding Ptolemy the Egyptian-Greek work Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) identifies Batai as a prospective trading partner. The regional "Bhutan" is derived from the Sanskrit term "Bhotanta," which means "the end of Tibet" or "the land of the Tibetans", however the country is identified in Dzongkha language as "Brug-yul" which translates as The Land of the Thunder Dragon. Bhauṭṭa is the Sanskrit geopolitical equivalent for the modern Bod (བོད་) or 'Tibet' in English. The earliest Chinese record pertains to the 7th C. onward and under the name "Tǔfān" (吐蕃) meaning Western Barbarians, or seminally Xīfān (西番) pertaining to the expansion period. Thus the etymology is formally a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan language family, of which Sino-Tibetan, and that through it Tibetan and Burmese are mere distant cousins of Chinese.
Zhang Zhung & the Origins of BönThe earliest Tibetan historical texts identify the Zhang Zhung culture as a people who migrated from the Amdo region into what is now the region of Guge in western Tibet. Zhang Zhung is considered to be the original home of the Bön religion, and according to Rolf Alfred Stein's Tibetan Civilization, the area of Shang Shung was not historically a part of Tibet and was a distinctly foreign territory to the Tibetans:
"... then further west, the Tibetans encountered a distinctly foreign nation. – Shangshung, with its capital at Khyunglung. Mt. Kailāśa (Tise) and Lake Manasarovar formed part of this country., whose language has come down to us through early documents. Though still unidentified, it seems to be Indo European .... Geographically the country was certainly open to India, both through Nepal and by way of Kashmir and Ladakh. Kailāśa is a holy place for the Indians, who make pilgrimages to it. No one knows how long they have done so, but the cult may well go back to the times when Shangshung was still independent of Tibet. How far Shangshung stretched to the north, east and west is a mystery .... We have already had an occasion to remark that Shangshung, embracing Kailāśa sacred Mount of the Hindus, may once have had a religion largely borrowed from Hinduism. The situation may even have lasted for quite a long time. In fact, about 950, the Hindu King of Kabul had a statue of Vişņu, of the Kashmiri type (with three heads), which he claimed had been given him by the king of the Bhota (Tibetans) who, in turn had obtained it from Kailāśa."
By the 1st Century BCE a neighbouring Kingdom arose in the Yarlung valley. The Yarlung King Drigum Tsenpo attempted to remove the influence of the Zhang Zhung by expelling the Zhang's Bön priests from Yarlung. He was assassinated and Zhang Zhung continued its dominance of the region. Great Tibet then became centred on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the mythological Yarlung dynastic rulers heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century.
Songtsen Gampo & the Founding of the Tibetan EmpireSongtsen Gampo 569–649 [sroŋpʦan zɡampo], The 33rd King and founder of the Tibetan Empire is accredited with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet after ascending at age 13 according to the Old Book of Tang. Later influenced by his Nepali consort Bhrikuti, of Nepal's Licchavi dynasty, as well as with the unification of what had previously been several Tibetan kingdoms, he is regarded as responsible for the creation of the Tibetan script and therefore the establishment of Classical Tibetan, although this must remain a contested matter and it's mostly likely he only adopted Mādhyamaka philosophy not the Buddhist religion. Perhaps mythically thus he is said to have issued the order for minister Thonmi Sambhota to travel to India to devise a script for Classical Tibetan, this led to the creation of the first Tibetan literary works and translations, court records and constitution, and so relocated his Capital from the Yarlung Valley to the Kyichu Valley, the site of the future city of Lhasa. According to sources, during the reign of Songtsen Gampo, examples of Handicrafts and Astrological systems were imported from China and the Western Xia; the Dharma and the Art of Writing came from India; material wealth and treasures from the Nepalis and the lands of the Mongols, while Model laws and Administration were imported from the Uyghurs of the Second Turkic Khaganate.
The Old Tibetan Annals & the Dunhuang LibraryThe Old Tibetan Annals, are composed of two wholly secular manuscripts written in Old Tibetan language found in the early 20th century in a hidden library within the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang in northwestern Gansu province, believed to have been sealed in the 11th century CE, they form Tibet's earliest extant history. The libraries Old Tibetan Chronicle alternatively was probably compiled between 800-840 CE, whilst the Annals begin with a very brief account of the early events of the reign of Songtsen Gampo and from a time the Chinese Princess Wencheng arrived in 643 CE until Songtsen Gampo's death in 650, following with year-by-year précis of important events from 650 to 764 CE. The Old Tibetan Chronicle maintains that during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (755 to 797 or 804 CE), "The incomparable religion of the Buddha had been received and there were viharas (monasteries) in the centre as well as the borderlands of the country", an advent much later than the military conquests of Songtsen Gampo between Indian and Chinese borders 200 years prior.
Imperial Expansion & the Battle of Talas, 751Since the Kings Tagri Nyensig and Namri Songtsen (570-620) the struggle to unify 'Tibet' was thwarted with difficulties. The empire further expanded under its 38th king, Trisong Detsen, and expanded to its greatest extent under the 41st King Rapalchen in the 780s to 790s spanning territory across modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. The Kingdom of Nanzhao (in Yunnan and neighbouring regions) remained under Tibetan control from 750 to 794, when they turned on their Tibetan overlords and helped the Chinese inflict a serious defeat on the Tibetans.
In 747, the hold of Tibet was first loosened by the campaign of the Tang general Gao Xianzhi, who tried to re-open the direct communications between Central Asia and Kashmir. By 750, the Tibetans had lost almost all of their central Asian possessions to the Chinese. However, after Gao Xianzhi's defeat by the Arabs and Qarluqs at the Battle of Talas (751) and the subsequent civil war known as the An Lushan Rebellion (755), Chinese influence decreased rapidly and the Tibetans resumed regional superiority.
As a part of the Muslim Conquest the Abbasid Caliphate who were allied with the Tibetans, co-opted the Karluk Turks 20,000 strong force who defected, betraying the Tang forces (only 10,000 soldiers) and in joining the Caliphate, the battle within the valley of the Talas River which vied for control over the Syr Darya had assured the Caliphate's control over Transoxiana for the next 400 years ending the Chinese expansion West by the Imperial Tang Dynasty (618 to 907).
Emperor Rapalchen's 821–823 treaty concluded conflicts between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty. The terms of this treaty, including the fixed borders between the two countries, are recorded in a bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa.
Written by Jason Steven Jowett. Sourced from historical fact. This blog may not be reproduced in whole without the author's express permission. Copyright © 2024. greatbrittania.blogspot.com