Zhang Zhung

thumb|200px|Thangka [[Bön]] describing the mount [[Kailash]], spiritual center of Zhang Zhung In the historical sources and the legends medieval Tibetans, Zhang Zhung , Shang Shoung or Shang Shung is the name of a kingdom occupying current the Western Tibet (Ngari), absorptive by the empire Tibetan at the 7th century. It is called Yangtong (羊同) or Xiangxiong (象雄) in the Chinese sources. The tradition of the school Bonpo claims that it is from there that Bön Yungdrung came, precursor of the Buddhism according to its practitioners. In the long story of the competitions between the lines bonpo and Buddhist, the mysterious kingdom occupies the place symbolic system of “other Tibet”, opposed to the empire Tibetan.

Because of geographical, cultural and political obstacles, the archaeological exploration of Western Tibet started timidly there is less than twenty years. Its promising discoveries have encouraged the Académie of social sciences of Tibet to join research for a few years.

Tibetans sources

According to the Yearly of the Lake Manasarovar , Zhang Zhung included/understood 18 kingdoms, probably chefferies, centered around the mount Kailash, and occupied a vast surface ranging between the Ladakh, Jalandhara with the Punjab, the Mustang, central Tibet, the northern edge of the plate of Changthang and Shanshan (Loulan) in the Désert of Taklamakan. Other sources mention three areas: intern (Phug-Pa), median (Bored) and external (sGo-Ba), the last extending from Gilgit in the west around the lake gNam-mtsho in the east, and from the Khotan in north with Mukthinath (Mustang) in the south.

The capital, Khyunglung Ngülkhar , “money Palate of the valley of Garuda”, could correspond to the ruins discovered in the village of Khyunglung in the south-west of Kailash, in the valley of the Sutlej (Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh). This valley is named besides Shambhala (“Ground of mythical happiness” of Buddhism tantric) in certain texts bön. The fort of Chugtso Dropo , on banks of the lake crowned Dangra, would have been its principal military construction.

The objections of the sister of the king Songtsen Gampo against her husband, king of Zhang Zhung, would have served as a pretext for its annexation by Tibet in 645.

Archeology

The current environment of cold and arid Western Tibet, little populated, a long time made doubt that it could develop a culture able to with it to influence the close areas. Nevertheless, the analyzes of Pollen and rings indicate that it reigned on the whole of the plate Tibetan before 1500 av. J.C of the rather favorable climatic conditions, which would have been gradually degraded until making it not easily livable at the end of the first millenium of the Christian era, time to which one attends the rise of the kingdoms of the valleys of the south.

The exploration of the plate of Changthang, undertaken starting from beginning of the year 90 per John Belleza, made it possible to locate more than 500 sites going back to the age of iron. The unit presents a clear relationship with the cultures of Central Asia. They include/understand:

of the ruins of forts or citadels located on the heights; the principal threat was to be populations Scythe S;
of the tombs sometimes gathered in great number (until ten thousands) marked by drawn up stones; some, of 60 Mr. on side, probably shelter chiefs or priests. Because of at the same time religious and administrative considerations, none was still excavated, but of the projects are being studied in collaboration with the academy of social sciences of Tibet.
of stone constructions made up of parts without window to the walls rounded and ceilings encorbellés, located on the sides of the moved back valleys, probably places of worship;
more than 100 sites of pictographs or Petroglyph S often located near the tombs or of the ruins. They represent especially animals, with a strong proportion of Yack S and horses, and hunters armed with arcs; certain figures could be divinities or shamans.

Language

Some documents of the 11th century, like the mdzod phugs (Abhidhamma bonpo), are presented in the form of bilingual texts zhang-zhung/Tibetan; certain terms come from the kinnaur. Nevertheless, of the linguists pointed out the absence of semantic markers and proposed that it would be about an artificial reconstitution intended to confer on these texts a seal of authenticity.

There would have been a writing zhang-zhung whose Bonpos, like Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, claim that it is at the origin of the writing Tibetan. No specimen nevertheless was discovered.

There exists currently a dialect zhang-zhung, language of the Himalayan family of the Tibéto-Burmese, spoken by some 2000 speakers living in the valley about Sutlej. Nevertheless, it is not proven that he is the heir to the old principal language of the kingdom of Zhang Zhung.

Cradle of the Yungdrung

According to the tradition bonpo, the “perfect teaching” of the Dzogchen was transmitted first of all to Zhang Zhung, as the name testifies some to its principal text, Oral tradition of Zhang Zhung (Zhang-zhung Nyan-gyud). Bön being presented in the form of a tradition similar and parallel with Buddhism, tonic with a Master older than the Buddha, an assumption proposes that this religion would have started to exert its influence in Western Tibet first of all, since the Perse.

The priests of Zhang Zhung would have carried, like the kings, of the caps with horns and the white silk tubans, and the coats of skins of deer. In certain texts, the sovereign is named “marvellous luminous presence”; he was perhaps regarded as a divine incarnation.

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