caption : Potala Palace - Lhasa
It's history lesson time!!!
The origin of the Tibetan people are not clearly known but
Chinese historian claim that there was a westward migration and the
Tibetan peole originally migrated from the Qinghai-Gansu plains and
were the descendents of the Qiang. However it is not possible to
trace the single origins of the Tibetan.
But the Tibetan people have a mystic stories of their origin.
According to the legend, the earth were covered by vast oceans and
eventually the water receded and land appeared in the present
Tsetang area in central Tibet. A monkey and an ogress first
inhabited this land. They were later identified as the emanations
of Avalokiteshvara (Buddha of Compassion) and the goddess Tara. The
first people were the descendents of the union between the monkey
and the ogress and give rises to the Tibetan people.
As early myth of the origin of the Tibetan people suggest, the
Yarlung Valley was the cradle of the civilisation of central
Tibet. In the 7th century AD,Songtsen Gampo, a local ruler of
the Yarlung Valley unified Tibet and build his Tubo dynasty.
Tubo dynasty stretched from Sichuan (Dun Huang area) to even large
extend of India Ladhak, Bhutan and Nepal region. Under the
rule of Songtsen Gampo, even the great Tang dynasty was at its
mercy.
Lhasa became an important admistrative centre in the 7th century
AD when Songtsen Gampo moved his capital to Lhasa
and build his palace at the site Potala now sit. At that time,
the major religion was Bon po, a local sharmanistic folk religion
of spirits, ghost and demons.
However with inter-marriage between Tang dynasty and the Nepali
kingdom, his new bride Princess WenCheng and Princess Bhrikuti
bought Buddhism into Tibet. Buddhism then flourished and
reached great height. There are great many stories/fables about
Buddhism taming of Tibet and I will share with you some as we go
along.
With the breakup of the Yarlung empire some 250 years later, the
centre of power shifted from Lhasa to Sakya, Nedong and the
Shigatse. However, between 1617-1682, the 5th Dalai Lama
defeated the Shigatse kings with the help of the Mongol
support and moved the capital to Lhasa. Eversince then, Lhasa
has alway being the capital of Tibet. Submitting to the Mongol,
Tibet flourished. However it becomes the sticking point
when Communist China used these as an excuse to "liberate"
Tibet as part of China in the 1950s.
