I guarantee that we'll have tough times and I guarantee that at some point one or both of us will want to get out. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life cause I know in my heart you're the only one for me. Your position:Home->tibet china-> Tibet Introduction(1)
We will separate the history of Tibet into several periods; (A) pre-history (pre-7th century), (B) dynasty, 7th century to 9th century, (C) feudal era, 10th century to 17th century, (D) reunification and part of Ching Dynasty, 17th century to 1911, (E) semi-independent, 1911-1951, (F) part of P.R. China, 1951 to present. Each era offers many fascinating stories. I shall try to recall as many as possible from memory. A) Pre-history: What is the origin of Tibetans? We shall examine two aspects of it; the Tibetan story, the known facts from Han history records. (1) Tibetan story: The Tibetan was the descendents of a male Monkey and a female Rock-demon. This was probably invented by outsiders when they witness the Tibetan custom of covering or painting their faces to protect themselves from harsh weather conditions. Later on, in the writing of the great 5th Dalai Lama, the story changed the Monkey to Avalokitesvara, a disciple of Buddha and known as GuanYin by Han people (Jiaga in Tibetan) as a goddess, the Venus of Han. Moreover, the Rock-demon became a goddess (Tara or Mother-savior, Jeo-Tuu Muu) in Buddhism). In fact, the great 5th Dalai Lama further claimed that the Tibetan King, Srong-tsan-gam-po (Songtsen Gampo), was a reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, and his Han wife, princess Wen-Cheng, was the reincarnation of the goddess Tara or Mother-savior. This becomes an important story of Tibet. Even today, the palace of Dalai Lama in Lhasa is called `Potala Palace'. Note that `Potala' is the residence of Avalokitesvara which in Han Character is `Putou', and there is an island in the East China Sea with the name Putou San which is supposed to be the residence of GuanYin. The Kings of Tibet were descendents from the heaven with ropes attaching them to the heaven. Upon their deaths, a heavenly creature would pull the ropes up with their bodies. Therefore, there were no remains of their bodies, and there were no tombs for the first seven Kings of Tibet. The eighth King accidentally cut off the rope during a fight against a rebel. From thereon, the bodies of Kings could not go up to the heaven, and were buried in the southern part of Tibet. The Kings usually were crowned at the age of 13 years with the helps of the uncles on the mother side. It is hard to image that all old Kings passed away at precisely that moments. The polygamy marriage system already existed, and I will further explain it later on. The above was the story of Tubo Dynasty of the southern Tibet. There was another kingdom at the northern part of Tibet, Shangshung Kingdom. More than 2,000 years ago, what is now Ali was Upper Shangshung; the present day Changdu, Lower Shangshung; the present day Wombu, Middle Shangshung, the centre of the kingdom. It was conquered by Trisong Detsen, the 5th king of Tubo Dynasty. An ancient written language, bone-oracle, already existed. It will be interesting to decipher the old written language. In the 7th century Indian alphabets were adopted into the written language. Some pre-7th century poems passed down in the modern Tibetan written language. The religious is a kind of Shamanism, which was called `Bon', later on it became the Black branch of Buddhism, and was translated to Han Character as `Stupid' if you were Buddhist or `Root' if otherwise. The `Bon' priests could sit on drums to fly to the sky. In today's Tibetan dances, sometimes you see the figures ware deer musks, those are the priests. After the introducing of Buddhism to Tibet in 7th century, Bonism was retreated to Northern Tibet, the area of ancient Shangshung kingdom, and other tribal areas. (1) The known facts from Han history records. From the recent archeology findings, there were wide spread settlements all over China, including Tibet, over 6,000 years ago. One could use the phrase `10,000 stars' to discrib the situation. There were even some primitive written languages, one of them at `Ban-po' which I had personally observed. Note that the settlement in Tibet may or may not be by Tibetans. (a) The relation between Shang people and Jian-Tibetan At the time around 1,400 B.C., there was a semi-Tibetan people called `Jian' mixed with Shang people. From the oracles, one see phrases as `Today we captured 50 Jians' frequently. Certainly, some Shang people were captured by Jian, but not recorded. By the way, the Tibetan people was considered to be the descendent of Jian by some scholars in the past. Today, Jian and Tibetan are classified as one race, Jian-Tibetan people. Anyway, we are satisfied with the closeness of Tibetan and Jian. One of the Kings of Shang Dynasty had a name Jian-Chia. For the convenience of the reader, I will use English alphabet A, B,.. to replace the Han ordering Chia, Yee,... So , let us call this King Jian-A. There were possible explanations of his name, maybe his mother was a Jian, maybe he was a Jian-conqueror, i.e., he killed a lot of Jian, and was famous for his acts. However, there was no record of big battle between Shang people and Jian people at that time. I would rather think that his mother was a Jian. In any case, there were some inter-marriage between Shang people and Jian people who lived near each other. Let us consider the life style of the two people. The name Jian has a root in Yion (goat, the animal `sheep' was transplanted to Han people from Northwest during Han Dynasty, sheep was called Hu-Yion, and later Mion-Yion), which indicates that Jian was likely to be goat raising nomad. This observation checks with the later records of Jian people. On the other hand, Shang people was semi-nomad with settlements, as indicated by (1) large amount of animal bones discovered in the sites of Shang people, (2) the animal decorations of bronzes, (3) the associations of Yion (goat root) in Han Characters of beauty, taste good, etc, (5) the fame that Shang people ate a lot of meat, (4) the constant movements of Shang people, one Shang King moved his capital 8 times. Next we will discuss one of the most important relations of a society, the marriage. In Tibet, there are multihusbands-multiwives marriage system from very ancient time. The husbands may or may not be related, similarly, the wives may or may not be related. According to the government officials, this is a thing of the past. I have evidences to the contrary. In this system, husbands and wives are ordered. If the number 1 husband passes away, then the number 2 husband will assume the position of number 1 husband, etc. The children will consider all present husbands of the mother as fathers. The property will be commonly owned by the marriage group. The marriage system of Shang people is a hot subject. The records show that there were Shang Kings with more than one wife, the oracles contains statements `number 1 father, number 2 father, number 3 father' , and `one ox for father A, one ox for father G, one ox for father H', etc. Furthermore, it had been established that fathers A, G, and H in the previous statement are brothers. Many scholars mention the possibility of multi-husbands (likely brothers)-multi-wives(likely sisters) marriage system for early to middle Shang people. If this is the case, then the brother succession system of early Shang people means the promotion of number 2 husband to number 1 as in the Tibetan system and can be easily understood. On the religions, both believed shamanisms and both use bone-oracles. In fact the ancient Tibetan written language I saw was carved on bones. (b)Later records of Jian-Tibetan One thing I noticed is the resemblance of the classical Tibetan poems with Chuu-Shi (southern Chinese poems of `Spring-Autumn' and `Warring States' periods). Both are with 4-7 syllables with the middle syllable or the end syllable denote a sigh, and of comparable lengths. From there to the Early-Han Dynasty, we have little records of Jian. The ambassador, Chang Chien, of Emperor Wu tried to come back to the capital of Han through Qinghai (Jian Land or Jian Chung) and failed. Jian assumed a peaceful life during that time. Later on, in the Later-Han Dynasty, there were troubles in Jian Land. It was largely a war between farmers and nomads. General Chao Tson-Kuo spent many years to safe guard the fertile corner of Qinghai. In fact, the battle continued for many generations and was indecisive. After the down fall of Later-Han, Jian people started moving towards the central China. During the South-North Dynastys, from the fourth to the sixth century, Jian and a relative, Tze, built several Kingdoms in the central China. These people cross married with the Han people of the northern China, and thus assimilated. From now on we should turn to the history time of Tibetans. 
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