1The ancient kingdom of
Shang Shung
About Shang Shung
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The name Shang Shung is related to something very ancient and connected with Tibetan history.
Today many people believe that the source of Tibetan culture was the period when Buddhism was introduced from India to Tibet. That happened in the seventh century A.D., in the period of Songtsen Gampo, and that is not very long ago. But it would be arbitrary and unjustified to believe that before the advent of Buddhism, Tibet had no history or culture of its own. But the real origin of Tibetan culture is very ancient, it is nearly 4000 years old now.
Before the spreading of Buddhism in Tibet there was a very ancient religion called Bon. Bon existed long before there was a Kingdom of Tibet. That is why it is so important to study its history, and it is through the history of Bon that we can learn the history of the kingdom of Shang Shung.
In the history of Tibet it always is explained that there were originally six brothers. These six brothers developed West Tibet, Central Tibet, East Tibet, North Tibet and South Tibet. Among these populations that one of West Tibet - called khyung in more modern Tibetan language and shung in the language of West Tibet- became the most developed one. The reason for that was, that in the pre-Buddhist period there was a teacher in West Tibet, Tonpa Shenrab. who is supposed to be the first teacher of Bon. This teacher was Besides teaching the calculation of astrology, medicine and other teachings he invented the first writing which did not exist before him. This language or writing is called the language of Shang Shung. It is called mar which means "divine", "coming from the sky". It is considered to be a very holy writing, a divine writing.
Shang Shung became a very powerful kingdom. We know of eighteen of its kings, but between the last of these and the first king of Tibet there is a long gap. Actually, we do not know the names of many of the kings of Shang Shung nor do we know anything of what they did, but we do know for certain that Bon was the official religion of the kingdom. So all these periods developed this tradition of Bon spiritual teachings and culture related with the teachings of Tonpa Shenrab.
The entire territory of present-day Tibet belonged to that kingdom, and its capital was located in the area of Mount Kailash. Khyung Lung was the capital of many kings of Shang Shung.
What we know of the history of Tibet refers principally to central Tibet. Even contemporary studies tend to focus on this area and neglect to investigate the area where the kingdom of Shang Shung was located. This area is practically unknown and unexplored, and so almost no one knows anything about this kingdom. Interested students could find some information in the books about the Bon tradition.
The kingdom of Shang Shung not only is a historical reality, but it is from there that Tibetan culture originated.
Shang
Shung was traditionally divided into three wide regions:
* Gopa (External Shang-Shung) – corresponding to modern Central and East Tibet.
* Phug pa (Inner Shang Shung)) – reaching three month-walk from Kailash westwards and which included 32 districts.
* Bar pa (Central Shang Shung) – corresponding to the modern Ngari region or West Tibet (where the project of the archeological park is located), which included three districts named Maryul, Guge and Phurang.
Actually scholars know very little about Shang Shung Kingdom and its original geographical extension. However, clear traces of this kingdom may be found in ancient Tibetan texts. The whole area has been little or not at all documented by archeological, geophysical or geomorphological studies. As demonstrated by recent international conferences and scholar meetings, there is a strong interest of the scholar community – including the Chinese one - in reconstructing the puzzling history of Shang Shung Kingdom and in putting more light on the most ancient phases of Tibetan History.
There is a wide literary evidence about the existence of the ancient kingdom of Shang Shung, first of all from the Tun Huang documents and Bon texts, but only accurate archeological investigation will give more precise clues about its existence and extension in space and time. According to a reconstruction made by Prof. Namkhai Norbu on the existing written documents, this kingdom dates back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. But still we do not have concrete proofs on the authentic history of ancient Tibet. Only archaeological research will eventually give an unique contribution to the real comprehension of the earliest phases of Tibetan history.
© all photos: Mauro Nascari