Early Tibet History (?- the 6th Century AD)
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Early Tibet History (?- the 6th Century AD)

Update: Jan. 11th, 2013

Tibet

The full name of Tibet is Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibet covers an area of 1.2 million square kilometers and population of 2.62 million which contains 95% Tibetans. There are also full of other nationalities such as Han nationality, Hui nationality, the Moinba nationality, the Lhoba nationality, the Naxi nationality and the Nu nationality.

Early Tibet History - Terrain

The average elevation of Tibet is over 4000 meters which is the main part of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Qinghai-Tibet Plateau called the name of "the Roof of the World", containing four huge mountain ranges from west to east: Altun Mountains belongs to Qilian Mountain Range; Kunlun Mountain belongs to Bayan Kala Mountain Range, Karakoram Range belongs to Dangla Mountain Range and Himalayas. The overall terrain structure of Tibet formed as "Three Steps", North Tibet Plateau, the Yarlung Zangbo River basin and East Tibet Plateau canyon.

In terms of the terrain, the Himalayas that situated in the south of Tibet is the largest and highest mountain range in the world, which contains the Mt. Everest and other high mountains with more than 8000 meters. The Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world. The south terrain of Himalayas is much lower so that forms different climate and natural landscape compare to the north. The west, north and east of Qing-Tibet Plateau link with the Pamirs, Loess Plateau, Szechwan Basin and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau so that the climate and natural landscape gradually changed depend on the different terrain. The average annual temperature of most area of Tibet is below 10?. Tibet has a longer winter and shorter frostless period. On the other hand, most area of Tibet is desert and grassland which is not good for farming.

Early Tibet History - Culture

Since the 1950s, there are large numbers of ruins of ancient people found successively in Tibet area. Some ancient ruins could be date to the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic Age such as Karuo Relic of Changdu and Qugong Relic of Lhasa. According to the identification of archaeologists', Karuo Relic has a long history of more than 4000 years. Karuo Relic covers ten thousand square meters containing over 7000 of large stoneware, tools like shovel, axe, hoe and sickle, other bone implements and potteries. There are also many skeletons of animals found such as pigs' and antelopes' and other ancient houses in Karuo Relic. Besides, there are many stone plates and stone shovels found in Qugong Relic, which has a long history of over 4000 years of agricultural economy.

Early Tibet History - Origin

According to the legend and ancient books, the ancestors of Tibetan' were the ancient people living in Qing-Tibet Plateau. Based on some Tibetan Books, Tibet region has been controlled by non human, calling "bod-khams (in Tibetan)" region. Tibetan called themselves the name of "bod-khams" too. Other nations around Qing-Tibet Plateau like Qiang ethnic minority, the Naxi nationality and Pumi People think that their ancestors come from the center of Qing-Tibet Plateau.

According to current archaeological discovery, the ancient people of Qing-Tibet Plateau lived in the forest of middle and lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River. Later ancient people changed to live other places along the river for the development of fire and other living abilities. At the same time, ancient people domesticated the horses and wolves to make a better living condition. Thus, the nomadic tribe had to explore more area for developing. One of the nomadic tribes which arrived at the headstream of Yangtze River and Yellow River communicated with the Huaxia tribe of the middle and lower reaches of Yellow River, which has been called the Qiang ethnic minority later. The other nomadic tribe has been formed Tibetan nationality. There were many tribes vanished and other new tribes appeared in the history.

Early Tibet History - Tribe

In 6th century, the ancient tribes of Tibetan divided into dozens of Tribal alliance which distribute "Forty Small Alliances" in Tibet Region. The "Forty Small Alliances" combined to "Twelve Small Alliances" later. Among the "Twelve Small Alliances", Xibuye Tribe has the detailed record of history and legend. The first leader of Xibuye Tribe is the ancestor of Tu Bo royal family named Zampo (another name of king) Nyatri. When Drigum Zampo took the throne after Nyatri Zampo, Drigum Zampo was killed by subordinate. Then one of sons of Nyatri Zampo's recaptured the kingship again.

When Luntzen, a son of twenty-ninth Zampo's, took the throne of Zampo, he occupied the Lhasa river basin. Thus people called him Longri Luntsen. Xibuye Tribe has unified the middle and lower reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River, which is the cultural area in Tibet region.

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