Mysterious Shangxong Civilization

Once the thriving and prosperous Shangxong Civilization suddenly disappeared in Tibet history, which is still an unknown enigma as of now. It attracts lots of archaeologists to explore and research, and the ruins also attracts large numbers of tourists to visit during Tibet tour.

Mysterious Shangxong Civilization

As you may know, there are still lots of mysteries existing in Tibet, this holy land. Besides Shangxong civilization mysteries, there are other ancient mysterious events such as Guge Kingdom, wild man legend, red snow phenomenon, wizard power, mysterious rappers, surprising Fucang, unknown Shangpala, and rainbow appearance, etc.

In the 1990s, some archaeologists found the archaeological remains nearby Shangquan River of Ngari Prefecture, and Lion Spring River Basin, which could be date back earlier than the origination of Guge Kingdom. The archaeological remains include the stone tomb, ancient sarcophagus, and cliff painting, etc. All the remains are helpful with the research of Shangxong civilization.

In the May, 1992, when archaeologists investigated to the ancient cliff painting and stone implements, a local Tibetan told them there was a grave mound in a small valley under Apure Mountain in Ritu County. The grave mound was stacked up by the stones and rocks. Few people were dare to go there as the ghost legend.

The grave mound area covers more than 15000 square meters and preserves over 100 stone tombs. The appearance of the tombs is different, which the diameter is approximately 2-3 meters. The tomb was stacked up by the stones and shaped of steamed bread. Few meters away from the tombs are some animals' stone carving such as yak, dog, and goat, etc. Because they are so age-old that there is some sediment on the surface on the huge stones. The cliff paintings mainly showed the animals' shape and the scene of people, such as the water birds and deer, the hunters on a horse, the herds with his sheep, the soldiers with their weapons, etc. The cliff paintings are vivid to show the society at that time of ancient Tibetans.

The archaeologists has explored this grave mound and found different burial forms of people, flexed burial, disorder bones burial, cremation and multi-burial of man and woman. Some graves were dug very shallowly under the surface of the ground, and some tombs are built without the grave. There are some remains in the stone tombs such as potteries, horse decorations, and some strings of beads.

After the exploration, the grave mound remains in this small valley have been contrasted with ancient Shangxong Kingdom according to the history record. The archaeologists found that some of the grave mound remains are characteristic of the same phenomenon of ancient Shangxong Kingdom such as the natural environment, the dressings and religious features, etc. Besides, the result of the analysis of the year of the grave mound remains proves that the stuffs could be date back to early Tibetan Metal Age before the 7th century. Therefore, the grave mound remains have been proved to belong to Shangxong Kingdom based on those two evidences.