བོད

2. A HIGH ALTITUTE CIVILISATION mtho sgang gi rig gzhung

The Tibetan plateau is home to a high altitude civilisation with 5 000 years of human history. The population dwells approximately between 2 200 and 5 500 meters above sea level.

Pre-history

There are numerous paleolithic, microlithic and neolithic sites on the Tibetan plateau, with the earliest going back 5 000 years. Several original neolithic cultures have been identified following excavations that provide evidence of a hunting, fishing, and grain producing society (ex. Kharro near Chamdo, and Chugong near Sera). The village of Kharro was discovered in Kham in the 1970s, during mining explorations, when the world's third largest copper deposit was found.

The historic period begins in the early 7th century, with the unification of the «Six Little Men-Beams» (check) (myi'u gdung drug), the earliest clans or tribes of Central Tibet. This was followed by the rapid expansion of the military empire of Pugyal or Great Tibet (7th-9th c.) (Bod chen po, or sPu rgyal).

A Tibetan system of writing was established at this time, based upon a northern Indian Gupta script, and the first grammatical treatise was written. These tools were originally intended to serve the empire for better communications, to translate documents and Buddhist texts. Writing and familiarisation with the neighbouring civilisations allowed a wide variety of techniques and branches of knowledge to be introduced, notably from India, Nepal, Kashmir, Persia, Turkish Central Asia and China. Many were assimilated into the Tibetan cultural matrix.

The southern and western Himalayan kingdoms of Bhutan, Sikkim and Ladakh were formed much later on. These, as well as much of northern Nepal, are intimately linked with Tibetan civilisation. All have a common pool of references in language or dialect, writing, food, clothing, art, architecture, indigenous beliefs, mythology, social structures, mariage practices, religion and writing. In many practical and theoretical ways these are entirely distinct from Han Chinese Confucianist and Communist reference points.

The first signs of Tibetan material culture - prayer flags and stupas, village architecture, clothing and staple food are to be found. Barley and rape seed grow in the fields; yak, sheep and horses, Tibetan dogs, as well as apricot trees- appear. The typical triangular shaped Tibetan basket that is carried on the back and used for collecting yak dung and other necessities. All this begins at around 2 200 m. above sea level, as one climbs onto the the plateau from any side. Inhabited valleys rise to around 5 100 m. Nomad camps may be found up to 5 500 m. However, the environment in many areas is hostile and bleak, so the farming population is concentrated in widely scattered valleys with clement microclimates, forming a broad arc from the West, right across the Southern regions, and then up and through Eastern Tibet, to the most extreme limits of Tibetan culture north of the Blue Lake. A large desert zone in the northern Changthang remains free of human habitation.