Zhang Zhung culture
Zhang Zhung culture is a culture of western and northwestern Tibet which pre-dated Tibetan Buddhism and is best known as the source of the BÃÂön religion. The Zhang Zhung are mentioned frequently in the ancient Tibetan texts but it has only been in the last two decades that archaeologists have sought to match these text references to archaeological sites. A tentative match has been proposed between the Zhang Zhung and an Iron Age culture now being uncovered on the Chang Tang plateau of northwestern Tibet.
Textual evidence of the Zhang Zhung
According to the ancient texts, the Zhang Zhung was comprised (at least at one point) of 18 kingdoms in the west and northwest portion of Tibet. This region includes the northern Chang Tang plateau (the highest and most desolate plains of Tibet) and western Tibet. Their capital city was said to be Khyunglung Ngulkhar, the 'Silver Palace of Garuda Valley', southwest of Mount Kailash, which is identified with ruins found in the upper Sutlej valley (now in the Kinnauer District of Himachal Pradesh, India). The fact that the some of these texts also claimed the Sutlej valley was also Shambhala, the land of happiness, (from which Joseph Conrad derived the name "Shangri La"), perhaps detracted from their historical authority.
Iron Age culture of the Chang Tang — is this the Zhang Zhung?
Recent archeological work on the Chang Tang plateau finds evidence of an Iron Age culture there which some have tentatively identified as the Zhang Zhung. This culture is notable for the following characteristics:
These characteristics more closely match the Iron age cultures of Europe and the Asian steppes, rather than those of India or East Asia, suggesting a cultural influence which came from the west or north rather than the east or south.
Pollen and tree ring analysis indicates the Chang Tang plateau was a much more liveable environment until becoming drier and colder starting around 1500 BC. One theory is that the civilization established itself on the plateau when conditions where less harsh, then managed to persist against gradually worsening climatic conditions until finally expiring around 1000 AD (the area is now used only by wandering nomads). This timeframe also corresponds to the rise of the Tibetan kingdoms in the southern valleys which may also have contributed to the decline of the plateau culture.
Modern-day remnant of the Zhang Zhung
The Zhang Zhung language is still spoken by approximately 2,000 native speakers in the Sutlej valley of Himachal Pradesh[1]. Their language, of the Himalayish family of the Tibeto-Burman family of languages, is the language of the ancient BÃÂön texts so there can be little doubt these people are the remnant of the original Zhang Zhung. It is still an open question, however, if they are the descendents of the Iron Age culture which existed on the Chang Tang plateau to the north.
Were the Zhang Zhung Buddhists?
It is noteworthy that the BÃÂönpo tradition claims its own form of Buddhism did not come from Tibetan Buddhism but actually predated it. The standard model is that BÃÂön was a shamanistic and non-Buddhist religion that was merged into Tibetan Buddhism. The BÃÂön maintain otherwise, however, and claim a transmission which predates Padmasambhava (the father of Tibetan Buddhism), and even predates the Shakyamuni Buddha. This has led some to speculate that Buddhism arrived in Tibet not through the Gandhara culture in the northwest of India but from the western borders of the Zhang Zhung, which would mean through Persia. The Zhang Zhung language is Sino-Tibetan in origin, not Indo-European, so we would not conclude that the Zhang Zhung themselves came from Iran.