The Kunlun Shrine of the Ghost Blowing Lantern mentions that there was a mysterious dynasty in the Ali region of Tibet, the Guge Dynasty. This dynasty was not invented by the author, it did exist in real history, and it continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. But inexplicably, more than four hundred years ago it suddenly perished overnight, and the entire dynasty of nearly 100,000 people disappeared without a trace.
What really happened? Why did they suddenly disappear in history? What about the legendary silver-eyed statue of Guge with eyes like living people?
A complete view of the ruins of the Gurg Dynasty
It wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s that the National Archaeological Team launched a series of important excavations in the area that some of the truth about the mysterious dynasty of Gug was truly revealed.
First, an unknown place that no one knew about before the 20th century
The ruins of the Guge dynasty were discovered very late, and throughout the 20th century, no one knew that there was still the remains of a mysterious dynasty hidden on the snowy plateau of northern Tibet.
It was not until 1912 that the British, McKhos, from India, went up the Elephant Spring River and saw it for the first time in the Ali region. In the 1930s, Professor Ducci, a famous Italian Tibetan scholar, found it again in the depths of the mountains according to the guidance of tibetan compatriots.
Gug ruins
In 1981, the Tibet Cultural Management Commission and the Xinjiang Cultural Management Commission formed a joint expedition for the first time to conduct a preliminary investigation of the Guge site and issued a briefing (the information on the encyclopedia was incorrect), which attracted the attention of the national archaeological department. Four years later, in 1985, led by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, an archaeological team was organized to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the site site, and then carried out archaeological excavations here for more than ten years, before truly unveiling the mystery that shrouded the Guge Dynasty.
Second, the mystery of the disappearance of the Gurg dynasty - the king's wedding
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tubo Dynasty fell apart due to civil strife, and some of the tubo clan members fled to the Ali region of Tibet, where a local regime, the Guge Dynasty, was established.
From the establishment of the Guge Dynasty to its demise in the 9th century AD, it has survived for about 700 years and has a total of 16 kings.
In the early 17th century, the last king of the Gurg dynasty, Tashi Chabad, ascended the throne, and the Guge dynasty was still very strong and showed no signs of extinction.
The newly enthroned King Chabad of Tashi can be called a man of great personality even today.
The princess of Tashi Chabad was seriously ill, and he was so grief-stricken that he summoned someone to treat him. With the medical technology in Tibet at that time, the treatment results were naturally obvious, and the princess was not killed by the witch doctors, but was cured of madness.
Of course, the concubines of a country were crazy, and the ministers gave the king an idea—to marry another one. The king agreed, and the ministers were very enthusiastic to introduce him to the sister of another highland king, King Ladakh, and marriages between Tibetan nobles were also common at that time, and this matter was so happily settled.
Soon everything was ready, and the national welcoming team set out to pick up Princess Ladakh and return to marry her. The welcoming team successfully received the princess, and Ladakh also held a grand farewell ceremony, but the welcoming team had just reached the halfway point of return, when they received an order from Tashi Chabad to send Princess Ladakh back immediately, and he did not want it. This order was quite personal, and it was an unreserved slap in the face of King Ladakh and his sister, which was not very hurtful and insulting.
Why Tashi Chabad made this move is unknown, but the consequences of this are clear, the princess is sent back, and Ladakh's army comes.
Gurg Artwork – Scrubbing
Marked by this incident, Gug and Ladakh launched a protracted tug-of-war, in which Gug was severely damaged in this "repentant" war, and the country's strength took a sharp turn.
At the same time as the war, the interior of the Guge Dynasty was not pure, because Tashi Chabad was preparing to convert to God in the core of Tibetan Buddhism...
Third, the mystery of the disappearance of the Gurg Dynasty : the bizarre "religious substitution plan"
By the time Tashi Chabad came to power, the Guge dynasty had long been dominated by the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, and all classes from top to bottom had formed a deep foundation of religious belief.
Like most religious states in history, the Gurg dynasty also had conflicts between theocracy and kingship. Tashi Chabad had always wanted to solve the problem of excessive theocracy and be a secular king who was not bound by religion, but he was unable to do so, and the arrival of a Western missionary made him overjoyed.
In 1624, a man named Antonio. Anddotus' Western missionaries crossed the Tibetan Plateau from India to the Gug king Duzhabjean. Tashi Chabad was so excited about Andord's arrival that it was a perfect opportunity to solve the problem of religion—there was only one religion that could stand up to religion.
After much deliberation, Tashi Chabad prepared to implement an unprecedented plan in Guge: a religious substitution plan, replacing the original Tibetan Buddhism of Guge with Catholicism, thereby weakening or even eliminating the influence of theocracy in Guge.
catholic
Tashi Chabad's brain hole was indeed very large, and he could think of such an incredible solution, but unfortunately, his "religious substitution plan" was a fiasco, and even by the time of the fall of the Gug dynasty, there were fewer than 100 Gugs who converted to God, and these people were almost all Tashi Chabad's cronies.
The reason for Tashi Chabad's failure is simple: in addition to their centuries-old devout faith, Tibetan Buddhists have armies that can cut people.
The king's bizarre plan was first opposed by conservatives led by the king's brother, and the interests of the monks and nobles were compromised, and they quickly rallied around the king's brother to oppose Tashi Chabad's religious substitution orders.
The palace building on the top of the hill
Tashi Chabad naturally resented this disobedience to the king's orders and resolutely suppressed it. In 1627, he commanded an army loyal to him to storm his brother's residence, looted his belongings, and revoked his aristocratic rights. He then sent troops to surround the gelug monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism, forcibly ordering the monks to take off their robes and marry their wives, and arrest and imprison the monks of higher status.
The final result of this series of actions of Tashi Chabad is the complete betrayal of the Guge nobles and the monastic class, 3 years after the "religious substitution plan" began, Tashi Chabad fell seriously ill, taking this opportunity, the wang brother united with the nobles and monks to quickly contact the Guge Dynasty's old enemy, the Ladakh Dynasty, and led troops directly to the hinterland of Guge, besieging the wang capital Zabujang (the ruins of present-day Guge).
Fourth, the mystery of the disappearance of the Gug dynasty - the fall of the fortress
Zabujan is a huge fort fort built on the top of a high mountain, the Gurg people hollowed out the mountain, connected by a stone cave in the middle, and there is only one main road up the mountain, which is a natural danger, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
A tunnel dug by the Gurg people inside the mountain
Archaeological excavations in 1985 found a total of 879 caves, 58 bunkers, 4 secret passages, 1 weapons depot, and 11 granaries. But archaeologists wonder why such a fortified fortress could be conquered by Ladakh's army.
According to the records, after Zabujang was besieged for many days, the brother and the monks and nobles entered the palace to persuade him to surrender, Tashi Chabad agreed to surrender after some consideration, and the brother asked his brother to go to the enemy camp under the mountain to hold a surrender ceremony, Tashi Chabad also agreed, and then he and his son walked into the enemy camp, the end was obvious, this entry never returned, Zabujang was captured.
The reliability of this record is very high, because if it were not for the opening of the city gate and surrender, with the craftsmanship of the Tibetan army at that time, I am afraid that it would not be able to conquer this natural danger for another ten years. According to the data, the whole king was not besieged for a long time, about a few months, the city's food was not exhausted, why Tashi Chabad surrendered and agreed to enter the enemy camp, it is an unsolved mystery.
This mystery lingered in the author's mind when he first saw the relevant archaeological report, and it was not until he accidentally went to the Guge site a few years ago that he understood the possible reason for Tashi Chabad's surrender.
There is a lack of water on the mountain, and the water must be taken to the Zhangxiong River at the foot of the mountain
Zabjean's location and defenses are perfect, but it has a fatal weakness – the lack of water. The water used in the whole city can only be taken from the Zhangxiong River at the foot of the mountain, and once the enemy cuts off the water supply channel, the final result can only be a fall without a fight, which is also a common disease of such a large stone fortress as Zabujang, and The inexplicable surrender of Tashi Chabad is likely to be cut off by the enemy.
After this battle, the Guge Dynasty, which had existed for more than 700 years, was destroyed and disappeared into the mangy mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the 100,000 people of its heyday were also missing.
At present, the archaeological community has not yet formed a definitive explanation for this problem, some people speculate that a small part of this group of people was executed, most of them escaped and scattered into the various ethnic groups in Tibet, and it is also said that the ecological environment of Guge deteriorated, resulting in its eventual demise.
Fifth, the secret of the corpse cave and the silver eye of the living person
When archaeologists excavated the Guge site, a strange cave was found about 600 meters north of the wangdu. This cave is on a cliff, the cliff is steep, the entrance is only 0.8 meters wide, only 1.2 meters high, and people must be half-crouched to enter.
As soon as the archaeologists entered the cave, they were stunned by everything in front of them. The inside of the cave was full of putrefaction, and more than 30 dried corpses were stacked on top of each other, all wrapped in Tibetan woolen robes, and the whole body was bundled into a ball and placed into the hole in the shape of a flexion.
After the archaeologists tested these corpses, the results showed that there were both men, women and children, including even young girls and children, and the previous view that the soldiers who were killed in the war was overturned, and the current mainstream view is that Tashi Chakba himself or the family of a certain nobleman.
But to the puzzle of archaeologists, these corpses have no heads, and the skulls can not be found in the cave, but they have found many braids and tied hair bands, which shows that the corpses originally had heads, but later these heads disappeared.
Whether this was a mysterious custom or a strange religious symbol in Tibet at that time is still inconclusive, but if you have any views, you can talk about it, and you may be able to find the real answer.
The above situation is the original archaeological excavation when the scene restoration, now the hidden corpse cave has been developed as a tourist attraction, tourists are weaving, but the smell in the cave is still enduring, and especially memorable, you are curious to see, you must be mentally prepared.
Scenic signage
Finally, let's talk about the magic thing of "Guge Silver Eye", which can be described as a famous and mysterious thing in the book "Ghost Blowing Lights".
The Guge Dynasty was rich in gold in history, and they had a special scripture, written in gold juice and silver liquid, which was written on a special blue-blue paper, one row with gold juice and one row with silver juice, which shows the huge production of gold and silver in the Guge Dynasty.
According to legend, the Guge Dynasty has a secret Buddha statue, called "Guge Silver Eye", the whole body is made of gold, silver and copper, its eyes are particularly special, looking like a living person, folk legend Buddha statues can even be seen with people.
It's just that such strange things have always been rumored, no one has ever seen the real thing, and the information circulated is so bizarre that archaeologists have always thought it is just a folklore.
The scriptures painted in gold juice and silver liquid
In 1997, when archaeologists excavated the main hall of the Piyang site, a very exquisite bronze statue was unearthed, which was identified by scholars and finally confirmed that this was the legendary treasure - "Guge Silver Eye". Here the author Jun no matter how much description is also in vain, directly on the picture, let everyone feel its "living eyes".
In the history of archaeology, there are often cases where "legends" have become real events, the most typical example is the discovery of the legendary "Zhang Xianzhongjiangkou Shenyin", and the excavation of the "Guge Silver Eye" also shows that some legends in history are not completely empty.
Guge's silver eyes, the eyes are extremely spiritual, showing the superb artistic achievements of the Guge people
Although archaeological excavations have uncovered some of the truth, some questions have not yet been answered, such as the cave where the corpses were hidden, such as where the 100,000 Gugs ended up. The truths of these secrets have been lost in the dust of history with the fall of the Guge dynasty, or only with further archaeological discoveries can the mystery of the Guge be truly solved.
Majestic Himalayas, mysterious snowy plateau, its history is so fascinating, the passage of thousands of years of time, I don't know how many Tibetan codes have been left, only the eternal Kailash, forever standing there, quietly gazing at the vicissitudes and vicissitudes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Kailash Sacred Mountain
This is Tibet, the closest place to heaven!
Text/Dream awakening Jinguancheng