In the west of the Tibetan plateau there was once a powerful polity — Zhangzhung (Wylie: *zhang zhung*).

Older than Tubo, it had vast territory, a self-contained culture, its own script, astrology, medicine, and royal line. It was the homeland of Bön and one of the earliest forms of Tibetan civilization.

In the 7th century the Tibetan (Tubo) empire rose, and Songtsen Gampo finally conquered Zhangzhung. Thereafter Zhangzhung disappeared as a political entity; its script was lost, its royal line severed, leaving only ruins on the wilderness and memory passed mouth to ear.

But Zhangzhung did not truly vanish. It became something else, and survived.

The core of Zhangzhung lay roughly in today's Ngari region of Tibet, its reach once extending to Kashmir, western Nepal, and southern Xinjiang.

It had its own language — the Zhangzhung script, a writing system distinct from but belonging to the same Tibeto-Burman family as Tibetan. Many early Bön scriptures were originally written in Zhangzhung script, later translated into Tibetan.

It had its own capital — the legendary Khyunglung Ngulkhar ("Silver Fortress of the Garuda"), whose ruins lie in Zanda County, Ngari, built against a mountain with a distinctive form. The "khyung" (garuda) was the symbol of Zhangzhung royal power and the most important sacred bird in Bön.

It had its own cultural achievements: astrology, medicine, craft, metal-smelting. Many ancient techniques of the plateau, scholars hold, trace back to Zhangzhung.

Bön tradition holds that Zhangzhung was the homeland of Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche and the birthplace of Bön. Its mountains and rivers — Mount Kailash above all — remain Bön's most sacred landmarks to this day.

In an age without written records, Zhangzhung had already built the first complex society on this plateau.

In the 7th century the Tubo empire rose in the Yarlung Tsangpo basin. After Songtsen Gampo unified the tribes, his forces turned west.

The course of Zhangzhung's fall is briefly recorded in historical sources, while Bön tradition narrates it in richer, tragic detail. Generally it is held that the last Zhangzhung king, Lig Mincha (Wylie: *lig mi rhya*), fell out with Tubo and was finally destroyed by Songtsen Gampo; Zhangzhung was incorporated into the Tubo realm.

Thereafter the Zhangzhung language was gradually replaced by Tibetan, the script lost, the royal line severed. As a political entity, Zhangzhung vanished from that point.

For Bön this was a fundamental blow: it lost its state, its patron, and its institutional support. For the following centuries, under Tubo's Buddhist-favoring climate, Bön was repeatedly suppressed, at times driven underground, sustained by lay followers and mountain hermits.

Read as an ending, this history seems final. But what followed was unexpected.

Bön's true turning point came after the 11th century.

In the preceding centuries, having lost political protection, Bön did something very like the Nyingma: it hid. Large numbers of scriptures were sealed into rock walls, stupas, and the earth, to be retrieved in later ages.

From the 11th century these texts were gradually retrieved by tertöns (treasure-revealers). At the same time, a group of translators rendered the scriptures in Zhangzhung and old Tibetan into the Tibetan of the time, standardizing them. Thus Bön began large-scale scriptural organization.

The fruit was the Bön Kangyur (Wylie: *bon bka' 'gyur*) and Bön Tengyur (Wylie: *bon bka' 'gyur 'grel*) — Bön's own canon, parallel to and independent of Buddhism's *Kangyur* and *Tengyur*.

In 1405, Menri Monastery was completed, and for the first time Bön had an institutional academic center and monastic system.

The meaning of this history is this: a tradition, after losing its state, its funding, even for a time its legitimacy, pieced itself back together through books buried in the earth and a populace unwilling to forget.

Zhangzhung fell, yet Bön sealed it into scripture.

In today's Tibetan culture, the traces of Zhangzhung are everywhere:

Astrology — many algorithms of the Tibetan calendar, the choice of auspicious and inauspicious days, and eclipse calculation trace back to Zhangzhung.

Medicine — part of the Tibetan medical system's theory and pharmacological knowledge has Zhangzhung origins.

Ritual — sang, wind-horses, torma, the substitute rite, and a great many customs concerning mountain and local gods all originate in Bön.

Vocabulary — a considerable number of Tibetan words, scholars hold, come from the Zhangzhung language.

Funeral — the procedure and concepts of sky burial are closely tied to Bön's intermediate-state teaching.

In other words: Tubo conquered Zhangzhung, yet Tibetan culture absorbed it. Politically Zhangzhung was the loser; culturally it never left.

This is the most thought-provoking part of the history: a civilization can be defeated, yet need not be erased. States fall, languages change, but how people cure illness, reckon the days, and bid farewell to the dead — these outlive dynasties.

In recent years, the Khyunglung Ngulkhar ruins in Zanda County, Ngari, have drawn increasing attention.

Archaeologists have found here dwelling ruins built against the mountain, fortifications, tombs, and many artifacts, dating roughly from around the beginning of the Common Era to the 7th century. Although scholarship still debates whether this is the legendary Zhangzhung capital, these finds at least prove: a society of considerable organization once existed in this region.

At the same time, the contemporary organization of Bön tradition proceeds: the critical editing and publication of Bön scriptures, the recording of rites, and cooperation projects with overseas research institutions are all advancing.

Today Bön is small, yet has its own scriptures, monastic order, scholastic system, and highest leader, distributed across Tibet, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, and Nepal. It is no longer the state religion of any kingdom, yet no longer needs a kingdom's protection.

The renewal of Zhangzhung is not the rebuilding of a state, but letting a worldview keep being told.

Q: Did Zhang Zhung really exist?

A: Yes. Zhang Zhung was a kingdom active in the western Tibetan Plateau before the 7th century, with its own language and culture; the Kyunglung Ngulkar (Silver Palace) ruins in Zanda County, Ngari, are an important archaeological site of it.

Q: Does the Zhang Zhung script still exist?

A: As an everyday script it is no longer used, but Bon scriptures preserve many Zhang Zhung terms and some texts, and scholars are still studying them.

Q: What was Zhang Zhung's relation to Tubo (the Tibetan Empire)?

A: Zhang Zhung rose earlier than Tubo and was conquered and incorporated into its territory in the 7th century. Yet many of Zhang Zhung's cultural elements were absorbed into later Tibetan culture.

Q: Was Bon the state religion of Zhang Zhung?

A: The Bon tradition holds that Zhang Zhung was the birthplace and core region of Bon. Scholars generally agree that Bon was closely tied to Zhang Zhung culture, though its systematized order took shape only at a later period.

• Zhang-Zhung- Marchen.png · Amshpatten / CC BY-SA 4.0
• Tibetan & Zhang Zhung Alphabet.jpg · Phurbutsering / CC BY-SA 3.0
• Frontispiece of Bon scriptural volume in Zhangzhumg language.jpg · Unknown authorUnknown author / Public domain

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