China News Agency, Chengdu, January 17th: Why does the trajectory of Tibetan civilization always develop eastward?
——Interview with Huo Wei, Director of the Institute of Tibetology, Sichuan University
China News Agency reporter He Shaoqing Yue Yitong
The characters in the Tibetan region of China appeared after the establishment of the Tubo Dynasty in the 7th century AD, and there was no documented evidence for a long period of time before that.
Because traditional Tibetology research mainly relies on Chinese and Tibetan documents and a very small amount of Tubo inscriptions and bamboo slips, it is unable to solve key archaeological questions about the origin of humans, agriculture, and civilization in Tibet.
Through several generations of Chinese archaeologists, breakthroughs have been made in these issues, and the discourse power in Tibetan archeology has gradually been transferred to Chinese scholars.
Scientific archaeological evidence shows that the culture and civilization of Tibet have always been closely connected with the mainland of China. Why does the trajectory of its civilization always develop eastward?
How does Tibetan archaeology provide a unique world sample of "plateau civilization" for all mankind?
Huo Wei, dean of the School of History and Culture of Sichuan University and director of the Institute of Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "West and West".
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
China News Agency reporter: What are the achievements and limitations of Western archaeologists' archaeological work in Tibet? When can China's archaeological work in Tibet be traced back?
Huo Wei:
Tibetan archeology can be said to be an internationally renowned study. Before the peaceful liberation of Tibet, it can be said that it was the "patent" of Western scholars to enter Tibet as a "Tibetan scientist" to conduct "archaeological" and "expedition" activities.
The representative figure is the Italian Giuseppe Duzzi. He has made certain achievements in the study of Tibetan Buddhist art and the investigation of some ruins in western Tibet. Most of the work is based on ground collection and search.
Although Western scholars once opened the door to Tibetan archaeology, Tibetan archaeological work in the true scientific sense only really emerged after the peaceful liberation of Tibet.
Marked by the famous archaeologist Professor Tong Enzheng's excavation of the Neolithic Karuo site in Karuo, Qamdo, Tibet, Tibetan archaeology has entered the stage of underground excavation.
This site, about 5,000 years ago, revealed the scientific evidence of prehistoric human activities on the Tibetan Plateau to the world for the first time.
It turns out that as early as the Neolithic Age, there were already settled people on the Tibetan plateau.
They sewed clothes with bone needles, planted millet, made pottery, and even made exquisite decorations with animal bones, pottery fragments and seashells imported from afar.
While acquiring a large amount of scientific materials, archaeologists raised the issue of mutual exchanges between the ancestors of the Karuo site, the culture of the Central Plains, and the Neolithic culture of the Yellow River Basin.
The miniature real scene of the restoration of the house remains at the Karuo site in Tibet exhibited by the Tibet Museum.
Source: Visual China
China News Agency reporter: How did the discourse power of Tibetan archaeology gradually shift from Western scholars to Chinese scholars?
Huo Wei:
Thanks to the continuous efforts of archaeologists of various ethnic groups, China has solved three key issues in Tibetan archaeology about the early civilization of mankind, namely, the origin of human beings, the origin of agriculture, and the origin of civilization. These were rarely discussed by Western scholars in the past. And the fields that lack scientific archaeological materials continue to make breakthroughs.
The discourse power of Tibetan archaeology has gradually shifted to the hands of Chinese scholars.
For example, when early humans set foot on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Western scholars have almost no solution.
Through the efforts of Chinese scholars in recent years, we can say with confidence that about 50,000 years ago, human beings had settled on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and started their civilization creation.
About 5,000 years ago, there were already Neolithic agricultural settlements like the Karuo Ruins. People learned to grow millet on this land, and then introduced highland barley.
Even entering the documented period of Tibetan history, archeology is still rewriting and enriching Tibetan history to a large extent.
For example, we found the stele "The Inscription of the Great Tang Tianzhu Envoys" built by the official envoy Wang Xuance of the Tang Dynasty in Geelong on the Sino-Nepalese border.
The discovery of this stele is currently the only physical evidence of the Tang-Tubo-Tianzhu road, which is more than a hundred years earlier than the Tang-Tubo alliance stele in front of the Jokhang Temple today.
This is the most significant archaeological discovery in the history of transportation between China and India, as well as between Tang and Tibet since the 20th century.
At present, the cutting-edge academic topics proposed by Chinese archaeologists, such as Zhang Zhung archaeology, Tubo archaeology, Plateau Silk Road archaeology, Tibetan Buddhist cave temple archaeology, etc., have attracted great attention from the international Tibetology community, and their research results have been increasingly recognized by Chinese and foreign academic circles. Highly agree.
Reporter from China News Agency: Does "The Inscription of the Tianzhu Mission of the Tang Dynasty" prove the existence of the legendary Wang Xuance? Could you tell us about the unearthed process and significance of this stele?
Huo Wei:
Documents have recorded that during the Tubo period, that is, around the 7th century AD, there was an important international channel between China and India. The envoy Wang Xuance of the Tang Dynasty used this channel to go to India.
When Wang Xuance went on his second mission, he encountered civil strife in Tianzhu.
With the help of Tubo Songtsan Gampo, Princess Wencheng and Nivalo, Wang Xuance and his deputy helped Tianzhu to quell the civil strife and completed the mission.
Although in many folk stories at home and abroad, Wang Xuance often appears as "the most fierce man in the Tang Dynasty", but before the discovery of "The Inscription of the Tianzhu Mission in the Tang Dynasty", there were many doubts in the academic circles about the history of exchanges between China and the West in the Tang Dynasty. Whether it is Wang Xuance, or the Fanni Ancient Road, which is related to the route of the envoy, there are great doubts about its existence.
Chinese and foreign archaeologists have explored the relics of this ancient road many times. For example, at the end of the 19th century, French scholar Levi Grisson visited the site in person to find the relics of the inscriptions built by Wang Xuance on Mount Qiju in India, but in the end he had to "Looking at the overgrown vegetation on this mountain, it was very difficult to climb, and I returned disappointed."
In June 1990, during our archaeological investigation in Jilong, with the help of the local people, we found a 81.5 cm wide and 53 cm high remnant stele with a hanging Hada and covered with ghee.
The village chief told us that the local Tibetan people respect this "stone" engraved with Chinese characters very much, and regard it as a "spirit" that can bless the safety of the place.
Part of the inscription "The Inscription of Tianzhu Envoys of the Tang Dynasty".
Photo provided by the interviewee
After scrubbing the stele, the words on the stele gradually appeared. The first thing that catches the eye is the inscription "Da Tang Tianzhu used the inscription" written in seal characters.
Although the inscription on this stele has been damaged, there are still 24 lines of inscribed regular script, which have the characteristics of Tang Dynasty inscriptions in terms of calligraphy and format.
After textual research, it records Wang Xuance's third mission. It is the earliest inscription of the Tang Dynasty found in Tibet, and it is also an important evidence of the Tang-Tubo-Tianzhu road.
China News Agency reporter: Why does the trajectory of Tibetan civilization always develop towards the east? How does Tibetan archaeology provide a unique world sample of "plateau civilization" for all mankind?
Huo Wei:
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has the highest average altitude on earth and has long been considered a "forbidden zone for human life".
The scientific discoveries of Tibetan archaeology have broken this myth with a large amount of physical evidence, and provided an anthropological basis for why early humans could adapt to the plateau and survive and develop under the conditions of high cold and hypoxia.
In addition, Tibetan archaeology also shows the world from the perspective of cultural characteristics how people living on the plateau form their own cultural characteristics in religion, art, philosophy and other aspects through their artistic creations, which have become very important Tibetan cultural symbols.
Vajra Haimu.
Photo by Liu Baocheng
Through Tibetan archaeology, we can also see that from prehistoric times to various historical stages, the people living on this plateau generally develop eastward and are closely connected with the mainland.
For example, as early as 5,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Karuo site had a close relationship with the upper reaches of the Yellow River; Princess Wencheng and Princess Jincheng of the Tang Dynasty entered Tibet and brought advanced religion, culture, system, Statutes, costumes, and technology contributed to the accelerated integration of Tubo into the Chinese cultural circle centered on the Tang Dynasty; Tibet was included in the central administrative jurisdiction in the Yuan Dynasty, and the affiliation between Tibet and the central government was established since then. It remained unchanged until the Ming, Qing and Republic of China.
These historical facts are sufficient to prove that Tibet has been an inalienable part of China since ancient times.
If we ask where the background of Tibetan culture is, the background of Tibetan culture is in the East Asian cultural circle, and it is a member of the diverse family of the Chinese nation.
(Finish)
Respondent profile:
Huo Wei is currently the dean of the School of History and Culture (School of Tourism) of Sichuan University, the curator of the Sichuan University Museum, the director of the Institute of Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University, a key research base for humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, and the convener of the Archaeological Discipline of the Discipline Review Group of the State Council He is one of the judges of the National Social Science Fund, a member of the Undergraduate Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, a director of the Chinese Archaeological Society, a vice-chairman of the Sichuan History Society, and a vice-chairman of the Sichuan Museum Society.