Guge, the Pompeii of Tibet--

Guge, the Pompeii of Tibet(2)

2007-08-09 16:52:11 [ Big Normal Small ] 　Comment

Murder Mystery or Funerary Ritual?

The Guge Kingdom is much larger than the ruined city. It was founded 1,300 years ago by a member of the Tubo royal family, and was once the seat of rule over the whole Tibetan plateau. At the height of its power, the kingdom's territory covered all of Ngari Prefecture. It existed for over 700 years and reigned over by more than kings before vanishing in the 17th century.

Guge, the Pompeii of Tibet

The kingdom's abrupt downfall is widely attributed to a religious war. Guge subjects were Tibetan Buddhists at the time Portuguese Jesuits entered the region via India. These Portuguese missionaries converted first the queen and then the king. Lamas were appalled, and felt compelled to look to Kashmir for help. This collaboration culminated in the Kashimiri army's invasion and eventually annexation of Guge.

A paper mask in the ruins of the Guge city upon which are written Portuguese quotations from the Bible was a discovery that sent tremors through architectural and historical circles, as it provided indisputable corroboration of the religious war theory.

Human remains in an eerie cave in a cliff 600 meters behind Guge city also provide clues as to the kingdom's demise.

The cave is three meters above ground, 1.2 meters in height and 0.8 meters wide at the entrance. Inside are three chambers, the largest of which has an area of 10 sq m and a tiny niche in the wall. The rear and southern chambers leading off it incorporate two narrow exits, and are even smaller. The chambers contain the remains of 30 human beings and their clothes, some rags and twigs.

All the skeletons are headless, and dried skin and flesh are still visible on many of the bones. The only skull remnants so far found are two mandibles, and a few braided scalps. This would suggest that the corpses were whole when brought in. But no reasonable explanation has been found as to why the heads are missing.

The remains of 10 bodies wear collarless Tibetan robes or are wrapped in baize blankets. Their limbs have been kept in place with tightly bound woolen cords.

One suggested explanation for the cave and its contents is that at the end of the war with Kashmir, the Guge King, seeing no hope of victory, agreed to surrender on the condition that his subjects were not harmed. When the Guge soldiers gave up their weapons, the perfidious Kashmiri invaders slaughtered them all, and dumped their bodies in the cave.

But a young woman's remains and evidence of burial rituals on the site cast doubt on this theory. So who these dead Gugers were-nobility, soldiers or ordinary people-and whether or not their burial followed a massacre remains a mystery.

china.org.cn