Tibetan History

Tibet's history can be divided into four periods:

1. The Tsanpo's Period

This period starts from Nyatri Tsanpo, the first of the Tsanpos, in 127 B.C (historians differ in view of the date, but this date is taken from the White Annales, a reliable book on Tibetan history) and ends in 842 A.D. at the death of Lang Dharma, the last of the Tsanpos, who was assassinated by a Buddhist monk owing to Lang Dharma's ruthless persecution of Buddhism. During this period some 42 Tsanpos had ruled over Ti! bet among which Songtsan Gampo's rule was considered as the zenith. Songtsan Gampo was an outstanding ruler, he unified Tibet, changed his capital to Lhasa, sent Sambhota to India to study Sanskrit and promulgated a script for the Tibetan on the latter's arrival to Tibet, married Princess Wencheng of the tang Court and Princess Bhrikuti Debi of Nepal, built the Potala and the temple and the temple of Jokhang

2. The period of Decentralization

This period began in 842 A.D. the year of Lang Dharma's assassination, and ended in about 1260 A.D, when Pagpa, the Abbot of Sakya monastery, became a vassal of Kublai Khan, the first Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. During this period a little is known in history except that Tibet became decentralized into a number of petty principalities.

3. The period of Sakya, Pagdu, and Karmapa's Rule

This period began with Sakya's rule over Tibet, followed first by Pagdu's rule in Lhaoka and then by Karmara's rule in the Tsang region (Shigatse). The sakya period was the time written Tibet officially became an inseparable part of China.

This period lasted from 1260 A.D to 1642 A.D during which political powers centered in the three regions of Sakya, Pagdu, and tsang successively ruled over Tibet.

4. The period of the gandan Podrang's Administration

This is the period in which Dalai Lama ruled Tibet. It started in 1642 A.D. when the 5th Dalai Lama overtook the ruling power from the Tsang ruler. It basically ended in 1951 when Tibet was liberated and came to a complete end in 1959 when rebellion led by the Dalai Lama was pacified and the People's Government of the Tibet, Autonomous Region was set up.

Culture

Identifying Buddhist Images:

Each monastery contains so many images of Buddhist deities that very soon they will begin to blur. There are a few you will want to memorise so you can recognise them in each new chapel you enter. For instance, the protecting wrathful deities usually wear necklaces or crowns of skulls or human heads. Identification of many images is often difficult because the body or hand position are obscured by robes. Try any way.

Here are the important images and their key characteristics

Amitabha (Opagme): One of the five Dhyani (personification of the five Buddha energies), the Buddha of the Infinite Light is red, both hands grasp an alms bowl.

Atisha (Jowoji): The Indian master and teacher who helped revive and revitalise Tibetan Buddhism in the 11th century. Monk's robe, red pointed hat, seated in lotus position.

Avalokiteshwara (Chenrezi): The Buddha of Compassion and Protector of Tibet. Seated in full lotus, with white body, four arms, tow hands hold a wish-fulfilling gem, he has a deer skin over his left shoulder.

Green Tara (Drolma Jang): The motherly aspect of compassion, she is regarded as Tibet's patron saint. Green body, right leg extended, holding twin blue lotuses of compassion.

Hayagriva (Tamdrin): The horse-necked one, the alter ego of Avalokiteshwara who destroys demons. Red body, four legs, six arms, three faces, one or more horse heads in his fiery hair, a tiger skin around his waist, necklace of 51 heads. His consort, clad in a leopard skin, is blue.

Kalachakra (Dukor): The wheel of Time, the most complex of the Trantric Deities. Handsome, 24 arms each holding a different symbolic implement, four faces, tiger skin around his waist, red right leg, white left leg, multicoloured faces and legs, crossed wrists.

Maitreya (Jampa): The future Buddha is not crosslegged but seated conventionally on a throne, hands held to the heart in a gesture of "turning the wheel of dharma" (teaching), a white or golden stupa in his hair.

Manjushi (Jampelyang): Bodhisattva of Wisdom. Handsome, gold coloured image, holds the flaming sword of wisdom in his right hand, lotus blossom in the left.

Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche): Easily identified by his handsome, drooping moustache and wide, round eyes. He holds a dorje and conch shell and supports a ritual staff.

Palden Lhamo (Sridevi): Protectress of Lhasa and the Gelugpa order. Dark blue, clasps corpse between teeth, club in right hand skullcap filled with blood in left, rides a mule.

Sakyamuni (Sakya Tukba): The Buddha of the Present, born in Lumbini, Nepal in 543 B.C. Seated in full lotus positing, blue hair, a knob signifying fiery intelligence atop his head, holding an alms bowl in his left hand, right hand touching the earth to signify his enlightenment.

King Songtsengampo: 7th century creator of the Tibetan nation and considered a manifestation of Avalokiteshwora. Sits crosslegged on throne, holds a wheel and right arm extended with thumb and first finger in the symbol of eternity. Often flanked by his Nepalese and Chinese queens.

King Trisong Detsun: 8th century Buddhist emperor of Tibet. Sits cross legged with a lotus flower in his right hand and a wheel clasped in his left hand.

Vajrapani (Changa Dorje): A Tantric deity, the Bodhisattva of energy and power appears in benevolent or ferocious aspect. Dark blue body, vajra in extended right hand, tiger skin wrapped around his waist, a snake around his neck. In his benign aspect, he holds  a lotus flower.

White Tara (Drolma Kar): The fertile aspect of compassion, she has a white body, seven eyes (in forehead, hands and feet), blue lotus of compassion in the left hand, and her right hand in the gesture of generosity.

Yamantaka (Dorje Jigie): Destroyer of Death, a manifestation of Manjushri, guardian of the Gelugpas. Dark blue, squat, 34 arms, 16 legs, nine heads, the main head being of a buffalo, a necklace of heads, holding a skullcup and a knife.

Tsongkhapa Founder of the Gelugpa order and a manifestation of Jampelyang (Manjushri), Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) wears the yellow hat of the Gelugpas. He is normally portrayed in a triad with his two main disciples, Kedrub Je and Gyatsab Je. His hands are in the 'teaching' mudra and he holds two lotuses. He was a founder and first abbot of Ganden Monastery ad many images of him are found there.

Dalai Lama Dispine of Tsongkhapa, determined to propagate their master's teachings, established monasteries at Drepung, Sera and Tashilhunpo, and the movement came to be known as the Gelugpa (Victuous) order.

By the time of the third reincarnated head of the Gelugpa, Sonam Gyatso (1543-88), the Mongols began to take an interest in Tibet's new and increasingly powerful order. In a move that mirrored the 13th-century Sakyapa entrance into the political arena, Sonam Gyatso accepted an invitation to meet with Altyn Khan near Kokonor in 1578. At the meeting Sonam Gyatso received the title of Dalai, meaning 'ocean', and implying 'ocean of wisdom'. The title was retrospectively bestowed on his previous two reincarnations, and Sonam Gyatso became the third Dalai Lama.

Milarepa A great 11th-century Tibetan magician and poet, Milarepa is believed to have attained the supreme enlightenment of Buddhahood in the course of one lifetime. He became an alchemist in order to poison an uncle who had stolen his family's lands and then spent six years meditating in a cave in repentance. During this time he wore nothing but a cotton robe and so became known as Milarepa (cotton-Clad Repa). The most images of Milarepa depict him smiling, holding his hand to his ear as he sings. He may also be depicted as green because he lived for many years on a diet of nettles.

Tibetan art

Dragon, Tibet can be seen at the Field MuseumTibetan art is deeply religious in nature, from the exquistely detailed statues found in Gompas to wooden carvings and the intricate designs of the Thangka paintings. Tibetan art can be found in almost every object and every aspect of daily life.

Thangka paintings, a syncretism of Chinese scroll-painting with Nepalese and Kashmiri painting, appeared in Tibet around the 10th century. Rectangular and painted on cotton or linen, they are usually traditional motifs depicting religious, astrological, and theological subjects, and sometimes the Mandala. To ensure that the image will not fade, organic and
mineral pigments are added, and the painting is framed in colorful silk broadcades.
 

Architecture
Tibetan architecture contains Chinese and Indian influences, and reflects a deeply Buddhist approach. The Buddhist wheel, along with two dragons, can be seen on nearly every Gompa in Tibet. The design of the Tibetan Chörtens can vary, from roundish walls in Kham to squarish, four-sided walls in Ladakh.

The most unusual feature of Tibetan architecture is that many of the houses and monasteries are built on elevated, sunny sites facing the south, and are often made out a mixture of rocks, wood, cement and earth. Little fuel is available for heat or lighting, so flat roofs are built to conserve heat, and multiple windows are constructed to let in sunlight. Walls are
usually sloped inwards at 10 degrees as a precaution against frequent earthquakes in the mountainous area.

Standing at 117 meters in height and 360 meters in width, the Potala Palace is considered as the most important example of Tibetan architecture. Formerly the residence of the Dalai Lama, it contains over a thousand rooms within thirteen stories, and houses portraits of the past Dalai Lamas and statues of the Buddha. It is divided between the outer White Palace, which serves as the administrative quarters, and the inner Red Quarters, which houses the assembly hall of the Lamas, chapels, 10,000 shrines, and a vast library of Buddhist scriptures.
 

Population
The population in the Tibet Autonomous Region of over 2,600,00 is the smallest and least densely populated provincial area in our country. The Tibetans make up 94.7% of the total region. The distribution of population in Tibet is unbalanced. There are four prefectures and one municipality in the southeast of Tibet such as Chamdo, Nyitri, Lhoka, Shigatse and Lhasa, which make up 42% in the territory and population 85% of the whole region. The tow areas northwest Nakchu and Ngari, where the land areas make up 58% of the whole region, and the population only 15% of the totality.
 

People
Tibet is an area where Tibetans live as major ethnic group; there are other ethnic nationalities such as Moslems, Lopas, Sherpas and Tengpas who haven't been distinguished as individual groups owing to their little population which is only about 2000 people.
 

Food and Beverage and Specialties
Some Tibetan foods include:

Tsam-pa: The basic Tibetan meal is tsampa, a kind of dough made with roasted barley flour and yak butter with water, teror beer.

Beef&Mutton: Tibetans live on beef, mutton and milk products. As everybody knows, beef and mutton contain high heat energy, which is helpful for people living in the area of high attitude to withstand coldness.

Yak Butter: Yak Butter, refined from the milk of cattles and goats, is the daily food of Tibetans.

Milk Product: The prevalent milk products are yoghourt and milk sediment.

Qiangmudu Tea: Firstly put a little of Rtsam-pa, cheese power and yak butter into a tea bowl, then pour tea. Eat the Rtsam-pa after drinking up.

Sweet Tea: With black tea as its original juice, sweet tea contains other components such as milk and sugar, making it more sweet and nutritious.

Juema: It is special kind of Tibetan snack

Balep Korkun - a central Tibetan bread that is round a flat and made on a skillet rather than in an oven.

Momo's - dumplings filled with vegetables or mutton usually folded into different designs based on the contents.

Butter tea - made with the mix of tea leaves, salt and yak butter.

Thenthuk - a type of cold-weather soup made with noodles and various vegetables.
 

Tibetan Calendar
The Tibetan calendar is a lunisolar calendar, that is, the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 lunar months, each beginning and ending with a new moon. A thirteenth month is added approximately every three years, so that an average Tibetan year is equal to the solar year. The months have no names, but are referred to by their numbers.

The Tibetan New Year celebration is Losar.

The days of the week are called after celestial bodies.

Each year is associated with an animal and an element. The animals alternate in the following order:

The elements alternate in the following order

Each element is associated with two consecutive years, first in its male aspect, then in its female aspect. For example, a male Earth-Dragon year is followed by a female Earth-Snake year, then by a male Iron-Horse year. The sex may be omitted, as it can be inferred from the animal.

The element-animal designations recur in cycles of 60 years, starting with a (female) Fire-Hare year. These big cycles are numbered. The first cycle started in 1027. Therefore, 2005 roughly corresponds to the (female) Wood-Bird year of the 17th cycle.

This complicated calendar structure offers a promising field to astrologers.

Clothing
In the harsh conditions of the Tibetan high plateau it is important to have a dress protecting one against the adversities of weather - cold, wind, and strong solar radiation during the summer. The most important part of Tibetan clothing is therefore a warm and heavy coat or chupa, felt boots and various kinds of caps and hats, often made from precious materials such as brocade with rich embroidery and other ornaments. Men's and women's clothes are presented on six dummies. The clothes differ according to area of origin.

Important accessories are metal jewels made from silver, conch-shells, carved yak bones, and precious stones. There are also beads, necklaces, earrings, rings, hair-buckles and braces, charms, buckles, embellishing threads and hair-tassels, traditional metal buttons, twisted belts, and a man's leather belt with pockets. The most favourite stones are turquoise and dzi, which are believed to bring good luck.

The different useful little things which Tibetans take with them on their travels are also very interesting. Examples of these are: a brass mirror melong, knives (different for men and women), leather and cloth embroidered purses (also different for men and women), a needle-case and thimble made from bone and leather marked out specially for men, flint-and-steels, silver cases for bamboo pens, bodkin with a case, mull and travel sewing utensils (again with different designs for men and women), a travelling leather bag similar to the rucksack, and a small plaited bag, etc.

Tibetan Medicine
To date, the use of altogether 2,294 kinds of Tibetan medicine have been recorded. Over 300 of them are commonly in use, of which over 200 of them are plant herbs, making up 70 percent of the total; over 40 are animal medicines (12 percent); and with the remaining plus-40 being minerals (14 percent).

One-third of the commonly used Tibetan medicines have the same names as Chinese traditional medicines (TCMs), while the herbal medicines produced in local Tibetan areas account for more than half of the commonly used medicines.

Five main characteristics of the application of Tibetan medicine:

First, the application of Tibetan medicine is closely related with the theory system of Tibetan iatrology (medical science).

As the Tibetan iatrological diagnosis falls into two main types -- symptoms caused by cold factors and symptoms caused by heat --, the prescriptions are classified, according to their properties, into two kinds: medicines of a warm nature and medicines of a cold nature. Tibetan doctors treat patients with symptoms caused by cold factors and heat with medicines of a warm and cold nature respectively.

Second, Tibetan medicine is classified according to its property, savor (taste), and effectiveness.

Third, Tibetan doctors always adopt compound prescriptions in treating patients, and seldom use just a single kind of herb.

Many prescriptions contain more than 25 kinds of medicinal herbs each, with some prescriptions containing over 80 or even 100 kinds of medicine.

Fourth, Substandard medicines and substitutes are used for most Tibetan medicines.

To solve the problem of a lack of precious medicines, there are substandard medicines and substitutes to replace the original Tibetan medicines, but with the substitutes having a similar nature to the original.

Fifth, Tibetan doctors pay great attention to the process of preparing Tibetan medicines.

The toxicity of processed Tibetan medicine is eliminated or reduced, and sometimes the function and effectiveness of the medicine can be changed and raised respectively. There are three main ways of medicine processing: fire processing, water processing, and fire-and-water processing.

Development of Tibetan Iatrology

Yuthog Yonten Gonpo (708-835), the most outstanding Tibetan doctor in ancient Tibet, was a former imperial doctor who founded the Tibetan medical theory system. Combining the achievements of TCM and Western medicine, he compiled over 30 medical works to form a complete Tibetan iatrological system.

With the development of medicine practice, in the 15th century there emerged two schools of Tibetan iatrology -- the north and the south schools, which summarized the experience of the common diseases and concerned treatments in the northern cold area and the southern river valley areas, respectively.

After the 18th century, famous doctor Dima Danzengpingcuo extensively collected medicine samples and compiled the Jingzhu Annotation, recording more than 2,000 types of medicines in Tibet, and detailing the medicines' modality (the creation process), nature, taste, and function.

In 1916, the 13th Dalai Lama created the Medical Bureau. The bureau, still operating today, recruits students and teaches medical theory, promoting the development of Tibetan iatrology and medicine.

Origin of Tibetan Iatrology

As early as the ancient times, in their fight with nature, people living in the Tibet Plateau became knowledgeable about some characteristics and functions of herbs and hence began to use the herbs for therapies; people also came to know some medical functions of some animals during hunting.

Records show that the earliest popular healing art in Tibet was called "local medicine." At that time, without any systematic theory, doctors treated patients in three main ways, namely bloodletting, fire treatment, and spreading-kneading (massage). In addition, some primitive and simple therapies such as ghee (butter) for stanching (stopping blood flow) and highland barley wine for trauma treatment were also used.

In the 4th century, noted Indian physicians came to Tibet to spread the knowledge of health care and to push forward the local health care.

From the 6th century, the medical profession, astronomy, calendar, and arithmetic from the hinterland came to Tibet.

Later, in the 7th century, Princess Wencheng entered Tibet with 404 prescriptions, five therapies, six medical apparatuses, and four medicine works.

In the 8th century, another princess, Princess Jincheng, entered Tibet also with many physicians and medicine works, with some of the works having been translated into the Tibetan language.

In the reign (755-796) of Khri-srong lde-btsan, Tibetan iatrology developed greatly and nine well-known physicians emerged.

Principles of Tibetan Iatrology

The human body's physiological functions are summed up in three major elements-swell (energy and wind-evil, relating to the organs),"Chiba" (fire-evil), and "Peigen" (grume, or semifluid) --in Tibetan iatrology.

The functions of the swell in the human body are to keep life, maintain blood and limbs' function, and decompose food.

The Chiba is bile, to create and regulate body heat, keep a good complexion, and aid in digestion.

The Peigen is grume, to supply nutrition, increase fat, sustain skin, and keep regular sleep patterns.

According to the Tibetan iatrological theory, the three elements, when balanced, will help the body function smoothly, but when unbalanced, will cause various diseases.

Tibetan iatrology also suggests that the human body is made up of seven substances: good diet, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and energy. A human's internal organs are not separated but rather are connected with one another through nerves and blood vessels, hence making up the organism. People are closely related with nature and so their organ functions are affected by the changes of nature.

Tibetan doctors employ the methods of observation, palpating (heartbeat) manipulation, and interrogation in diagnosis. As for treatments, besides using herbals, animals, and minerals, other therapies such as puncture and bloodletting are also used.

Embryology is an important part of Tibetan iatrology. As early as the 7th century, Tibetan doctors had begun to study embryology (the growth of a baby in its first several weeks), and recorded human embryo growth. Their study in the growth of the human body predated foreign ones in many respects.

Four Medical Works

The major Tibetan medical works are Ju Xi (The Four Medical Works). The existing versions are not the original ones. The work covers an abundant array of contents, including the classification of diseases, physiology (the study of living things and their functioning parts), diagnosis and therapy, and prescriptions.

Many countries and areas in the world are studying Tibetan iatrology. The former Soviet Union Artists Publishing House published the Picture Album of Tibetan Medicines and regarded the book and The Four Medical Works as the most unique Tibetan medical works in the world