Chapter 2 The Origin of Tibet

Section 1: The legend of macaques turning into humans and ancient indigenous legends.

I had no intention of getting a deer in my dream, and I felt that my descendants would only see gold. When the water came out, Tubo was divided into black and white, and the land was poor and the whole Shu was separated by darkness. The withered intestines were accompanied by the sparrows in the empty city, and the white heads were even more Liang Fu chanted. I urgently ask Jiafu to announce the office today, who is injured?

Slander Qu Ziwen.

Since the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has absorbed many foreign cultures, there are various legends about the origin of the Tibetan people. Regarding the origin of the Tibetan people, some legends say that it comes from mysterious big eggs, others say that macaques turned into humans, and some people think

It is the Xiqiang who went south, and some people think it is the Buddha who went north. So how did the Tibetan people originate?

To study the history of a nation, we must first start with its origin. The origin of the Tibetan people also attracts our attention. In distant ancient times, there have been discussions about the origin of the Tibetan people, including several

There are many theories, many of which are mixed with myths and so on. The more the origin of a nation is integrated into mythology, the more difficult it is to trace their origins. No matter where the Tibetans come from, in the end the Tibetans composed a song on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Gao Ge, this is worthy of the birth of plateau people. Here we briefly mention several theories about the birth of Tibetan people.

The first theory about the origin of the Tibetan people that we want to mention is the legend of monkeys turning into humans. The Tibetan people also have rich imaginations, and they lively and lively weave a beautiful legend about their origins. This legend is

This is the beginning of everything for Tibetans, so we must start from here.

Legend has it that a long time ago, there were no humans living on the plateau, only animals roamed here. At that time, the climate in the southern part of Tibet was warm and humid, and the jungles were lush. There was a place called Qiongjie in the Yalong Valley, and a macaque lived on the mountain.

.This monkey met a Rakshasa girl, married her, and gave birth to six monkey cubs. In order to let Hou Zai survive, the old monkey sent the six baby monkeys to the woods. Three years later

, this old monkey went to the woods to visit his six children. He found that there were already more than 500 monkey grandchildren here, but due to the limited fruits here, the survival and development of the monkeys had been restricted. These monkeys were all sallow and thin.

The monkeys were very sad after seeing this. They took these monkeys to a hillside full of wild cereals and let these monkeys eat these things in the future. After their living habits changed, the physical characteristics of these monkeys also began to change.

The hair gradually became shorter, and the tail began to become smaller little by little, until it finally disappeared. I don’t know how many years passed, but they had language, and the first humans on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were born.

This legend has influenced Tibetans for thousands of years, and people who believe in Buddhism are particularly fond of this legend. With their careful weaving, this legend has been given a more gorgeous Buddhist coat. Then it has become another version of Tibetan origin in Buddhism.

, this legend is recorded in "Tibet King Tongji".

Guanyin Bodhisattva ordained a supernatural macaque (some say the macaque is the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva) and sent it to practice in Tibet. So the monkey practiced concentrating on the Zharuobo cave. There was a Rakshasa girl living there.

, she fell in love with the monkey at first sight (in the legend, her fate with the monkey was already predestined). In order to win the love of the monkey, she racked her brains and first made various flattering gestures to seduce him, but the monkey remembered

Precepts, she remained unmoved. When the temptation failed, she turned into a woman in gorgeous clothes and asked the macaques to marry her, but the monkeys still had no effect. As a last resort, the Rakshasa girl used her last resort.

——Forced with death, she said to the macaque: "If you don't marry me, I will die in front of you." Surprisingly, the monkey remained indifferent, and the "forced marriage" plan failed miserably. So far, nothing seems to have happened.

It can change the monkey's determination to devote himself to the Buddha, but things took a turn for the better after the Rakshasa girl burst into tears.

The Rakshasa girl knows that the ape cares about all living beings, so you grasp his weakness and cry to him: "If you don't marry me, I will definitely become either's wife in the future, and I can kill thousands of living beings in a day, and also...

Endless demons will be produced, and by then the snowy plateau will become a world of demons and Rakshasas." After hearing what the Rakshasa girl said, the macaque fell into a dilemma. If he agreed to the Rakshasa,

Being a woman means violating the Buddhist rules and regulations. But if you don’t agree to the Rakshasa women, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will face a great disaster. At this difficult time, the macaque decided to ask Guanyin Bodhisattva for instructions, and Guanyin Bodhisattva agreed.

The marriage with the Rakshasa girl allowed them to become husband and wife and shoulder the important task of reproducing mankind.

What happened later returned to the legend recorded above. A macaque and a Rakshasa girl gave birth to six monkey cubs. Buddhists say that these six monkey cubs were reincarnated by sentient beings in the six realms, so they have different temperaments, personalities, and looks.

Their habits are all different. The old macaque put them in the forest, where the fruits were plentiful, and allowed them to live in the forest. After three years, the old monkey went to visit his descendants and found that the fruits here were no longer enough for the monkeys.

These little monkeys lived a miserable life and had not enough to eat. The old monkeys were very sad after seeing this, and came to Guanyin Bodhisattva again for help. Guanyin Bodhisattva took out crops such as highland barley, wheat, soybeans, and barley from the cracks in Mount Sumeru.

, and sown it here, and since then it has been full of unproductive millet. These monkeys ate these millet, and their physical characteristics gradually changed, and they began to speak, which meant that the monkeys began to transform into humans.

This Buddhist-processed legend is more complete and richer than the first legend. The macaque even became a ordained divine monkey. Under the instructions of Guanyin Bodhisattva, he married a Rakshasa girl and then took on the responsibility of reproducing humans.

The marriage between the two of them is regarded as the will of God because of the support of Guanyin Bodhisattva. The six monkey babies born to the macaque and the Rakshasa girl respectively represent various temperaments in the world, union kindness

, Diligence, violence, greed, jealousy, etc., also represent two different human natures, good and evil. Among them, those that represent the perfect human temperament belong to the character of the devout macaque. Those with defective personalities belong to the caste of Rakshasa women.

Since the emergence of this legend, everything on the plateau has been regarded as a gift from God, due to the mercy and mercy of the Buddha. This story has contributed to the status of this legend in the minds of the Tibetan people, so much so that this legend has been included in Tibetan history books.

It is even depicted on the murals of the Potala Palace and various buildings, showing the entire process of macaques turning into humans, which shows that this legend is deeply popular among the Tibetan people.

For the ancestors of the Tibetan people, this legend was talked about and deeply enjoyed by the people. However, in the great Tubo era, when looking through their historical books, it is rare to find that this legend had a profound influence during the Tubo period. Therefore, some researchers began to pay attention to this legend.

The timeliness of the legend has been questioned, believing that he should have appeared between the 11th and 12th centuries AD. Some opponents believe that this legend is very ancient. The reason for their opposition is that in the distant ancient times, until the later Tang Dynasty

At that time, the Tubo people had been using sheep, dogs and macaques to perform sacrificial activities. There is a very old Tibetan history book, which also records that the Tubo are the descendants of macaques. Including some cultural relics unearthed in Tibet later, there are many monkey decorations, and

It can be seen that the legend of macaques has a very long history. So why was this legend not widely publicized in the Tubo Dynasty? It is probably because during the Tubo Dynasty, the monarchs claimed that their power came from the grant of heaven. The concept of divine right of kings is obviously stronger than

It is more practical for macaques to transform into humans, so during the great Tubo Dynasty, this legend was rarely recorded.

After analysis by scholars of all ages, this legend has gradually been restored to its original appearance. The macaque is a symbol of a tribe that mainly focuses on farming on the plateau. This tribe may come from the Hengduan Mountains in the eastern part of the plateau. The Rakshasa girl symbolizes the relatively backward Tibetan people.

Representatives of the hinterland, the combination of the two is the result of the friendship between tribes. Obviously the status of monkeys is higher than that of Rakshasa women, symbolizing the transformation from matriarchal clan society to patriarchal clan society. As for why monkeys are used as their ancestors, this is because

The monkey is the object of this inadequate worship.

It is very likely that a long, long time ago, there was a place on the plateau with a humid climate and dense forests, and there was a tribe that mainly engaged in farming. For unknown reasons, they left the fertile soil on which they relied for survival and arrived in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

This area is relatively backward, and two clans met here. Then they joined together to thrive here, and used advanced technology to farm and work.

In fact, we don’t know how much truth a legend contains. Even the Tibetan people know that the macaque turned human is a legend after all, but the reason why it is widely spread among the Tibetan people is probably because the Tibetan ancestors would rather believe it.

In ancient times, there were human footprints on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and they were not just foreigners who migrated here.

After continuous verification by later generations, the idea that Tibetans originated from the mainland has a certain scientific basis. It starts from Ali in the west, reaches Qamdo in the east, and reaches from Nagqu in the north to Tingri and Modog in the south. This vast area has been discovered

Traces left by humans. According to archaeological discoveries, humans appeared on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau about 30,000 years ago. By 8,000 to 5,000 years ago, human activities were already very extensive. At that time, it was still a densely forested area with a warm and humid climate.

The place. According to the macaque legend, this macaque demonstrator lives in this area, and many macaques still thrive in this place. So it is not surprising that the legend of macaques turning into humans appears here.

Among all the legends about the origin of the Tibetan people, the legend of macaques turning into humans is the most widely circulated and deeply popular. This idea that monkeys are ancestors is not unique to Tibetans, and is similar to 18 ethnic groups in the Tibeto-Burman language family.

It is a legend, but it must be admitted that this legend has a wider mass base among Tibetans than other ethnic groups. To this day, many Tibetan people still believe that they are the offspring of macaques and humans. They even believe that in

A cave on Lari Mountain in Zedang was the cave where the macaques practiced cultivation. The hillside here was the hillside where the macaques led the young monkeys to eat wild valleys, and later turned it into the first field for humans to sow seeds.

, the first house built.

I don’t know how many generations of oral transmission have passed, but myths and legends seem to be increasingly believed by the world. In fact, this legend has nothing to do with science. Perhaps it is just a beautiful imagination of a group of people about their own origins. This kind of imagination is in our

It also exists among the Han people. The Tibetan people have no doubt that the macaque that practiced devoutly back then was their ancestor.

In addition to the legend of macaques turning into humans, the Tibetan theory of egg laying is also a very influential origin legend on the plateau. This legend is recorded in detail in the Bon literature "Shiba Zhuopu":

A long time ago, there was a king named Nankadongdan. He had five substances: wood, fire, earth, iron, and water. Except for iron, these five substances were the same as the five elements in China. Master Chijie Quba

(The Tibetan God of Creation) put five substances into his body, and then gently made a "ha" sound, and wind appeared. When the phoenix rotated rapidly like a light wheel, fire was produced. The wind surpassed

The fire became stronger and stronger, and the fire became more and more prosperous. At this time, the hot air and the cold air met and produced dewdrops. The particles were produced on the dewdrops. The wind blew the particles around and finally piled up into mountains. In this way, Trije Choba created the world.

Later, the essence of the five substances condensed into two eggs, one shiny and one black. The shiny egg was square and as big as a yak, while the black egg was shaped like an awl and as big as a bull. When red

When Jiequba struck the shiny egg with a light wheel, light was produced, and the god Tose was born from the light scattered in the sky, and the god Dase was born from the light shining down. In the center of the egg, a

The white man Sipa Sangbo is the king of the real world. He has green hair. In Bon literature, he also has a name called "Spa Jianbo", which means "Father of the Universe".

The black egg was placed in the black kingdom by Gba Memu Nabo. The black egg exploded, and the black light rose to create darkness, and the black light sank to create dullness. Then a man with black light all over his body jumped out of the black egg.

His name is Menba Dunabo, and he is the king of the illusory world. They are the wizards of gods and demons respectively. Rain is also born from these five substances, so there is an ocean on the earth. The wind blows across the sea, and a puff-shaped

The bubble jumped to the surface of the blue light egg. After it shattered, a woman with blue skin was born. Sangbo Benchi named her Qujiejianmo, which means "Mother of the Universe". Then they got married.

First, beasts, livestock and birds were born, and then humans were born. They multiplied from generation to generation, forming the ancestors of the plateau.

In fact, a nation's legends about its own origins should obviously occupy an extremely important position in the study of the nation's origins. Because legends, as an oral text passed down from generation to generation, are no less valuable and important than general historical materials.

Records. Compared with general historical records, it is a kind of older, more authentic and more folk historical factual material. And more importantly, a nation's legend about its own origin, as a common collective of the nation,

The memory of ancestral origin often plays an extremely important role in excluding other ethnic groups, uniting the own nation, and integrating the common psychological quality of the nation. Therefore, the ancestral legend of a nation often has greater stability and continuity.

From a certain point of view, this type of legend is quite different from other types of folklore of various ethnic groups. In addition, from a broader sense, we can think that any nation’s legend about its own origin, no matter how absurd,

No matter how many mythological elements it contains, as long as it is indeed a legend passed down by the nation since ancient times, it will more or less contain some real historical content that can reflect the early life of the nation and its origin. And for

For a considerable number of ethnic groups, their legends about their own origins are often an important ancestral memory passed down from generation to generation in the history of the nation, and often contain some kind of code about the earliest living conditions and origins of the nation. It is surprising.

The troublesome thing is that the ancient legends about their origins passed down by most nations are not in the Bai style, but are abstract, deformed, and wrapped in a thick fog of myth, which is very confusing. In addition, because

Due to the passage of time and the fact that some legends have been gradually distorted and even distorted in the process of being passed down to later generations, it is not easy to discover the true historical connotation in these extremely ancient origin legends that are wrapped with strong mythological elements.

This theory first appeared in Bon religious literature, saying that at the beginning of the world, there was an egg made of five treasures. Later, the egg cracked and gave birth to a hero, who became the first ancestor of mankind. In the 14th century, Jiangqu Gyaltsen wrote

A similar legend is also recorded in the book "Lang Family History", saying that the world was originally formed into a large egg from the essence of earth, water, fire, wind and air.

The egg white rotates into a sea of ​​white snails, and the egg liquid produces six realms of sentient beings. The egg liquid condenses into eighteen points, that is, eighteen eggs, the best of which are white eggs with the color of a conch, from which a promising being leaps out.

The round fleshy ball of the heart. Although it does not have five consciousnesses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body), it has a thinking heart. (He) thinks that it should have eyes that can observe, so the eye of wisdom appears; thinking that it should be able to identify

He thought that he should have ears that can hear sounds, so he thought that he should have teeth, so he thought that he should have teeth that can cut off the five poisons. He thought that he should have taste.

The tongue of taste gave birth to the tongue of taste; he wished to have hands, and the hands to stabilize the earth grew; he wished to have feet, and the feet of divine transformation appeared. In short, as soon as he had a wish, he realized it immediately." Later, he married a wife

He gave birth to a son and became the ancestor of the common people. However, the egg-laying theory is recognized as having obvious Indian cultural color. Tibetan scholar Galmei wrote: "The origin of this myth (referring to the egg-laying theory - cited by the author), some Tibetans

The author thinks he has found it. Therefore, Niangruo Nyima Yuese (1136-1204) believed that a Bon believer who was called a 'non-Buddhist' and came to Tubo from the Dashi (Iran) region accepted this

Theory. Almost at the same time, another author, the Bon believer Sirao Jonna (1178-1241), also believed that this theory belonged to Hindu teachings, especially the Shiva teachings. This view (especially the last one) was adopted by Western scholars

They still use it. Shi Tai'an once explained specifically that the view that the world hatched from an egg actually exists in the Mahabharata, the Brahmins and the Upanishads. But we don't know this.

How is the concept combined with the above-mentioned Tibetan mythology?" Mr. Zhang Yun also believes: "The theory of egg laying is spread by the ancient Indians in the "Rig Veda", "Hundred Paths of Brahma" and "The Secret of the Singer"

The light refracted by the 'Golden Egg Theory'." From this point of view, the egg-laying theory was also influenced by foreign ideas and did not originate from Tibet.
To be continued...