History of western Tibet
:Bellezza, John Vincent, Divine Dyads: Ancient Civilization in Tibet, Dharamsala (LTWA) 1997, ISBN: 81-86470-19-0, 497pp.
Vitali, Robert, The Kingdoms of Gu.ge Pu.hrang, according to mNga'.ris rgyal rabs by Gu.ge mkhan.chen Ngag.dbang grags.pa, Dharamsala (LTWA), 1996, 642pp.
By A.C. McKay
Our knowledge of the history of western Tibet has been greatly expanded recently by two major specialist works published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala (India). Vitali's translation and commentary of the chronicle of Gu.ge and Pu.hrang sheds considerable light on a largely unknown period of Tibetan regional history, while Bellezza scrutinises the remaining traces of the ancient Zhang zhung empire (absorbed into Tibet after the 7th century) among the sacred lake and mountain complexes of the present day Chang Tang [Byang thang], home to much of Tibet's semi-nomadic pastoralists.Vitali has translated a text, known only from a single manuscript, with an extensive commentary which draws on the widest possible range of Tibetan and European sources and includes valuable addenda on related topics not covered by the manuscript. This work enables us to fill in details of the religious and political history of the two kingdoms of Gu.ge and Pu.hrang and much of that of their surrounding neighbours, from the 9-15th centuries. It is a work of great and lasting significance which will be an essential basis for any studies touching on this area, while the wealth of detail provided makes this an extraordinary contribution to scholarship. Professor Luciano Petech, whose own contributions to our knowledge of western Tibet form much of the basis of the subject, has heralded Vitali's work in a discursive review article in the latest Tibet Journal (Vol. XX11:3), which may also be recommended to the specialist.
Bellezza's work proceeds from an entirely different standpoint. The author (known in the Himalayas as "Jungly John") carried out his researches in six journeys between 1987 and 1995 which involved walking more than 3,000 kilometres through the areas around the Divine Dyads of the title. These Dyads are pairs of mountain and lake deities and this study centres on two specific pairs, the (male) mountains gNyan chen thang lha and rTa rgo rin po che and their (female) partners, the lakes gNam mtsho and Dang ra g.yu mtsho. They form (along with a third Dyad, Gangs ti se and mTsho ma pham, known in the West as Mount Kailas and Lake Manasarovar) part of a sacred geographic tradition associated with the followers of Tibet's Bon belief system and are closely related with the territory of the ancient Zhang zhung kingdom which is traditionally associated with Bon.
Bellezza is primarily concerned to examine the evidence presented by rock inscriptions and paintings, and with recording the oral traditions of the regions, which provide strong evidence for their association with Zhang zhung. He is however, perhaps wisely, wary of suggesting chronological developments or dates for his findings based on such evidence and despite providing a wealth of detail concerning his findings is cautious in his conclusions although they provide valuable evidence for historical developments only hinted at in textual sources..
Both works will be required reading for specialists, may be recommended unreservedly, and will inspire further scholarship, not least to explore the wider theoretical and regional implications which arise from these works.