In 1903, the famous Swedish explorer Sven Heding mentioned in his book Traveling in the Hinterland of Asia that he discovered in a valley in northern Tibet about 4,500 meters above sea level Picture of a hunter chasing an antelope. ” In early July 2001, as a deputy head of the “Northern Tibet Plateau No Man’s Land Expedition” and a reporter, I went to the northern Tibet No Man’s Land for scientific investigation. On July 13th, our scientific expedition came to the Odonggou of the Garin Mountain in the uninhabited area. On the ditch slope, we found a lot of rock paintings.
This is the scientific research personnel inspecting the paintings of Jialin Mountain. (Photographed by Tang Zhaoming in 2001)
“A mountain is seen from a distance, and a river is seen from a distance.” This is a major feature of the northern Tibetan plateau. Jialin Mountain is a low-lying hill, a round and bare mountain bag, surrounded by snowy mountains in the distance.
Followed the Russian East Gully to the mountain for five or six hundred meters. The gully was covered with large, shiny, greenish-brown boulders with sporadic dry grass in the cracks. Rock paintings are scattered among these large stones, which seems difficult to understand. The first thing that caught my eye was an irregular square stone with very indistinct corners. The smooth stone surface is evenly covered with a clear and identifiable picture composed of pits: the pattern of the herdsman rushing a few yaks is light and slightly concave, and the pits are also naturally distributed pits, with no trace of carving. Looking along the hillside, we saw eight more rocks with rock paintings.
The stones are large and small, with different patterns. The largest is more than one meter high, and the smallest is more than two feet. Patterns include not only single cattle, sheep, beasts, and “totem” symbols, but also hunter’s bow and grazing scenes, as well as several warrior holding shields, spears preparing for battle scenes, and running, jumping, and climbing patterns. The brushwork is concise and abstract, and it seems to be old.
This is a picture of a melon shed on the rock paintings of Mount Garin. It reflects a low-altitude climate suitable for agricultural cultivation. (Photographed by Tang Zhaoming in 1987) Turned over another mountain bag, and another spectacle appeared in front of us: the hilly mountain bags surrounded by snowy mountains, the mountains were full of shiny blue-brown hemp stones, shining in the sunlight. Compared with the mountain ditch rock paintings in the west, there are more rock paintings, more abundant content, clearer picture patterns and more realistic techniques. In addition to drawing people, cows, sheep, horses, beasts, and “totem” symbols, there are also plans for land cultivation. There are more than fifty pieces of various rock paintings we have seen.
These rock paintings existed before the development of no man’s land. Legend has it that it was the ancient battlefield of King Gesar long ago. When developing the no-man’s land, the first working groups who arrived here discovered these rock paintings.
The rocks of Mount Garin are volcanic breccias extruded from the underground with high heat. Due to the iron content, the surface is green-brown after oxidation and has marks.
These surface rock paintings are all on large stones, and the number of images on each stone varies.For those rock paintings that are mostly on low mountain bags, herdsmen say they come from the power of supernatural gods-how could it be made by humans?
These rock paintings are of course made by people, but not modern people. So, what is the creation of the age?
This is a large rock with petroglyphs on Mount Garin. (Photographed by Tang Zhaoming in 2001)
In 1988, I took a photo and interviewed Mr. Li Bingquan, professor at the Central University for Nationalities and director of the Institute of Tibetan Studies, in Beijing. He believes that these rock paintings are prehistoric cultures, from 4,000 to 10,000 years ago. At that time, people had not yet learned to make tools. These rock paintings must have been painted by ancient people, not chiseled, nor by supernatural forces. Li Bingquan also analyzed the value of rock paintings. He said that there are hunting, grazing, and tillage on the rock paintings, which shows that the local agriculture and animal husbandry has developed to a certain level at that time. This is a culture that the Tibetan people are proud of! It is of great value for studying the origin of the Tibetan people, the birthplace of culture, and changes in climate.
In the past, only the Paleolithic cultures such as Shannan culture, Ali Xiangxiong culture, and Qamdo Karuo culture were discovered in Tibet. I have never found or thought that prehistoric culture is still preserved in the northern Tibetan plateau. The discovery of rock paintings means that it may be necessary to rewrite the theory of the origin of the Tibetans only in the Shannan and Yarlung Zangbo generations. In the history of plateau human development, it will be as epoch-making as Banpo and Yangshao cultures.
This is a hand-drawn drawing of the newly discovered rock paintings of the Carlin Mountain carriage (left) and the Xia Sang carriage rock painting (right) of Ganglong Township, Nima County. (Photographed by Tang Zhaoming in 2001)
During this investigation, we were also pleasantly surprised to find that a vehicle rock painting here is very similar to another vehicle rock painting discovered in Xia Sang, Ganglong Township, Nima County a few days ago. It has an area of about 18 × 25 cm. The car is three-wheeled, one-wheel, and one-wheel. It has only a body and no horses. It looks like an unfinished picture.
The art expert of Tibet University, Lausanzasi, told me that vehicle rock art is a very unique cultural phenomenon in northern China’s rock art. It has been found in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces, and it is the first discovery in northern Tibet and even Tibet .
Losanzasi believes that the upper limit of the chronology of vehicle rock paintings can be roughly inferred to be 3,000 years ago, and the lower limit can be inferred to be 1400 years ago, which is equivalent to the “early metal period” in the Tibetan archaeological chronology.
The discovery of vehicle rock paintings in northern Tibet has two possibilities. One is that the rock painting is only used as a metaphor or symbol of hunting, rather than being depicted as a use object; second, the rock painting belongs to the category of recording real life, and appeared in the grasslands of northern Tibet and served its owner.
This three-hour study of rock paintings on Mount Garin is very encouraging. This not only fills a gap in Tibetan rock paintings, but also enriches the treasure trove of rock paintings in China. Check further from Local China Travel Service (www.localchinaguide.com) If you are looking for a tour of Tibet in 2021 or even later due to the COVID19, please fee free to email to info@localchinaguide.com or service@tibetctrip.com for more details.