In the mid-9th century AD, seven small kingdoms appeared on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Guge Kingdom was one of them. Why did it eventually disappear without a trace?

The Kingdom Site is located in Zanda County, Ali Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, with a history of more than 1,000 years. According to historical records, in the 9th century AD, descendants of the Tubo Dynasty established the Guge Dynasty here.

The majestic Guge Kingdom is located on the south bank of the Xiangquan River northwest of Tuolin Town in Zabudang District, Alizada County, 19 kilometers away from the county seat. It was founded by descendants of the Tubo royal family around the tenth century AD. Built after escaping here. After that, it stood here for nearly 700 years, promoting Buddhism and resisting foreign enemies, and became an important part of the history of Tibet.

But the mysterious Guge Dynasty disappeared from history overnight more than 300 years ago, leaving us only the ruins that record the splendid cultural and artistic achievements of Guge.

Just 33 years ago, Guge was still an unfamiliar term to many people. But since the expedition team organized by the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Management Committee carried out a series of fruitful archaeological work here in 1985, this kingdom that had been dead for 300 years suddenly appeared in people's sight and attracted more and more tourists. who.

The most mysterious thing about the Guge Kingdom is how a kingdom with such a mature and splendid culture suddenly and completely disappeared overnight. In the following centuries, humanity was almost unaware of its existence. There was no human activity to destroy its buildings and streets, revise its writing and religion, tamper with its murals and artistic style. It even retains the scene of destruction. The only thing that cannot be understood is how it all happened.

In the 17th century, there were already missionaries from the West in Guge. The king of Guge at that time had a deep conflict with the religious leader of Guge, who was actually the king’s younger brother. In order to consolidate himself, The Guge king began to use the power of Western missionaries to weaken the influence of Buddhism. In 1633, the monks launched a rebellion. The younger brother of King Guge colluded with the Ladakh royal family, which had the same clan as Guge. They used the Ladakh army to attack the capital of Guge in an attempt to overthrow the Guge dynasty. So a brutal battle began here. Start.

The Guge Palace built on a mountain is the most defensive building in Tibet. There is only one tunnel in the entire palace that leads to the mountain. It is absolutely impossible to attack from here, and the other places are all cliffs. . After the battle lasted for a long time, Ladakh began to drive the people of Guge to build a stone building halfway up the mountain. Their idea was that when the building was as high as the top of the mountain, they could finally capture it. Out of style.

Now we can see the ruins of this stone building halfway up the mountain in Guge. It is easy to find because the surrounding buildings are all made of earth, and only this one is made of stone. It's not finished yet, it's about ten meters high.

The reason why the practice was not completed is because something happened to the King of Guge above during the practice. It is said that because the Ladakhi people forced the people of Guge to build stone buildings day and night, the people sang very miserably below. The king heard this and the king was very sad and made a decision. One theory is that the king jumped off the cliff in the end, and as soon as the king died, the city of Guge was naturally destroyed; another theory is that Guge surrendered in order to save the people.

From historical records, it seems that the latter situation is more reliable. Yang Gongsu's "History of China's Struggle Against Foreign Aggression and Intervention in Tibet" and Wu Kunming's "History of Early Missionary Activities in Tibet" record that the last king of Guge and his family were dragged back to Lechengguan, the capital of Ladakh, by the Ladakhi people. Went to jail. No matter what the king's final fate was, the fate of the people of Guge was very miserable, as evidenced by the headless corpse cave under Guge.