Zhangzhung and Bon: A Civilisation Rewritten When Buddhism Entered Tibet

In the western Tibetan Plateau, stone tombs stand on hilltops, settlements lie far from modern villages, and ritual sites preserve traces of a society that early Tibetan chronicles recorded only sparsely. These places do not belong to the familiar story that begins with Buddhism arriving from India. They belong to Zhangzhung, a kingdom described in Tibetan texts as a power west of Mount Kailash before the Tibetan Empire expanded into the region.

Bon, the religion that identifies itself as Tibet’s oldest tradition, says its teachings developed in Zhangzhung before moving into central Tibet. Bonpo accounts also describe Tonpa Shenrab, a teacher who lived before the historical Buddha, and a western land called Olmo Lung Ring. These stories are usually placed in the category of religious legend. The history beneath them is not invented: a pre-Buddhist cultural zone existed, with its own language, tombs, settlements, and ritual remains, and the Tibetan Empire absorbed Zhangzhung around the seventh century.