Research for Zhang Zhung Civilization
From the Preface: This book contains fifteen selected articles by Tsering Thar, the author, on Tibetan studies touching on geography, history, religion, philology and linguistics. They are selected from his writings published during the author's long career at the Minzu University, Beijing where he has played a crucial role in developing modem Tibetan studies as a professor. With -his encouragement and availability a number of students both Tibetan and Chinese were able to achieve higher degrees and were academically very successful.
The author's breadth of knowledge of history and religion of Tibet is displayed in these writings. They further show the depth of his experience in the fieldwork as well as his familiarity and foresight with the recent discovery of so many fairly old manuscripts that contain a variety of unknown rituals of the Bon tradition. They were kept mostly in private houses and temples in the villages. It was mainly under his supervision that these manuscripts were first photographed and then classified in accordance with the subject matter with notes and comments. One good example of this work is the ten volumes containing eighty-six texts entitled Ancient and Rare Tibetan Manuscripts of the Bon Tradition (gna' rabs bon gyi dpe dkon bris ma, misho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2016).
In recent years the author also took the initiative to organize a series of international conferences to study what is termed as "Zhang zhung Culture" (Zhangzhung rig gans) in Lhasa and Beijing that has effectively opened up a new growing trend of studies in Tibetology. The author himself has devoted several articles on this theme. It must be mentioned here the one written in Tibetan, but extremely important. It is entitled Dengs rabs rgyal khabs phyi nang gi zhang zhung rig gnas kyi zhib 'jug (Mu khri btsan po, gYung drung bon dang 'brei ba 'i dpyad gleng /deb, 12, 2018, pp.51-76). This article contains a very candid discussion and evaluation of the research carried out on Zhang zhung by scholars.
