Lhasa Qugong

Author: Lhasa Qugong, China Encyclopedia Press
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-12-01
Features: Summary of the Content
"Lhasa Qugong" is a specialized archaeological report compiled based on the excavation findings of the ancient cultural site of Qugong Village in Lhasa City, Tibet. The report comprehensively documents the excavation results and includes preliminary research conclusions by the excavators. The Qugong site is the only large-scale ancient cultural site excavated in the heart of Tibet and the highest-altitude site excavated in China to date. The site is rich in cultural connotations, yielding a large number of cultural artifacts, which present us with the appearance of an ancient indigenous farming tribal culture from the remote era of the Roof of the World. It provides crucial materials for exploring the development history of the middle reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River Valley. The age of the Qugong site is approximately from 2000 BC to 1500 BC. The large number of stone tools, pottery, and bone artifacts unearthed from the site provide reliable data for reconstructing the material and spiritual life of the Qugong people. The site also yielded small bronze artifacts, indicating that the Qugong people had mastered relatively advanced bronze smelting technology, suggesting that the plateau of Tibet entered the Bronze Age relatively late. Similar cultural remains to those of the Qugong site are widely distributed in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River Valley. They are the currently known most clear-cut ancient cultural remains in this region, and the excavators named them the "Qugong Culture." The report includes more than ten related identification and analysis appendices, providing assistance for a comprehensive study of the Qugong site. The report also documents a batch of stone chamber tombs from the Spring and Autumn period excavated at the Qugong site. The iron-handled bronze mirrors unearthed from these tombs provide important materials for studying cultural exchanges between China and the outside world. The excavation of the Qugong site was ranked as one of the top ten national archaeological discoveries in 1991.