The Tibetans in the West, Part II

Abstract

The aim of this two-part study is to investigate the westward push of the Tibetans, particularly during the period of the Yarlung dynasty (early seventh-mid ninth centuries CE), and particularly in the regions of Ladakh, Baltistan, Gilgit, Yasin, Wakhan, and Chitral: i.e. a belt of territory centred on the Karakorum and Hindu Raj mountain ranges with extensions to north and south in places. Contemporary Tibetan activity farther northwest than these areas – in the Tianshan, Ferghana, Sogdiana, and Tukharistan – will not be treated so fully, and Tibetan campaigns and conquests in the north, northeast, and east will be largely ignored. However, it will be necessary to consider various political/geographical entities around which there has been considerable confusion in previous studies: namely, Suvarṇagotra, Zhangzhung, Sumpa, Ladakh, Balti(stan), Palūr, Tukharistan, and Sarikol.