Despite having just read several books on Tibet, I had never heard of the Guge Kingdom before, nor had my backpacker friend who had organized the trip. In fact, we had not even scheduled it on our itinerary or obtained the proper permits to go see it, even though we were passing right by it.
After a week of administrative finagling, we were able to obtain the permits and squeeze it into our schedule.
From Darchen, we drove through the valley of the Sutlej, passing vast canyons, mountains, and geological formations that I don't even know how to describe. Signs of civilization were few and far between, often driving for many miles without seeing another car on the road.
We arrived in the town of Zhada, near the border of India, where we would be spending the night. At first glance, the town seemed fairly developed, with rows of restaurants, hotels, internet bars, and even a post office. But on closer inspection, half of the businesses had long since been closed down. We got a kick out of the billboard above the abandoned music store that was promoting Tupac's latest album. At night, the streets were deserted like a strange Chinese ghost town, without another tourist to be found.
The next morning we drove out to the ruins of Tsaparang, the ancient capitol of the Guge Kingdom and the fortress whose pictures we had seen earlier.
The Guge Kingdom rose to prominence with Tsaparang as its capitol in the 10th century, shortly after the fall of the first Tibetan Empire. This was a period of unrest in Tibetan history, as warlords and politicians staked their claims on various regions of Tibet and the outlying territories. Despite centuries of military conflict, the fortress at Tsaparang would stand until the 17th century, when it was conquered by the Ladahkis from what is now Northern India, after which it would fall into oblivion.
Tsaparang, the second largest fortification in Tibet after the Potala Palace, was every bit as impressive in person as it was in pictures.
The views of the surrounding landscape were majestic. The Buddhist temples and artwork, for the most part unrestored for the past 400 years, were both eerie and breathtaking. The sights put to shame many of the other more prominent tourist attractions I had visited during my year in China.
And perhaps best of all, we practically had the entire fortress to ourselves. In our three hours there, we saw only one other small group of Chinese tourists.
How could such a scenic and historical site like this go unnoticed by tourists and by society at large? Certainly the fact that it is 1200 miles away or several days by car from the nearest major airport has something to do with it.
But moreover, having fallen into oblivion in the 17th century, it is a part of history deemed irrelevant by subsequent generations. No where in the Tibetan history book I had just read (which was written by a western scholar with significant input from the Dalai Lama) was the Guge Kingdom mentioned. The period after the fall of the Tibetan Empire is characterized only by chaos and war. The narrative only picks up again several centuries later with the rise of the Dalai Lamas in Central Tibet, emphasizing Tibet as a united and sovereign nation.
Thus what was once a powerful military state is now just a structure collecting dust in the middle of the desert and a historical footnote.
History is written by the victors. What will subsequent generations have to say about once sovereign nations such as Tibet and Xinjiang?
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