Chengdu Cultural Relics Information Center

This spring, the capital museum launched the "Tianlu Wenhua exhibition of Tibetan history and culture". Among the numerous fine exhibits, a gold mask with unique mysterious patterns is placed in the conspicuous position of the first part of the exhibition, "tracing the origin of civilization".

This is the first gold mask found in Ali area of Tibet. The time goes back to July 2009. When road builders were building the Bamu highway in the western suburb of Zhada County, Tibet, bulldozers opened a deep buried cave tomb, and the damp and cold tombs and a wide range of burial objects suddenly reappeared. According to the description of Luo Dan, director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of Zada County, a square wooden box coffin was placed in the tomb, and the owner of the tomb was curled up in the coffin. Due to the tilt and dislocation of the coffin over the years, the mask slipped from the face of the deceased to his chest. Under the scorching sun on a summer afternoon in the Tibetan Plateau, the mask reflected a dazzling and attractive light through the fine sand dust.

The mask is 14cm square, as thin as a piece of paper, and the size is similar to that of a real person's face. It is composed of two parts: the crown and the face. The crown is rectangular, carved out of three parallel tower shaped altars, the top of which has a circular dome, which is very similar to the modu slope in the early Buddhist period. A crane was carved on both sides of each altar, and a sheep was carved in front of the altar. Part of the face overlaps under the crown, and there are two rows of small holes in the overlapping part, which are connected by silk thread. The facial features are carved with fine facial features, round eyes and nose trimming, and even show the patterns of human and law. The facial features and marks are outlined with red pigment, which makes it very lively. There is a small round hole in the periphery of the mask, two in a group. The back of the mask is lined with multi-layer silk fabric, and there is a knot tie. The back of the silk fabric is reinforced with veneer and sewed together with the silk fabric through a tie.

After laboratory analysis, the silk fabric behind the mask belongs to plain brocade, which is a typical fabric from the Central Plains of China. According to the carbon-14 data of the unearthed animal bones, the tomb date was around the second century, when the silk road connecting the Central Plains to the western regions was flourishing. A large number of silk from the mainland was imported into central and Western Asia through the Hexi Corridor and southern Xinjiang. This kind of luxury goods from afar appeared in the high-grade tombs in Western Tibet for the first time.

Since then, archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute for the protection of Tibetan cultural relics have found two small gold masks in gurujiamu cemetery and quta cemetery in Tibet. In addition, two pieces of muzong cemetery in Nepal, which is adjacent to Western Tibet, and one in malari cemetery in northern India, have so far found as many as six pieces in the Western Himalayan region Gold burial noodles are very popular in this area.

Silk was also found along with the gold mask, including the "Marquis" Brocade from gurujiamu cemetery, which is also on display in this exhibition. This silk with the inscription of "king and Marquis" and complicated patterns of birds and animals is the earliest silk found in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau so far. Archaeologists agree that the "king and Marquis" inscription provides a relatively accurate dating for the tomb. Among them, the Chinese character "Wang Hou" and its mirror image reverse characters also appeared in Yingpan cemetery of Yuli and Astana cemetery of Turpan from the 3rd to 4th century and in 455 A.D., which shows that the silk age of the tomb should be from the 3rd to 5th century. According to the carbon-14 dating of the tomb owner's skeleton, it is also dated to the 3rd or early 4th century, which is consistent with the silk pattern.

American archaeologists have also found silk fragments in the mustangsa muzong cemetery in Nepal. The research shows that they are also from China, which is the first discovery in Nepal archaeology. It can be seen that the silk road has extended to the western Himalayas as early as the Han and Jin Dynasties.

In addition to gold masks, many gold or gold and silver alloy products have been found in the tombs. In people's impression, this area has always been a cold area with poor environment, scarce resources and few people. Why are there so many gold products?

Before the 7th century, the vast plateau area in Western Tibet may have been closely related to an ancient kingdom "Xiangxiong" (known in Chinese as "Yangtong"). Although Xiangxiong is poor in materials, it has rich gold deposits. According to the local records of Sakya in Tang Dynasty, there is a Suva Cijia qudanluo state (also called Jinshi) in the snowy mountains to the west of Tubo, to the south of Khotan and to the north of India. It is also known as dongnu state and Dayang Tongguo, where "gold comes out". It is also recorded in the literature that after the death of the chieftain of Yangtong, the head was filled with pearls and jade, and his face was "easy to use gold nose and silver teeth", and then he was buried in a cave. No one knew the exact burial place, so his personal treasure was preserved for thousands of years. This kind of gold nose and silver teeth should refer to the gold mask.

There are also mythological records of gold production in this area in the early western literature. Herodotus's "history" also tells the story of the famous "ant gold": India, the twentieth crown prince of the Persian Empire, has to pay much more tax tribute every year than other places. India's huge amount of gold is mainly obtained from the northern region, where there is an ant, smaller than a dog and bigger than a fox. It digs holes in the ground, pulls out sand, and the sand is full of gold, So this kind of gold is also called ant gold.

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