The Tibetans are sure that they descended from monkeys. There is a legend that the god Deres, who knows how to take any guise, once incarnated in a monkey. He was sitting in a cave, thinking about his life, and suddenly realized that for complete happiness he lacked a woman. But there were no women at that time, but a female mountain spirit was nearby. Deres joined with him, as a result of which the first monkeys appeared on the planet. They began to multiply and multiply. Subsequently, those in whom divine genes were preserved began to shorten their tails. When they completely disappeared, the monkeys turned into people and began to live like humans.
Any tourist can see this story in paintings on the walls of many Lamaist temples. Tibetans are convinced that Darwin simply stole his theory of evolution from their religion. In any case, 2 thousand years before his birth, the hypothesis of the transformation of a monkey into a man had already been illustrated.
Tibet is an amazing country full of mysteries and unexplained phenomena. For example, its mountains are in constant motion. And in a few years, some landscapes can change beyond recognition. The Tibetans believe that at one time the continent of Mu (better known to Europeans as the country of Lemuria) crashed into Asia, causing the ocean floor to rise, forming the territory of modern Tibet. Therefore, its mountains consist of sand, which is washed away by rains, crumbles, collects in a new place in new mountains. Landslides, mudflows, rockfalls in Tibet occur every day. But earthquakes are extremely rare. Repair teams are constantly on duty on the roads, breaking stones with hammers (!), Loading them by hand and taking them to the side.
Here you can see how a crack appears in the mountain right before your eyes, how it expands and deepens, stones and sand are poured into it from the slope, and after a while a huge mass, which was a mountain a few seconds ago, collapses, revealing the blue sky to your eyes. In a few years, a new mountain of stone and sand will appear on this place, over a century it will be overgrown with grass and bushes, and then the water will again wipe it off the face of the earth.
By the way, questions about which Tibet is "more true" - Chinese or Indian - often arise among foreign followers of Buddhism and Lamaism. Many believe that if the Dalai Lama is in India, then the teaching was preserved only there. May be. But in Chinese Tibet, everything is "very-very".
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First of all, this is the most ancient Lhasa with the same royal palace. This is the most ancient Lamaist temple - the unique Potalla. This is the whole history of Tibet in faces, paintings, statues, temples. This is Tibetan medicine, unsurpassed in its power. And finally, the Tibetans themselves are a people incomprehensible to us, Europeans, with a special attitude to life, who consider happiness not at all what we value …
Today, Chinese Tibet is a closed territory. You can get into it only if you have a visa, which is issued upon a personal application and is considered by the Chinese government. Most tourists are limited to visiting Lhasa and its surroundings. We were lucky: we visited Tibet before the unrest and visited places where not only a Russian person, but also a foreigner in general, had not set foot before us.
A visit to a tribe practicing Bon-po magic is one of the most unforgettable experiences. True, magic in our concept does not exist in Tibet, but there are people who keep some traditions. For example, they can kill a person they like. For this, a special poison is being prepared, for which there is no antidote. Its effect can come in a minute, or maybe in a year. The poisoning procedure is original. Usually an old man takes a crumb of dried poison under his fingernail and, serving a drink to the guest, discreetly drops it into the drink. According to legend, when a person dies, his spirit enters the body of this old man, and after his death it permanently settles in the house of the Tibetans.
Bon-po is the most ancient magical belief. But there were practically no true adherents of Bon-po left even in Tibet. Those who could really be considered magicians were taken to Germany in 1920-44. And their students, left without mentors, could not develop magical art and gradually descended to the level of elementary poisoners. And I must say, in the manufacture of various poisons, they have achieved perfection.
The windows and doors of Tibetan houses are surrounded by a wide black stripe. According to legend, she protects the home from evil forces. A goat or yak skull hangs on a pole near each house. This totem sign also protects the home and land of the Tibetans. And in the houses themselves there are images of guard demons on the walls. They look awful and even seem disgusting to Europeans. But the Tibetans laugh: what should a guard look like? If he looks decent, who will be afraid of him?
The concepts of good, evil, happiness here are completely different from ours. Every inhabitant of this ancient land, from infancy, does not part with the “mill of happiness” - a small metal rod with a rotating tip. Wherever a person is - on the street, at a party - he constantly rotates his mill in his hand. How many revolutions you turn, so much you will have joy in life. If it is broken, it is a bad sign.
Philosophers at their core, Tibetans often have only one change of clothing, a piece of bread for dinner and their own simple corner. But they do not feel flawed, and their eyes are full of joy, and their souls are full of love.
A wedding in Tibet is a very beautiful and exotic spectacle with many obligatory conventions and rules. In the mountains, a custom, strange in our understanding, was preserved, when several brothers have one wife for all. But no group love! The woman herself chooses with whom to spend the night. Sometimes she gives preference to only one of the brothers for a long time. Fertility in the mountains is not controlled by anyone, although the Chinese government has allowed a Tibetan family to have no more than two children.
It is very peculiar to see off the dead here on their last journey. There are five types of burials. Burial in the ground, which is very common in European countries, is practically not found in Tibet. Only criminals and outcasts are buried like this. Tibetans believe that the earth above the body impedes the further path of the soul, and its reincarnation becomes impossible.
Cremation is more preferable - when the body is put on fire. But this is an expensive ritual - there are not many combustible materials in Tibet. For the poorer, burial most often comes down to throwing the body into the river. And it floats down the Brahmaputra to India.
The most religiously advanced saints of the Tibetans are walled up in the walls of temples, and inside they erect original tombs for them.
But the most common is the so-called heavenly burial. The corpse is carried to a high mountain, where the muscle mass and bones of the deceased are crushed by stones, and then vultures and eagles come into play and take away the remains. Foreigners are not allowed to look at such a "burial". I think few could withstand such a sight. In addition, it is difficult for a normal European to understand the meaning of what is happening. Despite the fact that the authorities are trying to eradicate and prohibit this custom, many Tibetans go on their last journey in this way.
The Tibetans have asked the world another riddle. It turned out that after death the bones of religious leaders acquire different color shades, while in ordinary people they are white or yellow. For several months now, scientists from Japan have been unsuccessfully trying to solve this riddle. By the way, the color of bones is a kind of measure of the contribution of a deceased person to Lamaism.