A recent archeological discovery poses a serious challenge to the traditional academic contention that sky burial has long prevailed in Tibet, while grave burial was practiced for only a short time in ancient Tibet for members of royal families and certain nobles, and the custom entered Tibet from areas in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, or from highland regions in northwest Sichuan Province,

Archeologists elaborate that the ancient graves provide enough evidence to demonstrate natural geographical conditions existed on the Tibet Plateau for the independent emergence of stone coffins and grave burial. For example, burial in stone coffins was practiced by native inhabitants in central Tibet, confirming the belief that the custom actually originated and evolved on the Tibet Plateau itself.

Various archeological digs indicate that burial customs in ancient Tibet varied greatly from those of today. In the latter part of Tibet's New Stone Age, a period dating back over 3,000 years, ancient Tibetans practiced grave burial.

Chinese archeologists recently discovered a number of graves dating to remote antiquity in areas south and east of the Yarlung Zangbo River Valley. The finds mainly feature tombs housing stone coffins and a few pit graves.

The Shannan Valley has generally been recognized as the birthplace of the Tibetan ethnic group. The valley is home to the tombs of early Tibetan kings, in addition to a number of older tombs housing stone coffins excavated in recent years. The stone coffin chambers have no grave mounds. The stones were ingeniously joined tightly together without the use of bonding agents, while the floors of the chamber were not paved with stone slabs.

In addition to the human skeletal remains, the tombs contained rectangular stone axes, and uniquely shaped earthenware with carved overlapping triangular patterns. According to a detection using the radioisotope carbon-14 dating techniques, the skeletons date back 2,500-3,000 years.

The recent archeological discovery is of great significance to research on the ancient history of Tibet, as well as the spiritual life and primitive religious practices of Tibetans living in remote antiquity.

(This article appears on page 40, No. 48, 1994)