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These stories and legends, etc., have been continuously circulated from ancient times to the present, and have also cast a mysterious veil over China's Sichuan-Tibet region.
Ruins of the Kingdom of Gug
However, in the Tibet region of our country, there is a mysterious ancient city, which has been seen as a terrible thing. So what story is hidden in this centuries-old city? What kind of "demons and ghosts" once lived in it?
Items inside the ruins
In the 1960s and 1970s, China had the idea of excavation and protection of this Guge site, but because the technology and conditions at that time were limited, our scientific researchers could only have more than enough and lacked strength.
Coupled with the fact that this place is sparsely populated and very remote, after comprehensive and multi-faceted reasons, it can only be protected first, and then listed as a key cultural relics protection unit, called "Guge Dynasty Ruins".
However, this place is said to be a ruin, but in fact, it is a place that no one cares about.
Quirky architecture of the ruins
In 1984, a Tibetan herdsman named Tashi stumbled into a long-dormant "ghost town" looking for a few cows he had lost, only to see skeletons and corpses everywhere.
According to Tashi's recollection at the time, some of the skeletons and corpses he saw inside stood up and chased him, and at that time, he was frightened and scattered, and he turned his head and ran. Later, according to neighbors and old people, it turned out that Tashi entered the legendary "Devil's City".
In 1985, Chinese archaeologists inspected the ruins, and later encountered the local herdsman Tashi also explained that this mysterious ancient city is indeed very strange, but there are no demons and ghosts.
▶ Origin of "Devil's Town"
China's Tibet region has always been a mysterious field since ancient times, from the Kunlun Mountains to the Himalayas we have seen how magical it is, but also let us see the magic of nature.
And all this also starts from the place of Ali in Tibet, China.
The main theme here is desolation and sparse population. In the winter, it is as desolate as Mars.
If there really is a place in the world where gods exist, then Ali is the place where all gods have forgotten. Lonely barren mountains, beautiful snow-capped mountains, and snow-capped peaks all make our tourists here linger.
Ali Snow Mountain environment
In the summer of 1984, a local herder named Tashi went out to graze and lost several yaks, so he found out and immediately went out to look for them.
But after searching for a day until dark, I didn't find any trace of my yak. At that time, he had almost exhausted all the water and dry food he had brought with him, and he was ready to leave for home.
However, at this time, mysterious castles slowly appeared not far away, which also made Tashi think that it was possible that his yak had entered these castles, so he got up and went inside to look for them.
These castles are actually not very strange in Ali, after all, the overall style is still consistent with this place, but a closer look at many architectural details is indeed something that this place has never had before.
When Tashi walked into the ancient castle, he was immediately shocked by the scene in front of him. Because the building was much larger than he had imagined, he couldn't help but wonder who lived here.
As the sky completely darkened, the entire ancient city looked unusually eerie and terrifying, and there were constant gusts of wind blowing in all directions, making people creepy.
However, because Tashi had lived in this place since he was a child, he was not very afraid of this situation, but he did not expect that after entering the ancient city, he was almost frightened by his eyes.
I saw skeletons and dead corpses everywhere on the ground, and then some of them were waving their arms and moving, and there were terrible cries in their mouths.
This frightened Tashi into shouting in an instant, turned around and rode out of the place without turning back. Along the way, Tashi was terrified that the terrible things would catch up.
It wasn't until the next day that the old people in the village were asked to learn that many of the old people had seen these "living dead" and that more than one person had entered the castle. The villagers call it "Devil's City."
Strange architecture in "Devil's Town"
Later, Grandpa Tashi also told him: "They have lived in the Ali Plateau for generations, and there was a very prosperous kingdom built here.
But just a few hundred years ago, the kingdom offended the gods for some unknown reason, and heaven made the city disappear."
Now, that city is full of demons and has become a ghost town.
At that time, Tashi was also very scared after listening to it, so that he often had nightmares later.
▶ Archaeologists' survey of the "Ruins of Guge"
Later, a year later, in 1985, Zhang Jianlin, an archaeologist in Xi'an, led an archaeological team into the Ali region of Tibet in China to conduct a truly scientific archaeology of the ruins.
Because the reason is this, although the previous article said that this site was set up as a protection unit more than twenty years ago,
But it wasn't until 1985 that I really had the ability to visit the place.
Overlooking the Kingdom of Gug
At that time, the archaeological team consisted of 13 people, who traveled deep into the Ali area in a large truck and two off-road large jeeps.
Don't look at this simplicity, this was already the best car and equipment at that time.
At that time, because there was no gas station on the road, they installed eight or nine oil barrels at that time, and the scenery outside on the road was also very impressive.
Due to the harsh environment on the road, the car broke down in the middle of the road, although it had already asked the rescue team for help at that time, but because the distance was relatively far, Zhang Jianlin could only take people to the herdsmen's homes not far away to buy food.
The local herders saw that it was the arrival of national researchers and received them very warmly, after all, they had not seen foreign tourists come here for a long time in their local area.
Later, Zhang Jianlin and others also encountered Tashi, who was frightened by the ancient castle before, and through the conversation Zhang Jianlin guessed that he was likely to enter this Guge relic, otherwise he would not have seen so many skeletons on the ground.
As for why Tashi said there were many skeletons chasing him, Zhang Jianlin speculated that it is very likely that Tashi hallucinated due to excessive nervousness.
For the various rumors of the local villagers, Zhang Jianlin, an archaeologist, knew that it must be not far from the city, so his mind was full of this mysterious and desolate ancient city government.
So later, after the rescue team arrived to repair the car of their group, they immediately set off, and they went through many dangers along the way but finally found this mysterious "devil's city".
Ruins of the ancient city
When zhang Jianlin saw this city, he was still shocked by the scene in front of him, because according to many similar cases in the past, it often became very exaggerated after passing through the legends of the locals.
But this time it was not exaggerated at all, and even larger than the villagers described. The little bit of the castle Tashi saw that day was just the tip of the city's iceberg.
The entire site stands silently on a few high barren hills, and although the geographical location is relatively harsh, the building has not become loose at all.
The mysterious Kingdom of Gurg
And because this place is relatively close to India, the architectural style will also have the style of that side.
The appearance of such a large-scale city in front of us archaeologists is equivalent to great value.
Then archaeologists immediately launched a large-scale investigation, when Zhang Jianlin and his party entered the ancient city, they saw skeletons and dry corpses everywhere, after roughly counting about 30 to 40 bodies.
In 1985, Zhang Jianlin inspected the ruins of the Guge Kingdom
It is no wonder why Tashi was so frightened at that time, it turned out that the city had buried so many people at that time.
However, in ancient times, people used to build cities and pools to live, but where did the residents of the city go?
▶ The reason for the disappearance of the inhabitants of the Gug Ruins
This has to start from the historical origin of this city, many of us know that the Tibetan state had a very strong national strength at that time, once dominated the Tibetan area for a while, and then because of the country's civil unrest and war, the entire country disintegrated.
At that time, due to the outbreak of civil strife in the country, the youngest son of the king fled with his relatives and fled all the way to the place of Ali now, in the 9th century AD.
This is the national precursor of our current Guge ruins, and since then it has begun to multiply in this place.
At that time, because the various resources of this place were also very rich, and the environment was also very good, the Guge Dynasty developed rapidly.
Until the later 17th century AD, due to the competition between various power forces in the country, the Guge Kingdom gradually moved towards decline and even subjugation.
Mystic Murals
Why is this happening? Because the last king of the Guge Kingdom at that time was the largest power holder of the country, and the king's brother at that time was also dissatisfied with the management of the king's brother, the two brothers later had a disagreement.
Then, due to the intensification of multi-faceted contradictions, which eventually led to the outbreak of war, in fact, although it was only a royal position struggle, it was actually a power struggle for the state class.
Later, as the war continued to expand, the king let the people keep their palaces high, in order to prevent the various forces from attacking themselves, so this is why the ruins we see now seem to be on a high mountain.
Therefore, from the current ruins, we can also see how many people dedicated their lives to it in order to build such a city.
The majestic Kingdom of Gurg
Later, there were other accounts in history, some saying that the king committed suicide because of the grief of his people. Others say that the people under the mountain eventually attacked the mountain and captured the king.
However, neither of the results will lead to the rapid disappearance of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of urban populations, and later experts also analyzed and speculated that it may be due to the deterioration of the local environment that led to a sharp decline in population.
It may also be due to the frequent outbreak of some plague diseases in ancient times, which are also speculated by experts based on the only historical data available, and the real reason behind the specifics is not, and it will wait for the next study.
To sum up, the Guge Kingdom was also a beautiful time, and what you did not want to disappear forever in the long river of history for unknown reasons.
Now this place has become a tourist attraction, attracting many people to come and admire every year.
Together, we can also look forward to the day in the future when the last veil of the Guge site will be completely unveiled...