In 1984, a herder was herding cattle 18 kilometers away from the county town.
When it was time to go back, the herdsman found that one of his yak was missing.
If you lose a cow, it is even more uncomfortable than killing him.
After he arranged the remaining cattle and sheep, he hurried to look for it. But he accidentally entered a place and saw the skeletons everywhere, so scared him to death. He turned around and ran away.
Only after he returned home did he realize that the place was the "Devil City" passed down by word of mouth in their local area.
Is there really a devil in the "Devil City"?
"Devil City" is called by the locals. Legend has it that "Devil City" was originally a very rich city with abundant water and grass, people living and working in peace and contentment, and there are no less than 100,000 residents in the city.
Unexpectedly, one day, a group of robbers suddenly came. After robbing all the property here, they killed all the residents and threw the bodies into a corpse hole.
The residents in the city died innocently, turned into evil spirits and hovered here. The passers-by were so scared that they didn't dare to come here, and gradually turned this place into a deserted place.
Over time, the reputation of "Devil City" spread, and later the legend became more and more intense. It is said that it is difficult to get out when entering here. Even if someone can get out, he will become a lunatic after going out.
Because of this legend, the local herders also kept the warnings of their ancestors, and no one would step into this place that was occupied by evil ghosts in the legend.
In June 1984, in order to find a lost yak, the herder Zhaxi accidentally entered a place called "Devil City" by them.
As soon as he arrived at this place, he heard the "woof" movement, and the sound of someone crying faintly came from the wind.
Thaxi was very scared, but he thought that since he had already come in, he would look for yaks.
However, not long after he entered, he saw skeletons everywhere.
And what's even more terrifying is that one of the skeletons seemed to be staring at Tashi straight and laughed slowly...
Seeing this, Tashi's scalp was numb, and he didn't care about finding a cow. He ran to his house until he stumbled back home, and then he took a breath.
However, when the family heard that he had gone to the "Devil City", they were worried about him, fearing that he would be found by the evil ghosts there.
Time passed slowly. Although I was worried every day, Taxi was always safe and sound. The legendary evil ghost seemed to have not come to him.
In fact, the "Devil City" passed down from generation to generation by the local people is the ruins of the Guge Dynasty in Tibet. As early as 1961, it was designated as national key cultural relics protection unit .
But compared to the legend that has been circulating among herders for hundreds of years, the locals are more willing to believe the "Devil City" because more than one of them has seen the piles of corpses. And they think these corpses are the people who were murdered by demons.
So after returning from "Devil City", this incident was always under the heart of Zhaxi. He was afraid that one day the bad luck would come, and he would become like those in the legend, and be killed by the evil ghost in "Devil City" and become the corpse in the Devil City.
In 1985, the Tibetan government organized an archaeological work. In the work team, Zhang Jianye, an archaeological expert from Shaanxi, came to the village where Taxi was located and also met Taxi who had been to the "Devil City".
When I heard that the work team was going to go to the "Devil City" for inspection, Zhaxi hurriedly dissuaded them and told Zhang Jianye about his experience in the Devil City.
When Zhang Jianye heard Taxi's persuasion, he was not only not timid, but was very happy, because the Devil City that Taxi had visited was the destination of their trip: the ruins of the Guge Dynasty.
To the eyes of the locals, it is a city where the devil lives, and to the eyes of archaeologists, it is just a site of a long-standing dynasty.
And there are no devils in the "Devil City", but only the suffering people. The "hidden corpse cave" in the ruins of the Guge Dynasty is proof of this.
The mysterious headless corpse cave
The "Hidden corpse cave" is located 2 meters high from the ground in the city. It was man-made. There are one large, two small and three caves. The bones inside are densely pressed on three layers, and they are all headless corpses.
Just today, hundreds of years after the destruction of the Guge Kingdom , when you come to the "Hidden Corpse Cave", you can still smell the stench coming from the cave, as if telling people the tragic image of that year.
There is a saying about the origin of the "hiding corpse cave": It is said that the Guge Kingdom once had a war with the Ladakhs.
Because Guge Kingdom lost, many innocent people died in the war.
Later, in order to protect the safety of their people, King Guge reached a contract with the Ladakhs. He was willing to surrender to the Ladakhs. His only request was to let them not hurt their people.
But when the soldiers of Guge Kingdom put down their weapons, the Ladakhs suddenly changed their minds and killed all Guge soldiers who had lost their resistance, throwing their bodies into the cave, becoming today's "headless corpse cave".
The remaining Guge people were also forced to leave their hometown by the Ladakhs. The palace and city were also abandoned, and it turned into ruins over time.
At the highest point of the Guge Kingdom ruins in , there is still a legend: the last king of Guge Kingdom stood there and jumped down. He wanted to exchange his sacrifice for the safety of the kingdom's subjects. Although the legend of
has a fictional component, the demise of the Guge Kingdom is indeed related to Ladakh .
1624, Portuguese missionaries Anddode, Marquis and others came to the Kingdom of Guge and began to preach after gaining the trust of King Guge.
Because of the support of Gugewang , the missionary speed was very fast. A large number of believers quickly gathered and many churches were built.
However, their actions aroused the dissatisfaction of local monks and nobles. These nobles and monks attracted the army of Ladakh, and then cooperated with each other and destroyed the Guge Kingdom in one fell swoop.
War will inevitably produce killing, and it seems reasonable to bury the killed soldiers in the cave.
And there is also strong evidence for this statement, which is a mask discovered by archaeologists in 1985.
The back of the mask is made of paper, and there are also words on it. After the experts identified it, they determined that this was a Bible written in Portuguese.
mask was later taken to Beijing. After confirmation by the Catholic Church, they determined that this was evidence that Portuguese missionaries went to the Gugge Kingdom to preach.
In addition, judging from the situation of the Guge Dynasty ruins, among the remaining buildings, the best one is not the royal palace, but the temple.
This seems to confirm that the monks participated in this war, otherwise why the temple could have been preserved so well.
If this statement is true, then the corpse in the "hidden corpse cave" should be the corpse of the soldiers, which is all the corpse of adult men.
However, during the investigation, archaeological work found some young female corpses from here, and these corpses also lacked heads.
Perhaps in addition to soldiers, there are also civilians who were killed in the war. Otherwise, why did the more than 100,000 Guge people not leave any descendants to this day?
Some people also speculate that the female corpse in the cave may have originated from a mysterious religious sacrifice, which is indeed in line with the situation of this mysterious Plateau Buddhist Kingdom that disappeared overnight.
Plateau Buddha Kingdom
Now when talking about the "Guge Dynasty", some friends who like "Ghost Blows Out the Light" may immediately think of the mysterious demon country in the "Kunlun Heavenly Palace" with the secret of "Dragon Monster Pearl".
Archaeological team also found the "Guge Silver Eye" mentioned in the novel in the ruins of the Guge Dynasty.
So how did the "Guge Silver Eye" come from?
This refers to the origin of the Guge Dynasty.
in the Tang Dynasty, he married Princess Wencheng , and built the Potala Palace under the regime under Songtsen Gampo , called the Tubo dynasty, and the Guge dynasty rose after the Tubo dynasty.
After the death of the last Zamprandama of the Tubo Dynasty, one of his descendants failed in the struggle within the royal family, so they fled to Ali area , where a small dynasty was established.
The first monarch of this dynasty was named Jidnimagun. He divided this small dynasty into three, the Guge Kingdom was the fief of his third son Dezugun.
Since then, the Guge Dynasty has begun its glorious years for 700 years. 700 years later, there are still 445 houses distributed on the 720,000 square meters of ruins.
ruins are distributed on a small earth mountain, with the highest point being the royal palace, followed by temples and houses. Among the ruins, the most prominent building is the temple. "Guge Silver Eye" is a tall and exquisite bronze Buddhist statue.
This statue was discovered in 1997 on a site called "Piyang" in Dongga Village.
The statue wears a Buddha crown with three eyes and six arms, and the third eye is standing upright in the middle of the forehead. Because the eyeballs of the three eyes of the Buddha statue use the technique of silver plated , it is called "Guge Silver Eyes".
Because only Guge people can make this statue, and because of its exquisite craftsmanship, it is considered to be the finest among Buddha statues, and its value is even greater than that of Buddha statues cast in pure gold.
plus this kind of Buddha statue is rarely circulated on the market, so it seems particularly precious. The rare name "Silver Eye" adds a bit of mystery to this kind of Buddha statue.
It was not until this statue was discovered that everyone knew the true face of the "Guge Silver Eye".
In addition to the "Guge Silver Eye" statue, archaeological experts have also discovered many exquisite Buddhist murals here, as well as some scriptures written in gold and silver juice.
There is another mural, although it is painted in only three colors: red, yellow and green, but the red is made of powder ground from red coral, yellow is gold, and green is turquoise.
This shows the wealth of the Guge Dynasty.
There is another mural, depicting the scene of Ali Wang Yixiwo greeting ancient Indian Buddhist master Atisha in 1038.
In the team that welcomed Atisha, there were dancing girls and bands accompanied by the band. From this, we can also see that the Guge Kingdom was already a very developed civilization at that time.
How can a country with so much wealth and a considerable level of civilization suddenly disappear into the long river of history? It is a question that makes archaeologists also confused.
Although it is known that the demise of the Guge Kingdom was caused by the invasion of the Ladakhs, the massacre of the war cannot destroy the prosperous Guge civilization together.
So why did the Guge Dynasty become like this today? Some people speculate that the population here moved to other places due to severe desertification and deterioration of the climate.
or something like natural disasters and plagues have happened here, causing a large number of residents to die.
This may be a possibility, but there is no strong evidence left in the ruins today, which can explain what the reason has made this powerful country that has existed for 700 years become a ruin with people leaving no descendants, and not even a single descendant is left behind.
Although there are more than a dozen families living around the Guge ruins today, none of them has anything to do with the Guge kingdom back then.
The people who have lived on this land may have turned into a touch of unjust soul in the "hiding corpse cave". When the herdsmen pass by, they try to tell them about their former prosperity and their ultimate tragic fate.
Conclusion
Like the mysteriously disappeared Guge Dynasty, there is also a mysteriously disappeared Loulan Ancient Kingdom in Takramakan Desert .
Although they are in different times, they were all prosperous in history, but in the end they suddenly disappeared.
Like the Guge Dynasty, there are many reasons for the disappearance of the ancient Loulan Kingdom, some say war, plague, and some say it is because of the harm of an insect.
No matter what the real reason for the demise of the ancient Loulan Kingdom, the population here still reproduces and thrives elsewhere after migration, but the Guge Dynasty completely disappeared with the fall of the dynasty.
