A Preliminary Inquiry Into Bird Images And Their Cultural Characteristics Among Tibetan Culture

Tibetan culture is an important component of Chinese culture. It's integrity and specific pattern, generally speaking was based on a unified Tufan Dynasty, the spread of Tibetan, and in particular, was closely related to the prevalence of Buddhism. While talking about geographical element, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau which is the highest plateau in the world, and something unique indeed, should be taken into account, the diversity of the internal environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau since ancient times is rooted in Tibetan culture among genes. Fundamentally speaking, the Tibetan culture also embodies the "multiple unity" pattern. This article shows a different way to a new awareness of formation history of the development of Tibetan culture, basing on the geographical differences in the livelihood and cultural patterns of Tibetans. In this framework of the cultural geography, bird images will be used as implementation on the study of cultural issues. Bird images extracted from the culture documents and restored to their own specific regions, provide us a new perspective, helping dissolving a lot of debates which have confused the academic sphere for long time. Not only historical documents written in old Chinese and Tibetan, but also materials from Dunhuang literature, archaeological discoveries and rock paintings are necessary for comprehensive utilization. The inquiry into agricultural geography and archaeological sites helps making a preliminary distinction of Tibetan cultural geography. Then several questions were discussed. It's interesting to see the bird images in rock paintings and Tibetan Buddhism arts. The analysis shows that Garuda from India via Buddhism and eagle in rock painting made by ancient inhabits in Tibet were mixed together into the mkhav-lding in Tibetan Buddhism paintings, followed by comparative study of the eagle and oviparous myth, the various bird divination text, and then the discussion of Tibet's ancient tribes, such as Nüguo, Sumpa, Zhang-zhung, Sri. Taking the perspective of cultural geography, this article in many respects, finds new answers to the old questions.