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THDL History Collections

From the imperial era of the seventh through tenth centuries to the present day Tibetans have recorded, reflected upon, and imagined their past in a diverse array of historical writings. Early annals list the yearly events of the imperial kings, medieval religious histories chart the rise and development of particular schools of Buddhism and Bön, and contemporary historians write on a diverse range of topics, from the history of music, technology, and medicine to the growth of monastic colleges or Sino-Tibetan relations. The past is variously a source of social authority, a wellspring of spiritual edification, or a site of polemic contestation. Yet in all cases an understanding of the past figures in the maintenance of the present. Like the evocative image of the Yumbu Lakhang, symbol of Tibet's imperial era, in the historical literature of Tibet concerns of the present intertwine with visions of the past.

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