kingdom · China, Tibet and Mongolia

Zhangzhung

500 BCE – 644 CE (approx.) · capital Khyunglung

The ancient kingdom of western Tibet around Mount Kailash, remembered as the homeland of the Bon religion, conquered by the Tibetan Empire in the 7th century.

Origins

Zhangzhung was a kingdom of the high plateau of western Tibet and Ladakh, centred on the valley of Khyunglung near Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. Archaeology shows fortified settlements and elite burials there from the 1st millennium BCE, but the kingdom's early history is known mainly from much later Tibetan, especially Bon, tradition.

Rule and society

Bon texts present Zhangzhung as the land where the teacher Tonpa Shenrab's religion first flourished, and they preserve words of its Tibeto-Burman language. Its economy rested on herding, barley farming in sheltered valleys and trade routes linking Central Asia, India and Tibet. Old Tibetan annals treat it as a major rival of the Yarlung kings.

Decline and legacy

Songtsen Gampo allied with Zhangzhung by marrying his sister to its king, Lig Myirhya, then conquered it around 644, making it a province of the Tibetan Empire. Its language died out, but its memory remained central to Bon identity.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

More states of China, Tibet and Mongolia →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Zhangzhung. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zhangzhung
MLA
“Zhangzhung.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zhangzhung. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Zhangzhung.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zhangzhung.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Zhangzhung’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zhangzhung (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻