Persian Wisdom in the eyes of the Tibetans: Indigenous rituals and myths regarding the Persian source of the Bon religion of Tibet

This paper aims to examine the Pre-Buddhist and Pre-Islamic influences of the Persian World on Imperial Tibet. It further researches the geography of Eastern Persia where the first Bon priests might have trained and come from. During the beginning of the 7th century till 842, Tibet rose as a political and military power that controlled much of the trading routes linking Persia to China and India. Buddhism, coming from both the Persian Central Asian kingdoms and the Indian subcontinent, prospered greatly under the patronage of the Tibetan Central government. However, regional centres appear to have remained firmly in the control of a local Tibetan priesthood celebrating rites that were partly indigenous and foreign in nature. The legends of these Bonpo priests, followers of the Everlasting Bon (g.Yung drung bon) religion, ascribe the source of their teachings to the Western bordering regions, outside the borders of the Land of Snow. Bon geographical sources describe the Zhangzhung kingdom and its Western Tajik province (stag zigs, lit.: tigers and leopards) as located in the West and North-West quadrant. The religious training centre for Bon was the Nine-Swastika Mountain, a yet unidentified region that appear to be located in the then Persian World. This paper examines the Tibetan sources that painted the Persian World as the source of the wisdom of the Bon religion. These sources clearly describe this mountain, and the Western regions where Bon and its founder, the most excellent priest (gShen rab) Mibo, flourished before going to Tibet.