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HONG KONG, Dec 24 (ANI): China is increasingly concerned about historical revisionism related to territorial claims across its many borders, both land and water, the Hong Kong Post reported.
The Chinese Communist Party relies heavily on rewriting history, as every authoritarian government does, which is central to the ideological narrative it seeks to create about its rise and its place in the world.
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Of particular interest is China’s southwestern border with the Himalayas, which is fascinated by the ancient kingdom of Zhang Zhung, according to the Hong Kong Post.
According to cultural experts and archaeologists in the Indian state of Ladakh in the Himalayas, in western Tibet, Beijing is conducting extensive research and excavations on the object, but there has been little research on the subject outside of China.
Scholarly opinion differs on the exact boundaries of maleness. Some claim that the kingdom included what is now known as Ladakh, Nepal, western Tibet and Gilgit-Baltistan. In contrast, others claim it is much smaller, encroaching on only the northwestern corner of Nepal and part of Ladakh. Some people say that Tibet and Zhang Zhung used to be independent countries.
According to Tibetologists, the only thing Tang Xiong is known about is that it was a kingdom roughly located in what is now Tibet.
However, truth and historical accuracy are not important to Beijing’s goals. This kingdom is important because it is related to several cultural and geostrategic variables that China is currently trying to influence.
As such, Beijing is actively engaging in historical revisionism by funding historians and archaeologists to create new records for Zhang Zhung in order to defend its geographical, cultural and geopolitical advantages in the region, according to the Hong Kong Post.
It writes that the CCP is busy denying that Tibet has a unique identity and is busy deciding who will be the next Dalai Lama.
China intends to separate Tibetan culture and religion from its Indian roots by associating them with Zhang Zhung.
As well as undermining Tibetans’ sense of independence and allowing China to appropriate Tibetan history, it is also a power move against Beijing’s increasingly hostile neighbor India, according to the Hong Kong Post.
There are several directions in this line of reasoning. Beijing has also linked Zhang Zhung’s origins to its sovereignty over Tibet, defending its claim to the region.
In other words, if Zhang Zhung is the origin of Tibet and Tibet is part of China, then Zhang Zhung and all the parts it may (or may not) include, such as parts of Nepal, India and Pakistan, are also part of China.
However, these claims are deceptive. According to archaeological evidence, Tibetan Buddhism, the main religion in Tibet, is a descendant of Indian Buddhism, which spread from Kashmir to Tibet and China via Ladakh.
Most Tibetans have some blood ties to India due to a shared cultural and religious past.
According to the Hong Kong Post, Zhang Zhung is not the mainland China that the CCP wants us to imagine, but is believed to have had contact with what is now India. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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