Temple in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhism

And one of these secrets is the oldest religion of the Tibetans, which existed long before the appearance of the Bon religion. And since Tibet is the birthplace of mysticism, contact with a secret religion will help us understand the roots of many mystical systems. Indeed, according to one theory, it was in Tibet that representatives of ancient civilizations settled, and from there esoteric knowledge was spread throughout the whole Earth.

Speaking about the beliefs of Tibet, we first recall Buddhism. At the same time, it is possible that someone does not know that the Tibetan lands were the cradle of another religion - for a Western person far away, alien and at times even frightening. Bon is an ancient Tibetan religion. Her name speaks for itself: it literally translates as "whisper", "hum", "repeat the ritual." In fact, it is: great attention in religion is paid to the rites of magic on the verge of shamanism.

Recently, many scholars were completely convinced that the most ancient religion in Tibet is the cult of bon. But that all changed on the day when archaeologists discovered the Touen - Houang caves of the 8th - 10th centuries. This event not only turned the view of religious scholars about the history of ancient Tibet, but also lifted the veil of an even greater mystery. What did the cave Touen - Houang hide in for hundreds of years? Scientists discovered in it incredibly ancient manuscripts, the study of which made it possible to find out that even before the existence of Bon, Tibetans had religion. This means that Tibetan civilization is more ancient than it could have been supposed.

Gradually weakening in their historical homeland - in India, in the 7th century, Buddhism began to flow straight into Tibet, but it was not immediately possible to take root in these parts. In the VII-IX century in Tibet dominated the indigenous religion of Bon, which means "sing", "recite". Her main gods were Earth and Sky. Shamanism flourished, people believed in numerous spirits (spirits of lakes, rivers, mountains) and evil demons. Specially trained people - priests - communicated with these spirits: appeaseed some and tried to defeat others. Religion Bon exists in Tibet to this day.

The emergence of Buddhists in Tibet changed the course of both religions: Buddhist and Bon. Borrowing ideas from each other, they entwined together, giving birth to a new religion - Tibetan Buddhism. It was a kind of symbiosis of the Indian Buddhist tradition with the Bon religion. XI-XII century is a new stage of development of Buddhism in Tibet. After a brief confrontation with the "extreme" followers of the Bon religion, the Buddhist tradition settled firmly in these places, predetermining the vector of their further cultural development. The monasteries where the monks lived spread over the whole territory.

For several centuries, Buddhism in Tibet is firmly rooted: harmoniously intertwined with the religions that existed there, merged with the local mentality, becoming its main religion. Manuscripts and relics were brought from India, Buddhist schools were formed on the basis of large monasteries, monks appeared. The modern European world often calls Tibetan Buddhism Lamaism, but this is not quite true, because this concept does not reveal, does not fully cover all the features of this religion, and the lama may not be a monk.

This teaching has undergone many changes, its key thoughts have changed over time, but still the foundations have remained unshakable and have survived to the present day. In contrast to traditional, Tibetan Buddhism, due to mixing with different cultural traditions of the local population, attaches great importance to rituals. In it, the usual Buddhist concepts mixed with all sorts of magic, rituals, divination. They penetrated into the life of any person, one way or another connected with religion: from monks to ordinary laity. The Buddhist teachings of Tibet have their own language, historical manuscripts, various practices and - most characteristic - the pantheon of gods. Gods of various levels are worshiped: Buddha, saints, deities, personal patrons, bodhisattvas, deities who can defeat evil spirits, demons.

By the nature of the flora and vegetation, China is sharply divided into two parts (approximately diagonally from the southwest to the northeast) - the arid, central Asian part and the humid, East Asian part, with the tropical region adjoining it from the south. At the same time, the tropical part of China is geographically strongly gravitating not to East, but to Southeast Asia, which includes Indochina on the Asian continent with the Malacca Peninsula, and then in the south of the islands of Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Guinea, by botanical features.

Dry desert spaces of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet are located to the north-west of this line, which runs from the Khingan Mountains almost in a straight direction to the eastern end of the Himalayas, and to the south-east are areas with a humid monsoon climate and mainly with temperate forest vegetation. subtropical, and in the extreme south and tropical type. An interesting feature of the flora of the monsoon part of China is the abundance of large, species-rich genera, especially woody plants. The number of genera comprising about 20-50 species reaches 60. The distribution of vegetation in the East Asian part of China, of course, is generally subordinated to climatic zonality, but the latitudinal zonality of the vegetation cover is not so distinct as, for example, on the plains of Europe or Siberia . China is a mountainous country, the direction of the ranges, their height, the location of the river valleys here are very complicated and whimsical. Therefore, only schematically it is possible to outline the latitudinal zones of vegetation, to a great extent masked by the altitudinal zonation of vegetation in the mountains.

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