Mysterious civilization

The discoveries shed light on the lives of the Zhangzhung people some 1,800 years ago: their hair was styled in numerous small plaits; they wore fur coats; they lived in cave houses; they raised yaks, sheep, goats and horses; they grew highland barley.

And when scientists at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed a black substance in vessels found in the tomb, they identified it as tea.

"This is the earliest tea found on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and one of the oldest in China," Tong says.

As the Ngari region lacks the raw materials, the relics are believed to have come from neighboring regions and from as far as Xinjiang, central Asia and northern India, showing extensive contacts between the Zhangzhung Kingdom and other cultures, says Tong.

Now long disappeared, the influence of this ancient civilization is still being felt on the formation and evolution of Tibetan culture.