There just isn't anything in western Tibet.
Sounds both ignorant and arrogant on the face of it, is it obvious?
Ü-Tsang or Tsang-Ü, is one of the three traditional provinces of Tibet, the other two being Amdo and Kham. Geographically Ü-Tsang covered the central and western portions of the Tibetan cultural area, including the Brahmaputra River watershed, the western districts surrounding and extending past Mount Kailash, and much of the vast Changtang plateau to the north.
Mount Kailash is considered to be sacred in four religions: Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. The mountain is located near (
@1SDAN) Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal, close to the source of some of the longest Asian rivers: the Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, and Karnali also known as Ghaghara (a tributary of the Ganges) in India.
Zhangzhung or Shangshung was an ancient culture and kingdom of western and northwestern Tibet, which pre-dates the culture of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. Zhangzhung culture is associated with the Bon religion, which in turn, has influenced the philosophies and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. Zhangzhung people are mentioned frequently in ancient Tibetan texts as the original rulers of central and western Tibet. The capital city of Zhang Zhung was called Khyunglung, the "Silver Palace of Garuda", southwest of Mount Kailash, which is identified with palaces found in the upper Sutlej Valley.
According to Rolf Alfred Stein, author of Tibetan Civilization, the area of Shang Shung was not historically a part of Tibet and was a distinctly foreign territory to the Tibetans: “…
Then further west, The Tibetans encountered a distinctly foreign nation. - Zhangzhung, with its capital at Khyunglung. Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar formed part of this country., whose language has come down to us through early documents. Though still unidentified, it seems to be Indo European. …Geographically the country was certainly open to India, both through Nepal and by way of Kashmir and Ladakh. Mount Kailash is a holy place for the Indians, who make pilgrimages to it. No one knows how long they have done so, but the cult may well go back to the times when Zhangzhung was still independent of Tibet."
Early Tibetan accounts say that the Tibetan king and the king of Zhangzhung had married each other's sisters in a political alliance. However, the Tibetan wife of the king of the Zhangzhung complained of poor treatment by the king's principal wife. War ensued, and through the treachery of the Tibetan princess, "King Ligmikya of Zhangzhung, while on his way to Sum-ba (Amdo province) was ambushed and killed by King Srongtsen Gampo's soldiers. As a consequence, the Zhangzhung kingdom was annexed to Bod (Central Tibet with capital in Lhasa). Thereafter the new kingdom born of the unification of Zhangzhung and Bod was known as Bod rGyal-khab. R. A. Stein places the conquest of Zhangzhung in 645.
