Where did the Tibetans originate? Over the years many different explanations have circulated as to the origins of the Tibetan people. Some say they came from India, and are the descendants of the Sakya race; others say they came from the Malay Peninsula, which explains why they resemble the Malays in facial appearance. Some even claim the Jang people are their ancestors; while yet others hold that before the Yellow Emperor entered the Central Plains, he established his capital at Kunlun, and in the course of his journey to the Central at Kunlun, the community was left behind, which is said to be the Tibetan people of today.
There are also people who claim the Tibetan language belongs to the Burma-Tibetan language family, therefore it is possible that the Tibetans came from Burma. With so many conflicting hypotheses, it is hard to know which is correct. But let us first take a look at the following interesting myth taken from the Tibetan history book " A Mirror of the Genealogy of Kings"
Avalokitesvara, the Lord of Mercy living on Mt. Potala, ordained a monkey a reincarnation of a celestial being as His disciple, and ordered him to travel from the South Sea to the Land of Snows to do a retreat in seclusion there.
Arriving at a cave in the Yarlung valley, the monkey concentrated his mind on the merciful nature of a Bodhisattva. While he was deep in meditation, an ogress appeared to him from the mountains and tempted him with all sorts of passions, urging him openly, "Let us be united!" At first the monkey replied, "I am still a disciple of Avalokitesvara. In obedience to his command I have come here to meditate, and I would be breaking my religious vows if we were to be united."
"If you refuse I shall have no choice but to kill myself," said the ogress cunningly. "Condemned by the karma of my previous life, I was born an ogress. We are bound by fate, and now that I have found you, I shall make you my beloved. If you refuse to marry me, my fate will bind me to become the wife of an ogre in the future. If this comes to pass I will be the cause of thousands of deaths, and will also give birth to count-less ogre children and grandchildren. Then the Land of Snows will become nothing but a world of ogres, and more lives will be lost. Thus I hope you will consent to my request."
On hearing these words, the monkey, being a Bodhisattva who had descended to the material world, murmured to himself, "If I were to be united with her, I would have to break my religious vow; but if I were to refuse her request, I would be committing a great sin." At this thought, the monkey, turned somersault, and then made his way to Mt. Potala to ask Avalokitesvara what should do. Avalokitesvara pondered deeply and then said, "This is the will of heaven; it is a good omen. If you unite with the ogress, mankind will multiply in the Land of Snows. This would be a deed of great virtue." Being a Boddhisattva, the monkey shouldered his responsibility bravely and married the ogress, who later gave birth to six monkey off-springs. The monkey took the young ones to a forest where fruit grew in abundance and left them to live on their own.
