Tibet 630 A.D - 1950 A.D. Trivia Quiz

Answer: Song-tsen Gampo

It is believed Song-tsen may have been influenced by his two wives. They were royal princesses from outlying countries, one from Nepal and the other from China, although there is more mention of the Chinese wife in Tibetan records.

Answer: Bon Shamanism

Bon Shamanism is still practiced in Tibet, although Buddhism is the reigning religion. Tibetan Buddhism has been greatly influenced by Bon practices including a dance called the Red Devil Dance that was a ceremony in Bon religion to appease the Red Devil God and was incorporated into Buddhism as a celebration of the defeat of the stronghold that the Bon religion had on the culture.

Answer: You would be angering their shoulder spirits

Not only do they believe you will harm their spirits, but the common greeting in Tibet when meeting a stranger is to side step and stick out your tongue. This way they can see you are not a zombie since zombies only move in straight lines and they have black tongues.

Answer: Yak

Yaks are valuable in that they make wonderful pack animals as well as provide meat, milk, wool, hide, and dung. Yaks are able to handle the high altitude of Tibet and have no problem moving through snow. In fact the pastoralists use Yaks as live snowplows to trodden down the snow on mountain passes that cows and sheep could not get through.

Answer: Ganges River

Because of the high terrain and year round snow packs, Tibet is the origin of many rivers that flow through Nepal, China, and many of the South Eastern countries. The other rivers listed above all originate in Tibet.

Answer: To save the king from accumulating anymore bad kharma as a result of his actions

Pegi Dorje believed that the King was accumulating too much bad Kharma by killing people. If a person kills another, in Buddhist religion, they are cursed with Bad Kharma that can prevent them from achieving higher forms of enlightenment. Pegi killed the King at the sacrifice of his own Kharma and has been rendered a hero throughout the Tibetan culture. Kharma states that it is not what you do that is harmful to your Kharma, it's your intentions behind your actions.

Answer: They sent a party to express their submission to the Khans

When the party was sent to the Khans, they negotiated to pay tributes to Genghis in exchange for being able to run their country with as little changes as possible. Genghis agreed and appointed court officials to 'oversee' things in Tibet, but they hardly ever interfered in Tibet's normal traditions.

The support of the Khans to the ruling family in Sa-skya would allow the family to have a hand in nearly every form of the Tibetan government. The Sa-skya's would only be in power for less than a century.

Answer: The naming of the Dalai Lama by the Altan Khan

The Altan Khan named Sonam Gyatso as the third emmination of the Dalai Lama with his predecessors, Gedun Truppa and Gedun Gyatso, being the 1st and 2nd eminations of the Dalai Lama, respectively. The fourth emination of the Dalai Lama would just happen to be the Altan Khans Grandson.

Answer: Karmapa

When Gusri removes the Karmapa, it paves the way for the 5th Dalai Lama and the dGe-lug-pa sect to take over as head power in the Tibetan culture. But the Dalai wouldn't take over full reign until Gusri's death in 1655.

Answer: He established a sound economic base for the temples and sects

The Fifth Dalai called for an entire audit of the Monasteries in Tibet. He reorganized the system making the citizens financially responsible for each monk. His intentions were to bring the lower ranking monasteries up to the same level as the first class monasteries. People were more than willing to comply since helping a monk created good Kharma

Answer: The Regent neglected to tell the Manchu Emperor that the 5th Dalai Lama had died

When the 5th died, the regent (Sangye Gyatso) neglected to the the Manchu emperor K'ang Hsi. By the time the Manchu reacted with an army, a child from from Lhasa (Tsangyang Gyatso) had been found and named as the 6th Dalai Lama. The 6th would not reign long.

The Manchu emperor saw him as unfit because of the child's poetic nature and liberal views. While being escorted to China, the 6th Dalai Lama died. Sangye Gyatso (the regent) tried to convince the people that his 25 year old son was the 7th Dalai.

But after they were both killed, the true 7th Dalai, who had been found in Litang through one of the 6th Dalai Lama's poems, was found.

Answer: no

It was actually Lhabzang Khan. He was sort of an outcast of the Koko Nor Khans and was promptly killed by the Dzungars Khans when they attempted to kidnap the 7th Dalai Lama to gain power over Tibet. What they didn't know is that the K'ang-Tsi had beaten them to the punch and had removed the 7th Dalai to his palace in Peking where he stayed intil 1720.

Answer: Ambans

They never actually called the shots in Tibet. They let the country run as it normally had before the 5th Dalai's death. This would cause future problems when civil riots would get out of control.

Answer: no

Th Dalai Lama is only in charge of his own church, the dGe-lug-pa. The Dalai just establishes laws that protect all churches financially, but he cannot tell each sect what it can and cannot practice.

Answer: The Vice Regent and the Panchen Lama

The regent would be in charge of Tibet while the Dalai Lama was still a child. This proved fatal for some Dalai's that conveniently died just before they were old enough to take the seat of power. The Panchen Lama was established by the Manchu to attempt balance between the seat of power of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. (no one person in charge.)

Answer: A lama that reaches enlightenment but refuses to cross into paradise

Bodhisattvas refuse to cross into Paradise because they believe their services are needed in the physical world in order to guide those who have not yet reached enlightenment.

Answer: It is thrown in the nearest river

The body is not needed for the ceremony of soul transgression to be performed. Cremation was rare and expensive in Tibet because of the lack of wood in the high elevations that are common to Tibet. (A pile of wood in front of your house is a sign of wealth.) The ground was too frozen during most of the year for burial.

Answer: Cutting the body up and feeding it to the birds

The monks often fed the flesh to vultures, dogs, and other scavengers. It was considered good to have your body used to feed animals because you were preventing them from having to kill for a meal. One Chinese officer that witnessed the Body cutters from a distance thought he was looking at an act of cannibalism.

Answer: Tibet does not have its own currency

Tibet will sometimes use Russian, Turkish, Chinese or Indian currency. There was an attempt to make Tibetan currency some centuries ago, but the barter system in Tibet was too strong for any currency to take hold.

Answer: The British

The British attempted to establish a police force in Lhasa as well. Both means of social control were set up to handle the trade routes that Britain was hoping to control Tibet. However the police were little more than traffic cops and prison was a milder punishment for theft or murder than the original punishments had been. (The original punishment for theft or murder was being thrown down a well and left to starve.)