Wenjiangduo Ruins Photo: Xinhua

 
The Wenjiangduo Ruins, a high-grade building complex in Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, has recently unearthed new discoveries depicting Han-Tibetan cultural exchanges during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Archaeologist Xue Feng told the Global Times that the Wenjiangduo site was once a "cultural and social fulcrum" for the Tubo Kingdom, a regime helmed by leader Songtsan Gambo that had close connections with the Tang Dynasty. 

The new discoveries include a green glaze red pottery wadang - ancient eaves tile - engraved with an intricate lotus pattern. 

Xue told the Global Times that the lotus pattern was an emblem in Buddhist culture, while the glazing technique reveals connections to Han ethnic handicrafts. 

"The piece is not the only historical indication of the cultural and religious exchanges between the Tubo and Tang people," Xue noted. 

Along with the eaves tile, a wedge brick from a pagoda discovered in the southwest corner of the site was found to have been made using techniques typical of Tang brick construction. 

The brick, thick at one end and thin at the other, has a counterpart in the Zhaoling Mausoleum in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Zhaoling is the final resting place of the Tang Dynasty's second ruler Emperor Taizong and his family. 

These bricks are commonly found at higher-grade Tang building complexes for the nobility at the time. 

Historian Xue Minjun told the Global Times that exchanges at the time were not limited to aesthetics, but also included "technological and engineering skills at the social level."  

Xi Lin, the head of the Wenjiangduo site discovery project at the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, said that these relics are valuable materials that will fuel future studies of the history of Han-Tibetan communication, as well as the development of Buddhism and architecture in Xizang. 

The Wenjiangduo site is not the only ancient site in China that shows the Tubo Kingdom's connection to the Tang Dynasty. 

In 2023, DNA research was carried out on remains found in an ancient Tubo tomb cluster by researchers at the Wayan reservoir site in Dulan county, Northwest China's Qinghai Province. 

Kaiyuan Tongbao copper coins, typical to the Tang Dynasty, were unearthed at the site. Wang Chuanchao, the lead archaeologist of the project at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that the discoveries reveal that the Central Plains' social and political customs were adopted by ancient Tibetans.