Chasing the Colours of the Rainbow

Abstract

This article charts various permutations of a little known ethnogenealogical tradition found in Classical Tibetan literature, which, depending on the version, plots the shared ancestry of Tibetan, Chinese, Mongol and other Asian populations. First, a contextualisation of the ethnonym ‘Tibetan’ (Bod-pa) is offered, followed by a brief overview of other extant origin narratives of this ethnic group. We then subsequently turn to discussions and comparisons of the selected myth’s renditions, which began being written in the fourteenth century at the very latest and seem to have been particularly current on the eastern stretches of the Tibetan Plateau. This survey illustrates that depending on the time period, geographic location, authorial strategy and religious affiliation, the narrative was adapted to fit specific historical developments and socio-literary contexts and goals. Accordingly, the list of incorporated ethnic groups varies from source to source, as do their internal hierarchical ranking and specific interpretive twists. All in all, the article thus paints a picture of a fluid and malleable account in which different narrators and communities actively enlisted, adapted and instrumentalised specific visions of the ethnic group’s deep past.