Tibetan culture is rich in myths and legends. Through fantasy and artistic exaggeration, Tibetan myths reflect ancestral understanding of the objective world from different aspects, and express the spirit, consciousness, mentality and civilization of Tibetan nationality.
Tibetan myths can be roughly divided into three categories, namely those about the nature, ones about the origin of humankind, and those myths related to labor productivity.
Myths about nature include the epic Shipa Tayi known as the Tibetan Creation Song. Shipa Tayi means the creation scriptures whose contents explain heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, stars and their destruction, formation and life origin, etc. The Creation Song basically reflects the way that ancient people understood the process of nature. Such myths are the naïve and brilliant fantasies of human beings in earliest times seeking to explain how the world was formed.
Myths about the origin of humankind are very rich in content. Tibetan people think their ancestor was a macaque enchanted by the Goddess of Mercy. He married Raksasi who gave birth to six sons. When these boys grew up there were no marriage partners for them; therefore, Raksasi magically produced six beautiful girls. After they married, Raksasi let them live in different places beside the Yarlung Zangbo. Afterwards, the Goddess of Mercy fed them with grain until they gradually evolved into human beings as their tails disappeared. This myth was widely spread among Tibetan people over many eons. In fact, people in Zetang still call one cave as the “Macaque Cave”, and enshrine and worship it as the holy site of anthropogenesis.
The myths about labor productivity mainly refer to those legends about fighting wild animals during the activities of ancient people in hunting, raising livestock and becoming domesticated, farming and changing the shape of nature to suit their needs, etc. There are many similar stories. For example, there is one about “horses and buffalos” telling how horses and buffalos strived for grass and water sources, reflecting the importance of these two elements after the development of animal husbandry, and the relocation and nomadic situation ancient people faced due to their lack and how the pastoral tribes fought each other for the best pastures. In the fairy tale of Origin of Qingke Barley Seeds, Tibetan people relied on the mythological hero Prince Ngachu to get the grain for their survival. It is said that Prince Ngachu finally obtained highland barley seeds from the snake king through numerous hardships. The myth records the process of sowing and harvesting highland barley, and also reflects the grim struggle for survival against harsh nature in ancient times.