The ruins of Guge Kingdom are found in Ngari, at the westernmost point of the Tibet Plateau. It abuts India in the west and south, Kashmir in the northwest and Xinjing in the north. Screened by mountains on three sides, it is tucked away at an elevation of 4,000 meters. This is a part of the world, which is very dry. The Zhangzhung Culture existed before the kingdom was founded.

According to historical records, Zhangzhung was a land of ice three meters deep. It was divided into Great Zhangzhung and Lessor Zhangzhung. To the north of Great Zhangzhung is Yutian, which extended some 500 km and boasted an army of 90,000. People of Zhangzung had pigtails and wore long fur robes. They lived on livestock breeding. No written records of the area have been found, and people there cut wood and made rope knots as a means of mnemonic record. They followed a system of penalties that was unusually rigid.

There was a record that says Tubo lay to the east of Great Zhangzhung and Lessor Zhangzhung was situated to its west. Some of the Chinese classics called Zhangzhung the"State of Women", because it was a matriarchal society. Men were charged with fighting battles and tilling the fields only.

A Feast to Scholars, a Tibetan classic, says there were 12 small states in what is Tibet today, and Zhangzhung was one of them. A Chinese classic says Zhangzhung was under rule of four ministers, who sent envoys to pay tribute to the court of the Tang Dynasty of China. Zhangzhung was destroyed by the rising Tubo Kingdom, but Zhangzhung Cultlure has left behind many historical questions for people of later generations to try and answer.

Historical documents say Zhangzhung was the original site of the Bon religion. Though it was said that Zhangzhung possessed its own written scripts not a single example has so far been found. Bon religious books record that people in Zhangzhung studied the movement of the stars to predict the future, and could use medicinal herbs to treat the sick. Dpyab Bukhar Ishes, one of the eight sons of Zushinro, founder of the Bon religion, was the forefather of Tibetan medicine. Some of the medical terms adopted in Tibetan medicine were invented then.

However, no artifacts have been located in Tibet to support the authenticity of all these historical claims. What is gratifying is that archaeological work in Tibet Plateau over the past few years has yielded good results in finding signs of Zhangzhung Culture. In the summer of 2001, a digging team composed of people from Sichuan University and Tibet Cultural Relics Bureau found an ancient castle in Ngari, which they thought could be a clue supporting the theory of Zhangzhung Culture.