Bai Fan, He Wei, Gao Yu, Ping Wan-Jing, Fu Qiao-Mei
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
Tibet Institute for Conservation and Research of Cultural Relics, Lhasa 850000, China.
Yi Chuan. 2025 May;47(5):501-512. doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.24-368.
The Ngari Prefecture is located in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau. Despite its high altitude and harsh natural environment, it occupies a strategic position adjacent to northern Nepal, India, and Ladakh. As a crossroads connecting the Tibetan Plateau, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Central Asia, and South Asia, it likely played an important role in early human migration. Archaeological studies in recent years have revealed that even before the establishment of the Tubo Dynasty in the seventh century, the Ngari region maintained extensive cultural connections with Kashmir, Nepal, Xinjiang, and other regions. Furthermore, its subsistence economy reflected strong interactions between Ngari and northern South Asia. Recent paleogenetic studies have demonstrated that the genetic components of the ancient population in the Ngari region originated from the southern part of the plateau, with multiple population expansions occurring from south to west. These studies have also confirmed that alongside cultural exchanges, the Ngari region began experiencing complex genetic interactions with ancient populations from neighboring Central and South Asia at least 2,300 years ago. In this review, we integrate findings from paleogenetics, archaeology, archaeobotany, and zooarchaeology in the Ngari region to systematically examine the genetic origins of the ancient western plateau population and analyze both intraregional cultural-genetic interactions within the Tibetan Plateau and those between Ngari populations and external groups. This synthesis provides important insights for understanding the complex relationships between ancient population movements and interactions in the western Tibetan Plateau, as well as the transformation patterns of regional archaeological cultures and subsistence economies.
阿里地区位于青藏高原西部。尽管海拔高且自然环境恶劣，但它毗邻尼泊尔北部、印度和拉达克，具有重要的战略地位。作为连接青藏高原、新疆维吾尔自治区、中亚和南亚的十字路口，它可能在早期人类迁徙中发挥了重要作用。近年来的考古研究表明，早在公元7世纪吐蕃王朝建立之前，阿里地区就与克什米尔、尼泊尔、新疆等地区保持着广泛的文化联系。此外，其生存经济反映了阿里与南亚北部之间的强烈互动。最近的古基因研究表明，阿里地区古代人群的基因成分起源于高原南部，从南到西发生了多次人口扩张。这些研究还证实，至少在2300年前，除了文化交流之外，阿里地区就开始与邻近的中亚和南亚古代人群进行复杂的基因互动。在这篇综述中，我们整合了阿里地区古遗传学、考古学、考古植物学和动物考古学的研究结果，系统地研究了古代高原西部人群的基因起源，并分析了青藏高原内部以及阿里人群与外部群体之间的区域内文化-基因互动。这一综合研究为理解青藏高原西部古代人口迁移与互动之间的复杂关系，以及区域考古文化和生存经济的转变模式提供了重要见解。
