7 The Beginning of Agriculture and Animal Husbandy
When Chatri assumed the kingship, he changed his name to Pude Gongyal and took up residence in Chingwar Taktse where he built his Chingwar Taktse palace. Pude Gongyal paid great attention to the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. In cultivation, the use of wooden ploughs was introduced, domestic beasts were used to reclaim the plains, while water channels were dug to irrigate the fields. Advances in animal husbandry, too, were notable, with the practice of storing fodder for cattle, mules, and “zo?(offspring of a bull and a female yak) already in evidence. A major figure in this development was the first of the Seven Wise Men, Rulekye, Pude Gongyal’s chief minister. As Tubo society developed from a tribal community to a dynasty over a period of several hundred years, outstanding men of great ability and wisdom appeared in Tibet, Known as the Seven Wise Men of the Tubos. Records differ, but the account given here follows. The History of the Great Tubo written by the great lotsava (translator) Taktsang Shirap Rinchen Gyaltsan. Rulekye taught the people how to cut grass in summertime and store it for winter fodder, and also devised methods of land reclamation. It is said that the first piece of arable land at Zara, near Tsetang was put under the plough in his time. This new leap forward in agriculture marked the change from hunting and gathering to an agricultural society. Pude Gongyal gave Rulekye a senior position, for showing the importance he attached to the development of production which played a positive role in accelerating Tibet’s social development.
During the time of the tenth Tsanpo, Esholek, social development took another step forward. One of his ministers, Lhabu Gokar, another of the Seven Wise Men, was the first person to use the unit “dor?to calculate one day’s plough by a pair of oxen as a measuring unit of area for cultivated land, thus introducing the concept of measurement. Lhabu Gokar also taught the people how to channel mountain streams into lower regions so as to create paddy fields.
The Tubo economy continued to develop apace up to the reign of the twenty-eighth Tubo Tsanpo, Lhato-Thori Nyantsan, by which time the tribe had become a well-trained, powerful army, now and then extending its territory. Growing contacts with the outside world also facilitated the development of Tubo civilization.
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