A Bird as Father, a Monkey as Mother: The Legend of the Tibetan Horse
An excerpt from P.T. 1060, "The Classic of Horses," reads: སྤུ་དཀར་དུ་བྱུང་ནའ། ལྷ་ཡུལ་གུང་དང་གི་ནང་དུ་མཆིས་ཏེ་རྟ་ལྷའི་རྟ་སྟེ། ཆོ་ཡང་ལྷ་རྟའི་ཆོ།འབྲང་ཡང་ལྷ་རྟའི་འབྲང་། དོ་མའི་མྱི་རིགས་སྙིང་དགས་ཀྱི་མྱི་རིགས། A white-haired horse dwelling in Lhayul Gungthang is of divine breed, and both its ancestry and bloodline are divine. The faithful horse Droma is of the human breed. Lhayul Gungthang is also commonly written as ལྷ་ཡུལ་གུང་ཐང་།.
The term "Droma horse" denotes a "horse intended for sacrificial burial," though alternative renderings include "loyal steed" or "desired horse." དྲང་སྲོང་དམོད་པ་བོར་མ་ཐག། འཕུར་བའི་གཤོག་པ་རང་སར་བྱེར། མི་རྣམས་ཐབས་མཁས་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས། རྟ་རྣམས་མ་ལུས་བདག་ཏུ་བཟུང་། Curses were cast by the immortals, and from that point, wings lay shattered. Through a range of clever means, humanity took complete command of horses.
In the ancient Tibetan records recovered from Dunhuang, "The Genealogy of the Tsanpo" states that even before the first Tsanpo, Nyatri Tsenpo, came down, the Tibetan region was called "a vast land where swift horses could gallop." This account appears in "The Treatise on Horses: The Zur-lug-pa Tradition" (རྟ་ཡི་འབྱུང་ཁུངས་ཅོག་རོའི་ལུགས་སུ་ཡི་གེར་བྲིས་པ་). Additionally, archaeological evidence—most notably the three-toed horse fossils—has shown that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ranks among the key places where horses originated.
In Tibet's inherent traditions, divine horses—or winged horses—originally resided in the celestial realm. These creatures, noble, exceptionally gifted, astonishingly fast, and able to gallop across the skies, remained distant from humans until they were tamed. That behavior corresponds to the "primordial horse" as depicted in most ancient myths, where its innate wildness before domestication is emphasized.
In scholarly discussions of horse-origin myths, the ancient Tibetan manuscript ITJ.0731 is often cited for its storyline of "the differentiation between domestic and wild horses." That narrative primarily serves the "horse sacrifice rituals" in indigenous religious practices. Meanwhile, the descendants of those beings came down to the mortal world, multiplied, and thereby gave rise to the earliest "earthly horses.
According to this myth, a bird (often described as a vulture; བྱ་རྒོད་) served as the father, while the mother was a monkey who laid five eggs, from which five horses emerged. This account of horse origins is, however, another one, and it is found in equestrian works including "The Treatise on Horse Breeds: The Precious Garland," "The Treatise on Horses: The Clear Mirror," and "The Treatise on Horses: The Zur-lug-pa Tradition"—texts believed to date from the Tibetan Empire period.
In a lush fruit forest nestled between sacred mountains and holy lakes—referred to by some as Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar—a troop of monkeys once made its home. Among them was a female monkey of exceptional vivacity. One day, catching sight of a divine bird soaring across the sky, she was instantly smitten. The bird, "white-bodied and handsome, head held high with long wings, drifting gracefully," stirred in her a deep longing for union with him.
Two rather different versions exist for the above storyline. In one, the divine bird never arrived, and the unsatisfied female monkey had to mate with a vulture. In the other, the divine bird that coupled with the female monkey was the finest among vultures. However, the original narrative holds that eventually the divine bird descended into the grass, where it united on the ground with the virtuous monkey (bloodline) as the celestial bird (ancestral origin), and that female monkey gave birth to five eggs (five-colored eggs).
In Tibetan creation myths, the female monkey, unable to care for the five eggs before her, hid them inside the horns of wild yaks and waited for them to hatch. For those acquainted with such stories, this scene weaves together well-known motifs: divine birds (such as khyung and eagles/vultures), monkeys (the paternal monkey and the maternal rakshasi), and egg-birth symbolism (for example, the three-colored eggs). Through this combination, the horse acquires a localized "demi-god" attribute.
The "origin of the feud between horses and yaks" serves as a key narrative force in both Manuscript ITJ.0731 and the story referenced above, making this plot element highly consequential. For autumn's three months, the yak horn stayed hidden in grass, and the eggs failed to hatch. Through winter's three months, it was placed in a rocky nest, with no hatching occurring. When spring came, the horn was put beside the lakeshore (or river, according to some versions), yet the eggs still did not hatch.
The phrase "the eggs did not hatch" appears three times here, and each occurrence carries deep significance—in fact, these were auspicious omens that subsequently shaped horse-taming customs. Because the eggs did not hatch in the autumn grass, the protection of pastures and the gathering of autumn forage became essential. Because the eggs did not hatch in the winter rocky nest, keeping horses warm during winter became essential. And because the eggs did not hatch by the river in spring, safeguarding water sources and ensuring a steady spring water supply became essential.
In summer, the female monkey's five eggs finally hatched, and at that point the yak horn broke, turning horses and yaks into foes (རྟ་གཡག་དགྲ་གཤེད་). According to the ancient Tibetan manuscript ITJ.0731, the surface-level cause of this enmity was a wild yak killing the oldest of the "three divine horse brothers," while the underlying cause was the rivalry between the two species over pastures and water sources. It is important to highlight this distinction.
Driven by revenge, the youngest of the three brothers struck a deal with humans, promising: " In life, I carry you; after death, I transport you to the underworld. " Consequently, he who sided with humans became the forerunner of domestic horses, whereas his second brother, who took no part, became the forerunner of wild horses. At this juncture, the narrative introduces another central character: the sage (དྲང་སྲོང་།; ऋषि), engaged in ascetic practices high in the mountains.
In similar texts from western Tibet, the figure who appears here is actually an "old man" (རྒན་པོ་). This "sage" can, of course, be identified with the sages/saints of South Asian tradition. Based on what we discussed in the previous article (General Introduction), this "sage" is very likely the outcome of South Asian horse studies (especially the "Shalihotra Samhita") gradually influencing Tibet from the 11th century onward.
This article is translated from SuolangWangqing's blog. The narrative that follows carries grave consequences for the newborn celestial horses, all arising from the forest sage's malediction.