Collapse of the Tibetan Empire attributed to climatic shifts: Paleolimnological evidence from the western Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Empire, the only united regime in Tibetan history, existed between 618 and 877 CE, when Tibet was a unified world power, contesting control of Central Asia with the Tang Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. Before its collapse in the 9th century, this was the world's highest elevation empire, ruling a vast territory that extended well beyond the Tibetan Plateau. However, factors leading to the rapid decline of this powerful highland empire remain elusive. Here we use a highly resolved lake sediment record from the western Tibetan Plateau to demonstrate that pronounced fluctuations in the climate regime between the 7th and 9th centuries played a key role in the fragmentation of the Tibetan Empire. Specifically, we demonstrate that a nearly complete shift from planktonic to benthic diatom life strategy signified markedly drier conditions and lower lake-levels. The height of the empire's power (ca. 600–800 CE) coincided with two centuries of uncharacteristically warm and humid conditions, whereas the empire's collapse (ca. 800–877 CE) co-occurred with an abrupt onset of severe drought conditions that were clearly registered in the paleolimnological records. Severe drought conditions combined with decreased social resilience might have led to rapid declines in crop production, which fostered a surge in domestic conflicts and expediated the final collapse of the Tibetan Empire. Although religious and political factors are commonly cited to explain the fall of this formidable great power, our paleoenvironmental analyses underscore that harsh environmental factors might have hastened the cultural decline of this highland region.