Open AccessSimulating the route of the Tang-Tibet Ancient Road for one branch of the Silk Road across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Author(s) -
Zhuoma Lancuo,
Guangliang Hou,
Chong Hai Xu,
Yuying Liu,
Yun Zhu,
Wen Wang,
Yongkun Zhang
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0226970
Subject(s) - plateau (mathematics) , qinghai lake , geography , section (typography) , physical geography , china , key (lock) , geology , archaeology , ecology , biology , computer science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , operating system
As the only route formed in the inner Qinghai-Tibet plateau, the Tang-Tibet Ancient Road promoted the extension of the Overland Silk Roads to the inner Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Considering the Complex geographical and environmental factors of inner Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, we constructed a weighted trade route network based on geographical integration factors, and then adopted the principle of minimum cost and the shortest path on the network to simulate the ancient Tang-Tibet Ancient Road. We then compared the locations of known key points documented in the literature, and found a significant correspondence in the Qinghai section. However, there was a certain deviation between the key points recorded in Tibetan section and the simulated route; we found that the reason is the relative oxygen content (ROC) became a limited factor of the choice of the Tibetan section road. Moreover, we argue that the warm and humid climate and the human migration to the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau were the fundamental driving forces for the formation of the Tang-Tibet Ancient Road.