Zhang Yun: Before the democratic reform in 1959, Tibet was a society of feudal serfdom under the integration of religion and politics and the dictatorship of monks and aristocrats, one even darker ...

Save guides, add subjects and pick up where you left off with your BBC account. Most people in medieval society lived in villages, there were few large towns. The majority of people were peasants ...

But Frachetti’s team believes these highland urban centers weren’t just surviving, they were thriving—in ways that defy expectations of what medieval mountain societies were capable of.