The Origin of Cultivated Buckwheat in Mankang District of the Sanjiang Area of Eastern Tibet and its Diffusion to India and the Himalayan Hills

To the memory of Ohmi Ohnishi, Professor Emeritus of Kyoto University and Editor Emeritus of FAGOPYRUM journal is reprinted the paper, originally published in FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1 (2020), 7-15

Abstract

Natural populations of the wild ancestor of cultivated common buckwheat were searched and collected, starting from its discovery in1990 and finishing the collections in 2005. Among the collections, the samples Zhuka, Xihe from Mankang district of Tibet are most closely related to cultivated common buckwheat. On the other hand, cultivated populations of common buckwheat in Zhouba, Zhubalong both from Mankang district are most closely related with the wild ancestor of common buckwheat. This leads to the hypothesis on the origin of cultivated buckwheat in Mankang district in the Sanjiang area. The diffusion rout from the original birthplace to India and the Himalayan hills is proposed. Several characteristics of Indian and Himalayan common buckwheat are discussed. A main conclusion of the discussion is that the European buckwheat is not of Indian origin nor of the Himalayan origin. It probably came from the northern China through the Silk Road.