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Tibet Autonomous Region Xizang Autonomous Region .mw-parser-output .noboldfont-weight:normal Tibetan: བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས། Chinese: 西藏自治区
Autonomous region
Chinese transcription(s)
•  Chinese characters	西藏自治区 (abbreviation: XZ / 藏)
•  Pinyin	Xīzàng Zìzhìqū (abbreviation: Zàng) Tsang
Tibetan transcription(s)
•  Tibetan script	བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས།
•  Wylie transliteration	bod rang skyong ljongs
•  official transcription (PRC)	Poi Ranggyong Jong
Map showing the location of the Tibet Autonomous Region
Named for	བོད་ (Bö) is the Tibetan name of the Greater Tibet region. 西藏 (Xīzàng) means "Western Tsang", from Manchu "wargi Dzang", from Tibetan Ü-Tsang. Ü and Tsang are subregions of Greater Tibet. "Tibet" is from the word Tibat of disputed origin.
Capital	Lhasa
Largest city	Lhasa
Divisions	5 prefecture-level cities, 2 prefectures, 6 districts, 68 counties, 692 townships
Government
• Party Secretary	Wu Yingjie
• Chairman	Che Dalha
Area [1]
• Total	1,228,400 km2 (474,300 sq mi)
Area rank	2nd
Highest elevation (Mount Everest)	8,848 m (29,029 ft)
Population (December 2014)[2]
• Total	3,180,000
• Rank	32nd
• Density	2.59/km2 (6.7/sq mi)
• Density rank	33rd
Demographics
• Ethnic composition	90% Tibetan 8% Han 0.3% Monpa 0.3% Hui 0.2% others
• Languages and dialects	Tibetan, Mandarin Chinese
ISO 3166 code	CN-XZ
GDP (2017)	CNY 131.06 billion (31nd) [3]
- per capita	CNY 39,258 USD 5,814 (28th)
HDI (2017)	0.589[4] medium · 31th
Website	www.xizang.gov.cn

Tibet
"Tibet" in Chinese as "Xīzàng" (top) and in Tibetan as "Poi" (bottom)
Chinese name
Chinese	西藏
Hanyu Pinyin	Xīzàng
Literal meaning	"Western Tsang"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xīzàng Bopomofo ㄒㄧ   ㄗㄤˋ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Shitzanq Wade–Giles Hsi1-tsang4 Yale Romanization Syīdzàng IPA [ɕí.tsâŋ] Wu Romanization Si平zaon去 Hakka Romanization Sî-tshông Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Sai1zong6 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Se-chōng Teochew Peng'im Sai-tsăng Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Să̤-câung
Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)
Simplified Chinese	西藏自治区
Traditional Chinese	西藏自治區
Hanyu Pinyin	Xīzàng Zìzhìqū
Literal meaning	"Western Tsang" Autonomous Region
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xīzàng Zìzhìqū Bopomofo ㄒㄧ   ㄗㄤˋ ㄗˋ   ㄓˋ   ㄑㄩ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Shitzanq Tzyhjyhchiu Wade–Giles Hsi1-tsang4 Tzŭ4-chih4-chʻü1 Yale Romanization Syīdzàng Dz̀jr̀chyū IPA [ɕí.tsâŋ tsɹ̩̂.ʈʂɻ̩̂.tɕʰý] Wu Romanization Si平zaon去 Zy去zy去chiu平 Hakka Romanization Sî-tshông Tshṳ-tshṳ-khî Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Sai1zong6 Zi6zi6keoi1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Se-chōng Chū-tī-khu Teochew Peng'im Sai-tsăng Tsĕu-tī-khu Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Să̤-câung Cê̤ṳ-dê-kṳ̆
Tibetan name
Tibetan	བོད་
Transcriptions Wylie Bod Tibetan Pinyin Poi Lhasa IPA [pʰø̀ʔ]

This article contains Tibetan script. Without proper rendering support, you may see very small fonts, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Tibetan characters.

The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) or Xizang Autonomous Region, called Tibet or Xizang for short (Chinese: 西藏; pinyin: Xīzàng; .mw-parser-output .noitalicfont-style:normal
Mandarin pronunciation: [ɕí.tsâŋ]; literally: 'Western Tsang"; Tibetan: བོད་, Wylie: Bod, ZYPY: Poi, Tibetan pronunciation: [pʰø̀ʔ]), is a province-level autonomous region in southwest China. It was formally established in 1965 to replace the Tibet Area, an administrative division the People's Republic of China inherited from the Republic of China (ROC), about five years after the dismissal of the Kashag by the PRC (this is contested)^{[citation needed]} following the 1959 Tibetan uprising, and about 13 years from Tibet's incorporation into the PRC in 1951.

The current borders of the Tibet Autonomous Region were generally established in the 18th century^[5] and include about half of ethno-cultural Tibet. The Tibet Autonomous Region is the second-largest province-level division of China by area, spanning over 1,200,000 km² (460,000 sq mi), after Xinjiang, and mostly due to its harsh and rugged terrain, is the least densely populated provincial-level division of the PRC.

History

Part of a series on the
History of Tibet
Neolithic Tibet Zhangzhung Yarlung Dynasty Tibetan Empire Era of Fragmentation Mongol Empire Yuan rule Phagmodrupa Dynasty Rinpungpa Dynasty Tsangpa Dynasty Rise of Ganden Phodrang Qing rule Post-Qing to 1950 Autonomous region of China
See also
Timeline Historical money List of rulers European exploration Tibetan Buddhism
Tibet portal
v t e

There is a politically-charged historical debate on the exact nature of relations between Tibet and the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and whether the Ming Dynasty had sovereignty over Tibet^[6][7][8] after the Mongol conquest of Tibet and Yuan administrative rule in the 13th and 14th centuries. Qing dynasty (1636–1912) rule in Tibet began with their 1720 expedition to the country when they expelled the invading Dzungars, and Tibet was actually first controlled by central government. From 1912 to 1950 Tibet was under de jure suzerainty of the Republic of China, however, the difficulties of establishing a new government in the aftermath of the Xinhai Revolution, the fractious Warlord Era, the Chinese Civil War, and the overwhelming Japanese invasion and occupation before and during World War II left the Republic unable to exert any effective administration. Other parts of ethno-cultural Tibet (eastern Kham and Amdo) had been under de jure administration of the Chinese dynastic government since the mid-18th century;^[9] today they are distributed among the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. (See also: Xikang province)

In 1950, the People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet and defeated the Tibetan local army in a battle fought near the city of Chamdo. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives signed a 17-point agreement with the Central People's Government affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet and the incorporation of Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.^[10][11] Although the 17-point agreement had provided for an autonomous administration led by the Dalai Lama, a "Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet" (PCART) was established in 1955 to exclude the Dalai Lama's government and create a system of administration along Communist lines. Under threat of his life from Chinese forces the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and renounced the 17-point agreement. Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965, thus making Tibet a provincial-level division of China.

Geography

The Tibet Autonomous Region is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the highest region on earth. In northern Tibet elevations reach an average of over 4,572 metres (15,000 ft). Mount Everest is located on Tibet's border with Nepal.

China's provincial-level areas of Xinjiang, Qinghai and Sichuan lie to the north, northeast, and east, respectively, of the Tibet AR. There is also a short border with Yunnan province to the southeast. The PRC has border disputes with the Republic of India over the McMahon Line of Arunachal Pradesh, known to the Chinese as "South Tibet". The disputed territory of Aksai Chin (which in India, is part of Jammu and Kashmir) is to the west, and its boundary with that region is not defined. Doklam in Sikkim is also disputed with Bhutan and India. The other countries to the south are Myanmar (Kachin State), Bhutan (Gasa, Lhuntse Thimphu, Trashiyangtse and Wangdue Phodrang Districts) and Nepal (Far-Western, Mid-Western, Western, Central, and Eastern Regions).

Mount Everest

Physically, the Tibet AR may be divided into two parts, the lakes region in the west and north-west, and the river region, which spreads out on three sides of the former on the east, south, and west. Both regions receive limited amounts of rainfall as they lie in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, however the region names are useful in contrasting their hydrological structures, and also in contrasting their different cultural uses which is nomadic in the lake region and agricultural in the river region.^[12] On the south the Tibet AR is bounded by the Himalayas, and on the north by a broad mountain system. The system at no point narrows to a single range; generally there are three or four across its breadth. As a whole the system forms the watershed between rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean − the Indus, Brahmaputra and Salween and its tributaries − and the streams flowing into the undrained salt lakes to the north.

The lake region extends from the Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh, Lake Rakshastal, Yamdrok Lake and Lake Manasarovar near the source of the Indus River, to the sources of the Salween, the Mekong and the Yangtze. Other lakes include Dagze Co, Namtso, and Pagsum Co. The lake region is a wind-swept Alpine grassland. This region is called the Chang Tang (Byang sang) or 'Northern Plateau' by the people of Tibet. It is some 1,100 km (680 mi) broad, and covers an area about equal to that of France. Due to its great distance from the ocean it is extremely arid and possesses no river outlet. The mountain ranges are spread out, rounded, disconnected, separated by relatively flat valleys.

The Tibet AR is dotted over with large and small lakes, generally salt or alkaline, and intersected by streams. Due to the presence of discontinuous permafrost over the Chang Tang, the soil is boggy and covered with tussocks of grass, thus resembling the Siberian tundra. Salt and fresh-water lakes are intermingled. The lakes are generally without outlet, or have only a small effluent. The deposits consist of soda, potash, borax and common salt. The lake region is noted for a vast number of hot springs, which are widely distributed between the Himalaya and 34° N, but are most numerous to the west of Tengri Nor (north-west of Lhasa). So intense is the cold in this part of Tibet that these springs are sometimes represented by columns of ice, the nearly boiling water having frozen in the act of ejection.

The river region is characterised by fertile mountain valleys and includes the Yarlung Tsangpo River (the upper courses of the Brahmaputra) and its major tributary, the Nyang River, the Salween, the Yangtze, the Mekong, and the Yellow River. The Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon, formed by a horseshoe bend in the river where it flows around Namcha Barwa, is the deepest, and possibly longest canyon in the world.^[13] Among the mountains there are many narrow valleys. The valleys of Lhasa, Xigazê, Gyantse and the Brahmaputra are free from permafrost, covered with good soil and groves of trees, well irrigated, and richly cultivated.

The South Tibet Valley is formed by the Yarlung Tsangpo River during its middle reaches, where it travels from west to east. The valley is approximately 1200 kilometres long and 300 kilometres wide. The valley descends from 4500 metres above sea level to 2800 metres. The mountains on either side of the valley are usually around 5000 metres high.^[14][15] Lakes here include Lake Paiku and Lake Puma Yumco.

Government

The Tibet Autonomous Region is a province-level entity of the People's Republic of China. Chinese law nominally guarantees some autonomy in the areas of education and language policy. Like other subdivisions of China, routine administration is carried out by a People's Government, headed by a Chairman, who has been an ethnic Tibetan except for an interregnum during the Cultural Revolution. As with other Chinese provinces, the Chairman carries out work under the direction of the regional secretary of the Communist Party of China. The regional standing committee of the Communist Party serves as the top rung of political power in the region. The current Chairman is Che Dalha and the current party secretary is Wu Yingjie.^[16]

Administrative divisions

The Autonomous Region is divided into seven prefecture-level divisions: six prefecture-level cities and one prefecture.

These in turn are subdivided into a total of 66 counties and 8 districts (Chengguan, Doilungdêqên, Dagzê, Samzhubzê, Karub, Bayi, Nêdong, and Seni).

Administrative divisions of Tibet Autonomous Region
Prefecture-level city district areas
№	Division code[17]	Division	Area in km2[18]	Population 2010[19]	Seat	Divisions[20]
						Districts	Counties
	540000	Tibet Autonomous Region	1,228,400.00	3,002,166	Lhasa city	8	66
5	540100	Lhasa city	29,538.90	559,423	Chengguan District	3	5
4	540200	Shigatse / Xigazê city	182,066.26	703,292	Samzhubzê District	1	17
3	540300	Chamdo / Qamdo city	108,872.30	657,505	Karuo District	1	10
7	540400	Nyingchi city	113,964.79	195,109	Bayi District	1	6
6	540500	Shannan / Lhoka city	79,287.84	328,990	Nêdong District	1	11
2	540600	Nagqu city	391,816.63	462,382	Seni District	1	10
1	542500	Ngari Prefecture	296,822.62	95,465	Gar County		7

Yamdrok Lake

Namtso Lake

Urban areas

Demography

With an average of only two people per square kilometer, Tibet has the lowest population density among any of the Chinese province-level administrative regions, mostly due to its harsh and rugged terrain.^[32]

In 2011 the Tibetan population was three million.^[33]
The ethnic Tibetans, comprising 90.48% of the population,^[34] mainly adhere to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, although there is an ethnic Tibetan Muslim community.^[35] Other Muslim ethnic groups such as the Hui and the Salar have inhabited the Region. There is also a tiny Tibetan Christian community in eastern Tibet. Smaller tribal groups such as the Monpa and Lhoba, who follow a combination of Tibetan Buddhism and spirit worship, are found mainly in the southeastern parts of the region.

Historically, the population of Tibet consisted of primarily ethnic Tibetans. According to tradition the original ancestors of the Tibetan people, as represented by the six red bands in the Tibetan flag, are: the Se, Mu, Dong, Tong, Dru and Ra. Other traditional ethnic groups with significant population or with the majority of the ethnic group reside in Tibet include Bai people, Blang, Bonan, Dongxiang, Han, Hui people, Lhoba, Lisu people, Miao, Mongols, Monguor (Tu people), Menba (Monpa), Mosuo, Nakhi, Qiang, Nu people, Pumi, Salar, and Yi people.

According to Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition published between 1910–1911, total population of Tibetan capital of Lhasa, including the lamas in the city and vicinity, was about 30,000, and the permanent population also included Chinese families (about 2,000).^[36]

Most Han people in the TAR (8.17% of the total population)^[37] are recent migrants, because all of the Han were expelled from "Outer Tibet" (Central Tibet) following the British invasion until the establishment of the PRC.^[38]
Only 8% of Han people have household registration in TAR, other keep their household registration in place of origin.^[34]

Tibetan scholars and Tibetans in exile claim that, with the 2006 completion of the Qingzang Railway connecting the TAR to Qinghai Province, there has been an "acceleration" of Han migration into the region.^[39] The exile Tibetan Administration of the Dalai Lama in north India, claims that the PRC will swamp Tibet with migrants in order to alter Tibet's demographic makeup.^[40]

Religion

Maitreya Buddha statue of Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse

The main religion in Tibet has been Buddhism since its outspread in the 8th century AD. Before the arrival of Buddhism, the main religion among Tibetans was an indigenous shamanic and animistic religion, Bon, which now comprises a sizeable minority and which would later influence the formation of Tibetan Buddhism.

According to estimates from the International Religious Freedom Report of 2012, most of Tibetans (who comprise 91% of the population of the Tibet Autonomous Region) are bound by Tibetan Buddhism, while a minority of 400,000 people (12.5% of the total population of the TAR) are bound to the native Bon or folk religions which share the image of Confucius (Tibetan: Kongtse Trulgyi Gyalpo) with Chinese folk religion, though in a different light.^[43][44] According to some reports, the government of China has been promoting the Bon religion, linking it with Confucianism.^[45]

Most of the Han Chinese who reside in Tibet practice their native Chinese folk religion (神道; shén dào; 'Way of the Gods"). There is a Guandi Temple of Lhasa (拉萨关帝庙) where the Chinese god of war Guandi is identified with the cross-ethnic Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol and Manchu deity Gesar. The temple is built according to both Chinese and Tibetan architecture. It was first erected in 1792 under the Qing dynasty and renovated around 2013 after decades of disrepair.^[46][47]

Built or rebuilt between 2014 and 2015 is the Guandi Temple of Qomolangma (Mount Everest), on Ganggar Mount, in Tingri County.^[48][49]

There are four mosques in the Tibet Autonomous Region with approximately 4,000 to 5,000 Muslim adherents,^[41] although a 2010 Chinese survey found a higher proportion of 0.4%.^[42] There is a Catholic church with 700 parishioners, which is located in the traditionally Catholic community of Yanjing in the east of the region.^[41]

Human rights

Towns and villages in Tibet

"Comfortable Housing"

Beginning in 2006, 280,000 Tibetans who lived in traditional villages and as nomadic herdsmen have been forcefully relocated into villages and towns. In those areas new housing was built and existing houses were remodelled to serve a total of 2 million people.
Those living in substandard housing were required to dismantle their houses and remodel them to government standards. Much of the expense was borne by the residents themselves often through bank loans. The population transfer program, which was first implemented in Qinghai where 300,000 nomads were resettled, is called "Comfortable Housing". which is part of the “Build a New Socialist Countryside” program. Its effect on Tibetan culture has been criticized by exiles and human rights groups.^[50] Finding employment is difficult for relocated persons who have only agrarian skills. Income shortfalls are offset by government support programs.^[51] It was announced in 2011 that 20,000 Communist Party cadres were to be placed in the new towns.^[50]

Economy

The Tibetans traditionally depended upon agriculture for survival. Since the 1980s, however, other jobs such as taxi-driving and hotel retail work have become available in the wake of Chinese economic reform. In 2011, Tibet's nominal GDP topped 60.5 billion yuan (US$9.60 billion), nearly more than seven times as big as the 11.78 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) in 2000. Economic growth since the beginning of the 21st century has averaged over 10 percent a year.^[32]

While traditional agriculture and animal husbandry continue to lead the area's economy, in 2005 the tertiary sector contributed more than half of its GDP growth, the first time it surpassed the area's primary industry.^[52][53] Rich reserves of natural resources and raw materials have yet to lead to the creation of a strong secondary sector, due in large part to the province's inhospitable terrain, low population density, an underdeveloped infrastructure and the high cost of extraction.^[32]

The collection of caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis, known in Tibetan as Yartsa Gunbu) in late spring / early summer is in many areas the most important source of cash for rural households. It contributes an average of 40% to rural cash income and 8.5% to the TAR's GDP.^[54]

The re-opening of the Nathu La pass (on southern Tibet's border with India) should facilitate Sino-Indian border trade and boost Tibet's economy.^[55]

In 2008, Chinese news media reported that the per capita disposable incomes of urban and rural residents in Tibet averaged 12,482 yuan (US$1,798) and 3,176 yuan (US$457) respectively.^[56]

The China Western Development policy was adopted in 2000 by the central government to boost economic development in western China, including the Tibet Autonomous Region.

• Lhasa Economic and Technological Development Zone
  

Tourism

The Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of the TAR.

Foreign tourists were first permitted to visit the Tibet Autonomous Region in the 1980s. While the main attraction is the Potala Palace in Lhasa, there are many other popular tourist destinations including the Jokhang Temple, Namtso Lake, and Tashilhunpo Monastery.^[57] Nonetheless, tourism in Tibet is still restricted for non-Chinese passport holders and Taiwan citizens, and presently the only way for foreigners to enter is via Tibet Entry Permit. The permit can only be obtained through a travel agency in Tibet, and travel in Tibet must be arranged in a group tour, in which the group must be accompanied by a licensed tour guide at all times. Those traveling into Tibet must specify every location they want to travel within the TAR, and thus cannot travel anywhere not specified in the application. Before entering on a train, plane, or road leading into Tibet, anyone without a Chinese passport must present the Tibet Entry Permit, or they will otherwise be denied entry. People barred from obtaining the permit are journalists, diplomats, professional media photographers, and government officials.^[58]

Transport

Airports

Lhasa Gonggar Airport, the biggest airport in TAR

The civil airports in Tibet are Lhasa Gonggar Airport,^[59]Qamdo Bangda Airport, Nyingchi Airport, and the Gunsa Airport.

Gunsa Airport in Ngari Prefecture began operations on 1 July 2010, to become the fourth civil airport in China's Tibet Autonomous Region.^[60]

The Peace Airport for Xigazê was opened for civilian use on 30 October 2010.^[61]

Nagqu Dagring Airport is expected to become the world's highest altitude airport by 2014 at 4,436 meters above sea level.^[62]

Railway

The Qinghai–Tibet Railway from Golmud to Lhasa was completed on 12 October 2005. It opened to regular trial service on 1 July 2006. Five pairs of passenger trains run between Golmud and Lhasa, with connections onward to Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xining and Lanzhou. The line includes the Tanggula Pass, which, at 5,072 m (16,640 ft) above sea level, is the world's highest railway.

The Lhasa–Xigazê Railway branch from Lhasa to Xigazê was completed in 2014. It opened to regular service on 15 August 2014. The planned China–Nepal railway will connect Xigazê to Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, and is expected to be completed around 2027.^[63]

The construction of the Sichuan–Tibet Railway began in 2015. The line is expected to be completed around 2025.^[64]

See also

• China Tibetology Research Center


• History of Tibet (1950–present)


• Kazara


• List of prisons in the Tibet Autonomous Region


• List of universities and colleges in Tibet


• Tibet Area, Republic of China


• Tibetan Independence Movement


• Sinicization of Tibet


• Shigatse Photovoltaic Power Plant

References

Further reading

• Hannue, Dialogues Tibetan Dialogues Han, travelogue from Tibet – by a woman who's been travelling around Tibet for over a decade,
  ISBN 978-988-97999-3-9
  


• Sorrel Wilby, Journey Across Tibet: A Young Woman's 1900-Mile Trek Across the Rooftop of the World, Contemporary Books (1988), hardcover, 236 pages,
  ISBN 0-8092-4608-2.


• Hillman, Ben, ‘China’s Many Tibets: Diqing as a model for ‘development with Tibetan characteristics?’ Asian Ethnicity, Vol. 11, No. 2, June 2010, pp 269–277.^{[ISBN missing]}

External links

Media related to Tibet at Wikimedia Commons

• Tibet Autonomous Region official website


• 
  Economic profile for Tibet Autonomous Region at HKTDC
  


• 
  Tibet Autonomous Region travel guide from Wikivoyage


• Population Structure and Changes in the Tibet Autonomous Region