About Tibet

Defining Tibet

To most people Tibet is the area ruled by the Dali Lama prior to Chinese invasion in 1950, bounded on the west by the Himalaya Range and on the east by the Yangtse River and now referred to as the Tibetan Autonomous Region or T.A.R. for short.  However, the area populated by the Tibetan People extends well beyond those borders, principally in Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces and secondarily in Southern Gansu and Northern Yunnan.

This is known as the "Historic Tibet" or the "Ethnic Tibetan Areas".  It is divided into three segments; the largest is called U-tsang whose capital is Lhasa, then Kham, located mostly in western Sichuan whose principal city is Kangding and Amdo in Qinghai and Gansu.

In my discussions I always speak of Tibet in the larger sense, identifying locations as T.A.R., Kham or Amdo.  The land is mostly occupied by Tibetans, but not solely, in that there are also Muslim, Han Chinese usually in and around the cities and towns.

The Topography

The entire Tibetan Region occupies the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, a huge area uplifted by tectonic forces.  The Indian Tectonic Plate bearing the Indian Continent is colliding with the Asian Plate.  Over the eons this has created the Himalayan Range of enormous height in the southwest, the Gangdise on the west and the Kunlun on the north.  The plateau slopes gradually towards the east and then ends suddenly just beyond the Dadu River, dropping to the lush Sichuan Basin.

The surface has been compressed into a staggering number of lesser mountain ranges, with river systems running between them.  Rivers in the west water all of India.  Rivers in the mid section feed the Yangtse and in the north, the Yellow River.  The general elevation is about 11,000 to 13,000 feet with cities on the rivers at elevations below 10,000 feet.  Mountain passes are typically 12,000 to 14,000 feet.

The Weather