Tibet is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa, and Lhoba peoples. It is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui people. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 5,000 m. There are tensions regarding Tibet’s political status and dissident groups that are active in exile.
About Tibet in brief
Tibet is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa, and Lhoba peoples. It is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui people. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 5,000 m. Located in the Himalayas, the highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, rising 8,848 m above sea level. The dominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism; in addition there is Bön, which is similar to Tibetan Buddhism, and there are also Tibetan Muslims and Christian minorities. China governs western and central Tibet as the Tibet Autonomous Region while the eastern areas are now mostly ethnic autonomous prefectures within Sichuan, Qinghai and other neighbouring provinces. There are tensions regarding Tibet’s political status and dissident groups that are active in exile. Tibetan activists in Tibet have reportedly been arrested or tortured. The economy of Tibet is dominated by subsistence agriculture, though tourism has become a growing industry in recent decades. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod, means ‘Tibets’ or ‘Tebetan Plateau’, although it originally meant the central region around Lhasa, now known in Tibetan as Ü. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod ) is transcribed as: Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription; Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetics Transcription, and Poi in Tibetan pinyin.
The modern Standard Chinese exonym for the ethnic Tibetan region is Zangqu, which derives by metonymy from the Tsang region around Shigatse plus the addition of a Chinese suffix qū, which means ‘area, district, region, ward’. Tibetan people, language, and culture, regardless of where they are from, are referred to as Zangàng, although the geographical term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing dynasty during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor. The best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo. This name appears in Chinese in the 7th century and as 西番 in the 10th century. In the Middle-Chinese period, spoken during that time, Tibet was pronounced thux-pjon, pronounced by William Baxter as Thux-Pjon, and reconstructed by William H. Baxter as thux thuxjon. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century, with the current borders generally established around 31°N 89°E. The region maintained its autonomy until 1951 when Tibet was occupied and incorporated into the People’s Republic of China, and the previous Tibetan government was abolished in 1959 after a failed uprising. The term Tibet is used to refer to the Tibetan Autonomous region, although it is also used for the Tibetan Plateau, the Tibetan region, and other areas of East Asia.
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This page is based on the article Tibet published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 28, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
