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120-467: Zhangzhung or Shangshung was an ancient kingdom in western and northwestern Tibet , existing from about 500 BCE to 625 CE, pre-dating Tibetan Buddhism . The Zhangzhung culture is associated with the Bon religion, which has influenced the philosophies and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. Zhangzhung people are mentioned frequently in ancient Tibetan texts as the original rulers of today's western Tibet. Only in

240-642: A Scottish nobleman , George Bogle , travelled to Shigatse to investigate prospects of trade for the East India Company . His efforts, while largely unsuccessful, established permanent contact between Tibet and the Western world . However, in the 19th century, tensions between foreign powers and Tibet increased. The British Empire was expanding its territories in India into the Himalayas , while

360-525: A Tibetan Buddhist priest, Phagspa , visited Mongol leader Kublai Khan and entered his service. From the 14th century to the 16th century, the Ming Dynasty controlled some border areas within today's Xining , Xunhua and Hualong . The Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty seized control of Amdo in the 1720s after wars with Khoshut leader Lobdzan Dandzin. From the mid-18th century, Amdo

480-466: A Central Asian empire until the mid-9th century, when a civil war over succession led to the collapse of imperial Tibet. The period that followed is known traditionally as the Era of Fragmentation , when political control over Tibet became divided between regional warlords and tribes with no dominant centralized authority. An Islamic invasion from Bengal took place in 1206. The Mongol Yuan dynasty , through

600-629: A Tibetan language. People from Amdo and Kham have traditionally identified themselves as Amdowas and Khampas rather than Tibetans, sometimes more connected to the Chinese than they were to Ü-Tsang (Central Tibet). The inhabitants of Amdo are referred to as Amdowa ( Tibetan : ཨ་མདོ་པ། , Wylie : a mdo pa ) as a distinction from the Tibetans of Kham (Khampa, Tibetan : ཁམས་པ། , Wylie : khams pa ) and Ü-Tsang, however, they are all considered ethnically Tibetan. Today, ethnic Tibetans predominate in

720-585: A Tibetan priest, Phagspa , visited Kublai Khan he became so popular that he was made Kublai's spiritual guide and later appointed by him to the rank of priest king of Tibet and constituted ruler of (1) Tibet Proper, comprising the thirteen states of Ü-Tsang; (2) Kham, and (3) Amdo. He spent his later years at Sakya Monastery in Ü-Tsang, which required that he travel through Amdo regularly. On one of these trips, he encountered armed resistance in Amdo and required escorts from Mongol Princes to travel through Amdo. While

840-584: A civil administration which is referred to by historians as the Lhasa state . This Tibetan regime or government is also referred to as the Ganden Phodrang . Qing dynasty rule in Tibet began with their 1720 expedition to the country when they expelled the invading Dzungars . Amdo came under Qing control in 1724, and eastern Kham was incorporated into neighbouring Chinese provinces in 1728. Meanwhile,

960-430: A consequence, Zhangzhung was annexed to Bod (Central Tibet). Thereafter the new kingdom born of the unification of Zhangzhung and Bod was known as Bod rGyal-khab." R. A. Stein places the conquest of Zhangzhung in 645. Zhangzhung revolted soon after the death of King Mangsong Mangtsen or Trimang Löntsän ( Wylie : Khri-mang-slon-rtsan , r. 650–677), the son of Songtsen Gampo , but was brought back under Tibetan control by

1080-523: A degree of political autonomy. The Qing commander publicly executed a number of supporters of the rebels and, as in 1723 and 1728, made changes in the political structure and drew up a formal organization plan. The Qing now restored the Dalai Lama as ruler, leading the governing council called Kashag , but elevated the role of Ambans to include more direct involvement in Tibetan internal affairs. At

1200-513: A low bush, and where the wind sweeps unchecked across vast expanses of arid plain. The Indian monsoon exerts some influence on eastern Tibet. Northern Tibet is subject to high temperatures in the summer and intense cold in the winter. Amdo Amdo was a part of the Tibetan Empire until the 9th century and later a local Tibetan theocracy called Tsongkha until the 12th century. A priest and patron relationship began in 1253 after

1320-675: A military invasion. The British expeditionary force, consisting of mostly Indian troops , quickly invaded and captured Lhasa, with the Dalai Lama fleeing to the countryside. Afterwards, the leader of the expedition, Sir Francis Younghusband , negotiated the Convention Between Great Britain and Tibet with the Tibetans, which guaranteed the British great economic influence but ensured the region remained under Chinese control . The Qing imperial resident, known as

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1440-536: A minority (ca. 8.5%) of the total population there and so the region did not attain TAP status. The vast Haixi (མཚོ་ནུབ།; mtsho nub ) Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, to the west of the Qinghai Lake, also has a minority Tibetan population (ca. 10%), and only those Tibetans in the eastern parts of this Prefecture are Amdo inhabitants. Mongols too have been long-term settlers in Amdo, arriving first during

1560-576: A more decentralized indigenous political structure, being divided among a number of small principalities and tribal groups, while also often falling under Chinese rule; most of this area was eventually annexed into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Qinghai. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century. Following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qing soldiers were disarmed and escorted out of

1680-641: A period alternating between the supremacy of the Dalai Lama (nominally) and Mongol overlords. In 1642, Tibet was reunified under the 5th Dalai Lama , by gaining spiritual and temporal authority through the efforts of the Mongol king, Güshi Khan . This allowed the Gelug school and its incarnated spiritual leaders, the Dalai Lamas, to gain enough support to last through the present day. Gushi Khan also returned portions of Eastern Tiber (Kham) to Tibet, but his base in

1800-854: A recent tendency by some authors writing in Chinese to revive the term Tubote (simplified Chinese: 图伯特 ; traditional Chinese: 圖伯特 ; pinyin: Túbótè ) for modern use in place of Xizang , on the grounds that Tubote more clearly includes the entire Tibetan plateau rather than simply the Tibet Autonomous Region . The English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that "Tibet" names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat or Tūbātt ( Arabic : طيبة، توبات ; Hebrew : טובּה, טובּת ), itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd (plural of töbän ), literally 'The Heights'. Linguists generally classify

1920-657: A religion largely borrowed from Hinduism. The situation may even have lasted for quite a long time. In fact, about 950, the Hindu King of Kabul had a statue of Vişņu, of the Kashmiri type (with three heads), which he claimed had been given him by the king of the Bhota (Tibetans) who, in turn had obtained it from Kailāśa." Archeological work on the Chang Tang plateau in 2010 found possible evidence of an Iron Age culture in

2040-554: A shorter seasonal trek as their pasture may be nearby, and they may even migrate between homes each day. As in Amdo and Kham, independent local polities were the traditional governing systems. In Amdo, communities of nomads, farmers, horse traders and monasteries were organized into these polities, which continued from the era of the Tibetan Empire . Varying in size from small to large, some were inherited while others were not, and both women and men were individual leaders of these polities. Tsowas , consisting of groups of families, are

2160-548: A strong following as many people from Tibet looked at him not just as their political leader, but as their spiritual leader. After the Dalai Lama's government fled to Dharamsala , India, during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion , it established a rival government-in-exile . Afterwards, the Central People's Government in Beijing renounced the agreement and began implementation of the halted social and political reforms. During

2280-556: A term usually translated by Chinese media as "the Western section", meaning "Western China". Tibet has some of the world's tallest mountains, with several of them making the top ten list. Mount Everest , located on the border with Nepal , is, at 8,848.86 metres (29,032 ft), the highest mountain on earth. Several major rivers have their source in the Tibetan Plateau (mostly in present-day Qinghai Province). These include

2400-515: A territory stretching from modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. In 821/822   CE, Tibet and China signed a peace treaty. A bilingual account of this treaty, including details of the borders between the two countries, is inscribed on a stone pillar which stands outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa. Tibet continued as

2520-526: A treaty of mutual recognition . The ROC continued to view the former Qing territory as its own, including Tibet. For the next 36 years, the 13th Dalai Lama and the regents who succeeded him governed Tibet. During this time, Tibet fought Chinese warlords for control of the ethnically Tibetan areas in Xikang and Qinghai (parts of Kham and Amdo) along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River . In 1914,

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2640-658: A unified Tibet begins with the rule of Songtsen Gampo (604–650   CE), who united parts of the Yarlung River Valley and founded the Tibetan Empire. He also brought in many reforms, and Tibetan power spread rapidly, creating a large and powerful empire. It is traditionally considered that his first wife was the Princess of Nepal, Bhrikuti , and that she played a great role in the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet. In 640, he married Princess Wencheng ,

2760-507: Is a holy place for the Indians, who make pilgrimages to it. No one knows how long they have done so, but the cult may well go back to the times when Shangshung was still independent of Tibet. How far Shangshung stretched to the north, east and west is a mystery   .... We have already had an occasion to remark that Shangshung, embracing Kailāśa sacred Mount of the Hindus, may once have had

2880-580: Is a partial genetic continuity between the Paleolithic inhabitants and contemporary Tibetan populations. The earliest Tibetan historical texts identify the Zhang Zhung culture as a people who migrated from the Amdo region into what is now the region of Guge in western Tibet. Zhang Zhung is considered to be the original home of the Bön religion. By the 1st century BCE, a neighboring kingdom arose in

3000-492: Is a primary influence on the art , music , and festivals of the region. Tibetan architecture reflects Chinese and Indian influences. Staple foods in Tibet are roasted barley , yak meat, and butter tea . With the growth of tourism in recent years, the service sector has become the largest sector in Tibet, accounting for 50.1% of the local GDP in 2020. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod ( བོད་ ), means 'Tibet' or ' Tibetan Plateau ', although it originally meant

3120-434: Is consistent throughout. This is probably due to the long-standing influence of the Tibetan empire, whose rule embraced (and extended at times far beyond) the present Tibetan linguistic area, which runs from Gilgit Baltistan in the west to Yunnan and Sichuan in the east, and from north of Qinghai Lake south as far as Bhutan. The Tibetan language has its own script which it shares with Ladakhi and Dzongkha , and which

3240-554: Is derived from the ancient Indian Brāhmī script . Starting in 2001, the local deaf sign languages of Tibet were standardized, and Tibetan Sign Language is now being promoted across the country. The first Tibetan-English dictionary and grammar book was written by Alexander Csoma de Kőrös in 1834. Humans inhabited the Tibetan Plateau at least 21,000 years ago. This population was largely replaced around 3,000 BP by Neolithic immigrants from northern China, but there

3360-450: Is employed throughout the Tibetan plateau and Bhutan and is also spoken in parts of Nepal and northern India, such as Sikkim . In general, the dialects of central Tibet (including Lhasa), Kham , Amdo and some smaller nearby areas are considered Tibetan dialects. Other forms, particularly Dzongkha , Sikkimese , Sherpa , and Ladakhi , are considered by their speakers, largely for political reasons, to be separate languages. However, if

3480-575: Is the homeland of the Tibetan people . Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups such as Mongols , Monpa , Tamang , Qiang , Sherpa , Lhoba , and since the 20th century Han Chinese and Hui . After the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1951, the entire plateau has been under the administration of the People's Republic of China . Tibet is divided administratively into

3600-434: Is the largest lake in the People's Republic of China. The climate is severely dry nine months of the year, and average annual snowfall is only 46 cm (18 inches), due to the rain shadow effect . Western passes receive small amounts of fresh snow each year but remain traversible all year round. Low temperatures are prevalent throughout these western regions, where bleak desolation is unrelieved by any vegetation bigger than

3720-403: Is the same throughout Tibetan-speaking regions and is based on Classical Tibetan . The formal name of Amdo is Domey ( Tibetan : མདོ་སྨད་ ) in literatures. Historically, Amdo and Kham together were also called Do Kham on maps and manuscripts. The Ch'iang people were early users of iron and stories abound of them in their iron breast-plates with iron swords. From the seventh through

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3840-522: The 14th Dalai Lama , the 10th Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen , and the great Gelug school reformer Je Tsongkhapa . Amdo consists of all of northeastern Tibet, including the upper reaches of the Machu or Yellow River and Lake Qinghai. Its southern border is the Bayan Har Mountains . The area is wind-swept and tree-less, with much grass. Animals of the region consist of the wild yak and

3960-533: The 2008 Tibetan unrest . The central region of Tibet is now an autonomous region within China, the Tibet Autonomous Region . The Tibet Autonomous Region is a province-level entity of the People's Republic of China. It is governed by a People's Government, led by a chairman. In practice, however, the chairman is subordinate to the branch secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 2010 it

4080-467: The Amban , publicly repudiated the treaty, while the British government, eager for friendly relations with China, negotiated a new treaty two years later known as the Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting Tibet . The British agreed not to annex or interfere in Tibet in return for an indemnity from the Chinese government, while China agreed not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with

4200-545: The Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs , or Xuanzheng Yuan, ruled Tibet through a top-level administrative department. One of the department's purposes was to select a dpon-chen ("great administrator"), usually appointed by the lama and confirmed by the Mongol emperor in Beijing. The Sakya lama retained a degree of autonomy, acting as the political authority of the region, while the dpon-chen held administrative and military power. Mongol rule of Tibet remained separate from

4320-642: The Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire were both doing likewise in Central Asia . In 1904, a British expedition to Tibet , spurred in part by a fear that Russia was extending its power into Tibet as part of the Great Game , was launched. Although the expedition initially set out with the stated purpose of resolving border disputes between Tibet and Sikkim , it quickly turned into

4440-555: The Great Leap Forward , between 200,000 and 1,000,000 Tibetans may have died and approximately 6,000 monasteries were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution —destroying the vast majority of historic Tibetan architecture. In 1980, General Secretary and reformist Hu Yaobang visited Tibet and ushered in a period of social, political, and economic liberalization . At the end of the decade, however, before

4560-676: The Himalayan lands, as well as in the highlands of Southeast Asia and the Sino-Tibetan frontier regions, linguists have generally concluded that there exists a Tibeto-Burman family of languages. More controversial is the theory that the Tibeto-Burman family is itself part of a larger language family, called Sino-Tibetan , and that through it Tibetan and Burmese are distant cousins of Chinese. The language has numerous regional dialects which are generally not mutually intelligible. It

4680-718: The Hui Muslim warlords of the Ma Family , which supported the Republic of China (ROC), began occupying parts of Amdo, which was gradually incorporated into ROC provinces. Since 1949, Chinese Communist Party forces have been able to defeat both Tibetan and the Nationalist Government forces, solidifying their hold on the area roughly by 1958. Amdo is the home of many important Tibetan Buddhism spiritual leaders, lamas , monks, nuns, and scholars, including

4800-675: The Kanlho (ཀན་ལྷོ།; Gannan) TAP of the southwest Gansu province, and sections of the Rngaba (རྔ་བ།; Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous prefecture of north-west Sichuan province. Additionally, a great many Amdo Tibetans live within the Haidong (མཚོ་ཤར།; Wylie : mtsho shar ) Prefecture of Qinghai which is located to the east of the Qinghai Lake (མཚོ་སྔོན།, Wylie: mtsho sngon ) and around Xining (ཟི་ལིང།; zi ling ) city, but they constitute only

4920-685: The Kirti Gompas of Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and Taktsang Lhamo in Dzoge County. From 1958 to 1962, the political climate in Amdo was considered unbearable. In 1958, the arrest and murder of the Tseten Monastery's Khenpo Jigme Rigpai Nyingpo while incarcerated in Xining 's Nantan prison marked the beginning of the period. Amdo Tibetans' traditional lifestyle and economy are centered on agriculture. Depending on

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5040-663: The Ngaba area of the former Amdo into Sichuan. This boundary also roughly corresponds with the modern boundary of Qinghai with Sichuan. A new boundary, following the Ning-ching mountain range, was established between Sichuan and Tibet. East of these mountains, local chieftains ruled under the nominal authority of the Sichuan provincial government; Lhasa administered the area to the west. The 1720s thus saw Tibet's first major reduction in area in centuries. The Gansu region bordering Tibet

5160-643: The Sikh Empire invaded and annexed Ladakh , a culturally Tibetan region that was an independent kingdom at the time. Seven years later, a Sikh army led by General Zorawar Singh invaded western Tibet from Ladakh, starting the Sino-Sikh War . A Qing-Tibetan army repelled the invaders but was in turn defeated when it chased the Sikhs into Ladakh. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Chushul between

5280-680: The Sumpa , then with the Tuyuhun . Around 1032, the Tangut people , possibly of Qiang descent, formed the Western Xia , which lasted into the 13th century. The Mongols had conquered eastern Amdo by 1240 and would manage it under the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs , separately from the other territories administered by the Yuan dynasty. A patron and priest relationship began in 1253 when

5400-554: The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 , monks in the Drepung and Sera monasteries started protesting for independence. The government halted reforms and started an anti- separatist campaign. Human rights organisations have been critical of the Beijing and Lhasa governments' approach to human rights in the region when cracking down on separatist convulsions that have occurred around monasteries and cities, most recently in

5520-517: The Tibet Area (Ü-Tsang). The region subsequently declared its independence in 1913, although this was not recognised by the subsequent Chinese Republican government . Later, Lhasa took control of the western part of Xikang . The region maintained its autonomy until 1951 when, following the Battle of Chamdo , Tibet was occupied and annexed by the People's Republic of China. The Tibetan government

5640-547: The Tibet Autonomous Region and parts of the Qinghai , Gansu , Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. Tibet is also constitutionally claimed by the Republic of China as the Tibet Area since 1912. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 4,380 m (14,000 ft). Located in the Himalayas , the highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest , Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848 m (29,000 ft) above sea level. The Tibetan Empire emerged in

5760-485: The Tibetan language as a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan language family, although the boundaries between 'Tibetan' and certain other Himalayan languages can be unclear. According to Matthew Kapstein : From the perspective of historical linguistics, Tibetan most closely resembles Burmese among the major languages of Asia. Grouping these two together with other apparently related languages spoken in

5880-706: The Tsangpa dynasty of Shigatse which expanded its power in different directions of Tibet in the following decades and favoured the Karma Kagyu sect. In 1578, Altan Khan of the Tümed Mongols gave Sonam Gyatso , a high lama of the Gelugpa school, the name Dalai Lama , Dalai being the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan name Gyatso "Ocean". The 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682) is known for unifying

6000-454: The Vinaya , he was set to travel to Central Tibet, but for a drought. Instead he chose to travel in solitude to Amdo. Locals had heard of him and his solitude was not to be as he was sought after. In time he established a line of refugee monks in Amdo and with the wealth that he acquired he built temples and stupas also. The area was ruled by a Tibetan theocracy called Tsongkha from 997 to 1104. The historical Qiang came into contact with

6120-419: The Yangtze , Yellow River , Indus River , Mekong , Ganges , Salween and the Yarlung Tsangpo River ( Brahmaputra River ). The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon , along the Yarlung Tsangpo River , is among the deepest and longest canyons in the world. Tibet has been called the "Water Tower" of Asia, and China is investing heavily in water projects in Tibet. The Indus and Brahmaputra rivers originate from

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6240-454: The Yarlung valley , and the Yarlung king, Drigum Tsenpo , attempted to remove the influence of the Zhang Zhung by expelling the Zhang's Bön priests from Yarlung. He was assassinated and Zhang Zhung continued its dominance of the region until it was annexed by Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. Prior to Songtsen Gampo , the kings of Tibet were more mythological than factual, and there is insufficient evidence of their existence. The history of

6360-400: The kiang . Domesticated animals of the region consist of the domestic yak and dzo , goats, sheep, and the Mongolian horse . Amdo has been described in epic stories and history as a land where splendid horses are raised and run wild. In historical times, the people of the region were typically non-Tibetan, such as the Mongols or the Hor people , although the latter were able to speak

6480-426: The "Twenty-Nine Regulations for Better Government in Tibet". Qing military garrisons staffed with Qing troops were now also established near the Nepalese border. Tibet was dominated by the Manchus in various stages in the 18th century, and the years immediately following the 1792 regulations were the peak of the Qing imperial commissioners' authority; but there was no attempt to make Tibet a Chinese province. In 1834,

6600-476: The "firm governance of the great leaders of the Mgar clan". A handful of Zhangzhung texts and 11th century bilingual Tibetan documents attest to a Zhang-Zhung language which was related to Kinnauri . The Bonpo claim that the Tibetan writing system is derived from the Zhangzhung alphabet, while modern scholars recognise the clear derivation of Tibetan script from a North Indian script, which accords with non-Bon Tibetan accounts. A modern Kinnauri language called by

6720-416: The 10 virtues of the land. Two of the virtues are in the grass, one for meadows near home, one for distant pastures. Two virtues in soil, one to build houses and one for good fields. Two virtues are in the water, one for drinking and one for irrigation. There are two in the stone, one for building and one for milling. The timber has two virtues, one for building and one for firewood. The original inhabitants of

6840-483: The 10th century ( Old Book of Tang , describing 608–609 emissaries from Tibetan King Namri Songtsen to Emperor Yang of Sui ). In the Middle Chinese language spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter , 土番 was pronounced thu x -phjon , and 吐蕃 was pronounced thu x -pjon (with the x representing a shang tone ). Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include: American Tibetologist Elliot Sperling has argued in favor of

6960-418: The 1720s. The boundaries of Xining Prefecture, which contains most of Amdo, with Sichuan and Tibet-proper was established following this. The boundary of Xining Prefecture and Xizang , or Central Tibet, was the Dangla Mountains . This roughly corresponds with the modern boundary of Qinghai with the Tibet Autonomous Region . The boundary of Xining Prefecture with Sichuan was also set at this time, dividing

7080-428: The 1950s. Tibetan region of Lho-Jang and Gyarong in Kham, and Ngapa (Chinese Aba) and Golok in Amdo, were still independent of Chinese hegemony, despite the creation on paper of Qinghai Province in 1927. The 14th Dalai Lama was born in the Amdo region, in 1935, and when he was announced as a possible candidate, Ma Bufang tried to prevent the boy from travelling to Tibet. He demanded a ransom of 300,000 dollars, which

7200-477: The 7th century. At its height in the 9th century, the Tibetan Empire extended far beyond the Tibetan Plateau, from the Tarim Basin and Pamirs in the west, to Yunnan and Bengal in the southeast. It then divided into a variety of territories. The bulk of western and central Tibet ( Ü-Tsang ) was often at least nominally unified under a series of Tibetan governments in Lhasa , Shigatse , or nearby locations. The eastern regions of Kham and Amdo often maintained

7320-427: The Amdo region were the forest-dwellers ( nags-pa ), the mountain-dwellers ( ri-pa ), the plains-dwellers ( thang-pa ), the grass-men ( rtsa-mi ), and the woodsmen ( shing-mi ). The grass men were famous for their horses. Gewasel is a monk that helped resurrect Tibetan Buddhism. He was taught as a child and showed amazing enthusiasm for the religion. When he was ordained he went in search of teachings. After obtaining

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7440-473: The Chinese Communist Party to impose rapid collectivization on the pastoral communities of the grasslands. Rebellion also stirred the region at the beginning of the 1950s as “Liberation” first settled on the northeastern Tibetan plateau. The immediate ramifications of each disturbance both for the Amdo Tibetan elites and commoners, and for the Han cadres in their midst, elucidates early PRC nation-building and state-building struggles in minority nationality areas and

7560-421: The Chinese and Sikh empires. As the Qing dynasty weakened, its authority over Tibet also gradually declined, and by the mid-19th century, its influence was minuscule. Qing authority over Tibet had become more symbolic than real by the late 19th century, although in the 1860s, the Tibetans still chose for reasons of their own to emphasize the empire's symbolic authority and make it seem substantial. In 1774,

7680-512: The Chinese government tightly controlling information and denying external scrutiny. While there are conflicting reports on the scale of human rights violations, including allegations of cultural genocide and the Sinicization of Tibet , widespread suppression of Tibetan culture and dissent continues to be documented. The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism ; other religions include Bön , an indigenous religion similar to Tibetan Buddhism, Islam , and Christianity . Tibetan Buddhism

7800-417: The Dalai Lama ruling Central Tibet. Eastern Tibet, including Amdo and Kham , were ruled by local and regional warlords and chiefs. The Hui Muslims administered the agricultural areas in the north and east of the region. Amdo saw numerous powerful leaders including both secular and non. The monasteries, such as Labrang , Rebkong , and Taktsang Lhamo supervised the choosing of the local leaders or headmen in

7920-436: The Drotsang Sargön; the monastery at Detsa Nangso was called the Detsa Gompa. Earlier in 1376, a Horse and Tea Trading Station was in Co né. After the People's Republic of China 's (PRC) was founded, communist administrators overlaid a series of larger Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures (TAP) on top of the existing county system, but only where Tibetans formed the majority of the population. This policy towards Tibetans, considered

8040-434: The Egyptian-Greek works Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) and Geographia ( Ptolemy , 2nd century CE), itself from the Sanskrit form Bhauṭṭa of the Indian geographical tradition. The best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo (Chinese: 吐蕃 ; or Tǔbō , 土蕃 or Tǔfān , 土番 ). This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th century ( Li Tai ) and as 吐蕃 in

8160-430: The Kokonor region of Amdo remained under Mongol control. In 1705, with the approval of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty , Lha-bzang Khan of the Khoshud deposed the regent and killed the 6th Dalai Lama . The Dzungar Mongols invaded Tibet during the chaos, and held the entire region until their final defeat by an expedition of the Qing imperial army in 1720 . When the Manchu Qing dynasty rose to power in

8280-486: The Mongols before native Chinese overthrew the Yuan dynasty in 1368, although it avoided directly resisting the Yuan court until the latter's fall. By 1343, Mongol authority in Amdo had weakened considerably: Köden’s fiefdom had been leaderless for some time, and the Tibetans were harassing the Mongols near Liangzhou (byang ngos). In 1347, a general rebellion erupted in some two hundred places in eastern Tibet, and though troops were sent to suppress them, by 1355 eastern Tibet

8400-433: The Nationalists. By 1952, the major towns in the region were fully under the control of People's Republic of China , though many of the rural areas continued to enjoy de facto autonomy for several more years. Tibetan guerrilla forces in Amdo emerged in 1956 and continued until the 1970s fighting the People's Liberation Army. In 1958, Chinese communists assumed official control of Tibetan regions in Kham and Amdo. Many of

8520-406: The Qing government sent resident commissioners called Ambans to Lhasa. In 1750, the Ambans and the majority of the Han Chinese and Manchus living in Lhasa were killed in a riot , and Qing troops arrived quickly and suppressed the rebels in the next year. Like the preceding Yuan dynasty, the Manchus of the Qing dynasty exerted military and administrative control of the region, while granting it

8640-643: The Tibetan government signed the Simla Convention with Britain, which recognized Chinese suzerainty over Tibet in return for a border settlement. China refused to sign the convention. Tibet continued to lack clear boundaries or international recognition of its status. When in the 1930s and 1940s the regents displayed negligence in affairs, the Kuomintang Government of the Republic of China took advantage of this to expand its reach into

8760-537: The Tibetan heartland under the control of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism , after defeating the rival Kagyu and Jonang sects and the secular ruler, the Tsangpa prince, in a prolonged civil war. His efforts were successful in part because of aid from Güshi Khan , the Oirat leader of the Khoshut Khanate . With Güshi Khan as a largely uninvolved overlord, the 5th Dalai Lama and his intimates established

8880-478: The Tibetan king and the king of Zhangzhung had married each other's sisters in a political alliance. However, the Tibetan wife of the king of the Zhangzhung complained of poor treatment by the king's principal wife. War ensued, and through the treachery of the Tibetan princess, "King Ligmikya of Zhangzhung, while on his way to Sum-ba ( Amdo province) was ambushed and killed by King Srongtsen Gampo's soldiers. As

9000-607: The Tibetans had lost almost all of their central Asian possessions to the Chinese . However, after Gao Xianzhi's defeat by the Arabs and Qarluqs at the Battle of Talas (751) and the subsequent civil war known as the An Lushan Rebellion (755), Chinese influence decreased rapidly and Tibetan influence resumed. At its height in the 780s to 790s, the Tibetan Empire reached its highest glory when it ruled and controlled

9120-618: The Tibetans, then commenced to tax the town heavily for 8 years. In 1925, a Tibetan rebellion broke out, with thousands of Tibetans driving out the Muslims. Ma Qi responded with 3,000 Chinese Muslim troops, who retook Labrang and machine gunned thousands of Tibetan monks as they tried to flee. Ma Qi besieged Labrang numerous times, the Tibetans and Mongols fought against his Muslim forces for control of Labrang, until Ma Qi gave it up in 1927. His forces were praised by foreigners who traveled through Qinghai for their fighting abilities. However, that

9240-524: The Tibetans: "...   then further west, the Tibetans encountered a distinctly foreign nation. – Shangshung, with its capital at Khyunglung. Mt. Kailāśa (Tise) and Lake Manasarovar formed part of this country., whose language has come down to us through early documents. Though still unidentified, it seems to be Indo European   .... Geographically the country was certainly open to India, both through Nepal and by way of Kashmir and Ladakh. Kailāśa

9360-556: The Turkic Uyghur Khaganate . The Kingdom of Nanzhao (in Yunnan and neighbouring regions) remained under Tibetan control from 750 to 794, when they turned on their Tibetan overlords and helped the Chinese inflict a serious defeat on the Tibetans. In 747, the hold of Tibet was loosened by the campaign of general Gao Xianzhi , who tried to re-open the direct communications between Central Asia and Kashmir . By 750,

9480-610: The area which some have tentatively identified as that of the Zhangzhung. There is some confusion as to whether Central Tibet conquered Zhangzhung during the reign of Songtsen Gampo (605 or 617–649) or in the reign of Trisong Detsen ( Wylie : Khri-srong-lde-btsan ), (r. 755 until 797 or 804). The records of the Tang Annals do, however, seem to clearly place these events in the reign of Songtsen Gampo for they say that in 634, Yangtong (Zhangzhung) and various Qiang tribes, "altogether submitted to him". Following this he united with

9600-529: The areas under their control. These tribes consisted of several thousand nomads. Meanwhile, Sokwo , Ngawa , and Liulin , had secular leaders appointed, with some becoming kings and even creating familial dynasties. This secular form of government went as far as Machu. The Muslim warlord Ma Qi waged war in the name of the Republic of China against the Labrang monastery and Goloks. After ethnic rioting between Muslims and Tibetans emerged in 1918, Ma Qi defeated

9720-466: The basic socio-cum-political organization. The Golok peoples, Gomé and Lutsang peoples arranged themselves in tsowas . A larger organisation is the sgar , translated as 'encampment', while larger still is the nangso , translated as 'commissioner'. There were also kingdoms, such as Kingdom of Co ne (Choné). In 1624, for example, the Drotsang Nangso sponsored a monastery which was called

9840-587: The central region around Lhasa , now known in Tibetan as Ü ( དབུས ). The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod ( [pʰøʔ˨˧˨] ) is transcribed as: Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription ; Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription ; and Poi in Tibetan pinyin . Some scholars believe the first written reference to Bod ('Tibet') was the ancient Bautai people recorded in

9960-439: The concept of Tibet's Three Regions can be dated back to Tibetan Empire , Dunhuang manuscripts referring to the eastern parts of its territory as mdo-gams ( Tibetan : མདོ་གམས ) and mdo-smad ( Tibetan : མདོ་སྨད ), Yuan confirmed the division, and Do Kham as two well defined commanderies, along with Ü-Tsang , were collectively referred to as the three commanderies of Tibet since then. Tibet regained its independence from

10080-447: The country of Yangtong to defeat the 'Azha or Tuyuhun , and then conquered two more tribes of Qiang before threatening Songzhou with an army of more than 200,000 men. He then sent an envoy with gifts of gold and silk to the Chinese emperor to ask for a Chinese princess in marriage and, when refused, attacked Songzhou . He apparently finally retreated and apologised and later the emperor granted his request. Early Tibetan accounts say that

10200-665: The early 18th century it established Xining, a town to the north of Amdo, as the administrative base for the area. Amdo was placed within the Qinghai Region. During this period they were ruled by the Amban , who allowed near total autonomy by the monasteries and the other local leaders. The 18th century saw the Qing Empire continue to expand further and further into Tibet as it engulfed Eastern Tibet including Amdo and even assumed control over Central Tibet . The Yongzheng Emperor seized full control of Qinghai (Amdo) in

10320-540: The founding of the Gelug school (also known as Yellow Hats) by the disciples of Je Tsongkhapa , and the founding of the important Ganden , Drepung and Sera monasteries near Lhasa. However, internal strife within the dynasty and the strong localism of the various fiefs and political-religious factions led to a long series of internal conflicts. The minister family Rinpungpa , based in Tsang (West Central Tibet), dominated politics after 1435. In 1565 they were overthrown by

10440-403: The historical independent polities of hereditary rulers and kingdoms remained, while Mongol and Chinese populations fluctuated among the indigenous peoples and Tibetans. During this time period, Buddhist monks from Central Tibet exiled to the Amdo region. There is a historical account of an official from the 9th century sent to collect taxes to Amdo. Instead, he acquires a fief. He then tells of

10560-609: The influence of this crucial transitional period on relations between Han and Tibetan in Amdo decades later. As a prelude to the Beijing Olympics , protests broke out in 2008 in Amdo, among other places. Some were violent; however the majority were peaceful. Amdo was traditionally a place of great learning and scholarship and contains many great monasteries including Kumbum Monastery near Xining , Rongwo Monastery in Rebgong , Labrang Monastery south of Lanzhou , and

10680-514: The land of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, or Shambhala . Bonpos also suggest that during this time Lord Shenrab Miwoche's teaching permeated the entire subcontinent and was in part responsible for the development of the Vedic religion . An example of this link is said to be Mount Kailash , which is the center of Zhangzhung culture, and also the most sacred mountain to Hindus. As a result, the Bonpos claim that

10800-692: The largest population density, with the result that the Han Chinese outnumber other ethnicities in Qinghai province generally. The majority of Amdo Tibetans live in the larger part of Qinghai province, including the Mtshobyang (མཚོ་བྱང་།; Haibei in Chinese) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Mtsholho (མཚོ་ལྷོ་།; Hainan) TAP, Rmalho (རྨ་ལྷོ་།; Huangnan) TAP, and Mgolog (མགོ་ལོག།; Guoluo) TAP, as well as in

10920-414: The last two decades have archaeologists been given access to do field work in the areas once ruled by the Zhangzhung. Tradition has it that Zhangzhung consisted "of three different regions: sGob-ba, the outer; Phug-pa, the inner; and Bar-ba, the middle. The outer is what we might call Western Tibet, from Gilgit in the west to Dangs-ra khyung-rdzong in the east, next to lake gNam-mtsho, and from Khotan in

11040-415: The latter group of Tibetan-type languages are included in the calculation, then 'greater Tibetan' is spoken by approximately 6 million people across the Tibetan Plateau. Tibetan is also spoken by approximately 150,000 exile speakers who have fled from modern-day Tibet to India and other countries. Although spoken Tibetan varies according to the region, the written language, based on Classical Tibetan ,

11160-518: The main provinces of China, but the region existed under the administration of the Yuan dynasty . If the Sakya lama ever came into conflict with the dpon-chen , the dpon-chen had the authority to send Chinese troops into the region. Tibet retained nominal power over religious and regional political affairs, while the Mongols managed a structural and administrative rule over the region, reinforced by

11280-579: The ministers, unsuccessfully. In 821, a treaty established the borders between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty , while three stele were built – one at the border, one in Lhasa, and one in Chang'an . The Tibetan army settled within the eastern frontier. After 838 when Tibet's King Lang darma killed his brother, the Tibetan Empire broke into independent principalities, while Do Kham (Amdo and Kham) maintained culturally and religiously Tibetan. Within Amdo,

11400-461: The newly enthroned 14th Dalai Lama 's government, affirming the People's Republic of China's sovereignty but granting the area autonomy. Subsequently, on his journey into exile, the 14th Dalai Lama completely repudiated the agreement, which he has repeated on many occasions. According to the CIA , the Chinese used the Dalai Lama to gain control of the military's training and actions. The Dalai Lama had

11520-479: The niece of the Chinese emperor Taizong of Tang China . Under the next few Tibetan kings, Buddhism became established as the state religion and Tibetan power increased even further over large areas of Central Asia , while major inroads were made into Chinese territory, even reaching the Tang 's capital Chang'an (modern Xi'an ) in late 763. However, the Tibetan occupation of Chang'an only lasted for fifteen days, after which they were defeated by Tang and its ally,

11640-546: The ninth century, the Tibetan Empire extended as far north as the Turfan , south into India and Nepal , east to Chang'an , and west to Samarkhand . During this period, control of Amdo moved from Songtsen Gampo and his successors to the royal family's ministers, the Gar ( Wylie : ' gar ). These ministers had their positions inherited from their parents, similar to the emperor. King Tüsong tried to wrest control of this area from

11760-512: The nomads of Amdo revolted. Some areas were reported virtually empty of men: They either had been killed or imprisoned or had fled. The largest monastery in Amdo was forced to close. Of its three thousand monks, two thousand were arrested. In July 1958 as the revolutionary fervor of the Great Leap Forward swept across the People's Republic of China, Zeku County in the Amdo region of cultural Tibet erupted in violence against efforts by

11880-468: The north to Chu-mig brgyad-cu rtsa-gnyis in the south. Ladakh , including Lahaul and Spiti , was part of sGob-ba. The inner region is said to be sTag-gzig (Tazig) [often identified with Bactria ], and the middle rGya-mkhar bar-chod, a place not yet identified." While it is not certain whether Zhangzhung was really so large, it was an independent kingdom and covered the whole of what is today's Western Tibet, Ladakh and Gilgit. The capital city of Zhangzhung

12000-427: The rare military intervention. This existed as a " diarchic structure" under the Yuan emperor, with power primarily in favor of the Mongols. Mongolian prince Khuden gained temporal power in Tibet in the 1240s and sponsored Sakya Pandita , whose seat became the capital of Tibet. Drogön Chögyal Phagpa , Sakya Pandita's nephew became Imperial Preceptor of Kublai Khan , founder of the Yuan dynasty. Yuan control over

12120-517: The region and environment Amdo Tibetans live in, they are either nomads (Drog pa) or farmers (Sheng pa). The economy of Amdo of has been constant throughout history and has changed little in the modern time. A typical family has two homes or bases: one for when they move up into the mountains with their animals in the summer for better grazing, and another down in the valleys where they weather harsh winters and grow fodder for their livestock in small agricultural fields. The families of some villages may make

12240-582: The region ended with the Ming overthrow of the Yuan and Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen 's revolt against the Mongols. Following the uprising, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen founded the Phagmodrupa dynasty , and sought to reduce Yuan influences over Tibetan culture and politics. Between 1346 and 1354, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen toppled the Sakya and founded the Phagmodrupa dynasty. The following 80 years saw

12360-498: The rest of Amdo was gradually assimilated into the Kuomintang Chinese provincial system, with the major portion of it becoming nominally part of Qinghai province and a smaller portion becoming part of Gansu province. Due to the lack of a Chinese administrative presence in the region, however, most of the communities of the rural areas of Amdo and Kham remained under their own local, Tibetan lay and monastic leaders into

12480-510: The same name (pronounced locally Jangshung ) is spoken by 2,000 people in the Sutlej Valley of Himachal Pradesh who claim to be descendants of the Zhangzhung. Bonpo tradition claims that Bon was founded by a Buddha named Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche , to whom are ascribed teachings similar in scope to those ascribed to the historical Gautama Buddha . Bonpos claim that Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche lived some 18,000 years ago, and visited Tibet from

12600-543: The same time, the Qing took steps to counterbalance the power of the aristocracy by adding officials recruited from the clergy to key posts. For several decades, peace reigned in Tibet, but in 1792, the Qing Qianlong Emperor sent a large Chinese army into Tibet to push the invading Nepalese out. This prompted yet another Qing reorganization of the Tibetan government, this time through a written plan called

12720-468: The supposedly much later Hindu teaching owes its origin – at least indirectly – to Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche. Tibet Tibet ( / t ɪ ˈ b ɛ t / ; Tibetan : བོད , Lhasa dialect : [pʰøːʔ˨˧˩] Böd ; Chinese : 藏区 ; pinyin : Zàngqū ), or Greater Tibet , is a region in the western part of East Asia , covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about 2,500,000 km (970,000 sq mi). It

12840-409: The territory or internal administration of Tibet. In 1910, the Qing government sent a military expedition of its own under Zhao Erfeng to establish direct Manchu-Chinese rule and, in an imperial edict, deposed the Dalai Lama, who fled to British India. Zhao Erfeng defeated the Tibetan military conclusively and expelled the Dalai Lama's forces from the province. His actions were unpopular, and there

12960-563: The territory. On December 20, 1941, Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-Shek noted in his diary that Tibet would be among the territories which he would demand as restitution for China following the conclusion of World War II. Emerging with control over most of mainland China after the Chinese Civil War , the People's Republic of China annexed Tibet in 1950 and negotiated the Seventeen Point Agreement with

13080-467: The time of Genghis Khan , but particularly in a series of settlement waves during the Ming period. Over the centuries, most of the Amdo Mongols have become highly Tibetanised and, superficially at least, it is now difficult to discern their original non-Tibetan ethnicity. There are many dialects of the Tibetan language spoken in Amdo due to the geographical isolation of many groups. Written Tibetan

13200-672: The vicinities of Lake Mapam Yumco in Western Tibet, near Mount Kailash . The mountain is a holy pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Tibetans. The Hindus consider the mountain to be the abode of Lord Shiva . The Tibetan name for Mount Kailash is Khang Rinpoche. Tibet has numerous high-altitude lakes referred to in Tibetan as tso or co . These include Qinghai Lake , Lake Manasarovar , Namtso , Pangong Tso , Yamdrok Lake , Siling Co , Lhamo La-tso , Lumajangdong Co , Lake Puma Yumco , Lake Paiku , Como Chamling , Lake Rakshastal , Dagze Co and Dong Co . The Qinghai Lake (Koko Nor)

13320-433: The western and southern parts of Amdo, which are now administered as various Tibetan, Tibetan-Qiang, or Mongol-Tibetan autonomous prefectures. The Han Chinese are majority in the northern part (Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) and eastern part ( Xining city and Haidong city) of Qinghai province. While Xining city and Haidong city are geographically small compared to the rest of Qinghai province, this area has

13440-592: Was abolished after the failure of the 1959 Tibetan uprising . Today, China governs western and central Tibet as the Tibet Autonomous Region while the eastern areas are now mostly autonomous prefectures within Sichuan, Qinghai and other neighbouring provinces. The Tibetan independence movement is principally led by the Tibetan diaspora . Human rights groups have accused the Chinese government of abuses of human rights in Tibet , including torture , arbitrary arrests, and religious repression, with

13560-405: Was administered by a series of local Tibetan rulers who were associated with the government located in Ü-Tsang through monastery systems, and Dalai Lama's Ganden Podrang has not directly governed Amdo since that time. Local Tibetan rulers were often in some kind of alliance with or under the titular authority of a larger, more powerful non-Tibetan regime such as the Mongols and the Qing. From 1917

13680-613: Was administered by an imperial viceroy . Portions of the country were placed under Chinese law while the Tibetans enjoyed almost complete independence, ruled by Tibetan chiefs that held grants or commissions from the Imperial Government. In 1906, the 13th Dalai Lama while touring the country, was enticed by a procession of a thousand lamas , to stay at the temple at Kumbum . He spent a year resting and learning among other things Sanskrit and poetry. In 1912, Qing Dynasty collapsed and relative independence followed with

13800-415: Was called Khyunglung ( Wylie : Khyunglung Ngülkhar or Wylie : Khyung-lung dngul-mkhar ), the "Silver Palace of Garuda ", southwest of Mount Kailash (Mount Ti-se), which is identified with palaces found in the upper Sutlej Valley . According to Rolf Alfred Stein , author of Tibetan Civilization , the area of Shang Shung was not historically a part of Tibet and was a distinctly foreign territory to

13920-477: Was much animosity against him for his mistreatment of civilians and disregard for local culture. After the Xinhai Revolution (1911–1912) toppled the Qing dynasty and the last Qing troops were escorted out of Tibet, the new Republic of China apologized for the actions of the Qing and offered to restore the Dalai Lama's title. The Dalai Lama refused any Chinese title and declared himself ruler of an independent Tibet . In 1913, Tibet and Outer Mongolia concluded

14040-715: Was no longer mentioned in the dynastic history of the Mongols. Although the following Ming Dynasty nominally maintained the Mongol divisions of Tibet with some sub-division, its power is weaker and influenced Amdo mostly at their borders. The Mongols again seized political control in Amdo areas from the middle of the 16th century. However, the Ming Dynasty continued to retain control in Hezhou and Xining wei. Upper (Kokonor) Mongols from northern Xinjiang and Khalkha came there in 16th and 17th centuries. Power struggles among various Mongol factions in Tibet and Amdo led to

14160-603: Was not the last Labrang saw of General Ma. The Muslim forces looted and ravaged the monastery again. In 1928, the Ma Clique formed an alliance with the Kuomintang . In the 1930s, the Muslim warlord Ma Bufang , the son of Ma Qi, seized the northeast corner of Amdo in the name of Chiang Kai-shek 's weak central government, effectively incorporating it into the Chinese province of Qinghai. From that point until 1949, much of

14280-557: Was paid and then he escorted the young boy to Tibet. In May 1949, Ma Bufang was appointed Military Governor of Northwest China, making him the highest-ranked administrator of the Amdo region. However, by August 1949, the advancing People's Liberation Army had annihilated Ma's army, though residual forces took several years to defeat. By 1949, advance units of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (the PLA) had taken much of Amdo from

14400-502: Was reported that, as a matter of convention, the chairman had almost always been an ethnic Tibetan, while the party secretary had always been ethnically non-Tibetan. All of modern China, including Tibet, is considered a part of East Asia . Historically, some European sources also considered parts of Tibet to lie in Central Asia . Tibet is west of the Central China plain . In China, Tibet is regarded as part of 西部 ( Xībù ),

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