Tibet is a region in East Asia covering much of the Tibetan Plateau spanning about 2.5 million km2. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa, and Lhoba peoples and 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 (16,000 ft). Located in the Himalayas, the highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level.
The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) or Xizang Autonomous Region, called Tibet or Xizang for short, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü-Tsang and Kham.
Qinghai is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. As one of the largest province-level administrative divisions of China by area, the province is ranked fourth largest in area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xining.
The Tibetan people are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.5 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, as well as in Eastern Pakistan, Northern India, Nepal and Bhutan.
The Salar people are a Turkic ethnic minority of China who largely speak the Salar language, an Oghuz language.
Xining is the capital of Qinghai province in western China, and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. It has 2,208,708 inhabitants at the 2010 census of whom 1,198,304 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the others being U-Tsang in the west, Kham in the east. Ngari in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Amdo is also the birthplace of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous with China's present-day Qinghai province, but also includes small portions of Sichuan and Gansu provinces.
The Qinghai–Tibet railway or Qingzang railway, is a high-elevation railway that connects Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen, ; was the tenth Panchen Lama, officially the 10th Panchen Erdeni, of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. According to Tibetan Buddhism, Panchen Lamas are living emanations of the buddha Amitaba. He was often referred to simply as Choekyi Gyaltsen.
Bright Sheng is a Chinese-American composer, pianist, music teacher and conductor born on December 6, 1955 in Shanghai, China. Before moving to the United States in 1982, he studied the piano at the age of four from his mother. He graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory and went on to continue his education at Queens College and Columbia University. In 1995, he became a part of the faculty at the University of Michigan. Sheng has since then earned many honors for his music and compositions.
Salar is a Turkic language spoken by the Salar people, who mainly live in the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu in China; some also live in Ili, Xinjiang. It is a primary branch and an eastern outlier of the Oghuz branch of Turkic, the other Oghuz languages being spoken mostly in West-Central Asia. The Salar number about 105,000 people, about 70,000 (2002) speak the Salar language; under 20,000 monolinguals.
The Kazakh exodus from Xinjiang occurred in waves during the 1950s and 1960s after the victory of the Communist Party of China in Xinjiang.
Ma Bufang (1903 – 31 July 1975) (traditional Chinese: 馬步芳; simplified Chinese: 马步芳; pinyin: Mǎ Bùfāng; Wade–Giles: Ma3 Pu4-fang1, Xiao'erjing: ما بوفنگ) was a prominent Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the province of Qinghai. His rank was Lieutenant-general.
Han Hong, is a Chinese singer and songwriter of mixed Tibetan and Han ethnicity. Like her mother, a Tibetan singer, Han Hong is able to shift quite easily from piercing high pitches to soft low tones. Han Hong is one of the most popular Chinese female musicians who specializes in a variety of Chinese folk music. Most of Han's work reflect the Tibetan culture, but Han also use elements of Jazz, R-n-B, Rock-n-Roll and Latin music in her music work.
The history of Tibet from 1950 to the present includes the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, and the Battle of Chamdo. Before then, Tibet had been a "de-facto" independent state/province under the governance of the Republic of China. In 1951, Tibetan representatives in Beijing signed the Seventeen-point Agreement under duress, which affirmed China's sovereignty over Tibet while it simultaneously provided for an autonomous administration led by Tibet's spiritual leader, and then-political leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when Tibetans arose to prevent his possible assassination, the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet to northern India where he established the Central Tibetan Administration, which rescinded the Seventeen-point Agreement. The majority of Tibet's land mass, including all of U-Tsang and areas of Kham and Amdo, was officially established in 1965 as Tibet Autonomous Region, within China.
Kazakhs are a Turkic ethnic group and are among 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.
Jamyang Kyi is a noted Tibetan singer, feminist and writer, journalist, and a prominent television broadcaster. She was born in 1965 in Amdo, northeastern region of Tibet.
Sinicization of Tibet is a phrase which is used by critics of Chinese rule in Tibet in reference to the programs and laws which force "cultural unity" in Tibetan areas of China, including the Tibet Autonomous Region and surrounding Tibetan-designated autonomous areas. The efforts are untaken by China in order to remake Tibetan culture into mainstream Chinese culture. Another term for sinicization is cultural cleansing, used by the 14th Dalai Lama and by the Central Tibetan Administration to describe the results of China's sinicization programs and laws in Tibet.
The Kuomintang Islamic insurgency refers to a continuation of the Chinese Civil War by Chinese Muslim nationalist Kuomintang Republic of China Army forces in Northwest China, in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang, and another insurgency in Yunnan.
Vajara is Tibet's oldest and most famous rock and roll band. Founded in 1999 by six Tibetan people, the band creates modern music with elements from Tibetan opera, blues, and rap. Tenzin Dawa, the band's founder, was influenced by both Chinese rock acts such as Cui Jian and American rock bands like Nirvana but desired to forge a style separate from either genre. Vajara's songs are sung in both Tibetan and Chinese, with lyrical themes that address social issues such as greed and environmentalism. The band's main performing venue is a musical bar in Tibet's provincial capital of Lhasa.
