Tibet is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi). 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 home to considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui people settlers. 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 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) above sea level.
While the Tibetan plateau has been inhabited since pre-historic times, most of Tibet's history went unrecorded until the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism around the 6th century. Tibetan texts refer to the kingdom of Zhangzhung as the precursor of later Tibetan kingdoms and the originators of the Bon religion. While mythical accounts of early rulers of the Yarlung Dynasty exist, historical accounts begin with the introduction of Buddhism from India in the 6th century and the appearance of envoys from the unified Tibetan Empire in the 7th century. Following the dissolution of the empire and a period of fragmentation in the 9th-10th centuries, a Buddhist revival in the 10th-12th centuries saw the development of three of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the others being U-Tsang in the west and 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 Tibetan independence movement is the political movement advocating for the separation and independence of Tibet from the People's Republic of China. It is principally led by the Tibetan diaspora in countries like India and the United States, and by celebrities and Tibetan Buddhists in the United States, India and Europe. The movement is no longer supported by the 14th Dalai Lama, who although having advocated it from 1961 to the late 1970s, proposed a sort of high-level autonomy in a speech in Strasbourg in 1988, and has since then restricted his position to either autonomy for the Tibetan people in the Tibet Autonomous Region within China, or extending the area of the autonomy to include parts of neighboring Chinese provinces inhabited by Tibetans. Additionally in 2017, the Dalai Lama asserted that Tibetans wanted to stay with China, and that they want more development from China.
Kham is one of the three traditional provinces of Tibet, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas, and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham presently covers a land area distributed between five regions in China, most of it in Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces.
The Tibetan sovereignty debate refers to two political debates. The first political debate is about whether or not the various territories which are within the People's Republic of China (PRC) that are claimed as political Tibet should separate themselves from China and become a new sovereign state. Many of the points in this political debate rest on the points which are within the second political debate, about whether Tibet was independent or subordinate to China during certain periods of its recent history.
Zhao Erfeng (1845–1911), courtesy name Jihe, was a late Qing Dynasty official and Han Chinese bannerman, who belonged to the Plain Blue Banner. He was an assistant amban in Tibet at Chamdo in Kham. He was appointed in March, 1908 under Lien Yu, the main amban in Lhasa. Formerly Director-General of the Sichuan-Hubei Railway and acting viceroy of Sichuan province, Zhao was the much-maligned Chinese general of the late imperial era who led military campaigns throughout Kham and eventually reaching Lhasa in 1910, earning himself the nickname "the Butcher of Kham" and "Zhao the Butcher".
The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, formerly called Central University for Tibetan Studies (CUTS), is a Deemed University founded in Sarnath, Varanasi, India, in 1967, as an autonomous organisation under Union Ministry of Culture. The CIHTS was founded by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru in consultation with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, with the aim of educating Tibetan youths in exile and Himalayan border students as well as with the aim of retranslating into Sanskrit and translating into Hindi and other modern Indian languages lost Indo-Buddhist Sanskrit texts that now exist only in Tibetan.
The 1959 Tibetan uprising began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. The initial uprising occurred amid general Chinese-Tibetan tensions and in a context of confusion, as Tibetan protestors feared that the Chinese government might arrest the 14th Dalai Lama. The protests were also fuelled by anti-Chinese sentiment and separatism. At first, the uprising consisted of mostly peaceful protests, but clashes quickly erupted and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) eventually used force to put down the protestors, some of whom had captured arms. The last stages of the uprising included heavy fighting, with high civilian and military losses. The 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa, while the city was fully retaken by Chinese security forces on 23 March 1959. Thousands were killed during the 1959 uprising, although the exact number is disputed.
The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) was a ministry-level commission of the Executive Yuan in the Republic of China. It was disbanded on September 15, 2017.
Tibet came under the control of People's Republic of China (PRC) after the Government of Tibet accepted the Seventeen Point Agreement under Chinese pressure in October 1951. This occurred after attempts by the Tibetan Government to gain international recognition, efforts to modernize its military, negotiations between the Government of Tibet and the PRC, and a military conflict in the Chamdo area of western Kham in October 1950. The series of events came to be called the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" by the Chinese government, and the "Chinese invasion of Tibet" by the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan diaspora.
Batang County is a county located in western Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China. Government address: Xiaqiong Town, Batang County, Ganzi, Sichuan 627650. Area code: 0836. The main administrative centre is known as Batang Town or Xiaqiong Town.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Tibet:
Tibet was a de facto independent state between the collapse of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1912 and the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1951.
The Batang uprising was an uprising by the Khampas of Kham against the assertion of authority by Qing China.
Pandatsang Rapga was a Khamba revolutionary during the first half of the 20th century in Tibet. He was pro-Kuomintang and pro-Republic of China, anti-feudal, anti-communist. He believed in overthrowing the Dalai Lama's feudal regime and driving British imperialism out of Tibet, and acted on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek in countering the Dalai Lama. He was later involved in rebelling against communist rule.
The Tibetan Army was the military force of Tibet after its de facto independence in 1912 until the 1950s. As a ground army modernised with the assistance of British training and equipment, it served as the de facto armed forces of the Tibetan government.
Hsu Cheng-kuang is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Minister of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) of the Executive Yuan in 2000–2002.
The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang was the Tibetan government that was established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642. Lhasa became the capital of Tibet early in this period, with all temporal power having been conferred to the 5th Dalai Lama by the Oirat lord Güshi Khan in Shigatse. The Ganden Phodrang accepted the Qing emperor as overlord in the 17th century, and the Qing became increasingly active in governing Tibet starting in the early 18th century. After the fall of the Qing empire in 1912, the Ganden Phodrang government lasted until the 1950s, when Tibet was incorporated into the People's Republic of China (PRC). During most of the time from the early Qing period until the end of Ganden Phodrang rule, a governing council known as the Kashag was the highest authority in the Ganden Phodrang administration.
Tibet under Qing rule refers to the Qing dynasty's relationship with Tibet from 1720 to 1912. During this period, Qing China regarded Tibet as a vassal state. Tibet considered itself an independent nation with only a "priest and patron" relationship with the Qing Dynasty. Scholars such as Melvyn Goldstein have considered Tibet to be a Qing protectorate.
