Everything about Tibet Autonomous Region totally explained
Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), also called
Xizang Autonomous Region (
Tibetan: བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས་;
Wylie:
Bod-rang-skyong-ljongs; ), is a
province-level
autonomous region of the
People's Republic of China (PRC).
Within the People's Republic of China,
Tibet is identified with the Autonomous Region, which includes about half of
historical Tibet, including the traditional provinces of
Ü-Tsang and
Kham (western half). Its borders coincide roughly with the actual zone of control of the government of Tibet before 1959. Tibet is the second-largest province of China by area (spanning over ) after
Xinjiang.
Unlike other autonomous regions, the vast majority of inhabitants are of the local ethnicity. As a result, there's debate surrounding the extent of actual autonomy of the region. The Chinese government argues that Tibet has ample autonomy, as guaranteed under Articles 112-122 of the
Constitution of the People's Republic of China as well as the
Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy of the People's Republic of China, while many human rights organizations around the world accuse the Chinese government of persecuting and oppressing the local population.
Tibet is under the administration of the
People's Republic of China. The
Central Tibetan Administration, commonly referred to as the
Tibetan Government in Exile and headed by the
Dalai Lama considers this situation an illegitimate military occupation and holds that Tibet is a distinct
sovereign nation with a long history of independence, though the Dalai Lama currently doesn't seek full independence for Tibet, but would accept an autonomous status similar to that now held by
Hong Kong.
History
Before 1959, the present extent of the Tibet Autonomous Region (comprising
Ü-Tsang and western
Kham) was governed by the government of Tibet headed by the
Dalai Lama. Other parts of historic Tibet (eastern
Kham and
Amdo) were not under the administration of the Tibetan government during the twentieth century; today they're distributed among the provinces of
Qinghai,
Gansu,
Sichuan and
Yunnan.
Following
Soviet practice, there's a convention that the governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region is an
ethnic Tibetan, while the general secretary of the local Communist Party committee is an outsider, usually
Han Chinese. Notable general secretaries of the local party committee include
Hu Jintao, who served in the 1980s.
In 1950, the
Chinese Army claimed the Tibetan area of
Chamdo, crushing minimal resistance. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives, under Chinese military pressure, signed a
seventeen-point agreement with the Chinese
Central People's Government affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.
Western Government secret intervention into Tibet began before the 1959
CIA supported insurrection. British
MI6 agent Sidney Wignall, in his recent autobiography,, reveals that he travelled to Tibet with John Harrop in 1955 posing as mountaineers. Captured by the Chinese authority, Wignell recalled that he was surprised to find two CIA agents were already under Chinese detention. Tibetan exiles trained in a CIA camp in Colorado clashed with Chinese forces in 1959 during the celebration of the
Tibetan New Year, after which the
14th Dalai Lama, with CIA help, went into political exile in India. After 1959, the CIA trained Tibetan guerrillas and provided funds and weapons for the fight against China. However, the effort stopped when
Richard Nixon decided to seek rapprochement with
China in the early 1970s.
Kenneth Conboy and
James Morrison, in The CIA's Secret War in Tibet , reveal how the CIA encouraged Tibet's revolt against China - and eventually came to control its fledgling resistance movement. The
New York Times reported on October 2, 1998 that the Dalai Lama's administration acknowledged that it received $1.7 million a year in the 1960s from the CIA, but denied reports that the Tibetan leader benefited personally from an annual subsidy of $180,000. The money allocated for the resistance movement was spent on training volunteers and paying for guerrilla operations against the Chinese, the Tibetan government-in-exile said.
Geography
The Tibet Autonomous Region is located on the
Tibetan Plateau, the highest region on
Earth. In northern Tibet elevations reach an average of over 4,572 meters. Most of the
Himalaya mountain range lies within Xizang;
Mount Everest lies on Xizang's border with
Nepal.
Xinjiang,
Qinghai and
Sichuan lie to the north and east of the region; Indian states of
Jammu and Kashmir and
Himachal Pradesh to the west; and
Yunnan,
Nepal,
Bhutan, and the Indian states of
Uttarakhand,
Sikkim, and
Arunachal Pradesh to the south. Tibet also shares a short southeastern border with the
PRC province of
Yunnan.
Government
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
Communist Party of China. As a matter of convention, the Chairman has almost always been an ethnic Tibetan, while the party secretary has almost always been a non-Tibetan. The current Chairman is
Qiangba Puncog, who is a native of
Qamdo Prefecture. The current party secretary is
Zhang Qingli, who has previously been the party secretary of
Tai'an and
Lanzhou, and commander of the
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Administrative divisions
Tibet Autonomous Region is divided into one
prefecture-level city and six
prefectures.
The prefecture-level city:
Image:Lhasa.png|Lhasa
Image:Nagqu.png|Nagqu Prefecture
Image:Nyinchi.png|Nyingchi Prefecture
Image:Ngari.png|Ngari Prefecture
Image:Qamdo.png|Qamdo Prefecture
Image:Shannan.png|Shannan Prefecture
Image:Xigaze.png|Xigazê Prefecture
These in turn are subdivided into a total of seventy-one
counties, one
district (
Chengguan District, Lhasa) and one
county-level city (
Xigazê).
Demographics
The Tibet Autonomous Region has the lowest
population density among China's province-level administrative regions, mostly due to its mountainous and harsh geographical features.
As of 2000, 92.8% of the population are ethnic
Tibetans, who mainly adhere to
Tibetan Buddhism and
Bön.
Han Chinese, comprise 6.1% of the population
(External Link
).
Smaller tribal groups such as the
Monpa and
Lhoba, who follow a combination of
Tibetan Buddhism and spirit worship, are found mainly in the southeastern parts of the region.
Towns and villages in Tibet
Economy
The Tibetans traditionally depended upon agriculture for survival. Since the 1980s, however, other jobs such as taxi-driving and hotel retail work have become available in the wake of
Chinese economic reform. In 2006, Tibet's nominal
GDP topped 29 billion yuan (US$3.8 billion), more than double the 11.78 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) in 2000. In the past five years, Tibet's annual GDP growth has averaged 12%.
While traditional agricultural work and animal husbandry continue to lead the area's economy, in 2005 the
tertiary sector contributed more than half its GDP growth, the first time it has surpassed the area's primary industry. The re-opening of the
Nathu La pass (on southern Tibet's border with India) should facilitate Sino-Indian border trade and boost Tibet's economy.
In 2005, the Chinese news media reported that the
per capita disposable incomes of urban and rural residents in Tibet averaged 8,411 yuan (US$1,051) and 2,075 yuan (US$259) respectively. These figures were an increase of 30.4% and 55.9% over those of 2000.
The
China Western Development policy has recently been adopted by central government to boost economic development in western China, including the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Tourism
Tourists were first permitted to visit the TAR in the 1980s. While the main attraction is the
Potala Palace in
Lhasa, there are many other popular tourist destinations including
Jokhang Temple,
Namtso Lake, and
Tashilhunpo Monastery.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tibet Autonomous Region'.
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