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American Heritage Dictionary:
Xi·zang |
or Ti·bet (tə-bĕt')|
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Tibet |
For more information on Tibet, visit Britannica.com.
Oxford Companion to the Photograph:
Tibet |
Western fascination with the remote and inhospitable landscape of Tibet can be traced back to the writings of Herodotus. Well before it could be mapped or visually documented, the country occupied a key position in the Western imagination as a source of rare commodities such as gold and as the homeland of esoteric religious practices. By the 18th century a handful of Europeans had managed to assail the Himalayan peaks and produce accounts of their experiences, some of them illustrated. Prince Henri d'Orléans was probably the first to photograph the country, en route to Indo- China in 1889-90. As in so many other regions during this period, the photographer began to eclipse the draughtsman in creating a visual record of spaces and places. However, the camera could still not easily encompass the immense plains of the Tibetan plateau or the towering peaks of the Himalayas, so that travellers to Tibet in the next century concentrated on its inhabitants and their built environment.
The 1903-4 Younghusband Expedition to Tibet began the process by which a particularly British way of seeing Tibet emerged. Younghusband battled his way to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and several members of his force carried cameras. The surgeon and ‘Antiquarian to the Force’, Lieutenant-Colonel L. A. Waddell, took hundreds of photographs and published some of them in his book Lhasa and its Mysteries (1905). A pattern was established by which the construction of ideas about Tibet was determined by political and aesthetic criteria and communicated to the British public through publications, lantern shows, and (later) films. In the early 20th century, British scholar-officials such as Waddell and his successors Charles Bell, Basil Gould, and Hugh Richardson saw photography as crucial to their attempts to define Tibet as an independent nation with distinctive religio-cultural traditions but a need for British protection. The images they produced or commissioned also responded to the demands of a public keenly interested in Tibetan Buddhism. British photographs made in Tibet between 1903 and 1947 thus present us with evidence of the evolution of present-day ‘Shangri-La-ist’ constructions of Tibet. They allow us to trace the development of key Western tropes (such as particular ways of viewing the Dalai Lama's palace—the Potala) and the invention of visual traditions including the repeated photo- documentation of religious ceremonies such as the Palden Lhamo procession and monastic masked dance, described by many British commentators as ‘Devil Dances’. The density of the photographic record for certain subjects suggests that British photography of Tibet became embedded in colonial practices, with officers literally standing in their forebears' footsteps to rerecord the same subjects. Their photographic engagement with Tibet stimulated the British public's imagination and created a demand for more of the same. Having learned to ‘see’ Tibet through the aesthetic and ideological framing devices adopted by a powerful British elite, many contemporary views (and viewers) of Tibet unwittingly absorbed the influence of this colonial gaze.
— Clare Harris
Bibliography
Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism:
Tibet |
Although Tibet is geographically closer to India, Buddhism reached that country many centuries after its arrival in east Asia. This is due to a combination of geographical and economic reasons. Tibet is the highest country in the world located on a vast plateau occupying over 1.5 million square miles surrounded by high mountains. For a country the size of western Europe, it has a tiny population, estimated at some 6 million in the present century. Isolated between the economically and culturally advanced civilizations of India and China, Tibet had few readily accessible natural resources and only a subsistence economy, so there were few trade missions or caravans for monks to attach themselves to. It was thus not until the 7th century ce that Buddhism made an appearance. Traditional chronicles speak of three ‘diffusions’ of Buddhism, the first of which begins with Songtsen Gampo (Tibetan, Srong bstan sgam po, ca. 618-50), the first of the three ‘religious kings’. This king had a Nepalese and a Chinese wife, both of whom brought Buddhist artefacts with them to Tibet. The second ‘religious king’ was Trisong Detsen (Tibetan, Khri srong lde brtsan), who invited the scholar- monk Śāntarakṣita from India to promulgate Buddhist teachings. The latter made little progress, and withdrew in favour of Padmasambhava, a tantric guru and popular Tibetan folk hero. It is said that through his magical powers Padmasambhava was able to overcome the demons who were obstructing Buddhism's progress in Tibet. These ‘demons’ can, perhaps, be identified with practitioners of the indigenous Bön religion, a form of central Asian shamanism which imprinted something of its distinctive character, including an interest in rites, rituals, and magical practices surrounding death, on Buddhism. With the ‘demons’ subdued and the way clear, Śāntarakṣita returned to Tibet, and with Padmasambhava co-founded the first monastery at Samyé (bsam yas) c.767 ce. Another important missionary to arrive in this period was Kamalaśīla, who played a decisive role in ensuring that Tibetan Buddhism developed along Indian rather than Chinese lines. The third ‘religious king’, Relpa Chen (Tibetan, Ral pa can, r. 815-36), continued the construction of temples and monasteries and as a result of royal patronage the ranks of the Saṃgha began to swell. This led to a backlash against Buddhism and Relpa Chen was assassinated in 836 and succeeded by Lang Darma (Tibetan, glang dar ma), a king less favourably disposed to Buddhism, who was himself subsequently assassinated by a Buddhist monk. The arrival of Atiśa (982-1054) from India in 1042 marks the start of the second diffusion. Atiśa laid emphasis on the conventional monastic curriculum, but his disciples also included more colourful individuals who became known as Mahāsiddhas or ‘great adepts’. Chief among these tantric gurus are Marpa (1012-97), Milarepa (Tibetan, Mi la ras pa, 1040-1123), and Gampopa (Tibetan, sgam po pa, 1079-1153). Gampopa established this lineage as a monastic order known as the Kagyüpa (Tibetan, bka' brygud pa). Two further orders were established during the high medieval period, the Sakyapa (Tibetan, Sa skya pa) and the Gelukpa (Tibetan, dge lugs pa). The latter, a reform movement founded by Tsongkhapa (Tibetan, Tsong kha pa, 1357-1419), went on to become the most influential in both the spiritual and temporal spheres, effectively ruling Tibet from the 17th century through the office of the Dalai Lama. Together with the Nyingma pa (Tibetan, rnying ma pa), who trace their origins to Padmasambhava, these constitute the four main orders of Tibetan Buddhism.
After many centuries of relative isolation, the 20th century was turbulent. The country was invaded by China in 1959, leading the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in Dharamsala in India. The Communist Chinese authorities have suppressed Buddhism and persecuted monks and nuns in an effort to purge the country of ‘superstition’ and what it regards as a medieval feudal social system. According to Tibetan authorities, 1.2 million people were killed during the Chinese invasion and its aftermath, and some 150,000 have since sought refugee status in India and the West to escape the ongoing repression. Large tracts of Tibetan territory have been annexed, and the reduced political entity that remains, called by the Chinese the ‘Tibetan Autonomous Region’, has a population of only 2 million. Although the excesses of the Cultural Revolution have now subsided, Buddhism is still strictly controlled. Most of the 6,000 monasteries that existed in Tibet were destroyed. The few that have been restored are today inhabited by only a handful of monks instead of the thousands they were home to formerly.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Tibet |
Land and People
Almost completely surrounded by mountain ranges (including the Himalayas in the south and the Kunlun in the north), Tibet is largely a plateau averaging c.16,000 ft (4,880 m) in height. Many of the mightiest rivers of E Asia, especially the Chang (Yangtze), the Mekong, and the Thanlwin, rise in Tibet; the most important is the navigable Yarlung Zangbo (the Brahmaputra), which follows an easterly course through S Tibet. North of the Yarlung Zangbo are many salt lakes, the largest being Nam Co (Tengri Nor) in the east.
The indigenous inhabitants are of Mongolian stock and speak a Tibeto-Burman language. There are also substantial numbers of Han and other Chinese, especially in E Tibet and in urban areas; the number of non-Tibetans has increased significantly since 1990. Before the unsuccessful revolt of 1959 (see History), many city dwellers were Tibetan Buddhist monks, who may have comprised as much as one sixth of the country's male population. The chief figures of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama (or Tashi Lama, for the lamastery at Tashi Lumpo), were at least the nominal heads of the Tibetan government. In general, the former administration was equally divided between lamas and the feudal aristocracy.
Economy
Tibet is a land of scant rainfall and a short growing season, and the only extensive agricultural region is the Yarlung Zangbo valley, where barley, wheat, potatoes, millet, and turnips are grown. In this valley as well are nearly all the large cities, including Lhasa, Xigazê (Shigatse), and Gyangzê (Gyangtse). Most other areas of Tibet are suited only for grazing; yaks, which can withstand the intense cold, are the principal domestic animals, and there are also large herds of goats and sheep. Much of the population is engaged in a pastoral life, but the advances made by irrigation and the growing of forage crops is decreasing the amount of nomadism, and Chinese attempts to spur economic development have also increased the urban population. In addition to vast salt reserves, Tibet has large deposits of gold, copper, and radioactive ores.
Traditionally, goods for trade, particularly foreign trade, were carried by pack trains (yaks, mules, and horses) across the windswept plateau and over difficult mountain passes. In exchange for hides, wool, and salt there were imports of tea and silk from China and of manufactured goods from India. Motor roads now connect Lhasa with Qamdo (Chamdo) in E Tibet and with Xigazê and Gyangzê in the Yarlung Zangbo area and link Gar (Gartok) in W Tibet to the northern regions. A major highway runs from Tibet to Chengdu, in Sichuan prov., providing a link to the great Chinese cities in the east; Tibet is also connected by highway with Xinjiang and Qinghai in W China. A rail link to Qinghai prov. was opened in 2006.
History
Early History
Evidence of human habitation dating between 12,000 and 11,000 years ago has been found in NW Tibet, and in S Tibet the Yarlung Zangbo valley was, over the centuries, the focus of ancient trade routes from India, China, and Central Asia. Tibet emerged from an obscure history to flourish in the 7th cent. A.D. as an independent kingdom with its capital at Lhasa. The Chinese first established relations with Tibet during the T'ang dynasty (618-906), and there were frequent wars of conquest. The Tibetan kingdom was associated with early Mahayana Buddhism, which the scholar and mystic Padmasambhava fashioned (8th cent.) into Tibetan Buddhism. Toward the end of the 12th cent. many Indian Buddhists, fleeing before the Muslim invasion, went to Tibet. In the 13th cent. Tibet fell under Mongol influence, which was to last until the 18th cent. In 1270, Kublai Khan, emperor of China, was converted to Buddhism by the abbot of the Sakya lamasery; the abbot returned to Tibet to found the Sakya dynasty (1270-1340) and to become the first lama to rule Tibet. In 1720, the Ch'ing dynasty replaced Mongol rule in Tibet. China thereafter claimed suzerainty, often merely nominal.
Foreign Contacts
During the 18th cent., British authorities in India attempted to establish relations with Lhasa, but the Gurkha invasion of 1788 and the subsequent Gurkha war (1792) with Tibet brought an abrupt end to the rapprochement. Jesuits and Capuchins had visited Tibet in the 17th and 18th cent., but throughout the 19th cent. Tibet maintained its traditional seclusion. Meanwhile, Ladakh, long part of Tibet, was lost to the rulers of Kashmir, and Sikkim was detached (1890) by Britain. In 1893, Britain succeeded in obtaining a trading post at Yadong, but continued Tibetan interference led to the military expedition (1904) of Sir Francis Younghusband to Lhasa, which enforced the granting of trade posts at Yadong, Gyangzê, and Gar.
Tibet and China
In 1906 and 1907, Britain recognized China's suzerainty over Tibet. However, the Tibetans were able, with the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty in China, to expel (1912) the Chinese in Tibet and reassert their independence. At a conference (1913-14) of British, Tibetans, and Chinese at Shimla, India, Tibet was tentatively confirmed under Chinese suzerainty and divided into an inner Tibet, to be incorporated into China, and an outer autonomous Tibet. The Shimla agreement was, however, never ratified by the Chinese, who continued to claim all of Tibet as a "special territory." After the death (1933) of the 13th Dalai Lama, Tibet gradually drifted back into the Chinese orbit. The 14th Dalai Lama, who was born in China, was installed in 1939-40 and assumed full powers (1950) after a ten-year regency.
The succession of the 10th Panchen Lama, with rival candidates supported by Tibet and China, was one of the excuses for the Chinese invasion (Oct., 1950) of Tibet. By a Tibetan-Chinese agreement (May, 1951), Tibet became a "national autonomous region" of China under the traditional rule of the Dalai Lama, but under the actual control of a Chinese Communist commission. The Communist government introduced far-reaching land reforms and sharply curtailed the power of the monastic orders. After 1956 scattered uprisings occurred throughout the country, but a full-scale revolt broke out in Mar., 1959, prompted in part by fears for the personal safety of the Dalai Lama. The Chinese suppressed the rebellion, but the Dalai Lama was able to escape to India, where he eventually established headquarters in exile.
The Panchen Lama, who had accepted Chinese sponsorship, acceded to the spiritual leadership of Tibet. The Chinese adopted brutal repressive measures, provoking charges from the Dalai Lama of genocide. Landholdings were seized, the lamaseries were virtually emptied, and thousands of monks were forced to find other work. The Panchen Lama was deposed in 1964 after making statements supporting the Dalai Lama; he was replaced by a secular Tibetan leader. In 1962, China launched attacks along the Indian-Tibetan border to consolidate territories it claimed had been wrongly given to India by the British McMahon Commission in 1914. Following a cease-fire, Chinese troops withdrew behind the disputed line in the east but continued to occupy part of Ladakh in Kashmir. Some border areas are still in dispute.
In 1965 the Tibetan Autonomous Region was formally established. The Cultural Revolution, with its antireligious orientation, was disastrous for highly religious Tibet. Religious practices were banned and over 4,000 monasteries were destroyed. Though the ban was lifted in 1976 and some Buddhist temples have again been in operation since the early 1980s, Tibetans continue to complain of widespread discrimination by the Chinese. Several protests in Tibet in the late 1980s and early 1990s were violently suppressed by the Communist government and martial law was imposed in 1989. Demonstrations against Chinese rule have nevertheless continued. Moreover, in recent years other countries have increasingly raised the issue of human-rights violations in Tibet, and have pressured the Chinese government to moderate their stance in that region. Religious tensions were again underscored in 1995 when China rejected the boy who was confirmed by the Dalai Lama as the new Panchen Lama and forced the selection of a different boy and in 2000 when the 14-year-old Karmapa lama fled Tibet for India. New protests and riots erupted in Tibet and among Tibetans in neighboring provinces in 2008.
Bibliography
See N. Barber, From the Land of Lost Content: The Dalai Lama's Fight for Tibet (1970); J. MacGregor, Tibet: A Chronicle of Exploration (1970); R. A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization (tr., rev. ed. 1972); D. Snellgrove and H. Richardson, A Cultural History of Tibet (1980); T. W. Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History (1984); M. C. Van Praag, The Status of Tibet: History, Rights, and Prospects in International Law (1986); M. C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-51 (1989); T. Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows (1999).
Region in southwestern China, bordered by Burma to the southeast; India, Bhutan, and Nepal to the south; India to the west; and Chinese provinces to the north and east. Located in the Himalayas.
Historical Background
Tibet is a country with ancient religious and mystical traditions that, over the last two centuries, have become the focus of occult legends. The peaceful accumulation of data on Tibet was abruptly altered following the Chinese communist invasion in October 1950, when Tibet lost its independent status. On May 23, 1951, Tibetan leaders were obliged to sign a Sino-Tibetan agreement for "the peaceful liberation of Tibet."
Tibetans had formerly been a separate people with a distinctive language, culture, and religion, but had been in an uneasy relationship with China since 1720, when the Manchus entered Tibet to help drive out Mongol invaders and used the situation to become overlords. Over the subsequent period, the acknowledgment of Chinese suzerainty was the price of Tibetan autonomy, but for practical purposes Tibet was an independent state.
The 1950 invasion was justified by the Chinese as necessary in order to destroy inequitable feudalism in Tibet and to bring progress, education, and social justice. In practice, this involved suppression of the Buddhist religion, destruction of monasteries and their libraries, and the public humiliation of priests. Tibet was a theocratic society and any reorganization of its governmental system would necessarily involve the destruction of the power held by the Buddhist religious functionaries.
In all fairness, it must be said that these and other reported violations of human rights were largely paralleled by similar excesses in China itself in the early period of the communist revolution and the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution. Since then, however, the age-old Buddhist religion of Tibet has been largely suppressed and related occult practices replaced by practical socialism and exploitation of Tibetan resources and territory.
Religion and Superstition
Buddhism came to Tibet from India in the eighth century
C.E. and it pushed aside the earlier polytheistic and magical religion of the Tibetan people. However, the price of the conquest was the integration of many of the old deities, beliefs, and occult practices into the unique form of Buddhism that emerged in the land. Also moving into Tibet from India was a form of Hindu tantra, with its emphasis upon the subtle energies of the body and ritualized sex. Strong superstitions, belief in ghosts, demons, and magic coexisted with deep mystical thought.
The apostle of Buddhism in Tibet was named Padmasambhava and entered the country in the 1740s. As Buddhism developed, it divided into various sects, the degree of acceptance of the local religion being an important differentiating factor. The four main groups are popularly distinguished by the color of the hats their followers wear. The older Red Caps or Ningmapas, for example, follow the Adi-Yoga or path of the Great Perfection, founded by the guru Padmasambhava, while the Yellow Cap sect or Gelugpas follow a Middle Way Buddhism; the Kargyütpas, or Followers of Successive Order (deriving from the great Tibetan saint Milarepa, died 1135, successor of the revered gurus Marpa, Tilopa, and Naropa) follow the way of Mahamudra or Great Symbol. As with the various sects of Hindu religious philosophy, with their many subtle emphases, the general overall philosophy of the four groups is the same.
By the fifteenth century a teaching had emerged in Tibet that the heads of all of the many monasteries were bodhisattvas, highly evolved beings who were refraining from entering Nirvana to assist other souls in their spiritual pilgrimage. The monastic rulers, or lamas, thus attained a unique role in Tibetan Buddhism as well as significant political power as temporal rulers.
The present spiritual leader of Tibet, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, who escaped to India in 1959, and the other lamas and their successors, are dedicated to keeping alive the spiritual traditions and the political aspirations to independence of the Tibetan people.
Like his predecessors, the Dalai Lama is claimed as a living incarnation of the Divine Spirit, and was discovered as such by traditional search and testing. When a Dalai Lama (or any lama for that matter) departs from life, priests traditionally conduct a search for his successor through signs and visions. Selected children are tested by their ability to recognize objects belonging to the former Dalai Lama. After identification, the child is brought to the holy city of Lhasa and initiated as a monk in the monastery of the Potala, which becomes a power center of the Divine Spirit, which issues forth from the Dalai Lama over the whole of Tibet. As Tibetan Buddhism has spread to the west and lamas have died in the west, the search for successors has also been conducted in the families of Western converts and several European children have been "identified" as reincarnated lamas.
The title "Dalai Lama" is from a Mongolian term meaning "Wide Ocean," and is not normally used by Tibetans among themselves, who prefer such terms as "Precious Protector" or "Precious Ruler," of Kundun (Presence), implying spiritual association. The first Dalai Lama was Tsong Ka-pa, born in Am-do in 1358. His disciples became the Yellow Hat sect, as distinct from the earlier priesthood of the Red Hats.
In addition to the regular monastic disciplines of complex prayer, meditation rites, and regular religious festivals, lamas traveling through Tibet were expected to act as oracles, fortune-tellers, and healers for the ordinary people. Prayer wheels with the mystic mantra "Om mani padme Hum" (Om, The Jewel in the Lotus) and rosaries were in use all over the country, and groups of prayer-flags fluttered around the villages. In the monasteries, tankas (complex symbolic mandala banners) became a focus for mystical meditation.
It is not difficult to understand why Lamaism should be permeated with demonology in view of the vast and terrifying grandeur of the Tibetan environment, in which the forces of nature appear to have the power of supernatural beings. Belief in magic was once universal.
The Dalai Lama came under attack in 1998 when he publicly announced that Dorje Shugden practices should no longer be performed by any sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Shugden has been regarded as a protector spirit of the Geluk sect, to which the Dalai Lama himself belongs. However, after studying ancient texts and consulting the state oracle, the Dalai Lama is convinced that Shugden is a hungry spirit and therefore incorrect to worship and regard as a protector for the Buddhist. Due to the Dalai Lama's opposing view, he is accused by some Buddhists for being a religious censor. Since the Tibetan culture and religion is thought to be near extinction, the Dalai Lama attempted to set a level of commonality between all sects of Buddhism. The great controversy that resulted from this attempted act of unification, may have also been the cause for the deaths of three monks in the Dalai Lama's inner circle.
Dissent within the Tibetan culture may be the result of the larger issues that still exist between Chinese and the Tibetan government-in-exile. The Chinese government seeks to control, and ultimately squelch, the Tibetan Buddhism religion. Ultimately the set-up of the religious hierarchy may become the demise of the religion itself. The Dalai Lama exists as the highest, top authority, while the Panchen Lama is the second in command, and the Karampa is the third in power. Presently the Panchen Lama, a boy of ten years, will be the one to choose the next Dalai Lama. However, with the aging Dalai Lama living in India, the Panchen Lama is still being held under Chinese supervision. This is a direct example of the Chinese wishing to control the Buddhist chain of command, and influence the continuity of the religion. The Chinese government conducted the search for this present Panchen Lama but the Dalai Lama announced their discovery publicly before ever having met him. The boy has never even been in Dharmsala, India. Thus, the boy has become a political pawn between the Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhism) and the Chinese government.
The Karampa, third in command, has been raised to heed the Chinese government as well. However, on December 28, 1999, he made his escape from Tibet to India to be united with the Dalai Lama. The two men met " 'as if a father was meeting his dear son after a long separation' ". The Dalai Lama reported his spirit as clear and strong saying after proper instruction he will be able to make great contributions. The struggle between Tibet and China continues and therefore the outcome of the survival of Tibetan Buddhism.
David-Neel's Psychic Sports
For centuries, Tibet was a forbidden territory to Westerners, and only a handful of Europeans succeeded in penetrating the country, usually in disguise. From 1912 on, an intrepid French-woman, Alexandra David-Neel, began a series of travels through Tibet over fourteen years. She acquired the rank of lama.
An Oriental scholar, David-Neel learned Sanskrit and Tibetan and studied the various forms of Buddhism and Lamaism. She became the first European woman to penetrate the holy city of Lhasa. Although skeptical regarding the supernatural, she gained firsthand experience of Tibetan ghosts and demons and saw the paranormal feats of mystics. In her book With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet (1931), she revealed how Tibetan mystics acquired the ability to live naked in zero temperatures by generating a protective body heat (tumo), how they learned to float in air and walk on water, and how they brought corpses back to life or created thoughtforms that had independent existence.
She described such feats as "psychic sports," acquired by special mind and body training. Amongst such feats was the lung-gom training of "inner breathing" and meditation, which enabled an individual to travel at high speed for days and nights without stopping, sometimes with the feet hardly touching the ground. David-Neel herself witnessed a lung-gom-pa, or swift traveler. She described the special training necessary for feats of levitation and for thought-reading and telepathy ("sending thoughts on the wind").
She successfully experimented in the creation of a tulpa or phantom thoughtforms. After a period in isolation following special concentration techniques, she claimed that she succeeded in creating a phantom monk, who became a guest in her party, seen and accepted by the others. But in the course of time, this phantom form changed from a fat jolly monk, becoming lean, mocking, and somewhat malignant, and it was necessary for her to concentrate on special techniques to destroy a phantom, which was beginning to take on independent life.
She explained that Tibetans believed that such psychic phenomena were the result of utilizing natural forces by the powers of the mind. Her experiences seem to have been the result of a long and intimate association with Tibet and its peoples in a period when magic and mystery were more common. Few subsequent travelers have reported such remarkable phenomena, and her books survive as a unique record of a Tibet that has largely been destroyed. However, they helped create the image of Tibet as a place where the most successful mastery of the occult arts had been made. The spread of Buddhist masters to the west has done much to offer a more mundane picture of Tibetan life.
Tibetan medicine, the fundamentals virtually unchanged for 2,000 years, is completely intertwined with Tibetan Buddhism, in that they are based on the most essential Buddhist belief, that of karma. Thus, unhealthy human actions, such as, greed, hatred, and desire can be the cause of disease. Like karma, disease can be caused from present as well as past actions. Disease is also thought to be caused by an imbalance of the three basic humors of the body—air, bile, and phlegm. Diagnosis consists of three techniques, visual observation, pulse reading, and questioning. Simply put, Tibetan medicine is highly holistic in the areas of diagnosis and treatment. Treatments are usually always of the non-invasive variety. Lifestyle changes are recommended, medicines are made of herbs, and "surgery" consists of acupuncture, cauterization, hot and cold compresses, hot springs and vapor treatments.
A lot can be learned from Tibetan medicine by Western countries, as it and its practitioners listen and are aware of the individual body, as an extension of religion. The body then exists as only part of the whole scheme of the universe.
It is still too early to predict whether the upheavals of the last half of the twentieth century will involve a permanent loss of spiritual and psychic identity for the Tibetan people. Those many Tibetans who moved into exile have established strong enclaves of traditional Tibetan culture and many people have given of their time, energy, and financial resources to see that the manuscripts and artifacts taken out of the country are preserved.
Sources:
Bernard, Theos. Land of a Thousand Buddhas. London: Rider, 1952.
Bromage, Bernard. Tibetan Yoga. London: Aquarian Press, 1952.
"A Buddha Busts Out: Inside the Dramatic Escape of a Living Buddha." Newsweek 135 (March 6, 2000): 38.
Chang, Garma C. C., trans. The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. 2 vols. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1962.
——. Teachings of Tibetan Yoga. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1963.
David-Neel, Alexandra. My Journey to Lhasa. London: William Heinemann, 1927.
——. With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet. London: John Lane, 1931. Reprinted as Magic & Mystery in Tibet. New York: Claude H. Kendall, 1932. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1956.
David-Neel, Alexandra, and Lama Yongden. The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects. Calcutta, India: Maha Bodhi Society of India, n.d.
Evans-Wentz, W. Y. Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa. London: Oxford University Press, 1928.
Gore, Donald R. "Tibetan Medicine." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 42 (Winter '99): 270-71.
Harrer, Heinrich. Return to Tibet. London: Weinfeld & Nicholson, 1984.
——. Seven Years in Tibet. London: Rupert Hart-Davis; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1953.
Klein, Richard. "The World's Youngest Political Prisoner." The Humanist. 59 (March 1999): 91.
Tibet and Freedom. The Tibet Society of the United Kingdom, 1961.
Tibetan Government in Exile Official Website. http://www.tibet.com/. June 19, 2000.
Waddell, L. Austine. Tibetan Buddhism: With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in Its Relation to Indian Buddhism. London: W. H. Allen, 1895. Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1972.
Wilson, Mike. "Schisms, Murder, and Hungry Ghosts in Shangra-La." Cross Currents 49 (Spring 1999): 251.
Woodward, Kenneth. "A Scratch in the Teflon Lama." 131 (May 11, 1998): 64.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Tibet Autonomous Region |
| Tibet Autonomous Region Xizang Autonomous Region |
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| Abbreviations: 藏 (pinyin: Zàng) | |||||||||
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| Origin of name | From word Tibat of disputed origin. | ||||||||
| Administration type | Autonomous region | ||||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Lhasa | ||||||||
| CPC Ctte Secretary | Zhang Qingli | ||||||||
| Chairman | Padma Choling | ||||||||
| Area | 1,228,400 km2 (474,300 sq mi) (2nd) | ||||||||
| - Latitude | 27° 18' to 36° 29' N[1] | ||||||||
| - Longitude | 78° 55' to 99° 07' E[2] | ||||||||
| Population (2010) - Density |
3,002,166[3][4] (31st) 2.2 /km2 (5.7 /sq mi) (33rd) |
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| GDP (2010) - per capita |
CNY 50.7 billion US$ 7.5 billion (32nd) CNY 17,319 US$ 2,558 (28th) |
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| HDI (2008) | 0.630 (medium) (31st) | ||||||||
| Ethnic composition | 92.8% Tibetan | ||||||||
| Languages and dialects | |||||||||
| Prefectural level | 7 divisions | ||||||||
| County level | 73 divisions | ||||||||
| Township level* | 692 divisions | ||||||||
| ISO 3166-2 | CN-54 | ||||||||
| Official website http://www.xizang.gov.cn/ |
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| Source for population and GDP data:
《中国统计年鉴—2005》 China Statistical Yearbook 2005
Source for nationalities data:
ISBN 7503747382 《2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料》 Tabulation on nationalities of 2000 population census of China
*As at December 31, 2004ISBN 7105054255 |
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| Simplified Chinese | 西藏自治区 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 西藏自治區 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tibetan | བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས། | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region (Tibetan: བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས།; Chinese: 西藏自治区) is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was created in 1965 on the basis of an administrative region which had been incorporated into the PRC in 1951.
Within the People's Republic of China, Tibet is identified with the Autonomous Region, which includes about half of ethno-cultural Tibet, including the traditional provinces of Ü-Tsang and the western half of Kham. The borders of the present Autonomous Region coincide roughly with the actual zone of control of the then-government of Tibet in 1950. The Tibet Autonomous Region is the second-largest province-level division of China by area, spanning over 1,200,000 square kilometres (460,000 sq mi), after Xinjiang, and due to its generally harsh terrain, is the least densely populated provincial-level division of the PRC.
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While Tibet has been formally a part of China since the early 18th century as part of the Qing Dynasty, from 1912 to 1950, Tibet was dissolved from China proper as a result of the 1911 Revolution and Japanese occupation during WW2. Other parts of ethno-cultural Tibet (eastern Kham and Amdo) have also been under the administration of the Chinese dynastic government since the mid-eighteenth century;[5] today they are distributed among the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. (See also: Xikang province)
In 1950, the People's Liberation Army defeated the Tibetan army in a battle fought near the city of Qamdo. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives 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.[6][7] Although the 17-point agreement had provided for an autonomous administration led by the Dalai Lama, a "Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet" (PCART) was established in 1955 to create a parallel system of administration along Communist lines. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and renounced the 17-point agreement. PCART was reorganized as the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965, thus making Tibet an administrative division on the same legal footing as a Chinese province.
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 metres (15,000 ft). Mount Everest is located on Tibet's border with Nepal.
The Chinese provincial-level areas of Xinjiang, Qinghai and Sichuan lie to the north, northeast, and east, respectively, of the Tibet AR. There is also a short border with Yunnan province to the southeast. The PRC has border disputes with the Republic of India over the McMahon Line of Arunachal Pradesh, known to the Chinese as "South Tibet". The disputed territory of Aksai Chin is to the west, and its boundary with that region is not defined. The other countries to the south are Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal.
Physically, the Tibet AR may be divided into two parts, the "lakes region" in the west and north-west, and the "river region", which spreads out on three sides of the former on the east, south, and west. Both regions receive limited amounts of rainfall as they lie in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, however the region names are useful in contrasting their hydrological structures, and also in contrasting their different cultural uses which is nomadic in the lake region and agricultural in the river region.[8] On the south the Tibet AR is bounded by the Himalayas, and on the north by a broad mountain system. The system at no point narrows to a single range; generally there are three or four across its breadth. As a whole the system forms the watershed between rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean – the Indus, Brahmaputra and Salween and its tributaries – and the streams flowing into the undrained salt lakes to the north.
The lake region extends from the Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh, Lake Rakshastal, Yamdrok Lake and Lake Manasarovar near the source of the Indus River, to the sources of the Salween, the Mekong and the Yangtze. Other lakes include Dagze Co, Nam Co, and Pagsum Co. The lake region is an arid and wind-swept desert. This region is called the Chang Tang (Byang sang) or 'Northern Plateau' by the people of Tibet. It is some 1100 km (700 mi) broad, and covers an area about equal to that of France. Due to its great distance from the ocean it is extremely arid and possesses no river outlet. The mountain ranges are spread out, rounded, disconnected, separated by flat valleys relatively of little depth.
The Tibet AR is dotted over with large and small lakes, generally salt or alkaline, and intersected by streams. Due to the presence of discontinuous permafrost over the Chang Tang, the soil is boggy and covered with tussocks of grass, thus resembling the Siberian tundra. Salt and fresh-water lakes are intermingled. The lakes are generally without outlet, or have only a small effluent. The deposits consist of soda, potash, borax and common salt. The lake region is noted for a vast number of hot springs, which are widely distributed between the Himalaya and 34° N., but are most numerous to the west of Tengri Nor (north-west of Lhasa). So intense is the cold in this part of Tibet that these springs are sometimes represented by columns of ice, the nearly boiling water having frozen in the act of ejection.
The river region is characterised by fertile mountain valleys and includes the Yarlung Tsangpo River (the upper courses of the Brahmaputra) and its major tributary, the Nyang River, the Salween, the Yangtze, the Mekong, and the Yellow River. The Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon, formed by a horseshoe bend in the river where it flows around Namcha Barwa, is the deepest, and possibly longest canyon in the world.[9] Among the mountains there are many narrow valleys. The valleys of Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse and the Brahmaputra are free from permafrost, covered with good soil and groves of trees, well irrigated, and richly cultivated.
The South Tibet Valley is formed by the Yarlung Zangbo River during its middle reaches, where it travels from west to east. The valley is approximately 1200 kilometres long and 300 kilometres wide. The valley descends from 4500 metres above sea level to 2800 metres. The mountains on either side of the valley are usually around 5000 metres high.[10][11] Lakes here include Lake Paiku and Lake Puma Yumco.
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 Padma Choling and the current party secretary is Zhang Qingli.[12]
Tibet Autonomous Region is divided into one prefecture-level city and six prefectures.
| Map | # | Conventional[13] | Hanzi | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative Seat | Population (2010) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| — Prefecture-level city — | ||||||||
| 5 | Lhasa | 拉萨市 | Lāsà Shì | ལྷ་ས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ | lha-sa grong-khyer | Chengguan District | 559,423 | |
| — Prefecture — | ||||||||
| 1 | Ngari | 阿里地区 | Ālǐ Dìqū | མངའ་རིས་ས་ཁུལ་ | mnga'-ris sa-khul | Gar County | 95,465 | |
| 2 | Nagqu | 那曲地区 | Nàqū Dìqū | ནག་ཆུ་ས་ཁུལ་ | nag-chu sa-khul | Nagqu County | 462,382 | |
| 3 | Qamdo | 昌都地区 | Chāngdū Dìqū | ཆབ་མདོ་ས་ཁུལ་ | chab-mdo sa-khul | Qamdo County | 657,505 | |
| 4 | Xigazê | 日喀则地区 | Rìkāzé Dìqū | གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་ས་ཁུལ་ | gzhis-ka-rtse sa-khul | Xigazê (city) | 703,292 | |
| 6 | Lhoka / Shannan | 山南地区 | Shānnán Dìqū | ལྷོ་ཁ་ས་ཁུལ་ | lho-kha sa-khul | Nêdong County | 328,990 | |
| 7 | Nyingchi | 林芝地区 | Línzhī Dìqū | ཉིང་ཁྲི་ས་ཁུལ་ | nying-khri sa-khul | Nyingchi County | 195,109 | |
These in turn are subdivided into a total of seventy-one counties, one district (Chengguan District, Lhasa) and one county-level city (Xigazê).
With an average of only 2 people per square kilometer, The Tibet Autonomous Region has the lowest population density among any of the Chinese province-level administrative regions, mostly due to its harsh and rugged terrain.[14]
In 2009 the Tibetan population was 2.91 million. The ethnic Tibetans, comprising 92.8% of the population,[15] mainly adhere to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, although there is an ethnic Tibetan Muslim community.[16] Other Muslim ethnic groups such as the Hui and the Salar have long inhabited the Region. 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.
Historically, the population of Tibet consisted of primarily ethnic Tibetans. According to tradition the original ancestors of the Tibetan people, as represented by the six red bands in the Tibetan flag, are: the Se, Mu, Dong, Tong, Dru and Ra. Other traditional ethnic groups with significant population or with the majority of the ethnic group reside in Tibet include Bai people, Blang, Bonan, Dongxiang, Han, Hui people, Lhoba, Lisu people, Miao, Mongols, Monguor (Tu people), Menba (Monpa), Mosuo, Nakhi, Qiang, Nu people, Pumi, Salar, and Yi people.
According to Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition published between 1910–1911, total population of Tibetan capital of Lhasa, including the lamas in the city and vicinity, was about 30,000, and the permanent population also included Chinese families (about 2,000).[17]
Most Han people in the TAR (6.1% of the total population)[15] are recent migrants, because all of the Han were expelled from Outer Tibet following the British expedition until the establishment of the PRC.[18] Some ethnic Tibetans claim that, with the 2006 completion of the Qingzang Railway connecting the TAR to Qinghai Province, there has been an "acceleration" of Han migration into the region.[19] The Central Tibetan Administration of the Dalai Lama claims that the PRC has actively swamped Tibet with migrants in order to alter Tibet's demographic makeup.[20]
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 2009, Tibet's nominal GDP topped 44.1 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion), nearly more than four times as big as the 11.78 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) in 2000. In the past five years, Tibet's annual GDP growth has averaged 12%.[14]
While traditional agricultural work and animal husbandry continue to lead the area's economy, in 2005 the tertiary sector contributed more than half of its GDP growth, the first time it surpassed the area's primary industry.[21][22] Rich reserves of natural resources and raw materials have yet to lead to the creation of a strong secondary sector, due in large part to the province's inhospitable terrain, low population density, an underdeveloped infrastructure and the high cost of extraction.[14]
The collection of caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis, known in Tibetan as Yartsa Gunbu) in late spring / early summer is in many areas the most important source of cash for rural households. It contributes an average of 40% to rural cash income and 8.5% to the TAR's GDP.[23] 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.[24]
In 2008, Chinese news media reported that the per capita disposable incomes of urban and rural residents in Tibet averaged 12,482 yuan (US$1,798) and 3,176 yuan (US$457) respectively.[25]
The China Western Development policy was adopted in 2000 by the central government to boost economic development in western China, including the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Tourists were first permitted to visit the Tibet Autonomous Region in the 1980s. While the main attraction is the Potala Palace in Lhasa, there are many other popular tourist destinations including the Jokhang Temple, Namtso Lake, and Tashilhunpo Monastery.[26]
The civil airports in Tibet are Lhasa Gonggar Airport,[27] Qamdo Bangda Airport, Nyingchi Airport, and the Gunsa Airport.
Gunsa Airport in Ngari Prefecture began operations on July 1, 2010, to become the fourth civil airport in China's Tibet Autonomous Region.[28]
The "Peace Airport" for Xigazê Prefecture was completed on October 30, 2010.[29]
Nagqu Dagring Airport is expected to become the world's highest altitude airport by 2014 at 4,436 meters above sea level.[30]
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 | American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Oxford Companion to the Photograph. The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism. A Dictionary of Buddhism. Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Geography. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Tibet Autonomous Region. Read more |
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