Tibetan Autonomous Region

(also Tibet, or, in Chinese, Hsi-tsang), a region in southwestern China, in the Tibetan Highlands. Area, 1,221,000 sq km. Population, approximately 1.6 million (1975). The region’s capital is the city of Lhasa.

The population consists mainly of Tibetans and the closely related Ch’iang, Nu, Tulung, Abor, Mishmi, and Dafla peoples. The languages are those of the Tibeto-Burman group. The main religion is Lamaism, a form of Buddhism.

Economy. The leading sector of the economy is agriculture, and more than 60 percent of the agricultural output comes from land cultivation. Hull-less barley and oats, peas, and buckwheat are grown in the river valleys and on the mountain slopes, and wheat and rice are cultivated in the southeast. Potatoes, turnips, pears, and plants of the genera Malus and Allium are also cultivated. There are transhumant movements of yaks, sheep, goats, horses, mules, and asses. The most important animal product is sheep’s wool. Cows and swine are raised on farms.

The mining industry produces small quantities of anthracite (Lhasa, Shigatse, and Gyangtse regions), salt, borax, and gold. There are several hydroelectric power plants. Manufacturing is carried out on a small-scale, local level; there are factories producing power-generating equipment, iron castings, leather, and rugs in Lhasa, leather in Chamdo, and rugs in Shigatse and Gyangtse. The region also has sawmills, brickyards, and pharmaceutical plants; textiles are produced in Linchih. Highways connect the Tibetan Autonomous Region with other parts of China.

Historical survey. Originally, the Tibetan people, made up of the Ch’iang tribes, migrated from the Koko Nor region to the territory of Tibet in approximately the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. and merged with the native inhabitants. By the seventh century A.D., some of the Ch’iang people had taken up land cultivation. The disintegration of the primitive communal system occurred in the early seventh century with the unification of all the main Tibetan tribes under Namri Songtsen, the ruler of Yarlung in southeast Tibet. His son and successor, Song-tsen Gam-po (died 649), is regarded as the founder of the Tibetan empire of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. Writing first appeared in Tibet in the first half of the seventh century. The empire reached its height during the reign of Thisong detsen (755–791). Feudal relations of production were the rule in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. Buddhism became the state religion in 787. Persecution of Buddhists began during the reign of Lang Darma (836–842), after whose assassination Tibet disintegrated into separate feudal principalities.

The 11th and 12th centuries witnessed the emergence of a number of Buddhist sects in Tibet and the founding of monasteries, the largest of which formed, with the territory under their control, independent theocratic states. In the 13th century, Tibet became a dependency of the Mongols, a status that ended with the fall of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th century. From the 14th to the 17th century, a power struggle went on between feudal clans supported by different religious sects.

In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the monk Tsongkha-pa founded the Gelugpa, or Yellow Hat, order, the leader of which came in the 16th century to bear the title “Dalai Lama.” In the 17th century, the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngagwang Lobsang gyamtso, appealed for assistance to Goshi Khan of the Oirot tribe, ruler of Koko Nor. In 1642, Goshi Khan’s troops crushed the ruler of the Tsang region, the chief rival of the fifth Dalai Lama. The Gelugpa sect became the dominant one in Tibet, and the Dalai Lama, the country’s spiritual and temporal ruler. Thus, the process of unification of Tibet was completed and a theocratic form of rule established. In the mid–17th century, the institution of the Panchen Lama appeared; the Panchen Lama is the second hierarch, after the Dalai Lama.

In the mid–18th century, the eastern and northeastern parts of Tibet (in what are now the Chinese provinces of Tsinghai, Szechwan, and Kansu) were made part of the Ch’ing (Manchu) Empire and were directly subordinated to the Manchu rulers. In 1792 the remaining regions of Tibet (approximately the territory of the present autonomous region) were made part of the Ch’ing Empire. Although power remained in the hands of the Dalai Lama, the Manchu court sent representatives (Ambans) to Lhasa, which controlled government activities.

In the late 19th century, Tibet found itself in the path of British expansionism. In 1903 and 1904, Great Britain carried out a campaign of armed intervention. On Aug. 3, 1904, British troops entered Lhasa, and on September 7 of that year the Tibetan authorities signed an agreement granting substantial privileges to Great Britain in Tibet. Britain’s penetration of Tibet aroused the opposition of the Russian government. Under the agreement between Great Britain and Russia concluded on Aug. 31, 1907, both sides pledged to respect the territorial integrity of Tibet and not to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. During the Hsin-hai Revolution (1911–13) in China, all Ch’ing troops and officials were driven out of Tibet, and the 13th Dalai Lama severed all ties with Peking. There were armed clashes on the country’s eastern borders between Tibetan forces and troops sent to Tibet under Yuan Shih-k’ai. The situation on the Tibetan-Chinese border remained tense until the mid–1930’s, with frequent armed clashes between Tibetan and Chinese troops.

In the mid–1930’s, relations between Tibet and the Kuomintang government, at that time preoccupied with repelling Japanese aggression, became normalized. However, British influence in Tibet remained strong, and with the end of World War II, the United States became increasingly active in the country. On the eve of the victory of the People’s Revolution in China, the Tibetan authorities broke off all contacts with the Kuomintang government, and on Nov. 4, 1949, an assembly comprising representatives of the government and the monasteries formally proclaimed independence. On Jan. 20, 1950, the Chinese People’s Republic issued a declaration on the Tibetan question characterizing the actions of the Tibetan authorities as separatist and proposing that Lhasa send representatives to Peking for talks. In October 1950, units of the People’s Liberation Army began an advance toward the central regions of Tibet. The Tibetan government accepted the proposal of the Chinese government, and on May 23, 1951, an agreement was signed by representatives of the Chinese People’s Republic and the Tibetan authorities. The agreement (known as the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet) granted autonomy to the Tibetans as a people within the Chinese People’s Republic.

In the late 1950’s, the political climate in Tibet worsened, and in March 1959 there was an insurrection in Lhasa. The 14th Dalai Lama went into exile in India. After the insurrection was suppressed, a system providing for a military control committee was introduced. The Tibetan Autonomous Region was created in 1965.