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Tibet in a nutshell
17/03/2008 14:04 - (SA)
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| A Tibetan monk walks down a street in the Tibetan quarter of Chengdu, China, amid unrest by Tibetans over Chinese rule. (Eugene Hoshiko. AP) |
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Key facts about Tibet, where the biggest protests against Chinese
rule in two decades started on Friday:
Tibet is a vast, sparsely-populated region to the north of Nepal and
India that has been controlled from Beijing for more than half a
century.
Its territory includes part of the Himalayan mountain range, which
has led to the overall region often being called "the roof of the
world". The capital, Lhasa, is 3 700 metres above sea
level.
Tibet is devoutly Buddhist, and its traditional ruler the Dalai Lama
was both a monarch and a religious leader.
China has claimed sovereignty over the country for centuries, and
when the Communist regime came to power in Beijing in 1949, it
reaffirmed that claim.
Chinese troops moved into Tibet in 1950, and the following year, it
was formally made a part of the People's Republic of China.
After a failed uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, and he
has since headed an exile government in India.
In 1965, China created the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), which
has a population of some 2.4 million and covers about half of
traditional Tibet. Other parts were integrated into existing Chinese
provinces.
In 1989, unrest in Lhasa triggered a major crackdown that led to the
deaths of dozens, perhaps hundreds.
At 1.2 million square kilometres, the TAR is more than twice as big as France, and makes up about an eighth of China's total area.
Chinese officials say some 100 000 of the TAR's inhabitants are
ethnic Han Chinese, but Tibetan exiles claim that far more Chinese have
moved into the region as part of a deliberate settlement programme.
Traditionally, the main source of income for Tibetans has been
livestock breeding, but the area is also known to contain rich mineral
deposits.
In 2006, the Chinese authorities opened a new Beijing-Lhasa railway
which is expected to speed development, but could also cause further
erosion of traditional culture, critics fear.
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