People and Culture:
Tibet is home of 2 million Tibetan. It is the land of rich natural resources and ancient cultures, spiritual traditions, temples and monasteries, lakes and rivers, and mighty snow -capped peaks. The travelers can experience various wonders in Tibet. Tibet owns the Buddhism and its history goes back to some 1,300 years. Tibetan history, culture and religion are mixed together every aspect of social life. People living in Tibet such as Tibetans, Monpas, Lhopas and Moslems have their own ways of living, marriage, burial and other ceremonies. It is considered that the festivals in Tibet are of a big variety. The Tibetan New Year, the largest festival, is followed by others festivals such as the Wangkor, Festival and horse races. For the dead, sky burials, water burials, cremations and stupa burials are also practiced here.
How to get in Tibet:
This unique land is now easily accessible from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. There is almost regular air service from Kathmandu to Lhasa, primarily every Tuesday and Saturdays with additional flights on Thursdays.
Tibet is above all mountainous - part of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau which covers one-quarter of China total landmass, and which is on average4000 m above sea-level. The plateau is considered by geologists to be rather young - some 40 million years ago it was still under the sea. Tibet can be divided into three major regions: the northern Tibet plateau is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains, rising up to 7000 m. It is a barren, desert-like area where cultivation is almost impossible and which has only two months of warm weather a year. In eastern Tibet, known as the Chamdo area, there is more rainfall; the Salween, Mekong and Yangtse Rivers rise here. Southern Tibet, the most densely populared area, is bordered by the Himalayas. It consists of a series of high valley basins; the climate is milder and the land can be readily cultivated. Here are the sources of the Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers. Mountain barley is the major crop, which is pounded into flour and mixed with tea and yak’s butter to make the tsampa beloved of the Tibetans. Sheep, yaks and horses are bred.
Today many of the Han cadres are returning to dam and Tibetans are taking up all the administrative posts at district level and 80 per cent of them at county level. The Tibetan language is assuming greater importance again and much decision making is taking place at local levels, in keeping with the rest of China. Free markets and local crafts may flourish once more, and monasteries have reopened. The present population of Tibet is 1.8 million.
One of the great debates in modern Tibet is the future role of the Dalai Lama. Born in Qinghai in 1935, he came to Lhasa at the age of two. His life in the Potala is recorded very vividly by Heinrich Harrer in his book Seven Years in Tibet. Today the Dalai Lama lives at Dharamsala in India, in the foothills of the Himalayas, heading a community of forty monks and a kind of government-in-exile of the many exiled Tibetans. Unlike the previous Dalai Lamas he has a wide knowledge of the world, is much respected and has sent several delegations to Tibet and Peking. His picture has reappeared in many Tibetan households, and many long for his return. He is the fourteenth Dalai Lama, and it was predicted long ago that there would only be fourteen Dalai Lamas.
Other Tibet Tourism
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