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བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས་  (Tibetan) Bod-rang-skyong-ljongs  (Wylie) 西藏自治区  (Chinese) Xīzàng Zìzhìqū  (Pinyin) Tibet Autonomous Region
Abbreviations: 藏  (pinyin: Zàng)
Origin of name	See Origin of name
Administration type	Autonomous region
Capital (and largest city)	Lhasa
CPC Ctte Secretary	Zhang Qingli
Chairman	Qiangba Puncog
Area	1,228,400 km² (2nd)
Population (2004)  - Density	2,740,000 (31st) 2.2/km² (31st)
GDP (2006)  - per capita	CNY 29.01 billion (31st) CNY 10,322 (26th)
HDI (2005)	0.586 (medium) (31st)
Major nationalities	92.8% Tibetan 6.1% Han 0.3% Hui 0.3% Monpa 0.2% others
Prefecture-level	7 divisions
County-level	73 divisions
Township-level†	692 divisions
ISO 3166-2	CN-54
Official website http://www.xizang.gov.cn/
Source for population and GDP data: 《中国统计年鉴—2005》 China Statistical Yearbook 2005 ISBN 7503747382 Source for nationalities data: 《2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料》 Tabulation on nationalities of 2000 population census of China ISBN 7105054255 † As at December 31, 2004

The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) (Tibetan: བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས་; Wylie: Bod-rang-skyong-ljongs; simplified Chinese: 西藏自治区; traditional Chinese: 西藏自治區; pinyin: Xīzàng Zìzhìqū), is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Within the PRC, the TAR is identified with Tibet, the TAR includes about half of historic 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.

Unlike other autonomous regions, the vast majority of Tibetans are of the local ethnicity. As a result, there is debate surrounding the extent of actual autonomy in the TAR. The opinion of the PRC is that the TAR has ample autonomy, as guaranteed under Articles 111-122 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. However, many human rights organizations around the world accuse the Chinese government of persecuting and oppressing the local population [1]

Contents 1 History 2 Geography 3 Administrative divisions 4 Demographics 5 Towns and villages in Tibet 6 Economy 7 Tourism 8 Footnotes 9 Further reading 10 External links 10.1 For PRC rule and policies in Tibet 10.2 Against PRC rule and/or policies in Tibet 10.3 Apolitical

See also: History of the political divisions of China

Before 1959, the present extent of the TAR (comprising Ü-Tsang and western Kham) was governed by the government of Tibet headed by the Dalai Lama. The Government of Tibet in Exile characterizes the area as an independent and sovereign nation, while the governments of the People's Republic of China. Other parts of historic Tibet (eastern Kham and Amdo) were not under the administration of the Tibetan government during the twentieth century; today they are distributed among the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan.

Following Soviet practice, there is a convention that the governor of the TAR is an ethnic Tibetan from the TAR, while the general secretary of the local Communist Party committee is an outsider, usually Han Chinese. Notable general secretaries of the TAR 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 PLA military pressure, signed a seventeen-point agreement with the PRC's Central People's Government affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.^[1][2]. Government forces clashed with CIA-supported ethnic dissidents 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 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 ^[3], 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.

The TAR is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the highest region on Earth. In northern Tibet elevations reach an average of over 4,572 metres. 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 TAR; India and Kashmir to the west; and Yunnan, Nepal, India and Bhutan to the south.

Tibet Autonomous Region is divided into one prefecture-level city (Lhasa) and six prefectures (Nagqu, Qamdo, Nyinchi, Shannan, Xigazê and Ngari prefectures). These in turn are subdivided into a total of seventy-one counties, one district (Chengguan District, Lhasa) and one county-level city (Xigazê).

See List of administrative divisions of Tibet Autonomous Region for a complete list of county-level divisions.

Lhasa Prefecture	Nagqu Prefecture	Nyinchi Prefecture	Ngari Prefecture
Qamdo Prefecture	Shannan Prefecture	Xigazê Prefecture

The TAR 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, who are recent immigrants from other parts of the People's Republic of China, comprise 6.1% of the population [2].

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.

Further information: List of towns and villages in the Tibet Autonomous Region

Main article: Economy of Tibet

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 [3] [4]. 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 [5].

In 2005, the Chinese state news vehicle 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 [6].

The China Western Development policy has recently been adopted by central government to boost economic development in western China, including the TAR.

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.

• Sorrel Wilby, Journey Across Tibet: A Young Woman's 1900-Mile Trek Across the Rooftop of the World, Contemporary Books (1988), hardcover, 236 pages, ISBN 0-8092-4608-2.

• Tibet Autonomous Region official website
• China, Tibet and the Chinese nation
• China Tibet Information Center
• Chinese government white paper "Tibet -- Its Ownership And Human Rights Situation" (1992)
• Chinese government white paper, "Tibet's March Toward Modernization" (2001)
• (Chinese) Naming of Tibet
• PRC Government Tibet information
• Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet (May 2004)
• (Chinese) Tibet Online
• Tibet Tour (Tibet Tourism Bureau Official Site)
• (Chinese) Tibet University
• White Paper on Ecological Improvement and Environmental Protection in Tibet
• White Paper on Tibetan Culture and Homayk

• Amnesty International Report 2004
• The Government of Tibet in exile
• Is Tibet Really Part of China?
• Olympic Watch (Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games in a Free and Democratic Country) on Tibet-related issues.
• Repression in Tibet
• [7]
• Students for a Free Tibet
• CIA Intervention in Tibet - photos and information on Tibet (and Nepal)
• American Support for Tibetan Resistance
• [8]

• Large map of Tibet
• Haiwei Trails - Timeline of Tibet
• The Tibet Map Institute
• Railway map of China

v • d • e Prefecture-level divisions of the Tibet Autonomous Region
Prefecture-level city:	Lhasa
Prefectures:	Naqgu | Ngari | Nyingchi | Qamdo | Shannan | Xigazê
List of Tibet Autonomous Region County-level divisions

v • d • e Tibetan autonomous areas in the People's Republic of China
Tibet Autonomous Region	Lhasa · Nagqu · Qamdo · Shannan · Xigazê · Ngari · Nyingchi
Gansu Province	Gannan · Tianzhu
Qinghai Province	Haibei · Hainan · Haixi (Mongols and Tibetans) · Huangnan · Golog · Yushu
Sichuan Province	Garzê · Ngawa (Tibetans and Qiang) · Muli
Yunnan Province	Dêqên
See also Political divisions of China

v • d • e Province-level divisions of the People's Republic of China
Provinces	Anhui · Fujian · Gansu · Guangdong · Guizhou · Hainan · Hebei · Heilongjiang · Henan · Hubei · Hunan · Jiangsu · Jiangxi · Jilin · Liaoning · Qinghai · Shaanxi · Shandong · Shanxi · Sichuan · Taiwan1 · Yunnan · Zhejiang
Autonomous regions	Guangxi · Inner Mongolia · Ningxia · Tibet · Xinjiang
Municipalities	Beijing · Chongqing · Shanghai · Tianjin
Special administrative regions	Hong Kong · Macau
1 Taiwan is claimed by the PRC but administered by the Republic of China.

Coordinates: 31°42′20″N, 86°56′25″E