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''Tibet'', or ''Xizang'', is a region of southerwestern
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
on a high plateau north of the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
. The first known English words related to ''Tibet'' date back to the 19th century and may have been derived from older terms in other languages similar to Mongol term Tibyet, or Töbed. Their definitions and usage have been controversial in terms of the extent of territory being claimed. The
endonymic An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...
Tibetan terms are ''Bod'' (''Bö'') for
Greater Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
and ''
Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...
'' (དབུས་གཙང་ ''Wü-Tsang''; ) for Central Tibet. The Chinese term ''Tǔbō'' or ''Tǔfān'' () was used during the Tang and Song dynasties to refer to the historical
Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (,) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. It expanded further under the 38th king, Trisong De ...
. In 1720 the
Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 165420 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 ...
of
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
wrote an edict for the
Imperial Stele Inscriptions of the Pacification of Tibet The Imperial Stele Inscriptions of the Pacification of Tibet (Xizang) (Chinese: 御制平定西藏碑 Tibetan Wylie transliteration, Wylie translit.: rgyal po rang nyid kyis bris pa'i bod yul bd'jags su Manchu Mollendorff: han i araha wargi dzang ...
in Han, Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan languages. At that point, ''Xīzàng'' () officially appeared, replacing the terms ''Kokham'' (朵甘) and ''Ali Sankor'' (阿里三廓, "Nari Sugulusun" in the Yuan and Ming dynasties). The Manchu term is ''Wargi Dzang'', and the Mongol term is ''Töbed''. ''Xizang'' was later used in the
29-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet The 29-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet (), also called twenty-nine-article Imperial Ordinance, was an imperial decree concerning the governance of Tibet that was supposedly issued by the Qianlong Emperor of China's Qing ...
of 1793 and has become synonymous in China with the
Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...
.


Names


In English

The first known written use of the English adjective ''Tibetian'' is from in 1747; the first known use of the modern form, ''Tibetan,'' was in 1822. The first known written use of the proper noun was in 1827 as ''Thibet''. The western name, is, however, much older: it was recorded in the 13th century by
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (or Carpini; anglicised as ''John of Plano Carpini'';  – 1 August 1252) was a medieval Italian diplomat, Catholic archbishop, explorer and one of the first Europeans to enter the court of the Great Khan of t ...
and William Rubruck, as ''Tebet''. William Rubruck (1253) records ''Tebet'' as the name of a people, situated beyond the '' Tangut'', and were distinctive for their customs and traditions. The name ''Tebet'' appears to be a loan from an Iranian or Turkic language, perhaps Sogdian.Stein, R. A. ''Tibetan Civilization'' (1922). English edition with minor revisions in 1972 Stanford University Press, pp. 30-31. (cloth); . In 17th-century
Modern Latin Neo-LatinSidwell, Keith ''Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin'' in ; others, throughout. (also known as New Latin and Modern Latin) is the style of written Latin used in original literary, scholarly, and scientific works, first in Italy d ...
, Tibet is known as ''Tibetum'' (also ''Thibetum'', ''Tibet'', ''Thobbat'', ''Tubet''). The ultimate origin of the name, however, remains unclear. Suggestions include derivation from Tibetan, Turkic or Chinese. The proposed Tibetan etymology derives the term from ''Stod-bod'' (pronounced ''Tö-bhöt'') "High/Upper Tibet" from the autonym ''Bod''. Andreas Gruschke's study of the Tibetan
Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ zh , c = 安多 , p = Ānduō ), also known as Domey (), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous wi ...
Province says,
At the beginning of the Tang dynasty's rule of China, Tibetans were called Tubo, a term that seems to be derived from ''tu phod'' or ''stod pod'' (upper Tibet). The archaic Tibetan dialects of Amdo have retained the articulation of the medieval Tibetan language; as such the pronunciation is ''Töwöd'', as in Mongolian tongue. Thus, the term was handed down as ''Tübüt'' in Turkish diction, ''Tibbat'' in Arabic and passed on as ''Tibet'' in Western languages.
The proposed Turkic etymology adduces ''töbäd'' 'the heights' (plural of ''töbän''). Behr (1994) cites Bazin and Hamilton (1991) to the effect that the four variant 土/吐-番/蕃 characters used to write ''Tu-fan/bo'' (Middle Chinese *Tʰɔʰ-buan < Old Chinese *Thaˤ-pjan) "Tibet" suggest "a purely phonetic transcription" of an underlying *''Töpün'' "The Heights, Peaks" "Tibet" etymology from Old Turkic ''töpä/töpü'' "peak; height".Behr, Wolfgang
"Stephan V. Beyer. (1994). ''The Classical Tibetan Language''"
(book review), ''Oriens'' 34
pp. 558–559
/ref> He further hypothesizes that the final ''-t'' in ''Tibet'' names derives from "an Altaic collective plural which results in *Töpät, thus perfectly matching Turkic Töpüt 'Tibet'", which is attested in the Old Turkic
Orkhon inscriptions The Orkhon inscriptions are bilingual texts in Middle Chinese and Old Turkic, the latter written in the Old Turkic alphabet, carved into two memorial steles erected in the early 8th century by the Göktürks in the Orkhon Valley in what is modern- ...
. Proposed Chinese etymology compares ''Tǔfān''/''Tǔbō''. The premise of the Chinese name being the primary origin of the name hinges its having had ''-t'' final in
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...
, e.g.,
Eric Partridge Eric Honeywood Partridge (6 February 1894 – 1 June 1979) was a New Zealand–United Kingdom, British lexicography, lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the ...
's hypothetical ''Tu-pat''.Partridge, Eric, ''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'', New York, 1966, p. 719 cites Chinese "''Tu-pat'', ''Tu-fan''". Stein (1922) assumes that ''Tufan'' has the same origin as ''Tibet'', but not that the latter is adopted from Chinese: Instead, the Chinese name would have arisen "by assimilation with the name of the T'u-fa, a Turco-Mongol race, who must originally have been called something like Tuppat", also reflected in Sogdian and Turkic texts as ''Tüpüt''. A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English states that "Tibet seems to have passed to us through the Ar name (Tibat, Tobbat), drawn from the anicent Ch name (Tu-pat, Tu-fan)".


In Tibetan

The Standard or Central Tibetan endonym for Tibet, ''Bod'' (), is pronounced , transliterated ''Bhö'' or ''Phö''. Rolf Stein (1922) explains,
The name Tibetans give their country, ''Bod'' (now pronounced Pö in the Central dialect, as we have seen), was closely rendered and preserved by their Indian neighbours to the south, as Bhoṭa, Bhauṭa or Bauṭa. It has even been suggested that this name is to be found in
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
and the '' Periplus Maris Erythraei'', a first-century Greek narrative, where the river Bautisos and a people called the Bautai are mentioned in connexion with a region of Central Asia. But we have no knowledge of the existence of Tibetans at that time.
Christopher Beckwith Christopher I. Beckwith (born October 23, 1945) is an American philologist and distinguished professor in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese from Ohio Stat ...
agrees that Ptolemy's geographic reference to the "Bautai – i.e., the "Bauts"" was "the first mention in either Western or Eastern historical sources of the native ethnonym of Tibet". He compares the 4th-century historian
Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...
describing the Bautai living "on the slopes of high mountains to the south" of
Serica Serica (, ) was one of the easternmost countries of Asia known to the Ancient Greek and Roman geographers. It is generally taken as referring to North China during its Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties, as it was reached via the overland Silk Roa ...
with contemporaneous Chinese sources recording a
Qiang people The Qiang people (Qiangic languages, Qiangic: ''Rrmea''; ) are an List of ethnic groups in China, ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approx ...
called the Fa , anciently "pronounced something like Puat" and "undoubtedly intended to represent Baut, the name that became pronounced by seventh-century Tibetans as Bod (and now, in the modern Lhasa dialect, rather like the French ''peu'')." Bod originally named the Central Tibetan region
Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...
or Dbus-gtsang.
This first mention of the name Bod, the usual name for Tibet in the later Tibetan historical sources, is significant in that it is used to refer to a conquered region. In other words, the ancient name Bod originally referred only to a part of the Tibetan Plateau, a part which, together with Rtsaṅ (Tsang, in Tibetan now spelled Gtsaṅ), has come to be called Dbus-gtsaṅ (Central Tibet).


In Chinese

The oldest
Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...
name for
Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (,) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. It expanded further under the 38th king, Trisong De ...
is 吐蕃, transliterated either
pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
''Tǔbō'',
Wade–Giles Wade–Giles ( ) is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from the system produced by Thomas Francis Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's '' A Chinese–English Dictionary'' ...
''T'u-po'' or pinyin ''Tǔfān'', Wade–Giles ''T'u-fan''. Chinese 藏 ''Zàng'' (" Tsang") is a loan from Tibetan གཙང (''gtsang''), the name of the southwestern part of the Tibetan Plateau. Modern ''Xizang'' () "Western Tsang" now specifies the "
Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...
". 吐蕃 ''Tufan''/''Tubo'' is first recorded in the ''
Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
'' (dated 945 CE) describing the Tibetan King
Namri Songtsen Namri Songtsen (), also known as "Namri Löntsen" () (died 618) was according to tradition, the 32nd King of Tibet of the Yarlung dynasty. (Reign: 570 – 618) During his 48 years of reign, he expanded his kingdom to rule the central part of the ...
(''Gnam-ri-slon-rtsan'') sent two emissaries to
Emperor Yang of Sui Emperor Yang of Sui (隋煬帝, 569 – 11 April 618), personal name Yang Guang (), alternative name Ying (), Xianbei name Amo (), was the second emperor of the Sui dynasty of China. Emperor Yang's original name was Yang Ying, but he was rena ...
in 608 and 609. The ''Tubo'' vs. ''Tufan''
transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...
of 吐蕃 is based on historical spellings involving four different characters: *the first character is written either ''tǔ'' "earth; soil; land" or ''tǔ'' "spit out; vomit" *the second character is written either ''fān'' "times, occurrences; foreign" or ''fān'' "hedge, screen; frontier; foreign country" (usually pronounced ''fán'' 蕃 "luxuriant; flourishing"). The latter two ''fān''
Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...
are used interchangeably for "foreign" words, e.g., ''fānqié'' 番茄 or 蕃茄 (lit. "foreign eggplant") "tomato". ''Fán'' is sometimes translated as "barbarian" meaning "non-Chinese; foreign". For the character 蕃, pre-modern Chinese dictionaries indicate only the pronunciation ''fán''. According to
Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and ...
, the pronunciation ''tǔbō'' was suggested by Abel Rémusat in the early 19th century, based on pronunciations of similar characters, and adopted uncritically by other European scholars. Contemporary
Chinese dictionaries There are two types of dictionaries regularly used in the Chinese language: list individual Chinese characters, and list words and phrases. Because tens of thousands of characters have been used in written Chinese, Chinese lexicographers have d ...
disagree whether 吐蕃 "Tibet" is pronounced "Tǔbō" or ''Tǔfān'' – a question complicated by the
homophonous A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...
slur ''tǔfān'' 土番 (lit. "dirt barbarians", possibly "agricultural barbarians") "barbarians; natives; aborigines". The ''
Hanyu Da Cidian The ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' (), also known as the Grand Chinese Dictionary, is the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary. Lexicographically comparable to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', it has Historical linguistics, diachronic coverage of ...
'' cites the first recorded Chinese usages of ''Tǔfān'' 土番 "ancient name for Tibet" in the 7th century ( Li Tai 李泰) and ''tǔfān'' 土番 "natives (derogatory)" in the 19th century (Bi Fucheng 薜福成). Sinological linguists are engaged in ongoing debates whether 吐蕃 is "properly" pronounced ''Tubo'' or ''Tufan''. For example, '' Sino-Platonic Papers'' has been the venue for disputation among
Victor H. Mair Victor Henry Mair (; born March 25, 1943) is an American Sinology, sinologist currently serving as a professor of Chinese language, Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accomplishments, Mair has edited the standard ''Columbia His ...
, Edwin G. Pulleyblank, and W. South Coblin . The Chinese
neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...
''Tǔbó'' 圖博 (written with ''tǔ'' "drawing; map" and ''bó'' "abundant; plentiful") avoids the problematic ''Tǔfān'' pronunciation, and is used by authorities such as the
Central Tibetan Administration The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ) is the government-in-exile of Tibet, based in Dharamshala, India. It comprises a judiciary branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch, and offers support and services to the Tibetan exile c ...
. Stein discusses the ''fan'' pronunciation of "Tibet".
The Chinese, well informed on the Tibetans as they were from the seventh century onwards, rendered Bod as Fan (at that time pronounced something like B'i̭wan). Was this because the Tibetans sometimes said 'Bon' instead of 'Bod', or because 'fan' in Chinese was a common term for 'barbarians'? We do not know. But before long, on the testimony of a Tibetan ambassador, the Chinese started using the form T'u-fan, by assimilation with the name of the T'u-fa, a Turco-Mongol race, who must originally have been called something like Tuppat. At the same period, Turkic and Sogdian texts mention a people called 'Tüpüt', situated roughly in the north-east of modern Tibet. This is the form that Moslem writers have used since the ninth century (Tübbet, Tibbat, etc.). Through them it reached the medieval European explorers ( Piano-Carpini, Rubruck,
Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...
, Francesco della Penna).
This ''Fan'' 蕃 pronunciation of "''B'i̭wan''" illustrates the difference between modern Chinese pronunciation and the
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...
spoken during the
Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...
(581-618 CE) and
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
(618-907 CE) period when "Tibet" was first recorded. Reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations of ''Tǔbō'' and ''Tǔfān'' "Tibet" are: ''t'uopuâ'' and ''t'uop'i̭wɐn'' (
Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren (; 15 October 1889 – 20 October 1978) was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods. In the early 20th century, Karlgren conduct ...
), ''thwopwâ'' and ''thwobjwɐn'' (Axel Schuessler), ''tʰɔ'pa'' and ''tʰɔ'puan'' (Edwin G. Pulleyblank "Early Middle"), or ''thu-pat'' and ''thu-pjon'' (William H. Baxter). Xizang 西藏 is the present-day Chinese name for "Tibet". This compound of ''xi'' 西 "west" and ''zàng'' "storage place; treasure vault; (Buddhist/Daoist) canon (e.g., ''
Daozang The Daozang ( zh, c=道藏, p=Dàozàng, w=Tao Tsang) is a large canon of Taoist writings, consisting of around 1,500 texts that were seen as continuing traditions first embodied by the '' Daodejing'', '' Zhuangzi'', and '' Liezi''. The canon was ...
'')" is a phonetic transliteration of ''
Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...
'', the traditional province in western and central Tibet. ''Zang'' 藏 was used to transcribe the '' Tsang'' people as early as the
Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...
(1279–1368 CE), and "Xizang" was coined under the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
Jiaqing Emperor The Jiaqing Emperor (13 November 1760 – 2 September 1820), also known by his temple name Emperor Renzong of Qing, personal name Yongyan, was the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. He was ...
(r. 1796–1820 CE). ''Zang'' abbreviates "Tibet" in words such as ''Zàngwén'' 藏文 "
Tibetan language Tibetan language may refer to: * Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dialect * Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard * Any of the other Tibetic languages See also * Ol ...
" and ''Zàngzú'' 藏族 "
Tibetan people Tibetans () are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group Indigenous peoples, native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, sig ...
".


In Sanskrit

भोट (''Bhot'') is the name used by ancient India for ''Bod'' ().


Geographical definitions

When the PRC government and some TibetologistsGoldstein, Melvyn, C.,
What is Tibet? – Fact and Fancy
from ''Change, Conflict and Continuity among a Community of Nomadic Pastoralist: A Case Study from Western Tibet, 1950-1990'', 1994, pp76-87
refer to Tibet, it means the areas covering
Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...
and Western
Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...
, which became present-day the
Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...
, a provincial-level entity of the People's Republic. This definition excludes the former domains of the Dalai Lamas in
Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ zh , c = 安多 , p = Ānduō ), also known as Domey (), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous wi ...
and eastern Kham which are part of
Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...
,
Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
,
Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
, and
Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
. When the Government of Tibet in Exile and the Tibetan refugee community abroad refer to Tibet, they mean the areas consisting of the traditional provinces of Amdo, Kham, and Ü-Tsang. The difference in definition is a major source of dispute. The distribution of Amdo and eastern Kham into surrounding provinces was initiated by the
Yongzheng Emperor The Yongzheng Emperor (13 December 1678 – 8 October 1735), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizong of Qing, personal name Yinzhen, was the fourth List of emperors of the Qing dynasty, emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the third Qing em ...
during the 18th century and has been continuously maintained by successive Chinese governments. In 1720, Emperor Kangxi wrote an edict for the
Imperial Stele Inscriptions of the Pacification of Tibet The Imperial Stele Inscriptions of the Pacification of Tibet (Xizang) (Chinese: 御制平定西藏碑 Tibetan Wylie transliteration, Wylie translit.: rgyal po rang nyid kyis bris pa'i bod yul bd'jags su Manchu Mollendorff: han i araha wargi dzang ...
in the Manchu, Han, Mongolian, and Tibetan languages. At that point, ''Xizang'' officially appeared, replacing the term ''Tubo'' used since the Tang and Song dynasties, and the terms ''Kokham'' (朵甘), ''
Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...
'' (乌思藏), and ''Ali Sankor'' (阿里三廓, "Nari Sugulusun" in the Yuan and Ming dynasties) in China. The Tibetan term for Xizang is Bod, the Manchu term for Xizang is Wargi Dzang, and the Mongol term for Xizang is Töbed. Since the
Thirteen Articles for the Settlement of Qinghai Affairs The Thirteen Articles on the Post-war Affairs in Qinghai (Chinse: 青海善后事宜十三条) refers to a series of measures on how to govern the Qinghai region that Fuyuan General Nian Gengyao (Chinese:年羹尧) (1679-1725) submitted to Emperor ...
were submitted to
Emperor Yongzheng The Yongzheng Emperor (13 December 1678 – 8 October 1735), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizong of Qing, personal name Yinzhen, was the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the third Qing emperor to rule over China proper. The ...
in 1724, for the demarcations made during the Yongzheng reign, the borders between Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan were basically determined Western scholars such as anthropologist Melvyn Goldstein exclude Amdo and Kham from political Tibet: :" alai Lamaclaimed all of Kham and Amdo in the Simla Convention of 1913-14 – most of these areas in fact were not a part of its polity for the two centuries preceding the rise to power of the Communists in China in 1949... The term ‘Tibet’ refers to the political state ruled by the Dalai Lamas; it does not refer to the ethnic border areas such as Amdo and Kham which were not part of that state in modern times, let alone to Ladakh or Northern Nepal. Until recently, this convention was, as far as I can discern, universally accepted in the scholarly literature" A modern nation-state usually has clearly defined borders at which one government's authority ceases and that of another begins. In centuries past, the Tibetan and Chinese governments had strong centers from which their power radiated, and weakened with distance from the capital. Inhabitants of border regions often considered themselves independent of both. Actual control exercised over these areas shifted in favor of one government or the other over the course of time. This history is conducive to ambiguity as to what areas belonged to Tibet, or to China, or to neither, at various times.Powers 2004, pg. 158 Rob Gifford, a
National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
journalist, said that in 2007, the region sometimes known as "ethnographic Tibet", which includes sections of Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan that surround the TAR, has greater religious freedoms than the TAR since the authorities in Beijing do not perceive the Tibetan populations in the areas as having the likelihood to strive for political independence. Gifford, Rob. "Monks and Nomads." '' China Road''. 157. In spite of the changing nature of the recognised borders between the two countries over the centuries, and arguments about their positions (something common to many modern states as well), there were serious attempts from very early times to delineate the borders clearly to avoid conflict. One of the earliest such attempts was promulgated in the Sino-Tibetan treaty which was agreed on in 821/822 under the Tibetan emperor
Ralpacan Tritsuk Detsen (), better known by his nickname Ralpachen () (c. 802 CE–838), was the 40th king of the Yarlung Dynasty of Tibet. He reigned after the death of his father, Sadnalegs, in c. 815, and grew the empire to its largest extent. He wa ...
. It established peace for more than two decades. A bilingual account of this treaty is inscribed on a stone pillar which stands outside the
Jokhang The Jokhang (, zh, s=大昭寺}), historically known as the Rasa Trulnang (ra sa 'phrul snang) or Qoikang Monastery or Zuglagkang ( or Tsuklakang), is considered the "heart of Lhasa"."Jokhang". MAPS, Places. University of Virginia. The Jokhang ...
temple in Lhasa. Here is the main core of this remarkable agreement: :"...The great king of Tibet, the supernaturally wise divinity, the ''btsan-po'' and the great king of China, the Chinese ruler Hwang Te, Nephew and Uncle, having consulted about the alliance of their dominions have made a great treaty and ratified the agreement. In order that it may never be changed, all gods and men have been made aware of it and taken as witnesses; and so that it may be celebrated in every age and in every generation the terms of agreement have been inscribed on a stone pillar. :The supernaturally wise divinity, the ''btsan-po'', Khri Gtsug-lde-brtsan himself and the Chinese ruler, B'un B'u He'u Tig Hwang Te, their majesties the Nephew and Uncle, through the great profundity of their minds know whatsoever is good and ill for present and future alike. With great compassion, making no distinction between outer and inner in sheltering all with kindness, they have agreed in their counsel on a great purpose of lasting good—the single thought of causing happiness for the whole population—and have renewed the respectful courtesies of their old friendship. Having consulted to consolidate still further the measure of neighbourly contentment they have made a great treaty. Both Tibet and China shall keep the country and frontiers of which they are now in possession. The whole region to the east of that being the country of Great China and the whole region to the west being assuredly the country of Great Tibet, from either side of that frontier there should be no warfare, no hostile invasions, and no seizure of territory. If there be any suspicious person, he shall be arrested and an investigation made and, having been suitably provided for, he shall be sent back. :Now that the dominions are allied and a great treaty of peace has been made in this way, since it is necessary also to continue the communications between Nephew and Uncle, envoys setting out from either side shall follow the old established route. According to former custom their horses shall be changed at Tsang Kun Yog which is between Tibet and China. Beyond Stse Zhung Cheg, where Chinese territory is met, the Chinese shall provide all facilities, beyond Tseng Shu Hywan, where Tibetan territory is met, the Tibetans shall provide all facilities. According to the close and friendly relationship between Nephew and Uncle the customary courtesy and respect shall be observed. Between the two countries no smoke or dust shall appear. Not even a word of sudden alarm or of enmity shall be spoken and from those who guard the frontier upwards all shall live at ease without suspicion or fear both on their land and in their beds. Dwelling in peace they shall win the blessing of happiness for ten thousand generations. The sound of praise shall extend to every place reached by the sun and moon. And in order that this agreement establishing a great era when Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China shall never be changed, the Three Jewels, the body of saints, the sun and moon, planets and stars have been invoked as witnesses; its purport has been expounded in solemn words; the oath has been sworn with the sacrifice of animals; and the agreement has been solemnized. :If the parties do not act in accordance with this agreement or if it is violated, whether it be Tibet or China that is first guilty of an offence against it, whatever stratagem or deceit is used in retaliation shall not be considered a breach of the agreement. :Thus the rulers and ministers of both Tibet and China declared, and swore the oath; and the text having been written in detail it was sealed with the seals of both great kings. It was inscribed with the signatures of those ministers who took part in the agreement and the text of the agreement was deposited in the archives of each party..." In more recent times the border between China and Tibet was recognised to be near the town of Batang, which marked the furthest point of Tibetan rule on the route to
Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...
: :"The temporal power of the Supreme Lama ends at Bathang. The frontiers of Tibet, properly so called, were fixed in 1726, on the termination of a great war between the Tibetans and the Chinese. Two days before you arrive at Bathang, you pass, on the top of a mountain, a stone monument, showing what was arranged at that time between the government of Lha-Ssa and that of Peking, on the subject of boundaries. At present, the countries situate east of Bathang are independent of Lha-Ssa in temporal matters. They are governed by a sort of feudal princes, originally appointed by the Chinese Emperor, and still acknowledging his paramount authority. These petty sovereigns are bound to go every third year to Peking, to offer their tribute to the Emperor." Spencer Chapman gives a similar, but more detailed, account of this border agreement: :"In 1727, as a result of the Chinese having entered Lhasa, the boundary between China and Tibet was laid down as between the head-waters of the Mekong and Yangtse rivers, and marked by a pillar, a little to the south-west of Batang. Land to the west of this pillar was administered from Lhasa, while the Tibetan chiefs of the tribes to the east came more directly under China. This historical Sino-Tibetan boundary was used until 1910. The states Der-ge, Nyarong, Batang, Litang, and the five Hor States—to name the more important districts—are known collectively in Lhasa as
Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...
, an indefinite term suitable to the Tibetan Government, who are disconcertingly vague over such details as treaties and boundaries." Mr. A. Hosie, the British Consul at Chengdu, made a quick trip from Batang to the Tibetan border escorted by Chinese authorities, in September 1904, on the promise that he would not even put a foot over the border into Tibet. He describes the border marker as being a 3 day journey (about 50 miles or 80 km) to the south and slightly west of Batang. It was a "well-worn, four-sided pillar of sandstone, about 3 feet in height, each side measuring some 18 inches. There was no inscription on the stone, and when unthinkingly I made a movement to look for writing on the Tibetan side, the Chinese officials at once stepped in front of me and barred the road to Tibet. Looking into Tibet the eye met a sea of grass-covered treeless hills. And from the valley at the foot of the Ningching Shan hich separate the valleys of the upper Mekong from that of the Jinsha River">Jinsha or upper Yangtse">Mekong">hich separate the valleys of the upper Mekong from that of the Jinsha River">Jinsha or upper Yangtserose smoke from the camp fires of 400 Tibetan troops charged with the protection of the frontier. There was no time to make any prolonged inspection, for the Chinese authorities were anxious for me to leave as soon as possible." André Migot, a French doctor and explorer, who travelled for many months in Tibet in 1947, stated: :"Once you are outside the North Gate [of Dardo or Kangting], you say good-by to Chinese civilization and its amenities and you begin to lead a different kind of life altogether. Although on paper the wide territories to the north of the city form part of the Chinese provinces of Sikang and Tsinghai, the real frontier between China and Tibet runs through Kangting, or perhaps just outside it. The empirical line which Chinese cartographers, more concerned with prestige than with accuracy, draw on their maps bears no relation to accuracy." Migot, discussing the history of Chinese control of Tibet, states that it was not until the end of the 17th century that: :"the territories f Sikang and Tsinghai">Sikang.html" ;"title="f Sikang">f Sikang and Tsinghai">Sikang">f_Sikang<_a>_and_Tsinghai.html" ;"title="Sikang.html" ;"title="f Sikang">f Sikang and Tsinghai">Sikang.html" ;"title="f Sikang">f Sikang and Tsinghaiwere annexed by the early Manchu emperors in accordance with their policy of unifying the whole of China, and even then annexation, though a fact on paper, was largely a fiction in practice. In those days Buddhism, which had gained a strong hold over most of Central Asia, had been adopted by the Manchu dynasty as their official religion, and the emperors even posed as protectors of the Tibetan Church. :Although there was a short military campaign, as a result of which Chinese garrisons were established at
Tatsienlu Kangding ( zh, c=康定), also known as Dartsedo (), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the histor ...
, at Batang (Paan), and at key points along the road to Lhasa, Peking formally recognized and even proclaimed the Dalai Lama as the sole temporal sovereign authority in Tibet. The Manchus contented themselves with appointing to Lhasa two special commissioners, called ''ambans'', in whom were vested powers to influence decisively the selection of all future reincarnations of the Dalai Lama. By way of reparation, the Emperor regularly distributed handsome grants of money to the lamaseries and the local chieftains. These comparatively urbane relations between the two countries, which had unobtrusively given the Tibetan priesthood a vested interest in the Chinese administration, lasted until the Manchu dynasty fell, and, while they lasted, Chinese armies from time to time entered Tibet on the pretext of protecting the country against Mongol invasions from Dzungaria. The Sino-Tibetan frontier was marked by the erection of a pillar on the Bum La, a pass which lies two and a half days' travel to the southwest of Batang; from there the frontier ran north along a line parallel to, and slightly west of, the
Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
. All the territory to the west of this line was under the direct authority of the Dalai Lama, but to the east of it the petty chieftains of the local tribes retained, although they paid tribute to Peking, a considerable measure of independence. :These arrangements failed to survive the blow dealt, indirectly, to China's position in that part of the world by the British expedition to Lhasa in 1904. In order to offset the damage done to their interests by the
906 __NOTOC__ Year 906 ( CMVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * February 27 – Battle of Fritzlar: The Conradines defeat the Babenberg counts, to establish themselves as duke ...
treaty between England and Tibet, the Chinese set up about extending westwards the sphere of their direct control and began to colonize the country round Batang. The Tibetans reacted vigorously. The Chinese governor was killed on his way to
Chamdo Chamdo, officially Qamdo () and also known in Chinese as Changdu (), is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Its seat is the town of Chengguan in Karuo District. Chamdo is Tibet's third largest c ...
and his army put to flight after an action near Batang; several missionaries were also murdered, and Chinese fortunes were at a low ebb when a special commissioner called Chao Yu-fong appeared on the scene. :Acting with a savagery which earned him the sobriquet of "The Butcher of Monks", he swept down on Batang, sacked the lamasery, pushed on to Chamdo, and in a series of victorious campaigns which brought his army to the gates of Lhasa, re-established order and reasserted Chinese domination over Tibet. In 1909 he recommended that Sikang should be constituted a separate province comprising thirty-six subprefectures with Batang as the capital. This project was not carried out until later, and then in modified form, for the Chinese Revolution of 1911 brought Chao's career to an end and he was shortly afterwards assassinated by his compatriots. :The troubled early years of the Chinese Republic saw the rebellion of most of the tributary chieftains, a number of pitched battles between Chinese and Tibetans, and many strange happenings in which tragedy, comedy, and (of course) religion all had a part to play. In 1914 Great Britain, China, and Tibet met at the conference table to try to restore peace, but this conclave broke up after failing to reach agreement on the fundamental question of the Sino-Tibetan frontier. This, since about 1918, has been recognized for practical purposes as following the course of the Upper Yangtze. In these years the Chinese had too many other preoccupations to bother about reconquering Tibet. However, things gradually quieted down, and in 1927 the province of Sikang was brought into being, but it consisted of only twenty-seven subprefectures instead of the thirty-six visualized by the man who conceived the idea. China had lost, in the course of a decade, all the territory which the Butcher had overrun. :Since then Sikang has been relatively peaceful, but this short synopsis of the province's history makes it easy to understand how precarious this state of affairs is bound to be. Chinese control was little more than nominal; I was often to have first-hand experience of its ineffectiveness. In order to govern a territory of this kind it is not enough to station, in isolated villages separated from each other by many days' journey, a few unimpressive officials and a handful of ragged soldiers. The Tibetans completely disregarded the Chinese administration and obeyed only their own chiefs. One very simple fact illustrates the true status of Sikang's Chinese rulers: nobody in the province would accept Chinese currency, and the officials, unable to buy anything with their money, were forced to subsist by a process of barter."''Tibetan Marches''. André Migot. Translated from the French by Peter Fleming, pp. 89-92. (1955). E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc. New York.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Definitions Of Tibet
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
Tibet Place name etymologies