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Tibet

 

Roof of the World is a metaphoric description of the highest region in the world, also known as "High Asia", or the Trans-Himalaya, the mountainous interior of Asia. The term is also used for parts of this region, for

• the Pamirs,
• Tibet
• the Himalayas
• Mount Everest

 

Cities and Towns

Lhasa is Tibet's traditional capital and the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region. It contains two world heritage sites – the Potala Palace and Norbulingka, which were the residences of the Dalai Lama. Lhasa contains a number of significant temples and monasteries, including Jokhang and Ramoche Temple.

Shigatse is the second largest city in Tibet, west of Lhasa. Gyantse and Chamdo are also amongst the largest.

Other cities in cultural Tibet include, Nagchu, Nyingchi, Nedong, Barkam, Sakya, Gartse, Pelbar, Lhatse, and Tingri; in Sichuan, Kangding (Dartsedo); in Qinghai, Jyekundo or Yushu, Machen, and Golmud. There is also a large Tibetan settlement in South India near Kushalanagara. India created this settlement for Tibetan refugees who had fled to India.

 

Tibetan cuisine, is quite distinct from that of its neighbours, since only a few crops (not including rice) grow at such high altitude. The most important crop is barley. Dough made from barley flour, called tsampa, is the staple food of Tibet. This is either rolled into noodles or made into steamed dumplings called momos. Meat dishes are likely to be yak, goat, or mutton, often dried, or cooked into a spicy stew with potatoes. Mustard seed is cultivated in Tibet, and therefore features heavily in its cuisine. Yak yoghurt, butter and cheese are frequently eaten, and well-prepared yoghurt is considered something of a prestige item.

Representative dishes:

• Balep korkun - a Tibetan flatbread that is made on a skillet
• Momos - a type of steamed ravioli, a heavier version of the Chinese jiaozi
• Thenthuk - a type of cold-weather soup made with noodles and various vegetables.

TIBET

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Tibet (西藏) is a plateau region in Central Asia and the home to the indigenous Tibetan people. With an average elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), it is the highest region on Earth and is commonly referred to as the "Roof of the World."

Tibet was once an independent kingdom but today is part of the People's Republic of China (PRC) while a small part, according to the government of the People's Republic of China, is controlled by India. Currently, the PRC government and the Government of Tibet in Exile still disagree over when Tibet became a part of China, and whether the incorporation into China of Tibet is legitimate according to international law (see Tibetan sovereignty debate). Since what constitutes Tibet is a matter of much debate (see map, right) neither its size nor population are simple matters of fact, due to various entities claiming differing parts of the area as a Tibetan region.

A unified Tibet first came into being under Songtsän Gampo in the seventh century. The government of the Dalai Lamas, a line of Tibetan spiritual leaders, nominally ruled a large portion of the Tibetan region from the 1640s until its incorporation into the PRC in the 1950s. During most of this period, the Tibetan administration was subordinate to the Chinese empire of the Qing Dynasty. As a measure of the power that regents must have wielded it is important to note that only three of the fourteen Dalai Lamas have actually ruled Tibet. From 1751 to 1960 regents ruled for 77 percent of the time.

 

Geography

Geographically, UNESCO and Encyclopædia Britannica consider Tibet to be part of Central Asia, while some academic organizations consider it part of South Asia.

Tibet is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the world's highest region. The world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, is on Nepal's border with Tibet. The average altitude is about 3,000 m in the south and 4,500 m in the north.

Historic Tibet consists of several regions. These include Amdo (A mdo) in the northeast, incorporated by China into the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. Kham (Khams) in the east, divided between Sichuan, northern Yunnan and Qinghai. Western Kham, part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Ü-Tsang part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Tibetan cultural influences extend to the neighboring states of Bhutan, Nepal, adjacent regions of India such as Sikkim and Ladakh, and adjacent provinces of China where Tibetan Buddhism is the predominant religion.

On the border with India, the region popularly known among Chinese as South Tibet is claimed by China and administered by India as the state of Arunachal Pradesh.

 

Economics

The Tibetan economy is dominated by subsistence agriculture. Due to limited arable land, the primary occupation of the Tibetan Plateau is raising livestock, such as sheep, cattle, goats, camels, yaks, dzo, and horses. The main crops grown are barley, wheat, buckwheat, rye, potatoes, and assorted fruits and vegetables. Tibet is ranked the lowest among China’s 31 provinces, on the Human Development Index according to UN Development Programme data. In recent years, due to increased interest in Tibetan Buddhism, tourism has become an increasingly important sector, and is actively promoted by the authorities. Tourism brings in the most income from the sale of handicrafts. These include Tibetan hats, jewelry (silver and gold), wooden items, clothing, quilts, fabrics, Tibetan rugs and carpets. The Central government exempts Tibet from all taxation and provides 90% of Tibet's government expenditures.

 

Tibetan Buddhism

Religion is extremely important to the Tibetans and has a strong influence over all aspects of lives. Bön is the ancient religion of Tibet, but has been almost eclipsed by Tibetan Buddhism, a distinctive form of Mahayana and Vajrayana, which was introduced into Tibet from the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition of northern India. Tibetan Buddhism is practiced not only in Tibet but also in Mongolia, parts of northern India, the Buryat Republic, the Tuva Republic, and in the Republic of Kalmykia and some other parts of China besides Tibet. During China's Cultural Revolution, nearly all Tibet's monasteries were ransacked and destroyed by the Red Guards.

 

Demographics

Historically, the population of Tibet consisted of primarily ethnic Tibetans and some other ethnic groups. According to tradition the original ancestors of the Tibetan people, as represented by the six red bands in the Tibetan flag, are: the Se, Mu, Dong, Tong, Dru and Ra. Other traditional ethnic groups with significant population or with the majority of the ethnic group reside in Tibet (excluding disputed area with India) include Bai people, Blang, Bonan, Dongxiang, Han, Hui Chinese, Lhoba, Lisu people, Miao, Mongols, Monguor (Tu people), Menba (Monpa), Mosuo, Nakhi, Qiang, Nu people, Pumi, Salar, and Yi people.

The issue of the proportion of the Han Chinese population in Tibet is a politically sensitive one and is disputed. The Central Tibetan Administration, an exile group, says that the PRC has actively swamped Tibet with Han Chinese migrants in order to alter Tibet's demographic makeup.

 

 

Southwest China

Southwest China (西南) is a region of China defined by governmental bureaus that includes the municipality of Chongqing; provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou; and the Tibet Autonomous Region.

 

 

Ethnic Tibetan Autonomous Entities Set Up by the People's Republic of China

 

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Genetic Origins of the Tibetan People

The Tibetan people (藏) are indigenous to Tibet and surrounding areas stretching from Central Asia in the North and West to Myanmar and China Proper in the East and India, Nepal and Bhutan to the south. Numbering 5.4 million, they are the 10th largest of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

The distribution of Haplogroup D-M174 is found among nearly all the populations of Central Asia and Northeast Asia south of the Russian border, although generally at a low frequency of 2% or less. A dramatic spike in the frequency of D-M174 occurs as one approaches the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of western China. D-M174 is also found at high frequencies in Japan but it fades into low frequencies in the Han populated mainland China between Japan and Tibet.

"Different racial types live side by side or coalesce. The predominant strain in most cases in Mongoloid, but many travellers have been struck by the prevalence of what they describe as a 'Red Indian' type (in Kongpo, among the Hor nomads, and in Tatsienlu). Others have noted a European, 'Hellenic' or Caucasian element which seems sometimes to be identical with the preceding type, and sometimes to denote a separate type altogether, especially in north-eastern Tibet. A dwarfish type occurs in Chala, a district of Kham. Though all these are but impressions, the fact that different groups exist is plain. According to travellers with no special claim to scientific knowledge, the brachycephalic type predominates in the farming communities of the Brahmaputra valley and in the south-east. In Ladakh, it would appear to have been to have been superimposed on a dolichocephalic strain (no doubt Dards). Northerners, as in the Changthang lakes region—the Hor and Golok people—are themselves dolichocephalic , on the other hand. However, anthropologists merely distinguish two types: one distinctly Mongoloid and of slight build, typical of Kham. Blue-eyed 'blond' types have also been observed in the north-east."

 

 

Haplogroup D (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup D (M174) is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. Both D and E lineages also exhibit the single-nucleotide polymorphism M168 which is present in all Y-chromosome haplogroups except A and B, as well as the YAP unique-event polymorphism, which is unique to Haplogroup DE.

Origins: Haplogroup D is believed to have originated in Asia some 60,000 years before present. While haplogroup D along with haplogroup E contains the distinctive YAP polymorphism (which indicates their common ancestry), no haplogroup D chromosomes have been found anywhere outside of Asia.

Overview: Like haplogroup C, D is believed to represent the Great Coastal Migration along southern Asia, from Arabia to Southeast Asia and thence northward to populate East Asia. It is found today at high frequency among populations in Tibet, the Japanese archipelago, and the Andaman Islands, though curiously not in India. The Ainu of Japan and the Jarawa and Onge of the Andaman Islands are notable for possessing almost exclusively Haplogroup D chromosomes, although Haplogroup C3 chromosomes also occur among the Ainu at a frequency of approximately 15%. Haplogroup D chromosomes are also found at low to moderate frequencies among populations of Central Asia and northern East Asia as well as the Han and Miao-Yao peoples of China and among several minority populations of Sichuan and Yunnan that speak Tibeto-Burman languages and reside in close proximity to the Tibetans.

Unlike haplogroup C, Hg D did not travel from Asia to the New World; it is found in no modern Native American (North, Central or South) populations. There is the possibility it traveled to the New World, like Hg C, but those lineages died out.

Haplogroup D is also remarkable for its rather extreme geographic differentiation, with a distinct subset of Haplogroup D chromosomes being found exclusively in each of the populations that contains a large percentage of individuals whose Y-chromosomes belong to Haplogroup D: Haplogroup D1 among the Tibetans (as well as among the mainland East Asian populations that display very low frequencies of Haplogroup D Y-chromosomes), Haplogroup D2 among the various populations of the Japanese Archipelago, Haplogroup D3 among the inhabitants of Tibet, Tajikistan and other parts of mountainous southern Central Asia, and Haplogroup D* (probably another monophyletic branch of Haplogroup D) among the Andaman Islanders. Another type (or types) of Haplogroup D* is found at a very low frequency among the Turkic and Mongolic populations of Central Asia, amounting to no more than 1% in total. This apparently ancient diversification of Haplogroup D suggests that it may perhaps be better characterized as a "super-haplogroup" or "macro-haplogroup." In one study, the frequency of haplogroup D* found among Thais was 10%.

The Haplogroup D Y-chromosomes that are found among populations of the Japanese Archipelago are particularly distinctive, bearing a complex of at least five individual mutations along an internal branch of the Haplogroup D phylogeny, thus distinguishing them clearly from the Haplogroup D chromosomes that are found among the Tibetans and Andaman Islanders and providing evidence that Y-chromosome Haplogroup D2 was the modal haplogroup in the ancestral population that developed the prehistoric Jōmon culture in the Japanese islands.

Subclades: This phylogenetic tree of haplogroup D subclades is based on the YCC 2008 tree and subsequent published research.

• DE
  • D (M174, 021355)
    • D*
    • D1 (M15)
      • D1a (N1)
        • D1a1 (N2)
    • D2 (M55, M57, M64.1, M179, P37.1, P41.1, P190, 12f2b)
      • D2a (M116.1)
        • D2a1 (M125)
          • D2a1a (P42)
            • D2a1a1 (P12)
          • D2a1b (022457)
            • D2a1b1 (P53.2)
        • D2a2 (M151)
        • D2a3 (P120)
    • D3 (P99)

 

Distribution

D*: Found at high frequencies among Andaman Islanders and 8-65% in northeast Indian tribes.

D1 (M15): Found at high frequencies among Qiang people, 30% with a moderate distribution throughout East Asia.

The Qiang people (羌族) are an ethnic group of China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 200,000, living mainly in northwestern part of Sichuan province. Nowadays, the Qiang are only a small segment of the Chinese population, but they are commonly believed to be an old, once strong and populous people whose history can be traced at least to the Shang Dynasty and whose offsprings are thought to include some portion of the modern Tibetans, some portion of the modern Han Chinese and many minority ethnic groups in Western China.

D1a (N1)

D2 (M55): Found at high frequencies among the Ainu, Japanese, and Ryukyuans. Frequencies: Ainu 87%, Okinawa 56%, Honshū 37% and Kyūshū 28%

D3a (P47): Found at high frequencies among Tibetans, with a moderate distribution among some other populations of southern Central Asia. The highest frequency are among the Pumi people 70%.

The Pumi (also Primi) people (普米族) are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

Ethnically related to the Tibetans in the Muli Tibetan Autonomous County and Yanyuan in Sichuan, the Pumi are recognized as an official minority nationality unique to Yunnan, with a population of 30,000. Communities are found notably in Pumi & Bai Autonomous County of Lanping, Yi Autonomous County of Ninglang, Lijiang Old Town, Naxi Autonomous County of Yulong, Lisu Autonomous County of Weixi and Yongsheng County, typically at elevations above 9,000 feet

The Pumi have the longest traceable migration path of any minority group in China. Originally existing as nomads inhabiting the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, they later moved to the warmer areas along valleys within the Hengduan Mountain Range in the 4th century B.C.

Subsequently, they moved to Northern Sichuan in the 7th century, and subsequently to northwest Yunnan in the 14th century. Many of them settled down to become farmers.

 

Haplogroup D1

Haplogroup D1 (M15) is a descendant branch of the greater Haplogroup D.

Its phylogenetically closest relatives are found among the peoples of Japan, Central Asia, and the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It is more distantly related to the Haplogroup E, whose E1b1b sub-clade is common throughout North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, and Europe.

Distribution: Haplogroup D1 is widely distributed throughout populations that dwell to the northwest, north, northeast, east, and southeast of the Himalaya. It is not found among the populations of India to the south and southwest. The distribution of Haplogroup D1 in Southeast Asia is also very limited, as it is found there only at low frequency and only among populations that speak Tibeto-Burman or Miao-Yao languages, which have ancestral ties to the north.

The distribution of Haplogroup D1 is much more regular in the north, as it is found among nearly all the populations of Central Asia and Northeast Asia south of the Russian border, although generally at a low frequency of 2% or less. A dramatic spike in the frequency of Haplogroup D1 occurs as one approaches the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of western China: among some local populations in Qinghai, it has been found to reach as high as 100%. Its frequency gradually fades as one travels south through the territory of the Tibetan peoples, as Haplogroup O3, which is the most common haplogroup among the Han Chinese and also generally found among Southeast Asian populations, becomes dominant. Haplogroup D1 continues to occur at an overall very low frequency among the Han people to the east; however, there are some indications that the frequency of D1 among the Hans may vary significantly between localities. A secondary, minor spike in the frequency of Haplogroup D1 occurs again in Korea, where it may reach as high as 5% to 8%; this somewhat heightened frequency does not stretch into Manchuria to the north or Japan to the east, which may corroborate historical accounts of immigration from the country of Qin (秦國) in the far west of ancient China to the country of Jinhan, which is believed to have been located somewhere in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. Ancient Chinese historians are known for their habit of drawing what often seem to be forced connections between contemporary peoples and putative ancestors of misty antiquity, and the comments about immigration from Qin to Jinhan might have been motivated by the similarity that the ancient central Chinese perceived between the languages of Qin and Jinhan. Nevertheless, on this occasion the genetic evidence seems to provide the story with some independent corroboration.

As for the ultimate origin of Haplogroup D1, one can only speculate that it might share a recent common ancestor with the Haplogroup D* (M174) Y-chromosomes that are found at a vanishingly low frequency among modern populations of Central Asia.

In regards to the ethnic affiliation of the original carriers of Haplogroup D1, it is notable that Haplogroup D1 Y-chromosomes have not been found to occur at all among many populations of Tibeto-Burman speakers, but Y-chromosomes belonging to the Haplogroup O3a5-M134 clade are commonly found among all Tibeto-Burman-speaking populations outside of Qinghai in addition to being the modal haplogroup among speakers of Sino-Tibetan languages in general, which suggests that the Haplogroup D1 Y-chromosomes found at high frequency among the populations of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau may reflect:

(1) A severe founder effect and/or genetic drift
(2) Descent from a Tibeticized Paleolithic substrate distantly related to modern populations of Central and/or Northeast Asia
(3) A massive incursion of foreign Y-chromosomes belonging to a now linguistically extinct tribe of ultimately Central Asian or Northeast Asian derivation, subsequent to the establishment of Sino-Tibetan-speaking Neolithic populations in the general area.

 

 

* The Human Y Chromosome: An evolutionary marker comes of age by Mark A. Jobling, et al.

Global Distribution of Y Haplogroups

1, !Kung; 2, Biaka Pygmies; 3, Bamileke; 4, Fali; 5, Senegalese; 6, Berbers; 7, Ethiopians; 8, Sudanese; 9, Basques; 10, Greeks; 11, Polish; 12, Saami; 13, Russians; 14, Lebanese; 15, Iranians; 16, Kazbegi (Georgia); 17, Kazaks; 18, Punjabis; 19, Uzbeks; 20, Forest Nentsi; 21, Khants; 22, Eastern Evenks; 23, Buryats; 24, Evens; 25, Eskimos; 26, Mongolians; 27, Evenks; 28, Northern Han; 29, Tibetans; 30, Taiwanese; 31, Japanese; 32, Koreans; 33, Filipinos; 34, Javanese; 35, Malaysians; 36, West New Guineans (highlands); 37, Papua New Guineans (coast); 38, Australians (Arnhem); 39, Australians (Sandy Desert); 40, Cook Islanders; 41, Tahitians; 42, Maori; 43, Navajos; 44, Cheyenne; 45, Mixtecs; 46, Makiritare; 47, Cayapa; 48, Greenland Inuit.

 

 

* Geographical Distributions of Y-chromosomal Haplogroups P*(xR1a), R1a, and J from Male Demography in East Asia: A North–South Contrast in Human Population Expansion Times by Yali Xue, et al.

 

 

Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA)

Central and Northern Asia: R1a1a frequencies vary widely between populations within central and northern parts of Eurasia, but it is found in areas including Western China and Eastern Siberia. This big variation is possibly a consequence of population bottlenecks in isolated areas and the large movements of Turco-Mongols during the historic period. For example, exceptionally high frequencies of R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198; 50 to 70%) are found among the Ishkashimis, Khojant Tajiks, Kyrgyzs, and in several peoples of Russia's Altai Republic. Although levels are comparatively low amongst some Turkic-speaking groups (e.g. Turks, Azeris, Kazakhs, Yakuts), levels are very high in certain Turkic or Mongolic-speaking groups of Northwestern China, such as the Bonan, Dongxiang, Salar, and Uyghurs. R1a1a is also found among certain indigenous Eastern Siberians, including: Kamchatkans and Chukotkans, and peaking in Itel'man at 22%.

Europe: In Europe, R1a, again almost entirely in the R1a1a sub-clade, is found at highest levels among peoples of Eastern European descent (Sorbs, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians; 50 to 65%). Levels in Hungarians have been noted between 20 and 60% The Balkans shows lower frequencies, and significant variation between areas, for example >30% in Slovenia, Croatia and Greek Macedonia, but <10% in Albania, Kosovo and parts of Greece. In the Baltic countries R1a frequencies decrease from Lithuania (45%) to Estonia (around 30%).

R1a1 was present in Europe at least 4600 years ago, as demonstrated by Y-DNA with the Y-SNP marker SRY10831.2 extracted from the remains of three individuals near Eulau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, discovered in 2005. The discovery demonstrated the appearance of R1a1 with Corded Ware culture in Central Europe.

There is a significant presence in peoples of Scandinavian descent, with highest levels in Norway and Iceland, where between 20 and 30% of men are in R1a1a. Vikings and Normans may have also carried the R1a1a lineage westward; accounting for at least part of the small presence in the British Isles.

In Southern Europe R1a1a is not normally common but it is widespread and found in significant pockets. Scozzari et al. (2001) found significant levels in the Pas Valley in Northern Spain, and also the areas of Venice, and Calabria in Italy.

Origins and Hypothesized Migrations of R1a1a: Most discussions of R1a origins concern the dominant R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) sub-clade. There are two foci of high frequency of R1a1a, one in South Asia, near North India, and the other in Eastern Europe, in the area of the Ukraine. Until 2009 claims regarding the oldest R1a populations varied greatly between different articles, with Eastern Europe and South Asia being the main contenders. Such studies generally look at the STR haplotypes of each major population of R1a positive men. (These are the same markers mentioned above as being useful in trying to discover potential new branches within the R1a1a family tree.) Higher variation of STR haplotype in any particular region is normally seen as an rough indicator that a haplogroup has been present longer in that region. In order to gain more insight, the STR haplotypes are also often examined in detail, looking for clusters of more or less related male lines.

In 2009, several large studies of both old and new STR data, including Mirabal et al. (2009), Underhill et al. (2009), and Klyosov (2009) concluded that not only are there are two separate "poles of the expansion" with similar ages, but also that of these two poles, Asian R1a1a is apparently older than European R1a1a. The data is therefore said to be more consistent with Asian origins for R1a1a, as opposed to European origins, with a particular focus remaining upon South Asia

Central Eurasian Origin Proposals: Cordaux et al. (2004) argued, citing data from 3 earlier publications, that R-M17 (R1a1a) Y chromosomes most probably have a central Asian origin. Central Asia is still considered a possible place of origin by Mirabal et al. (2009) after their larger analysis of more recent data. However these authors do not clearly distinguish the case being made for Central Asia for the case being made for Asia, particularly South Asia, more generally.

Recently, looking at Chinese STR data not included in other studies Klyosov (2009) concluded that the common source of Indian and European R1a must be somewhere near the modern Chinese ethnic groups known as the Hui, Bolan, Dongxiang and Sala and approximately 20,000 years ago, possibly somewhere near southern Siberia.

Steppe Cultures: From the late Neolithic and into the Iron Age, archaeologists recognize a complex of inter-related and relatively mobile cultures living on the Eurasian steppe, part of which protrudes into Europe. Many of these are in turn associated with the dispersal of Indo-European languages, the most recent dispersal being the one which led to the Indo-Iranian family of languages becoming the dominant modern languages of regions from Kurdistan to Western China, including such civilizations as Persia and India. (With the Slavic and Baltic languages considered to represent a relatively closely related branch.)

Geneticists believing that they see evidence of R1a1a gene-flow from the Eurasian Steppe to India have frequently proposed the involvement of these Steppe cultures, Indo-European languages, and possibly with specific cultural traits such as Kurgan burials and horse domestication. All of these are generally felt to originate in the specifically European part of the steppes, which stretches as far west as the Ukraine.

 

Map of Krasnoyarsk

* Ancient DNA Provides New Insights into the History of South Siberian Kurgan People by C. Keyser, et al.

Abstract: To help unravel some of the early Eurasian steppe migration movements, we determined the Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial haplotypes and haplogroups of 26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area dated from between the middle of the second millennium BC. to the fourth century AD. In order to go further in the search of the geographic origin and physical traits of these south Siberian specimens, we also typed phenotype-informative single nucleotide polymorphisms. Our autosomal, Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA analyses reveal that whereas few specimens seem to be related matrilineally or patrilineally, nearly all subjects belong to haplogroup R1a1-M17 which is thought to mark the eastward migration of the early Indo-Europeans. Our results also confirm that at the Bronze and Iron Ages, south Siberia was a region of overwhelmingly predominant European settlement, suggesting an eastward migration of Kurgan people across the Russo-Kazakh steppe. Finally, our data indicate that at the Bronze and Iron Age timeframe, south Siberians were blue (or green)-eyed, fair-skinned and light-haired people and that they might have played a role in the early development of the Tarim Basin civilization. To the best of our knowledge, no equivalent molecular analysis has been undertaken so far.

 

 

* Y-Chromosome Evidence of Southern Origin of the East Asian–Specific Haplogroup O3-M122 by Hong Shi, et al.

Abstract: The prehistoric peopling of East Asia by modern humans remains controversial with respect to early population migrations. Here, we present a systematic sampling and genetic screening of an East Asian–specific Y-chromosome haplogroup (O3-M122) in 2,332 individuals from diverse East Asian populations. Our results indicate that the O3-M122 lineage is dominant in East Asian populations, with an average frequency of 44.3%. The microsatellite data show that the O3-M122 haplotypes in southern East Asia are more diverse than those in northern East Asia, suggesting a southern origin of the O3-M122 mutation. It was estimated that the early northward migration of the O3-M122 lineages in East Asia occurred ~25,000–30,000 years ago, consistent with the fossil records of modern humans in East Asia.

 

The Frequency Distribution of the O3-M122 Haplotypes in East Asian and Other Continental Populations

 

 

* Evolution and Migration History of the Chinese Population Inferred from Chinese Y-chromosome Evidence by Deng W, et al.

Abstract: Y-chromosomes from 76 Chinese men covering 33 ethnic minorities throughout China as well as the Han majority were collected as genetic material for the study of Chinese nonrecombinant Y-chromosome (NRY) phylogeny. Of the accepted worldwide NRY haplogroups, three (haplogroups D, C, O) were significant in this sample, extending previous assessments of Chinese genetic diversity. Based on geographic, linguistic, and ethnohistorical information, the 33 Chinese ethnic minorities in our survey were divided into the following four subgroups: North, Tibet, West, and South. Inferred from the distribution of the newly found immediate ancestor lineage haplogroup O*, which has M214 but not M175, we argue that the southern origin scenario of this most common Chinese Y haplogroup is not very likely. We tentatively propose a West/North-origin hypothesis, suggesting that haplogroup O originated in West/North China and mainly evolved in China and thence spread further throughout eastern Eurasia. The nested cladistic analysis revealed in detail a multilayered, multidirectional, and continuous history of ethnic admixture that has shaped the contemporary Chinese population. Our results give some new clues to the evolution and migration of the Chinese population and its subsequence moving about in this land, which are in accordance with the historical records.

 

Maximum Parsimony Phylogeny of Chinese Nonrecombinant Y-chromosome (NRY) Chromosome Binary Variation

 

Occurrence Within Each Chinese Ethnical Subgroup

Total numbers of individuals in the respective haplogroups are also indicated following the corresponding haplogroup names

Haplogroups: L, P, O*, O1, C, D,

 

 

* Characteristics of Mongoloid and Neighboring Populations Based on the Genetic Markers of Human Immunoglobulins by H. Matsumoto

Abstract: Since the discovery in 1966 of the Gm ab3st gene, which characterizes Mongoloid populations, the distribution of allotypes of immunoglobulins (Gm) among Mongoloid populations scattered from Southeast Asia through East Asia to South America has been investigated, and the following conclusions can be drawn: 1. Mongoloid populations can be characterized by four Gm haplotypes, Gm ag, axg, ab3st, and afb1b3, and can be divided into two groups based on the analysis of genetic distances utilizing Gm haplotype frequency distributions: the first is a southern group characterized by a remarkably high frequency of Gm afb1b3 and a low frequency of Gm ag, and the second, a northern group characterized by a high frequency of both Gm ag and Gm ab3st but an extremely low frequency of Gm afb1b3. 2. Populations in China, mainly Han but including minority nationalities, show remarkable heterogeneity of Gm allotypes from north to south and contrast sharply to Korean and Japanese populations, which are considerably more homogenous with respect to these genetic markers. The center of dispersion of the Gm afb1b3 gene characterizing southern Mongoloids has been identified as the Guangxi and Yunnan area in the southwest of China. 3. The Gm ab3st gene, which is found with its the highest incidence among the northern Baikal Buriats, flows in all directions. However, this gene shows a precipitous drop from mainland China to Taiwan and Southeast Asia and from North to South America, although it is still found in high frequency among Eskimos, Koryaks, Yakuts, Tibetans, Olunchuns, Tungus, Koreans, Japanese, and Ainus. On the other hand, the gene was introduced into Huis, Uyghurs, Indians, Iranians, and spread as far as to include Hungarians and Sardinians in Italy. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that the Japanese race belongs to northern Mongoloids and that the origin of the Japanese race was in Siberia, and most likely in the Baikal area of the Soviet Union.

 

 

* Y Chromosome Evidence of Earliest Modern Human Settlement in East Asia and Multiple Origins of Tibetan and Japanese Populations by Hong Shi, et al.

Abstract

Background: The phylogeography of the Y chromosome in Asia previously suggested that modern humans of African origin initially settled in mainland southern East Asia, and about 25,000–30,000 years ago, migrated northward, spreading throughout East Asia. However, the fragmented distribution of one East Asian specific Y chromosome lineage (D-M174), which is found at high frequencies only in Tibet, Japan and the Andaman Islands, is inconsistent with this scenario.

Results: In this study, we collected more than 5,000 male samples from 73 East Asian populations and reconstructed the phylogeography of the D-M174 lineage. Our results suggest that D-M174 represents an extremely ancient lineage of modern humans in East Asia, and a deep divergence was observed between northern and southern populations.

Conclusion: We proposed that D-M174 has a southern origin and its northward expansion occurred about 60,000 years ago, predating the northward migration of other major East Asian lineages. The Neolithic expansion of Han culture and the last glacial maximum are likely the key factors leading to the current relic distribution of D-M174 in East Asia. The Tibetan and Japanese populations are the admixture of two ancient populations represented by two major East Asian specific Y chromosome lineages, the O and D haplogroups.

 

 

* Y Chromosome Haplotypes Reveal Prehistorical Migrations to the Himalayas by Bing Su, et al.

Abstract By using 19 Y chromosome biallelic markers and 3 Y chromosome microsatellite markers, we analyzed the genetic structure of 31 indigenous Sino-Tibetan speaking populations (607 individuals) currently residing in East, Southeast, and South Asia. Our results showed that a T to C mutation at locus M122 is highly prevalent in almost all of the Sino-Tibetan populations, implying a strong genetic affinity among populations in the same language family. Furthermore, the extremely high frequency of H8, a haplotype derived from M122C, in the Sino-Tibetan speaking populations in the Himalayas including Tibet and northeast India indicated a strong bottleneck effect that occurred during a westward and then southward migration of the founding population of Tibeto-Burmans. We, therefore, postulate that the ancient people, who lived in the upper-middle Yellow River basin about 10,000 years ago and developed one of the earliest Neolithic cultures in East Asia, were the ancestors of modern Sino-Tibetan populations.

Map of Putative Migration Routes of the Sino-Tibetan Populations

 

 

* Y-Chromosome Evidence for a Northward Migration of Modern Humans into Eastern Asia during the Last Ice Age by Bing Su, et al.

Abstract: The timing and nature of the arrival and the subsequent expansion of modern humans into eastern Asia remains controversial. Using Y-chromosome biallelic markers, we investigated the ancient human-migration patterns in eastern Asia. Our data indicate that southern populations in eastern Asia are much more polymorphic than northern populations, which have only a subset of the southern haplotypes. This pattern indicates that the first settlement of modern humans in eastern Asia occurred in mainland Southeast Asia during the last Ice Age, coinciding with the absence of human fossils in eastern Asia, 50,000–100,000 years ago. After the initial peopling, a great northward migration extended into northern China and Siberia.

Principal-component Analysis of Y-chromosome Haplotype Frequencies of 30 Eastern-Asian Populations from

 

 

* Sequence-length Variation of mtDNA HVS-I C-stretch in Chinese Ethnic Groups by Feng Chen, et al.

NJ Tree of Nine Populations Based on Fst Distance

(Southern Han, Salar, Tu, Oroqen, Bonan, Yugur, Tibetan, Northern Han)

 

Principal Component (PC) Map of Nine Populations Based on the Distance Matrix

 

 

* HLA-DRB Alleles Polymorphism in Han, Hui, Uygur and Tibetan Populations in Northwestern China by SP Lai, et al.

Abstract: According to the 11th THW standard, we designed a pair of primers by which a segment of 256bp of HLA-DRB1, B3, B4, and B5 could be amplified simultaneously. Twenty-seven oligonucleotide probes were designed and synthesized for 39 loci on DRB1, 3 on DRB3, 1 on DRB4 and 3 on DRB5. A PCR-SSO DNA typing protocol was built, which met the standard of HLA class II DNA typing in 11th IHW. With this method, 186 of Chinese (Han) in Xi'an, 169 of Hui in Ningxia, 200 of Uygur in Xinjiang, and 188 of Tibetan in Tibet were detected with a comparison study. The genetic distribution of 46 loci of DRB in four ethnic healthy populations were surveyed. No diversity has been found between Han and Hui in DRB. DRB1 * 02(16.9%), DRB1 * 07 (13.1%), and DRB1 * 09(12.0%) were the higher frequent loci in Han. More DRB loci were detected in Tibetan but without higher loci as in Han and Hui. The DRB polymorphism of Uygur population was similar to Caucasian. A discriminative highest frequency of DRB1 * 07(23.8%) was found in Uygur, which implied a selection happened.

 

 

* Comparative Analysis of the Complete Mitochondrial Genome Between Tibetan and Han Population by ML Gu, et al.

OBJECTIVE: To construct the haplogroup and perform an analysis of mitochondrial whole-genome sequence in Tibetan and Han Chinese. Variations of nucleotide of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were identified and compared between the Tibetan and Han population. METHODS: The mtDNA whole sequences of 40 Tibetan and 50 Han individuals were sequenced by an Applied Biosystems 3730 DNA automatic sequencer. The sequences were assembled using software phredPhrap16.0, and all assembled sequences were manually verified according to the criterion of rCRS (revised Cambridge Reference Sequence). The haplogroups of mtDNA were constructed using phylogenetic analysis according to the criteria of MITOMAP by Network method. The data were elucidated by integrated methods. RESULTS: Authors' results showed that all the pooled 90 subjects belonged to the Macrohaplogroup M and N, and were classified into 13 haplogroups. No differences were observed among the haplogroups of the two populations except for M9 haplogroup. A total of 21 variants were detected by comparing the mtDNA whole sequences between Tibetan and Han population; of those, 5 variants have not been reported before. In addition, we constructed the haplotypes of 5 variants harboring the D-loop region, and founded prominent difference in both supertype 1 and supertype 2 between Tibetan and Han population. CONCLUSION: The phylogenetic analysis indicates that the Tibetan and Han ethnic groups shared close maternal relationship in origin. The biological implication of the significant variants is worth elucidating; whether they are the results of adaptive selection or neutral selection or pathological variations need to be further studied.

 

 

* Studies of DNA Polymorphism in Tibetan, Dongxiang, Hui and Han Ethnic Groups from the East Edge of Tibetan-Plateau by Xie Xiaodong

Abstract: The frequency distribution of 2 variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) loci (D1S80 and apoB) and 9 short tandem repeats (STRs) loci (D16S539, D7S820, D13S317, HUMF13A01, FESFPS, vWA, HUMTH01, TPOX, and CSF1PO) were investigated in Tibetan, Dongxiang, Hui and Han ethnic groups from the east edge of Tibetan-Plateau where many ethnic groups live in a vast area since ancient times ,but few data of population genetics were reported. The technique of amplified fragment length polymorphism (Amp-FLP) was employed for VNTRs locus and the multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by a denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and silver staining was used for STRs. The distributions of genotypes in these polymorphisms studied were in agreement with expected values according to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The heterozygosity, the power of discrimination (PD), the paternity exclusion (Pe) and the polymorphism information content (PIC) values were calculated. These statistical scores were found to be highly informative in these populations and proved the loci studied in this paper to be good molecular genetic markers. Based on the allele frequencies of six STR loci, the genetic distances among 21 populations were computed and the phylogenetic tree was constructed. The results showed that these STR loci meet the thesis of neutral mutation-random drift. The phylogenetic relationship revealed by data of D13S317 and HUMTH01 loci agree generally well with the results from anthropological, historical and linguistic studies. They could be used to study population mixture and immigration. Furthermore, the Caucasian associated allele was tested in several of the minorities living in Northwest China. The amounts of Caucasian admixture were estimated beyond 25% only in Hui and Dongxiang. The presence of Caucasian admixture was attributed to the Caucasians living in Central Asia throughout the military activities of Mongolian army during the initial Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. On the basis of these data, the paper discussed the possible origin of Hui and Dongxiang ethnic groups, while the clustering analysis revealed that Tibetan always cluster with the northern Han, Hui, and Dongxiang, suggesting that Tibetan originated from north China.

 

 

* Mitochondrial DNA Analysis in Tibet: Implications for the origin of the Tibetan population and its adaptation to high altitude by Antonio Torroni, et al.

Abstract: Mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) of 54 Tibetans residing at altitudes ranging from 3,000-4,500 m were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), examined by high-resolution restriction endonuclease analysis, and compared with those previously described in 10 other Asian and Siberian populations. This comparison revealed that more than 50% of Asian mtDNAs belong to a unique mtDNA lineage which is found only among Mongoloids, suggesting that this lineage most likely originated in Asia at an early stage of the human colonization of that continent. Within the Tibetan mtDNAs, sets of additional linked polymorphic sites defined seven minor lineages of related mtDNA haplotypes (haplogroups). The frequency and distribution of these haplogroups in modern Asian populations are supportive of previous genetic evidence that Tibetans, although located in southern Asia, share common ancestral origins with northern Mongoloid populations. This analysis of Tibetan mtDNAs also suggests that mtDNA mutations are unlikely to play a major role in the adaptation of Tibetans to high altitudes.

 

 

* Study of Gene Polymorphism and Hypoxia Related Gene on Residents Livin at High Altitude and Plain Area by 余满堂, et al.

Objective This paper researched angiotensin converting enzyme（ACE） gene polymorphism of Tibetan，Mongolian，Han Chinese residents living at high altitude and Han Chinese living at plain area. Methods Applying the technology of polymearse chain reaction（PCR） gene amplification and polyacrylamide gel（PAG） electric charge movement as well as gene sequencing，aims to understand the relationship between ACE gene frequency，ACE gene type frequency and ACE gene character with hypoxia inducible factor gene（HIFG）. Results Gene frequency is 0.6562，0.6377，0.6505 and 0.7186 in Han Chinese group，Tibetan group，Mongolian group at high altitude and Han Chinese at plain area respectively；there are not significant differences among three high altitude groups，but there is significant difference respectively compare to plain area（P＜0.001）.The gene type frequency is I/I 14%，I/D 11%，D/D 4% in Htan Chinese group at high altitude；I/I 16%，I/D 10%，D/D 7% in Tibetan group，I/I 14%，I/D 12%，D/D 6% in Mongolian group and I/I 5%，I/D 3%，D/D 26% in Han Chinese group at plain area；the result shows that there is minor difference among three high altitude groups，but there is significant difference respectively compare to plain are data（P＜0.001）.In addition，there is gene expression at 490bp point of gene sequence on Wistar rat. Conclusion This study provides molecular bioloic basis for further studying genetic mechanism of hypoxia adoptation of human beings at high altitude.

 

 

* Mitochondrial Genome Evidence Reveals Successful Late Paleolithic Settlement on the Tibetan Plateau by Mian Zhao, et al.

Abstract: Due to its numerous environmental extremes, the Tibetan Plateau—the world's highest plateau—is one of the most challenging areas of modern human settlement. Archaeological evidence dates the earliest settlement on the plateau to the Late Paleolithic, while previous genetic studies have traced the colonization event(s) to no earlier than the Neolithic. To explore whether the genetic continuity on the plateau has an exclusively Neolithic time depth, we studied mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome variation within 6 regional Tibetan populations sampled from Tibet and neighboring areas. Our results confirm that the vast majority of Tibetan matrilineal components can trace their ancestry to Epipaleolithic and Neolithic immigrants from northern China during the mid-Holocene. Significantly, we also identified an infrequent novel haplogroup, M16, that branched off directly from the Eurasian M founder type. Its nearly exclusive distribution in Tibetan populations and ancient age (>21 kya) suggest that M16 may represent the genetic relics of the Late Paleolithic inhabitants on the plateau. This partial genetic continuity between the Paleolithic inhabitants and the contemporary Tibetan populations bridges the results and inferences from archaeology, history, and genetics.

 

 

* Genetic Polymorphisms of 15 STR Loci in Chinese Han population living in Xi'an city of Shaanxi Province by Y.M. Wu, et al.

Abstract: Fifteen autosomal STRs loci were analyzed from a population sample of 446 unrelated healthy individuals of Chinese Han population residing in Xi'an city of Shaanxi Province using a multiplex PCR system. We report allele frequencies distribution and statistical parameters for all STR loci, D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818 and FGA. The observed genotype frequencies and expected of genotype frequencies were evaluated by chi(2)-test and the Fisher exact tests. Chi-Square test showed all STR loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p<0.05). Our studied population data were compared with the previously published population data of other ethnics or areas. After comparing, significant differences were found between Chinese Han population in Xi'an and Korean, Tibetan, Uigur, Chinese Han population in Guangdong Province, Hui population, Chinese Salar, Dongxiang and Tu ethnic minority living in Qinghai Province of China at some loci. The forensic parameters from the data showed high values. The data in the present study can be used greatly for routine forensic application in the region of Xi'an city.

 

 

* The ADH1B Arg47His Polymorphism in East Asian Populations and Expansion of Rice Domestication in History by Yi Peng, et al.

The Distribution of the ADH1B*47His Allele and the Sites of Early Rice Relics

 

The Distribution of the ADH1B*47His Allele in the 38 East Asian Populations

 

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Prehistory of Tibet

Tibet is situated between the two ancient civilizations of China and India, but the tangled mountain ranges of the Tibetan Plateau and the towering Himalayas serve to distance it from both. Tibet is nicknamed "the roof of the world" or "the land of snows".

The earliest Tibetan historical texts identify the Zhang Zhung culture as a people who migrated from the Amdo region into what is now the region of Guge in western Tibet. The Zhang Zhung are considered the original culture of the Bön religion. By the first century BC, a neighboring kingdom arose in the Yarlung valley, and the Yarlung king, Drigum Tsenpo, attempted to remove the influence of the Zhang Zhung by expelling the Zhang's Bon priests from Yarlung. He was assassinated and Zhang Zhung continued its dominance of the region until it was annexed by Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century.

 

 

Zhang Zhung Culture

Zhang Zhung was an ancient culture of western and northwestern Tibet, which pre-dates the culture of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. Zhang Zhung culture is associated with the Bön religion, which in turn, has influenced the philosophies and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. Also known as the Shang Shung, the Zhang Zhung are mentioned frequently in ancient Tibetan texts as the original rulers of central and western Tibet. Only in the last two decades have archaeologists been given access to do archaeological work in the areas controlled by the Zhang Zhung. Recently, a tentative match has been proposed between the Zhang Zhung and an Iron Age culture now being uncovered on the Chang Tang plateau of northwestern Tibet

According to Annals of Lake Manasarowar, at one point the Zhang Zhung civilization consisted of 18 kingdoms in the west and northwest portion of Tibet. The Zhang Zhung culture was centered around sacred Mount Kailash and extended west to Sarmatians and present-day Ladakh & Baltistan, southwest to Jalandhar, south to the Kingdom of Mustang in Nepal, east to include central Tibet, and north across the vast Chang Tang plateau and the Taklamakan Desert to Shanshan. Thus the Zhang Zhung culture controlled the major portion of the "roof of the world".

Tradition has it that Zhang Zhung consisted "of three different regions: sGob-ba, the outer; Phug-pa, the inner; and Bar-ba, the middle. The outer is what we might call Western Tibet, from Gilgit in the west to Dangs-ra khyung-rdzong in the east, next to lake gNam-mtsho, and from Khotan in the north to Chu-mig brgyad-cu rtsa-gnyis in the south. The inner region is said to be sTag-gzig (Tazig) [often identified with Bactria], and the middle rGya-mkhar bar-chod, a place not yet identified." While it is not certain whether Zhang Zhung was really so large, it is known that it was an independent kingdom and covered the whole of Western Tibet.

The capital city of Zhang Zhung was called Khyunglung (Khyunglung Ngülkhar or Khyung-lung dngul-mkhar), the "Silver Palace of Garuda", southwest of Mount Kailash (Mount Ti-se), which is identified with palaces found in the upper Sutlej Valley. The Zhang Zhung built a towering fort, Chugtso Dropo, on the shores of sacred Lake Dangra, from which they exerted military power over the surrounding district in central Tibet.

The fact that some of the ancient texts describing the Zhang Zhung kingdom also claimed the Sutlej valley was Shambhala, the land of happiness (from which James Hilton possibly derived the name "Shangri La"), may have delayed their study by Western scholars.

Paleolithic Findings: Pollen and tree ring analysis indicates the Chang Tang plateau was a much more liveable environment until becoming drier and colder starting around 1500 BC. One theory is that the civilization established itself on the plateau when conditions where less harsh, then managed to persist against gradually worsening climatic conditions until finally expiring around 1000 AD (the area is now used only by wandering nomads). This timeframe also corresponds to the rise of the Tibetan kingdoms in the southern valleys which may also have contributed to the decline of the plateau culture.

Iron Age Culture of the Chang Tang — the Zhang Zhung: Recent archeological work on the Chang Tang plateau finds evidence of an Iron Age culture which some have tentatively identified as the Zhang Zhung. This culture is notable for the following characteristics:

These characteristics more closely match the Iron Age cultures of Europe and the Asian steppes than those of India or East Asia, suggesting a cultural influence which arrived from the west or north rather than the east or south.

A handful of Zhang Zhung texts and 11th century bilingual Tibetan documents attest to a Zhang Zhung language which was related to Old Tibetan, although it included words of Kinnaur origin. The exact relation to Old Tibetan is subject to dispute. The Bönpo claim that the Tibetan writing system is derived from the Zhang Zhung alphabet, while modern scholars consider the question open. Given the rarity of text samples, another possible explanation is that the 11th century Bönpo, struggling for legitimacy as Kadampa and Nyingmapa sought to marginalize Bön, resorted to creating an artificial ancient writing system.

A language called Zhang Zhung is still spoken by approximately 2,000 native speakers in the Sutlej Valley of Himachal Pradesh. It is not clear if this language, of the Himalayish family of the Tibeto-Burman family, derives from the language spoken by the Zhang Zhung, or if they are the descendants of the Zhang Zhung as claimed, although this seems plausible.

 

 

History of Tibet

The general history of Tibet begins with the rule of Songtsän Gampo (604–650 AD) who united parts of the Yarlung River Valley and founded the Tibetan Empire. He also brought in many reforms and Tibetan power spread rapidly creating a large and powerful empire. In 640 he married Princess Wencheng, the niece of the powerful Chinese emperor Taizong of Tang China.

Map of the Tibetan Empire

Under the next few Tibetan kings, Buddhism became established as the state religion and Tibetan power increased even further over large areas of Central Asia, while major inroads were made into Chinese territory, even reaching the Tang's capital Chang'an (modern Xi'an) in late 763. However, the Tibetan occupation of Chang'an only lasted for fifteen days, after which they were defeated by Tang and its ally, the Turkic Uyghur Khaganate.

Nanzhao (in Yunnan and neighbouring regions) remained under Tibetan control from 750 to 794, when they turned on their Tibetan overlords and helped the Chinese inflict a serious defeat on the Tibetans.

In 747, the hold of Tibet was loosened by the campaign of general Gao Xianzhi, who tried to re-open the direct communications between Central Asia and Kashmir. By 750 the Tibetans had lost almost all of their central Asian possessions to the Chinese. However, after Gao Xianzhi's defeat by the Arabs and Qarluqs at the Battle of Talas (751), Chinese influence decreased rapidly and Tibetan influence resumed. In 821/822 CE Tibet and China signed a peace treaty. A bilingual account of this treaty, including details of the borders between the two countries, is inscribed on a stone pillar which stands outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa. Tibet continued as a Central Asian empire until the mid-9th century.

13th, 14th and 15th Centuries: Mongolian prince Khuden conquered Tibet in the 1240s and made the Sakya Pandita the Mongolian viceroy for Central Tibet, though the eastern provinces of Kham and Amdo remained under direct Mongol rule. When Kublai Khan founded the Yuan Dynasty in 1271, Tibet became a part of it.

Between 1346 and 1354, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen toppled the Sakya and founded the Phagmodrupa dynasty. The following 80 years saw the founding of the Gelugpa school (also known as Yellow Hats) by the disciples of Tsongkhapa Lobsang Dragpa, and the founding of the important Ganden, Drepung, and Sera monasteries near Lhasa.

16th and 17th Centuries: In 1578, Altan Khan of the Tümed Mongols gave Sonam Gyatso, a high lama of the Gelugpa school, the name Dalai Lama; Dalai being the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan name Gyatso, or "Ocean".

The first Europeans to arrive in Tibet were the Portuguese missionaries António de Andrade and Manuel Marques in 1624. They were welcomed by the King and Queen of Guge, and were allowed to build a church and to introduce Christian belief. The king of Guge eagerly accepted Christianity as an offsetting religious influence to dilute the thriving Gelugpa and to counterbalance his potential rivals and consolidate his position. All missionaries were expelled in 1745.

In the 1630s, Tibet became entangled in power struggles between the rising Manchu and various Mongol and Oirat factions. Güshi Khan of the Khoshud became the overlord over Tibet, and acted as a "Protector of the Yellow Church". Güshi helped the fifth Dalai Lama establish himself as the highest spiritual and political authority in Tibet and destroyed any potential rivals.

18th Century: The Qing Dynasty put Amdo under their control in 1724, and incorporated eastern Kham into neighbouring Chinese provinces in 1728. The Qing government sent a resident commissioner, called an Amban, to Lhasa. In 1751, Emperor Qianlong installed the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual leader and political leader of Tibet leading the government, namely Kashag.

The 18th century saw some contact with Jesuits and Capuchins from Europe, and in 1774 a Scottish nobleman, George Bogle, came to Shigatse to investigate trade for the British East India Company.

19th Century: However, by the 19th century the situation of foreigners in Tibet grew more tenuous. The British Empire was encroaching from northern India into the Himalayas, the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire were expanding into Central Asia and each power became suspicious of the others' intentions in Tibet. Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, the Hungarian scientist spent 20 years in British India (4 years in Ladakh) trying to visit Tibet. He created the first Tibetan-English dictionary.

In 1865, the British began secretly mapping Tibet. Trained Indian surveyor-spies disguised as pilgrims or traders counted their strides on their travels across Tibet and took readings at night.

20th Century: In 1904, a British expedition to Tibet under the command of Colonel Francis Younghusband, accompanied by a large military escort, invaded Tibet and reached Lhasa. The British were spurred in part by a fear that Russia was extending its power into Tibet, and partly by hope that negotiations with the Dalai Lama would be more effective than with Chinese representatives. But on his way to Lhasa, Younghusband slaughtered many Tibetan troops in Gyangzê who tried to stop the British advance.

When the mission reached Lhasa, Younghusband imposed a treaty which was subsequently repudiated, and was succeeded by a 1906 treaty signed between Britain and China.

In 1910, the Qing government sent a military expedition of its own to establish direct Chinese rule and deposed the Dalai Lama in an imperial edict. The Dalai Lama once again fled, this time to British India, in February 1910.

Independence Proclaimed: The 13th Dalai Lama returned to Tibet from India in July 1912 (after the fall of the Qing dynasty), and expelled the Amban and all Chinese troops. In 1913, the Dalai Lama issued a proclamation that stated that the relationship between the Chinese emperor and Tibet "had been that of patron and priest and had not been based on the subordination of one to the other." "We are a small, religious, and independent nation," the proclamation continued. For the next thirty-six years, Tibet enjoyed de facto independence while China endured its Warlord era, civil war, and World War II. However, no country, including China, has ever recognised Tibet as an independent country. (Please read Tibet sovereignty debate).

Tibet under the People's Republic of China: With the invasion of Tibet in 1950 and the subsequent Seventeen Point Agreement, the PRC asserted control over Tibet.

Chinese sources generally claim progress towards a prosperous and free society in Tibet, with its pillars being economic development, legal advancement, and peasant emancipation. These claims, however, have been refuted by the Tibet Government-in-Exile and some indigenous Tibetans, who claim of genocide in Tibet from the Chinese government, comparing it to Nazi Germany. The official doctrine of the PRC classifies Tibetans as one of its 56 recognized ethnic groups and part of the greater Zhonghua Minzu or multi-ethnic Chinese nation. Warren Smith, an independent scholar and a broadcaster with the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia, whose work began to focus on Tibetan history and politics after spending five months in Tibet in 1982, portrays the Chinese as "chauvinists" who believe they are superior to Tibetans, and claims that the Chinese Communist Party uses torture, coercion and starvation to control the Tibetan population.

 

 

Qingzang Railway

The Qingzang railway, Qinghai–Xizang railway, or Qinghai–Tibet railway (青藏鐵路), is a high-altitude railway that connects Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, in People's Republic of China.

The total length of Qingzang railway is 1956 km (1215 mi). Construction of the 815 km (506 mi) section between Xining and Golmud was completed by 1984. The 1142 km (709 mi) section between Golmud and Lhasa was inaugurated on 1 July 2006 by president Hu Jintao. This railway is the first to connect China proper with the Tibet Autonomous Region, which, due to its altitude and terrain. Passenger trains run from Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xining and Lanzhou

Criticism: China has been criticised for having built the railway to strengthen its political control over Tibet.

In particular, Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Tibet have alleged that the railway will marginalise Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region by encouraging further immigration from the rest of China. Tibetans find it increasingly difficult to compete in the job market against skilled ethnic Han workers. Most of the workers on the railway were Han.

They have expressed concerns that the Chinese government will use the railway to strengthen its military presence in the Tibet Autonomous Region and to further exploit Tibet's natural resources and damage its environment.

Bombardier Transportation, a Canadian company, has faced international criticism from some organizations for constructing rail cars for the project.

 

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Tibetan Plateau

Map of the Tibetan Plateau by Lencer

The Tibetan Plateau , also known as the Qinghai-Tibetan (Qingzang; 青藏高原) Plateau is a vast, elevated plateau in Central Asia covering most of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province in China and Ladakh in Kashmir, India. It occupies an area of around 1,000 by 2,500 kilometers, and has an average elevation of over 4,500 meters. Sometimes called "the roof of the world," it is the highest and biggest plateau, with an area of 2.5 million square kilometers (about four times the size of Texas or France).

The Tibetan Plateau is surrounded by towering mountain ranges. It is bordered to the northwest by the Kunlun Range which separates it from the Tarim Basin, and to the northeast by the Qilian Range which separates the plateau from the Gobi Desert. Near the south the plateau is transected by the Yarlung Tsangpo River valley which flows along the base of the Himalayas, and by the vast Indo-Gangetic Plain. To the east and southeast the plateau gives way to the forested gorge and ridge geography of the mountainous headwaters of the Salween, Mekong, and Yangtze rivers in western Sichuan and southwest Qinghai. In the west it is embraced by the curve of the rugged Karakoram range of northern Kashmir.

One of the greatest advances in human culture is the development of nomadic pastoralism, the adaptation by nomadic people to survival on the world's grassland by raising livestock rather than crops which are unsuitable to the terrain. Nomads currently surviving on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas are the remainders of nomadic practices historically once widespread in Asia and Africa.

 

 

Mount Everest North Face as Seen from the Path to the Base Camp, Tibet

Photograph by Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.it

Mount Everest, also called Sagarmatha or Chomolungma, Qomolangma or Zhumulangma is the highest mountain on Earth, as measured by the height of its summit above sea level, which is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal, and Tibet, China.

The Himalaya Range is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. By extension, it is also the name of the massive mountain system which includes the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and a host of minor ranges extending from the Pamir Knot. The name comes from the Sanskrit word, himālaya, a tatpurusa compound meaning "the abode of snow" (from hima "snow", and ālaya "abode"; see also Himavat).

Together, the Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to the world's highest peaks: the Eight-thousanders, including Mount Everest (Nepal/Tibet) and K2 Pakistans (Northern Areas).

The Himalayan system, which includes outlying subranges, stretches across six countries: Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are the source of three of the world's major river systems, the Indus, the Ganga-Brahmaputra, and the Yangtze. Approximately 1.3 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan rivers.

The range proper runs west to east, from the Indus river valley to the Brahmaputra river valley, thereby forming an arc 2,400 km long, which varies in width from 400 km in the western Kashmir-Xinjiang region to 150 km in the eastern Tibet-Arunachal Pradesh region. The Himalaya chain consists of three parallel ranges, with the northern-most range known as the Great or Inner Himalayas.

 

 

Lhasa

Potala Palace in Lhsa

Lhasa, (拉薩) sometimes spelled Lasa, is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. Lhasa is located at the foot of Mount Gephel and is one of the highest capitals in the world. It is the location of the Potala and Norbulingka palaces (both are included as World Heritage Sites), and is the birthplace of Tibetan Buddhism. The Jokhang in Lhasa is regarded as the holiest centre in Tibet. Lhasa literally means "place of the gods", although ancient Tibetan documents and inscriptions demonstrate that the place was called Rasa, which means "goat's place", until the early 7th century.

 

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Tartary

"A new Map of Great Tartary and China..." by Edward Wells (1704)

Tartary or Great Tartary (Latin: Tataria or Tataria Magna) was a name used by Europeans from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century to designate a great tract of northern and central Asia stretching from the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean inhabited by Turkic and Mongol peoples of the Mongol Empire who were generically referred to as "Tartars", i.e. Tatars. It incorporated the current areas of Siberia, Turkestan (including East Turkestan - Xinjiang), Greater Mongolia, Manchuria, and sometimes Tibet.

Geography and History: Tartary was often divided into sections with prefixes denoting the name of the ruling power or the geographical location. Thus, western Siberia was Muscovite or Russian Tartary, eastern Turkestan (later Chinese Xinjiang) and Mongolia were Chinese or Cathay Tartary, western Turkestan (later Russian Turkestan) was known as Independent Tartary, and Manchuria was East Tartary.

As the Russian Empire expanded eastward and more of Tartary became known to Europeans and East Asians, the term fell into disuse.

European areas north of the Black Sea inhabited by Turkic peoples were known as Little Tartary.

 

 

Autonomous Areas of China

In a similar fashion to the former Soviet Union's titular nations, a number of areas associated with one or more ethnic minorities are designated as autonomous within the People's Republic of China (PRC). These areas are recognized in the PRC's constitution and are nominally given a number of rights not accorded to other administrative divisions. The actual degree of autonomy of such regions is questioned. This is because their authority rests with the Constitution and the Law on Regional Autonomy, requiring leaders to seek prior approval from the National People's Congress (NPC) to pass legislation. This is not true for other provinces, which can pass legislation without such prior approval. For this reason, it has been contended that Autonomous regions are in fact "less autonomous."

Autonomous regions, prefectures, counties, and banners were established after communist takeover, following Soviet practice. At first, the nomenclature of these autonomous areas were somewhat confused, with autonomous regions appearing at the province, prefecture, county, and township levels. Eventually the nomenclature was standardized to the conventions used today.

The first autonomous region to be established was Inner Mongolia, created within communist-held territory in 1947, two years before the establishment of the People's Republic. Xinjiang was converted from a province to an autonomous region in 1955. Guangxi and Ningxia followed in 1957, and Tibet Autonomous Region was formally established in 1965.

Of the five autonomous regions, only Tibet has an absolute majority (>50%) of the designated ethnic group, namely, the Tibetans. Xinjiang has a plurality (<50%) of the designated ethnic group, the Uyghurs, though this is disputed by Uyghur independence advocates, who claim that the Han Chinese population in Xinjiang has been severely understated. The remaining 3 autonomous regions have absolute majorities of Han Chinese, the majority ethnicity of China.

 

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Human Rights in Tibet

Flag of Tibet that was introduced by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1912 and outlawed by the People's Republic of China in 1959

In Tibet since 1950 human rights have become a contentious issue. According to the website of the non-governmental organization "Save Tibet", the Tibetan people are denied most rights guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the rights to self-determination, freedom of speech, assembly, movement and expression. Elliot Sperling, an Associate Professor of Tibetan Studies at Indiana University, in a statement to Human Rights Watch, introduced his new book that graphically detailed the exile of Tibetans today and the role human rights violations played in forcing many Tibetans to leave their homeland.

According to the Chinese government, the human rights situation in Tibet has been greatly improved; the communist party especially emphasised its claimed emancipation of millions of serfs and slaves in Tibet in late 1950s.

Amnesty International has stated that political prisoners are often tortured, sometimes fatally. Unofficial sources report that since 1987, at least 41 Tibetans throughout Tibet are recorded as having died as a result of torture in prisons or shortly after release.

Author Thomas Laird claims that there is no evidence to support China's claim that Tibet is autonomous, as all local legislation is subject to approval of the central government in Beijing.

The Tibetan government-in-exile claims that China does not allow independent human rights organisations into Tibet, and foreign delegations invited to Tibet are denied independent access to meet with Tibetans. The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy claims that more than 11,000 monks and nuns have been expelled from Tibet since 1996 for opposing "patriotic re-education" sessions conducted at monasteries and nunneries under the "Strike Hard" campaign.

Thomas Laird also claims that China continues to encourage the transfer of Chinese settlers into Tibet. Transnational Radical Party claims this threatens the survival of the Tibetan racial, cultural and national identity.

The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy claims that unemployment among Tibetans is high. It also considers the taxation system to be arbitrary, which further exacerbates the conditions of poverty for Tibetans in rural areas.

The Tibet Intergroup of the European Parliament has around 100 MEPs as members.

 

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The Silk Road

The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is a series of trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting East and West by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time. The trade route was initiated around 114 BC by the Han Dynasty (114 BC), although earlier trade across the continents had already existed. Geographically, The Silk Road or Silk Route is an interconnected series of ancient trade routes connecting Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, extending over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) on land and sea. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Indian subcontinent, and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world.

As it extends westwards from the commercial centers of North China, the continental Silk Road divides into north and south routes to avoid the Tibetan Plateau.

The Southern Route: Mainly a single route running through northern India, then the Turkestan–Khorasan region into Mesopotamia and Anatolia; having southward spurs enabling the journey to be completed by sea from various points. It runs south through the Sichuan Basin in China and crosses the high mountains into northeast India, probably via the Ancient tea route. It then travels west along the Brahmaputra and Ganges river plains, possibly joining the Grand Trunk Road west of Varanasi. It runs through northern Pakistan and over the Hindu Kush mountains to rejoin the northern route briefly near Merv

It then follows a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran and the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant. From there, Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, and land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa.

The Ancient Tea Route (茶马古道) was a network of mule caravan paths winding through the mountains of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It is also referred to as the Southern Silk Road. From around a thousand years ago, the Ancient Tea Route was a trade link from Yunnan, one of the first tea-producing regions: to India via Burma; to Tibet; and to central China via Sichuan Province. In addition to tea, the mule caravans carried salt. It is believed that it was through this trading network that tea (typically tea bricks) spread across China and Asia from its origins in Pu'er county, near Simao Prefecture in Yunnan.

 

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Tibetan Rug

Tibetan rug making is an ancient, traditional craft. Tibetan rugs are traditionally made from Tibetan highland sheep's wool, called changpel. Tibetans use rugs for many purposes ranging from flooring to wall hanging to horse saddles, though the most common use is as a seating carpet. A typical seat carpet measuring around 3ftx5ft (0.9m x 1.6m) is called a khaden.

The process of making tibetan rugs is unique in the sense that the knotting method is different from that used in other rug making traditions worldwide. With the introduction of modern technology some aspects of the rug making processes have been taken over by machine in many workshops, in particular yarn spinning and trimming of the pile after weaving. This is primarily because of cost, disappearance of knowledge etc. Nevertheless, the finest carpets are those still made in the traditional way, by hand.

With Tibet's occupation by Chinese communists during the 1950s, Tibetan refugees started migrating to India and Nepal. With them they also brought their knowledge of rug making. Currently in Nepal the rug business is one of the largest industries in the country and there are many rug exporters. Tibet also has weaving workshops, but the export side of the industry is relatively undeveloped compared with Nepal and India.