Photograph: Free Tibet
Tibet is in central Asia; the mighty Himalayan mountains form its southern boundary. It is about 2.5 million square kilometers in size and includes not only the highest mountains on earth, but a huge plateau and great river valleys. The average altitude of Tibet is 13,000 feet above sea level.
Tibet originally consisted of three provinces: Amdo and Kham (whose boundaries have been changed by the Chinese) and U-Tsang (which China has merged with western Kham to form the Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR, for administrative reasons). The area of TAR is less than half the size of historic Tibet, and it is only this administrative area that Chinese officials and publications mean when they use the term "Tibet." When Tibetans use the term Tibet they mean the three provinces of Amdo, Kham, and U-Tsang. This is the area traditionally known as Tibet before the 1949-50 Chinese invasion.
Map courtesy Central Tibetan Administration
The people of Tibet are now outnumbered in their own home-land, witnessing serious environmental destruction, experiencing intolerable human rights violations and are victims of policies that seek to destroy their character and identity. Even so, they have not been subjugated by the Chinese.
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