Tibetan Autonomous Region

The Tibet Autonomous Region (Tibetan: བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས་, Pö Rangyongjong; Chinese: 西藏自治区, Xīzàng Zìzhìqū), is an administrative subdivision of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It includes only half of what has historically been called Tibet, including Tibet's historic capital of Lhasa.

Within the PRC the TAR is identified with Tibet, a characterization hotly disputed by many Tibetan exile groups, particularly the Government of Tibet in Exile, which define the term to include former Tibetan Provinves Amdo, today encorporated in Qinghai and parts of Gansu provinces, and Eastern Kham, today western Sichuan and northern Yunnan provinces.

བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས་
西藏自治区

Province Abbreviation(s): 藏 zàng
Capital	Lhasa
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 2nd 1,200,000 km² xx%
Population  - Total (Year)  - Density	Ranked 32nd 2,630,000 2.2/km²
Administration Type	Autonomous Region
Chairman of the Government	Jampa Phuntsok

History

Previously a Region, Tibet, along with Qamdo territory, was made an Autonomous Region in 1965.

Following Soviet practice, there is a convention that the governor of the TAR is an ethnic Tibetan from the TAR while the general secretary of the local Communist Party is an outsider, usually Han Chinese. Notable general secretaries of the TAR Communist Party include Hu Jintao who served in the 1980s.

See also:

• History of Tibet
• History of the political divisions of China

Location

The TAR is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the highest region on Earth. Most of the Himalaya mountain range lies within Xizang; Mount Everest is on Xizang's border with Nepal.

The TAR is bounded on the north and east by Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Sichuan, on the west by Kashmir and on the south by Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. TAR also borders on Bhutan, Sikkim, India, and Pakistan.

Demographics

The TAR has the lowest population density among all of the province-level administrative regions in China, mainly due to its mountainous and harsh geographical features.

More than 90% of the people living in Xizang are ethnic Tibetan. Other ethnic groups include Han, Menba, Lhoba and Hui.