Tibet, a rich and beautiful land, is located at the
main part of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, south-West
frontier of China. Tibet borders with Sichuan,
Yuannan, Qinghai And Xinjiang; to the south
contiguous to India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and
Burma, and bounded by Kashmir on the west. When the
word Tibet is mentioned something icy chills the
readers' nerves. In fact it snows only once or twice
in a year and owing to the perpetuity of bright
sunshine, it is not at all cold during the daytime
even in the coldest of the winter. Tibet is so sunny
that it produces a year-round sunshine of over 3,000
hours in a year. Its old name-"land of snow" - the
name by which Tibet is almost popularly known as, is
always thickly covered with snow with hardly any
signs Of inhabitation. In fact, it is correct only
when it is referred to the world greatest ranges
located in Ima, the Tisi, and like. These ranges,
run by leaps and bounds across the country showing
their beautiful snow covered peaks against the
bluest of skies.
Geographically, Tibet can be divided into three
major parts, the east, north and south. The eastern
part is forest region, occupying approximately
one-fourth of the land. Virgin forests run The
entire breadth and length of this part of Tibet. The
northern part is open grassland, where nomads and
yak and sheep dwell here. This part occupies
approximately half of Tibet. The southern and
central part is agricultural region, occupying about
one-fourth of Tibet's land area. with all major
Tibetan cities and towns such as Lhasa, Shigatse,
Gyantse ad Tsetang located in this area, it is
considered the cultural center of Tibet. The total
area of the Tibet Autonomous Region is 1,200,000
square kilometers and its population is 1,890,000.
The region is administratively divided into one
municipality and six prefectures. The municipality
is Lhasa, while the six prefectures are Shigatse,
Ngari, Lhaoka, Chamdo, Nakchu and Nyingtri (kongpo).
The People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous
Region exercises the highest administrative
authority in Tibet. |