User:My Tibet

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Contents 1 Tibet 2 SOME FACTS ABOUT TIBET 3 Human Rights Abuses 4 Environmental Devastation

[edit] Tibet

Tibet lies at the centre of Asia, with an area of 2.5 million square kilometers. The earth's highest mountains, a vast arid plateau and great river valleys make up the physical homeland of 6 million Tibetans. It has an average altitude of 13,000 feet above sea level.

Tibet is comprised of the three provinces of Amdo (now split by China into the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu & Sichuan), Kham (largely incorporated into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai), and U-Tsang (which, together with western Kham, is today referred to by China as the Tibet Autonomous Region).

The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) comprises less than half of historic Tibet and was created by China in 1965 for administrative reasons. It is important to note that when Chinese officials and publications use the term "Tibet" they mean only the TAR.

Tibetans use the term Tibet to mean the three provinces described above, i.e., the area traditionally known as Tibet before the 1949-50 invasion.

Despite over 40 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Tibetan people refuse to be conquered and subjugated by China. The present Chinese policy, a combination of demographic and economic manipulation, and discrimination, aims to suppress the Tibetan issue by changing the very character and the identity of Tibet and its people.

Today Tibetans are outnumbered by Han Chinese population in their own homeland.

• SIZE 2.5 million sq. km.
• CAPITAL Lhasa
• POPULATION 6 million Tibetans and an estimated 7.5 million Chinese, most of whom are in Kham and Amdo.
• LANGUAGE Tibetan (of the Tibeto-Burmese language family). The official language is Chinese.
• STAPLE FOOD Tsampa (roasted barley flour)
• NATIONAL DRINK Salted butter tea
• TYPICAL ANIMALS Wild yak, Bharal (blue) sheep, Musk deer, Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, Kyang (wild ass), Pica
• TYPICAL BIRDS Black necked crane, Lammergeier, Great crested grebe, Bar-headed goose, Ruddy shel duck, Ibis-bill
• MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS Rampant deforestation in Eastern Tibet, poaching of large mammals
• AVERAGE ALTITUDE 14,000 ft.
• HIGHEST MOUNTAIN Chomo Langma (Mt. Everest) 29, 028 ft.
• AVERAGE RAINFALL Varies widely. In the west it is 1 mm in Jan. to 25 mm in July. In the east, it is 25-50 in Jan. and 800 in July
• AVERAGE TEMPERATURE July 58 f; Jan. 24 f.
• MINERAL DEPOSITS Borax, uranium, iron, chromite, gold
• MAJOR RIVERS Mekong, Yangtse, Salween, Tsangpo, Yellow
• ECONOMY Tibetans: predominantly in agriculture and animal husbandry. Chinese: predominantly in government, commerce and the service sector.
• PROVINCES U-Tsang (Central Tibet), Amdo (N.E. Tibet), Kham (S.E. Tibet)
• BORDERING COUNTRIES India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, China
• NATIONAL FLAG Snow lions with red and blue rays. Outlawed in Tibet.
• POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS LEADER The 14th Dalai Lama. In exile in Dharamsala, India.
• GOVERNMENT IN EXILE Parliamentary
• GOVERNMENT Communist
• RELATIONSHIP WITH THE P.R.C. Colonial
• LEGAL STATUS Occupied

[edit] SOME FACTS ABOUT TIBET

Until 1949, Tibet was an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion was a unifying theme among the Tibetans -- as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment. The Dalai Lama, an individual said to be an incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, had been both the political and spiritual leader of the country. The current Dalai Lama (the 14th) was only 24 years old when this all came to an end in 1959. The Communist Chinese invasion in 1950 led to years of turmoil, that culminated in the complete overthrow of the Tibetan Government and the self-imposed exile of the Dalai Lama and 100,000 Tibetans in 1959.

Since that time over a million Tibetans have been killed. With the Chinese policy of resettlement of Chinese to Tibet, Tibetans have become a minority in their own country. Chinese is the official language. Compared to pre-1959 levels, only 1/20 monks are still allowed to practice, under the government's watch. Up to 6,000 monasteries and shrines have been destroyed. Famines have appeared for the first time in recorded history, natural resources are devastated, and wildlife depleted to extinction. Tibetan culture comes close to being eradicated there.

Peaceful demonstrations/protests/speech/writings by nuns, monks, and Tibetan laypeople have resulted in deaths and thousands of arrests. These political prisoners are tortured and held in sub-standard conditions, with little hope of justice. Unless we can all take part and recognize Tibet's loss as our own, the future looks grim.

Since 1967 Tibet has been used for nuclear testing, including tests to determine the radiation tolerance of the local population.

A massive influx of Chinese colonists into Tibet is overwhelming the indigenous population. The best estimates indicate that there are 7.5 million Chinese to 6 million Tibetans living in Tibet today.

In 1991 the US Congress passed a bill recognizing Tibet as an "occupied country" whose "true representatives are the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-exile". This landmark legislation was signed by President Bush on Oct. 28, 1991.

[edit] Human Rights Abuses

The lack of human rights in Tibet is well-documented and over the past few years the repression has increased. In 1960 the International Commission of Jurists determined that China committed genocide in Tibet and that 16 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were being violated.

In 1959, 1960 and 1965 the UN General Assembly passed resolutions condemning Chinese human rights abuses in Tibet and calling on China to respect the Tibetan people's rights, including the right to self-determination.

In 1991 the UN Human Rights Sub-commission passed a resolution expressing concern about the threat to "the distinct cultural, religious and national identity of the Tibetan people".

Freedom House, a New York based human rights group, declared that among all the occupied territories in the world, Tibet ranks as the worst case of human rights violations.

Tibetan women are subjected to mandatory sterilization and forced abortions as a means of reducing the Tibetan population.

Electric cattle prods are routinely used to sexually violate Tibetan women, including nuns, who are arrested for religious or political beliefs.

1 in 10 Tibetans have been held in prisons or forced labor camps for periods of 10 to 20 years. Today, about 10,000 religious and political prisoners face torture, forced labor and execution.

Discrimination against Tibetans living in Tibet is openly practiced in areas such as medical care, education, housing, jobs, pay, etc.

[edit] Environmental Devastation

Tibet was ecologically stable before the communist Chinese invasion. The land supported a wealth of wildlife and famine was unknown. The fragile ecology of Tibet's high plateau is being irreversibly destroyed as a result of the Chinese incursion. Many species of wildlife have been virtually exterminated, forests clear cut and the soil depleted and eroded. There is evidence that China is using Tibet as a dumping ground for toxic and radioactive wastes.

In 1984 China sought an agreement with a West German consortium for the disposal of radioactive waste in Tibet and offered the capability of storing up to 5,000 tons between 1984 and the year 2000.

Endangered species such as snow leopards have been hunted to the verge of extinction.

Deforestation of large areas of Eastern Tibet by the lumber industry employs 65,000 people, entirely for export to China. Up to 80% of Tibet's forests have been destroyed; by their own estimates, the Chinese have removed over $54 billion worth of timber since 1959.

Deforestation in Tibet contributes to flooding, soil erosion and siltation downstream throughout the continent, because Tibet is the source of the 7 major rivers in Asia.

In May 1991, the Chinese began construction of a power plant that drained Yamdrok Tso, a pristine and sacred lake which is the third largest in Tibet.