Tibetan
The Tibetan population, at around 4.59 million, is mainly distributed in the \"Tibet Autonomous Region\", Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
Tibetan is an old nationality in China.According to historical records, early before the Qin and Han dynasties, the ancestors of the Tibetans gathered along the banks of the middle reach of the Brahmaputra.Due to the vast gralands and lush pastures, sheep, goat and yak were easily fed and stockbreeding gradually became their main economic support.They also engaged in agriculture and highland barley, a grain which is the material of zanba and ghee.Wheat, peas and canola are also planted.Zanba, mutton and beef are the staple food of Tibetans.In some areas, rice and noodles are also a regular part of the diet.Tea with butter or milk, sour milk and cheese are the favorites of all Tibetans.With a long history, Tibetans have their own language and letters.The wide use of Tibetan language promotes the economic and cultural exchange between the Tibetan and Han people.Tibetans also have their own calendar, in which November 1st is their New Year.The period from the 10th century to 16th century was the golden age of Tibetan culture.Tibetan art has a dual character: on the one hand, it seems related to Indian art, with its artistic patterns and stre on deep red, blue and green; on the other, it is distinctively Tibetan, different from both the East and the West.Tibetan garments still keep with the original styles.Both men and women wear long-sleeved silk or cloth jackets topped with loose gowns tied with a band on the right.Men wear trousers and women wear skirts.All men and women wear woolen or leather boots.Both genders keep long hair and like to wear ornaments.Men usually wear a braid coiled on top of the head.Women, when coming of age, begin to plait their hair into two braids or many tiny ones adorned with ornaments.Tibetans believe in Lamaism (a branch of Buddhism).Buddhism was introduced in the 13th century and from the 13th to 16th centuries Buddhism prevailed in Tibet.Buddhist temples were widely built throughout Tibet during this time.of these temples Ganden Monastery, Drepung Monastery, Sara Monastery and the Potala Palace are the most famous.Tibetans have many taboos that mould their daily life.Shrimp and fish, eggs, and the meat from dogs, donkeys, horses, and cats are forbidden in their diet.Cutting, fishing, hunting and nudity are forbidden near the temple.Inside men and women cannot sit together.Most Tibetan festivals are religious.The Buddha-Unfolding Festival (Festival to Worship the Buddha statues) is held in the Tashihunpo Monastery in the fifth month of the Tibetan calendar.The festival lasts for three days, and different Buddha statues are exhibited for worship each day.Other main Tibetan festivals include the Shoton Festival, Great Prayer Festival, Butter Lamp Festival, Saga Dawa Festival, Gyangtse Horse-Race Festival, Nakchu Horse-Race Festival, and Yarlung Culture Festival.History
The Tibetans first settled along the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet.Evidence of the new and old stone age culture was found in archaeological excavations at Nyalam, Nagqu, Nyingchi and Qamdo.According to ancient historical documents, members of the earliest clans formed tribes known as \"Bos\" in the Shannan area.In the 6th century, the chief of the Yarlung tribe in the area became leader of the local tribal alliance and declared himself the \"Zambo\" (king).This marked the beginning of Tibetan slavery society and its direct contacts with the Han people and other ethnic groups and tribes in northwest China.At the beginning of the 7th century, King Songzan Gambo began to rule the whole of Tibet and made \"Losha\" (today\'s Lhasa) the capital.He designated official posts, defined military and administrative areas, created the Tibetan script, formulated laws and unified weights and measures, thus establishing the slavery kingdom known as \"Bo,\" which was called \"Tubo\" in Chinese historical documents.After the Tubo regime was established, the Tibetans increased their political, economic and cultural exchanges with the Han and other ethnic groups in China.The Kingdom of Tibet began to have frequent contacts with the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Tibetan and Han peoples got on well with each other.In 641, King Songzan Gambo married Prince Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty.In 710, King Chide Zuzain married another Tang prince, Jin Cheng.The two princees brought with them the culture and advanced production techniques of Central China to Tibet.From that time on, emiaries traveled frequently between the Tang Dynasty and Tibet.The Tibetans sent students to Changan, capital of the Tang Dynasty, and invited Tang scholars and craftsmen to Tibet.These exchanges helped promote relations between the Tibetans and other ethnic group in China and stimulated social development in Tibet.From the 10th to 12th century, Tibet fell apart into several independent regimes and began to move towards serfdom.It was at this time that Buddhism was adapted to local circumstances by aimilating certain aspects of the indigenous religion, won increasing numbers of followers and gradually turned into Lamaism.Consisting of many different sects and spread acro the land, Lamaism penetrated into all spheres of Tibetan life.The upper strata of the clergy often collaborated with the rich and powerful, giving rise to a feudal hierarchy combining religious and political power and controlled by the rising local forces.The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) founded by the Mongols in the 13th century brought the divided Tibet under the unified rule of the central government.It set up an institution called Xuanzhengyuan (or political council) and put it in charge of the nation\'s Buddhist affairs and Tibet\'s military, governmental and religious affairs.Phagsba, a Tibetan lama, was given the title of imperial tutor and appointed head of the council.The Yuan court also set up three government offices to govern the Tibetan areas in northwest and southwest China and Tibet itself.The central government set up 13 Wanhu offices (each governing 10,000 households) in Inner and Outer Tibet east of Ngari.It also sent officials to administer civil and military affairs, conduct census, set up courier stations and collect taxes and levies.Certificates for the ownership of manors were iued to the serf owners and documents given to local officials to define their authority.This marked the beginning of the central authorities\' overall control of Tibet by appointing officials and instituting the administrative system there.The ensuing Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) carried over the Tusi (headmen) system in the Tibetan areas in northwest and southwest China.In Tibet proper, three sect leaders and five secular princes were named.These measures ensured peace and stability in the Tibetan areas during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and the feudal economy there developed and culture and art flourished.Tibet\'s contacts with other parts of the country became more frequent and extensive.The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the last monarchy in China, set up a government department called Lifanyuan to administer affairs in Tibet and Mongolia.In Tibet, the Qing emperor conferred the titles of the \"Dalai Lama\" (1653) and \"Bainqen Erdini\" (1713) on two living Buddhas of the Gelugba sect of Lamaism.The Qing court began to appoint a high resident commiioner to help with local administration in 1728, and set up the Kasha as the local government in 1751.In 1793, the Qing army drove the Gurkhas invaders out of Tibet and formulated regulations concerning its administration.The regulations specified the civil and military official appointment systems and institutions governing justice, border defense, finance, census, corvee service and foreign affairs, establishing the high commiioners\' terms of reference in supervising Tibetan affairs.In other areas inhabited by Tibetans in northwest and southwest China, the Qing court continued the Tusi (headmen) system established by the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and put them under the administration of the Xining Commiioner\'s office (established in 1725) and the Sichuan governor (later the Sichuan-Yunnan border affairs minister).After the Republic of China was founded in 1911, the central government set up a special department to administer Mongolian and Tibetan affairs.In 1929, the Kuomintang government set up a commiion for Mongolian and Tibetan affairs in Nanjing and established Qinghai Province.In 1939, Xikang Province was set up.The Tibetan areas in northwest and southwest China, except Tibet, were placed under the administration of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Xikang and Yunnan provinces respectively.After the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921, its central committee clearly stated in its Agrarian Revolution Program that the feudal privileges of Tibetan princes and Lamas would be abolished.During its Long March northward to fight the Japanese invaders, the Chinese Worker and Peasant Red Army paed through Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Xikang, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai, where they mobilized the poor Tibetans to carry out land reform and establish democratic political power of the laboring people.Areas inhabited by Tibetans were liberated one after another after the founding of the People\'s Republic of China in 1949.Tibet proper was liberated peacefully in 1951.Serf System
Before the democratic reform was carried out, the Tibetan areas were dominated by the serf system that integrated political and religious powers.The local government set up by the Qing Dynasty in Tibet, which was called Kasha, was run by four Kaloons (ministers), three laymen and one lama.The local government consisted of two offices.One was called Zikang (auditor\'s office), which was formed by four lay officials who administered all affairs about lay officials and audited local revenue, corvee and taxes.The other was called Yicang, a secretarial office formed by four lamas who administered all affairs about religious officials.The Tibetan local government accepted, in name, the leadership of the Dalai Lama or a regent.The Dalai Lama was served by several Kampos or lama officials who took care of the Dalai Lama\'s office and affairs of his residence--the Potala Palace.Owing to historical developments, there were some regional regimes beyond the control of the local government.In Outer Tibet, an internal affairs office called Nangmakang was formed by Bainqen\'s important Kampos, which was later called Bainqen Kampo Lija (changed into a committee after liberation).It accepted, in name, the leadership of Bainqen.Similarly, several other areas were governed by the local sect leaders or headmen.These were the legacies of the Tusi and Wanhu systems.The basic administrative unit, equivalent to a county, was called Zong in Tibetan and the unit under it, equivalent to a district, was called Si, short for Sika or manor.Some large Sikas had the status of the Zong.Certain tribal organizations still existed on a few pastoral areas, which were subject to the leadership of the Tibet local government.In Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, some Tibetan areas came under the administration of the provincial governments in the Qing Dynasty.But most of the areas were still under the jurisdiction of Tusi officials and big monasteries.The local regimes established on the basis of feudal serfdom that integrated political and religious powers were in the hands of feudal manorial lords, who were either lamas or laymen.They expanded the Tibetan army or formed local retainer forces to protect their reactionary rule.They formulated laws and regulations, set up prisons and used instruments of torture.Even the manors and monasteries had their own private prisons.They seized serfs\' property by hook or by crook, punished them at will and executed serfs trying to run away or accused of violating the law.They used such shocking tortures as gouging out the eyes, cutting off the nose or hands, hamstringing or breaking the kneecap.Tibetan society was rigidly stratified.The people were divided into three strata in nine grades, according to the size of the land they poeed.The social ladder extended from senior officials, hereditary aristocracy and higher lamas all the way down to herdsmen, serfs and craftsmen.But, generally speaking, these people fell into two major opposing claes -- the serf owners and the serfs.The Tibet local government was legally the owner of all the land and pasture.It in turn parceled out the land to the aristocrats and monasteries as their manors.The officialdom, the nobility and the clergy thus became the three major categories of feudal lords.The manors held by the officialdom, called Zhungchi, were directly managed by the local government and contracted out to serfs for rent.Part of the rent was used as remuneration for senior officials and the rest portioned out to government offices as their operating expenses.Noble titles in Tibet were hereditary or granted for meritorious services.Ranking was commensurate with the amount of property poeed.There were about 200 to 300 noble families in Tibet.About 20 of them owned scores of manors each.The manors of monasteries were bestowed by the local government or donated by the nobles.Some of them were the property of the monasteries and the rest belonged to higher lamas.A number of manors owned by monasteries were totally controlled by the top living Buddhas or lamas there.The three major categories of feudal lords and their henchmen accounted for about five per cent of the Tibetan population.The nobles and the monasteries each owned about 30 per cent of the land in Tibet and the remaining 40 per cent belonged to the local government.The land and pasture in the Tibetan areas other than Tibet were controlled by headmen, local officials and other members of the ruling groups and monasteries.The serfs included Thralpas and Dudchhong, who accounted for over 90 per cent of the Tibetan population.With no land or personal freedom, they were chattels of their lords.Thralpas were persons doing unpaid labor.In Tibet, a thralpa tilled a small piece of land rented from the manorial lord, which was called thralkang land.To obtain such a piece of land, a thralpa had to perform all kinds of services for the local government and do unpaid labor on the manor.Dudchhong, meaning small household, is a lower rank among the serfs made up of bankrupt thralpas.Dudchhongs were not allowed to till thralkang land.Instead, they had to depend on manorial lords or richer thralpas, doing hard work for them while tilling a tiny piece of land to feed themselves.Five per cent of the Tibetans were house slaves, called Nangzan.With no means of production or personal freedom, they were the most heavily oppreed cla in Tibet and had to do the hardest jobs all their lives.Besides, some remnants of clan society still lingered on in the nomadic tribes in remote areas.On the other hand, in villages close to the Han people\'s farming areas, a landlord economy had emerged.Serfs in all Tibetan areas were overburdened with exorbitant rents in cash or in kind.More than 70 per cent of their annual proceeds were taken away by manorial lords, plunging them into dire poverty.Apart from paying exorbitant rents, serfs had to do all kinds of corvee labor, which was called Ulag.Taxes and levies in Tibetan areas were innumerable.Some levies had been temporary at first and were later made regular.In certain places, scores or even more than 100 different kinds of tax were recorded.All the manorial lords, especially the monasteries, were usurers.They cruelly exploited the serfs by forcing them to accept loans at usurious rates of interest or exchange of unequal values.Usurious loans often ruined the serfs and their families or reduced them to beggary or slavery.The serfs and slaves, who accounted for over 95 per cent of the population, were bound for life to the land of the manorial lords, ordered about and enslaved from generation to generation.They were freely given away as gifts, donations or dowries, sold or exchanged for goods.Long shackled by feudal serfdom, the population of the Tibetan ethnic group showed little growth and production stagnated.Culture
Under the rule of feudal serfdom, which combined political and religious powers, the Tibetans\' social life and customs and habits bore obvious marks of their historical traditions and distinctive culture.As a rule, a Tibetan goes only by his given name and not family name, and the name generally tells the sex.As the names are mostly taken from the Buddhist scripture, namesakes are common, and differentiation is made by adding \"senior,\" \"junior\" or the outstanding features of the person or by mentioning the birthplace, residence or profeion before the names.Nobles and Living Buddhas often add the names of their houses, official ranks or honorific titles before their names. All Tibetans, men and women, like to wear ornaments.Men usually wear a queue coiled on top of the head.Some cut their hair short, like a canopy.Women, when coming of age, begin to plait their hair into two queues or many tiny queues which are adorned with ornaments.Both men and women wear felt or fine fur hats.They wear long-sleeved silk or cloth jackets topped with loose gowns which are tied with a band on the right.Women in some farming areas wear sleevele gowns or home-spun wool.Herdsmen and women do not wear jackets, but are clad in sheepskin robes, with sleeves, collars and fronts edged with fine fur or dyed cloth laces.Men wear trousers and women wear skirts.All men and women wear woolen or leather boots.Men have long waistbands while women in farming areas wear aprons with beautiful patterns.They use woolen blankets as mattrees or cushions and their quilts are made of sheepskin or wool.Poor peasants and herdsmen have neither mattrees nor quilts.They often leave one or both arms uncovered while tying the sleeves around the waist, making it convenient for working.The Tibetan gown which is very big also serves as both mattre and quilt at night.Lamas wear the kasaya, a patchwork outer vestment of purplish red felt.They wrap their bodies with long pieces of cloth and wear aprons, tall boots and monks\' hats.Zamba, roasted qingko barley or pea meal mixed with tea, is the staple food of Tibetan peasants.Tea with butter or milk is the favorite of all Tibetans.Buttered tea is made in a wooden tub.In pastoral areas, the staple foods are beef and mutton.They eat out of wooden bowls and with short-handled knives which they always carry with them.The Tibetans take five or six light meals a day and have a liking for qingko wine.Sour milk and cheese are also standard fare.In some areas, people also eat rice and noodles.Women in pastoral areas use butter as ointment to protect their skin.Lamas may eat meat.People in the farming areas live in stone houses while those in pastoral areas camp in tents.The Tibetan house has a flat roof and many windows, being simple in structure and color.of a distinctive national style, Tibetan houses are often built on elevated sunny sites facing the south.In the monasteries, the main hall also serves as the prayer hall, with dagobas of different sizes built in front of the main entrance for burning pine and cypre twigs.There are numerous prayer wheels, which are to be turned clockwise in praying for happine and hoping to avert disaster.Communications were poor in the old days, with yaks and mules as the chief means of transport.Riding horses were reserved for the manorial lords, who decorated the saddles according to their ranks and positions.Cattle hide rafts, wooden boats and canoes hewed out of logs were used in water transportation.Suspension, cable and simple wooden bridges were seen occasionally.In some big towns and monasteries, there were a few carpenters, blacksmiths, stone carvers and weavers.They, too, had to perform services and pay taxes to manorial lords and were looked down upon by other people.Farmers used crude implements such as iron plough shares, hoes, sickles and rakes and wooden tools.Cultivation was extensive, with crop rotation and fallow.Weeding and manuring were done very rarely, resulting in low output.In livestock breeding areas, the tools were even more primitive.Herds were moved about with the seasons, and the herdsmen never laid aside fodder nor built sheds for the winter.Farmers and livestock breeders had no way of resisting natural calamities and pests, but praying to gods for protection.Natural disasters usually devastated large tracts of land and took heavy tolls of animals.The Tibetan family is male-centered and marriage is a strictly inner-cla affair.Marriage relationships vary from place to place.In some areas, cousins on the male line are forbidden to marry while cousins on the female line who are several times removed are allowed to marry each other.In other areas, cousins on the male line who are several times removed may marry each other, with no restrictions on intermarriages between relatives on the female line.Monogamy is the principal form of marriage.There is no inhibition on social intercourse between young men and women before marriage.The husband controls and inherits the property of the family and the wife is subordinate to the husband, even if he is married into a woman\'s family.The proportion of polygamy is small.Marriages between serfs had to be approved by their manorial lords.When serfs on different manors got married, one party had to pay a certain amount of ransom to the manorial lord of the other party or the manorial lord of one party had to give a serf to the other lord as compensation.Without the permiion of their manorial lords, the serfs could not get married all their lives.The commandments of the yellow sect Lama, which holds a predominant position in Lamaism, forbid the monks to marry.Monks belonging to the other sects are free to marry and the weddings are held at religious services in their lamaseries.The most common form of burial in Tibet is sky burial, called Jator, meaning \"feeding the birds.\" The bodies are taken to the Jator site in the mountains and fed to vultures.Upon the death of a reincarnate living Buddha, a grand ceremony is held.Having been embalmed with spices and antiseptics, the body is wrapped in five-colored silk, and enshrined in a dagoba.The bodies of ordinary living Buddhas and higher lamas are usually cremated after being rubbed with butter, and the ashes are kept in a designated place as the last dedication to the monastery.But cremation is forbidden in the harvest season.All these forms of burial indicate that the deceased have gone to the next world.In the old days, ceremonies and religious rites were held for weddings, burials or births in the homes of manorial lords.For the serfs, however, these meant nothing but extra services.Women had to give births outside their houses and women serfs had to work only a few days after delivery.Lack of proper medical care and nutrition resulted in a very high infant mortality rate.The strict social caste system was manifested even in the use of language.The Tibetan language has three major forms of expreion: the most respectful, the respectful and the everyday speech, to be used respectively to one\'s superiors, one\'s peers and one\'s inferiors.The social distinctions were also reflected in people\'s drees, houses, horses and Hadas -- silk scarves presented on all social occasions to show respect.Lamaism belongs to the Mahayana School of Buddhism, which was introduced into Tibet in the seventh century and developed into Lamaism by aimilating some of the beliefs and rites of the local religion called \"Bon.\" Lamaism is divided into many different sects, each claiming to be the orthodox.Apart from the Red sect, all the others, including the White sect, the Sakya sect and the Yellow sect, established at different times local regimes that integrated political and religious powers.The Yellow sect practices the institution of reincarnation of living Buddhas.The Dalai Lama and Bainqen Erdini are supposed to be the reincarnations of two Grand Living Buddhas of the Yellow sect.It was stipulated during the Qing Dynasty that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Bainqen Lama and other Grand Living Buddhas of the Yellow sect had to be approved by the Qing court or determined by drawing lots from a gold urn.When a Grand Living Buddha dies, his disciples are required to choose a child, in most cases from a noble family, to be his reincarnation.Monasteries of the Yellow sect are scattered all over the Tibetan areas.The most famous of them are the Sera, Drepung, Zhashi Lumpo and Qamdo, as well as Lapuleng in Gansu and Ta\'er in Qinghai.In the western part of Tibet and the pastoral areas of Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, the early Tibetan native religion, the Bon, known locally as the Black sect, is still active.There are also Taoist temples built by the Han people, mosques built by the Huis and some Christian and Catholic churches built by foreign miionaries in a few places.A large amount of cultural relics, including ancient scripts, woodblock, metal and stone carvings, have been preserved in the Tibetan areas.The engraved block printing technique was introduced from other parts of China.Some books were written in Sanskrist on loose leaves.Apart from the two well-known collections of Buddhist scriptures known as the Kanjur and the Tanjur, there are works on prosody, language, philosophy, history, geography, astronomy, mathematics and medicine as well as novels, operas, biographies, poetry, stories and fables, which are all distinguished for their unique styles.Many of the early works, such as the Thirty Rules of Tibetan Grammar, the four-part Ancient Encyclopaedia of Tibetan Medicine, Feast of the Wise, the epic Prince Wen Cheng, world\'s longest epic poem King Geer, the biographical novels Milarib and Boluonai, the Sakya Maxims and the Love Songs of Cangyang Gyacuo (the Sixth Dalai Lama), are very popular and have been translated into many languages and distributed in China and abroad.Education in the Tibetan areas used to be monopolized by the monasteries.Some of the lamas in big lamaseries, who had learned to read and write and recite Buddhist scriptures and who had paed the test of catechism in the Buddhist doctrine, would be given the degree of Gexi, the equivalent of the doctoral degree in theology.Others, after a period of training, would be qualified to serve as religious officials or preside over religious rites.Tibetan medicine has a long history.Doctors of this school of medicine pay great attention to practical skills.They diagnose illnees by observation, auscultation, smelling, interrogation and pulse feeling.They also know how to collect medicinal herbs and prepare drugs and are skilled in acupuncture, moxibustion and surgery.Tibetan doctors are especially outstanding in veterinary medicine.The Tibetans have their own calendar.They designate the years by using the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth), yin and yang, and the 12 animals representing the 12 Earthly Branches.A year is divided into four seasons and 12 months; which have 29 or 30 days. The technique of Tibetan sculpture is superb.The portraits of the Grand Living Buddhas are the very images of the persons depicted.Tibetan painting features fine lines, well-knitted composition, vivid expreions of figures and bright colors.Tibetan architecture is unique in style, with buildings neatly arranged or rising like magnificent towers and castles.The Potala Palace in Lhasa was built on the sunny side of a mountain slope.With golden roofs and white-washed walls, the building rises naturally with the slope, looking extremely imposing.It is a masterpiece of Tibetan architecture.Maxims and proverbs are very popular among the Tibetans.The metaphors are lively and pregnant with meaning.Tibetans are also good dancers and singers.Their songs and music are well-modulated in tone and the words fit well with the tunes.They often dance while they sing.Their dancing is beautiful with movements executed either with the arms and waist or with legs and feet, and the tap dance is most typically Tibetan.Most of the musical instruments were introduced from the interior of China.Long-handled drums and trumpets are the main musical instruments used by the lamas.They can depict natural sounds, the cries of animals and the singing of birds that can be heard at a great distance.Religious dances are often performed by people wearing masks of deities, humans or animals.The Tibetan opera is one of the famous opera forms in China.It is performed without curtain or stage.In the past, all performers were men.Wearing masks, they danced and sang to the accompaniment of musical instruments.Sometimes the orchestra would chime in with the singers, creating a lively atmosphere.There are many taboos and activities that bear a strong mark of religion.Buddhists are forbidden to kill.Many wild animals, including fish, field vole, Mongolian gazelle and vulture, are under protection.The Tibetans, rich or poor, all have family niches for keeping Buddha statues.Most people wear a metal amulet box, about the size of a cigarette case, on the breast, and turn prayer wheels.It is forbidden to turn prayer wheels counter-clockwise and stride over ritual objects and braziers.The Tibetan New Year is the most important festival in Tibet.People in their holiday best extend greetings to each other and go to the monasteries to receive bleings.On the 15th day of the first moon, all major monasteries hold religious rites and all families light up butter lamps when night falls.It is also the occasion for lamas in the Ta\'er (Ghumbum) monastery in Qinghai and the Qoikang monastery in Lhasa to display their exquisite and beautifully decorated butter carvings.Post-1950 Life
With the founding of the People\'s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the Tibetan areas in the western part of the country was liberated one after another and the Tibetans there entered a new period of historical development.In 1951, representatives of the Central People\'s Government and the Tibet local government held negotiations in Beijing and signed on May 23 a 17-article agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet.Soon afterwards, the central government representative Zhang Jingwu arrived in Lhasa and Chinese People\'s Liberation Army units marched into Tibet from Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan in accordance with the agreement.China\'s First National People\'s Congre was held in Beijing in 1954.The Dalai Lama, Bainqen Erdini and representatives of the Tibetan people attended the congre and later visited various places in the country.The State Council then called a meeting at which representatives of the Tibet local government, the Bainqen Kampo Lija and the Qamdo People\'s Liberation Committee formed a preparatory group for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region after repeated consultations and discuions.In April 1956, a preparatory committee for the purpose was officially set up.Regional autonomy and social reforms were introduced cautiously and steadily in one Tibetan area after another according to their specific circumstances arising from the lopsided development in these areas due to historical reasons.A number of autonomous administrations have been established in Tibetan areas since the 1950s.They include the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Yushu, Hainan, Huangnan, Haibei and Golog Tibetan autonomous prefectures and the Haixi Mongolian, Tibetan and Kazak Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province; the Gannan Tibet Autonomous Prefecture and the Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County in Gansu Province; the Garze and Aba Tibetan autonomous prefectures and the Muli Tibetan Autonomous County in Sichuan Province; and the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province.In light of the historical and social development of the Tibetan people, the central government introduced democratic reforms in various places according to local conditions and through patient explanation and persuasion.Experiments were first carried out to gain experience.A campaign against local despots and for the reduction of rent and interest was unfolded in the Tibetan areas of Northwest China in 1951 and 1952.In farming areas, people were mobilized to abolish rent in labor service and extra-economic coercion in the struggle to eliminate bandits and enemy agents.Sublet of land was banned.But rent for land owned by the monasteries was either intact or reduced or remitted after consultation.In pastoral areas, aid was given to herdsmen to develop production and experience was accumulated for democratic reforms and socialist transformation there.In the Tibetan areas of Southwest China, peaceful reforms were introduced between 1955 and 1957 in the farming areas.Feudal land ownership and all feudal privileges were abolished after consultation between the laboring people and members of the upper strata.Usury was also abolished and slaves were freed and given jobs.The arms and weapons of manorial lords were confiscated.The government bought out the surplus houses, farm implements, livestock and grain of the landlords and serf owners.It was clearly laid down in the agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet that democratic reforms would be carried out to satisfy the common desire of the peasants, herdsmen and slaves.But, in light of the special circumstances in Tibet, the central government declared that democratic reforms would not be introduced before 1962.However, the reactionary manorial lords, including monks and aristocrats, tried in every way to oppose the reforms.In March 1959, the former Tibetan local government and the reactionary clique in the upper strata tore up the 17-article agreement under the pretext of \"safeguarding national interests\" and \"defending religion\" and staged an armed rebellion in Lhasa.They instigated rebel forces in different places to attack Communist Party and government offices and kill people, while abducting the Dalai Lama and compelling people to flee the country.The State Council, acting upon the request of the Tibetan people and patriots in the upper strata, disbanded the Tibet local government (Kasha) and empowered the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region to exercise the functions and powers of the local government.With the active support of the Tibetan laboring people and patriots of all strata, the People\'s Liberation Army soon put down the rebellion.The Preparatory Committee began carrying out democratic reforms while fighting the rebels.In the farming areas, a campaign was launched against rebellion, unpaid corvee service and slavery and for the reduction of rent and interest.In the pastoral areas, a similar campaign against the three evils was coupled with the implementation of the policy of mutual benefit to herdsmen and herd owners.All the means of production belonging to those serf owners and their agents who participated in the rebellion were confiscated, and the serfs who rented land from them were entitled to keep all their harvests for that particular year.All the debts laboring people owed to them were abolished.The means of production belonging to those serf owners and their agents who did not participate in the rebellion was not confiscated but bought over by the state.Rent for their land was reduced and all old debts owed by serfs were abolished.In the monasteries, the feudal system of exploitation and oppreion was abolished and democratic management was instituted.Land and other means of production including animals, farm implements and houses confiscated or bought by the state were redistributed fairly and reasonably among the poor serfs, serf owners and their agents, with priority given to the first group.In livestock breeding areas, while the animals owned by manorial lords and herd owners who participated in the rebellion were confiscated and distributed among the herdsmen, no struggle was waged against those who did not participate, their stock was not redistributed, and no cla differentiation was made.Instead, the policy of mutual benefit to both herd owners and herdsmen was implemented.Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the million serfs overthrew the cruel system of feudal serfdom and abolished the regulations and contracts that had condemned them to exploitation and oppreion for generations.They received land, domestic animals, farm implements and houses and were emancipated politically. In September 1965, the Tibet Autonomous Region was officially established.The Tibetans have since embarked on a road of socialist transformation, cautiously but steadily.The great victory in the democratic revolution and the ensuing socialist transformation brought about tremendous changes to the whole Tibetan community.Since 1980, the central government has introduced a set of special policies to enable the Tibetan people to recoup their strength and make up for the damage they had suffered during the \"cultural revolution\" (1966-1976).The policies include remiion of taxation on collective and individual producers for a long time to come; authorization of private use of land and livestock by households for a long time while public ownership of land, forests and graland is upheld; protection of the farmers\' and herdsmen\'s right of determination in production and encouragement of a diversified economy based principally on household operations; free disposal of farm and animal by-products on the market, and encouragement of individual and collective industrial and commercial enterprises.All these have brought forth the initiative of the Tibetan people and stimulated the growth of the local economy.Tibet has also received support and aid from the central government and other areas of China.From 1952 to 1984, the central government gave a total of 7.9 billion yuan to Tibet in the form of financial grants.To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region, some provinces and cities and the state economic departments built 43 major construction projects in the region.These included a geothermal power station at Yangbajan, auxiliary facilities for the Qinghai-Tibet highway, the premises of Tibet University, a hotel, a theatre, a training center with audio-visual teaching aids and a stadium in Lhasa, a solar energy power station at Xigaze, and a hospital and an art gallery at Zetang.Rapid developments have been reported by all trades and services in Tibet.Starting from scratch, Tibet\'s industry boasted more than 300 factories and mines by the end of 1984, covering power generating, metallurgy, woolen textiles, machinery, chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals, paper making and printing.They turned out more than 80 products, with a total value of 168 million yuan a year.The bleak and desolate Bangon, Markam and Qaidam areas have become major industrial centers.Good harvests have been reaped consecutively.In 1984, total grain output reached 494,000 tons and the animals in stock by the end of the year numbered 21.68 million, nearly double the 1965 figure.Communications facilities also grew rapidly.There was no highway in Tibet before liberation.Since the People\'s Liberation Army marched into Tibet, several major trunk roads were built, including the Qinghai-Tibet highway (1954), the Sichuan-Tibet highway (1954), the Yunnan-Tibet highway (1976) and the Xinjiang-Tibet highway (1957) which linked up the Tibetan areas.A network of motor roads fanning out from Lhasa has been formed, extending to almost all counties.In 1984, the total length of roads open to traffic in Tibet reached 21,500 kilometers.The people\'s air force made the first succeful flight from Beijing to Lhasa in 1956 and since then regular air services have linked Lhasa with Xining, Chengdu, Lanzhou and Xi\'an.Roads also connect Tibet with the Kingdom of Nepal.The Longhai Railway runs through the Tianzhu Tibetan Prefecture in Gansu and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway starting from Xining has already reached Golmud in Qinghai.An oil pipeline extending from Golmud to Lhasa--a significant project for strengthening the defense of the southwest China borders and developing the local economy-- has been completed.Radical changes have also taken place in culture and education.The one million serfs who were deprived of education before liberation are attending schools in Tibet or nationalities institutes in other parts of the country.With no institution of higher learning before, Tibet had three such institutions by the end of 1985 as well as 2,600 middle and primary schools, with a total enrolment 87 per cent more than in 1965.Many Tibetan profeors, engineers, doctors, veterinarians, agronomists, accountants, journalists, writers and artists have been trained.The Tibetan language and customs and habits are enjoying respect and the outstanding heritage of Tibetan culture has been carried forward.Medical and health organizations have been established in all parts of the region, which had more than 500 hospitals by the end of 1984.A special team of medical personnel are making a systematic study of Tibetan medicine and pharmacology.
The living standards of the Tibetan people have been rising steadily.The peasants, who lived in rickety sheds and never had enough food, have moved into bright and spacious houses with gla windows and stored up more grain and meat than they can consume.Brightly decorated furniture, television sets and caette recorders have also made their way into the home of former serfs.However, about small percentage of the peasants and herdsmen have not yet shaken off poverty, although their living conditions are better than in the old days.Religious activities are protected by the government.Temples have been renovated and repair.Buddhist statues, volumes of scriptures, ancient porcelain articles and other precious relics lost during the ten-year turmoil of the \"cultural revolution\" have been returned to the monasteries.Among them was a bronze statue of Sakyamuni brought to Tibet by Prince Brikuthi from Nepal in the 7th century.It is now kept in the Qoikang Monastery in Lhasa.An institute of Buddhist theology has been set up and preparations are being made to restore the scripture printing house.Tibet now has several thousand lamas, and the government sets no limit to the number of monks in the monasteries.Tibetan officials and government functionaries are increasing rapidly.By the end of 1985, there were 31,900 officials and government functionaries of Tibetan and other minority nationalities, accounting for 62 per cent of the total.The principal positions in the governments at all levels are now held by members of these minority ethnic groups.Their ability and educational standards have been improving steadily.Monpa (Moinba,Menba) The Monpa (ménbàzú, Tibetan) are an ethnic group in the
People\'s Republic of China, with a population of 50,000, centered in the districts of Tawang and West Kameng.Another 25,000 of them can be found in the district of Cuona in Tibet, where they are known as Menba.of the 45,000 Monpas who live in Arunachal Pradesh, about 20,000 of them live in Tawang district, where they constitute about 97% of the district\'s population, and almost all of the remainder can be found in the West Kameng district, where they form about 77% of the district\'s population.A small number of them may be found in the district of East Kameng and Bhutan (2,500).The word \"Monpa\" means \"People of the Mon-yul, which means land in Tibetan.They also share very close affinity with the Sharchops of Bhutan.Their language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family, but it is significantly different from the Eastern Tibetan dialect and is written with the Tibetan script.The Monpa are sub-divided into six sub-groups because of their variations in their language.They are namely: Tawang Monpa Dirang Monpa Lish Monpa Bhut Monpa Kalaktang Monpa Panchen Monpa Religion
The Monpa are mainly followers of Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa sect, although several members of the Bhut Monpa are followers of Bön and Animism.In every household, small Buddhist altars placed with statues of Buddha are given water offerings in little cups and burning butter lamps.The belief in transmigration of the soul and reincarnation is widespread, as their life is largely centered on the Tawang monastery in Tawang district, where many of the young Monpa boys would join the monastery and grow up as Buddhist Lamas.The Bhut Monpa led a hunter-gather lifestyle and believed that the main totem and clan idol is the spirit of the tiger, who will torment any initiate while he sleeps.It is also believed that the spirit of the tiger is the manifestation of the ancestral forest spirit, who took a young shaman into the jungle to be initiated.Culture
The Monpa are known for wood carving, Thangka painting, carpet making and weaving.They manufactured paper from the pulp of the local sukso tree.A printing pre can be found in the Tawang monastery, where many religious books are printed on local paper and wooden blocks, usually meant for literate Monpa Lamas, who use it for their personal correspondence and conducting religious rituals.Principal Monpa festivals include Choskar harvest, Losar, Ajilamu and Torgya.During Losar, people would generally pray pilgrimage at the Tawang monastery to pray for the coming of the Tibetan New Year.The Buddhist Lamas would read religious scriptures in the Gompas for a few days during Choskar.There after, the villagers will walk around the cultivated fields with the sutras on their back.The significance of this festival is to pray for better cultivation and protect the grains from insects and wild animals.The prosperity of the villagers is not excluded as well.It is a rule that all animals except men and tigers are allowed to be hunted.According to tradition, only one individual is allowed to hunt the tiger on an auspicious day, upon the initiation period of the shamans, which can be likened a trial of paage.Upon hunting the tiger, the jawbone, along with all its teeth, is used as a magic weapon.This is believed that its power will enable the tigers to evoke the power of his guiding spirit of the ancestral tiger, who will accompany and protect the boy along his way.Society
The traditional society of the Monpa was administered by a council which consists of six ministers locally known as Trukdri.The members of this council were known as the Kenpo, literally the Abbot of Tawang.The Lamas also hold a respectable position, which consists of two monks known as Nyetsangs, and two other Dzongpon.Lifestyle and Dre
The traditional dre of the Monpa is based on the Tibetan Chugba, although woolen coats and trousers maybe worn as well.The men wear a skull cap of felt with fringes or taels.The womenfolk tend to wear a warm jacket and a sleevele chemise that reaches down to the calves, tying them round the waist with a long and narrow piece of cloth.Ornaments that include silver rings, earrings made of flat pieces of bamboo with red beads or turquoises are worn as well.One can see a person wearing a cap with a single peacock feather round their felt hats.Due to the cold climate of the Himalayas, the Monpa, like most of the other Buddhist tribes, construct their house with stone and wood with plank floors, often accompanied with beautifully carved doors and window frames.The roof is made with bamboo matting, keeping their house warm during the winter season.Sitting platforms and hearths in the living rooms are also found in their houses.Economy
The Monpa practice shifting and permanent types of cultivation.Cattle including yaks, cows, pigs, sheep and fowl are kept as domestic animals, and meat is hunted using primitive methods.To prevent soil erosion by planting crops on hilly slopes, the Monpa follow terraced cultivation and terraced the slopes of the forest.Cash crops such as rice, maize, wheat, barely, chilly, pumpkin, beans, tobacco, indigo and cotton are planted.History
Legends, chronological and archaeological evidence that the Monpa, who were the aborigines of that area, once ruled a kingdom known as Monyul, or Lhomon that existed from 500 B.C.to 600 A.D., a kingdom that was ruled by the then-nomadic Monpa.It was believed that Monyul stretches from present day Tawang right up to West Bengal, Aam, part of Sikkim and even the Duars plains at the Himalayan foothills.Upon the collapse of Monyul, the Monpa came under the rule of Tibet for many years, although small Monpa chiefdoms were formed whenever Tibetan rule was not strong in the area.One of the good reminiscences of the ancient Monpa chiefdoms include the Dirang Fort constructed around the 11th century, which was meant to defend against invasions from neighbouring chiefdoms.Miscellaneous
The sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, is a Monpa by ethnicity.New Life
Tibet was peacefully liberated in 1951, and democratic reforms were introduced in 1959 after a counter-revolutionary armed rebellion was put down.During the action, the Moinbas joined the Tibetan people in support of the People\'s Liberation Army.Since then, they have shaken off their yoke and begun a new life.The days of having to survive on wild fruits and nuts, wearing animal skins and banana leaves and living in caves and forests have gone forever.Agricultural output has risen considerably through the development of hillsides, introduction of irrigation systems and superior crop strains, and ending of the traditional slash-and-burn farming method.Now the Moinbas have moved into bright, new electric-lit houses.Narrow footpaths and single log bridges have been replaced by roads and suspension bridges.The Moinba people now have many schools for both children and adults, and have trained their first generation of teachers, accountants and other profeionals.Some young people are studying at the Tibet Ethnic Minorities\' Institute in Lhasa and the Central Ethnic Minorities\' Institute in Beijing.Men and women of Moinba origin are working as administrators at various levels of government.Blang
Population and Distribution
The Blang people, with a population of about 82,400, live mainly in the Mt.Blang, Xiding, Bada and Daluo areas of Menghai County in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in
south-western Yunnan Province.Some are also scattered in the neighboring Lincang and Simao prefectures.History
Records show that the ancestors of the Blang people can be traced back to the ancient \"Pu\" tribe who were believed to be the earliest people to settle in the Lancang and Nujiang river valleys.When the Yizhou County was established in the Yunnan Province during the Han Dynasty, the Pu people were brought under the control of the Han Empire.In the Tang and Song periods, the Pu area was governed by the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms.In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty (12712300 meters, the area has a warm climate, plentiful rainfall, fertile soil and rich natural resources.This is an agricultural community and the main cash crops include cotton, sugarcane and the world famous Pu\'er tea.The Blang also raise livestock.Covered by dense virgin forests, these areas area are also abundant in valued medicinal herbs such as pseudoginseng, rauwolfia verticillata and lemongra.In addition the area is rich in copper, iron, sulphur and rock crystal.Religion
The Blang worship a variety of gods.Influenced by the Dai people, in Xishuangbanna area they practice Hinayana Buddhism.Ancestor worship is also popular, while there are those who practice pluralism, shamanism and Totemism.Residence
Communities are made up of blood relations and they live in two storey houses similar to those of the Dai.The ground floor is used for storage and provides accommodation for the livestock.The upper floor is occupied by the family.A central fireplace in the main living room is used for cooking as well as a source of both heat and light.The erection of a new house is a communal affair.All the adults in the village will aist the family in the building work and once it is completed a great celebration is held.Fashion
Homespun cloth is used in the manufacture of clothing.Styles will vary according to the area in which the people
