|
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. |