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History of Tibet

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History of Tibet. History of European exploration in Tibet. 1667 illustration Himalayas, on the southern rim of the Tibetan plateau.

History of European exploration in Tibet

Tibet has attracted European missionaries and explorers for over 500 years. The location of Tibet, deep in the Himalaya mountains, made travel to Tibet extraordinarily difficult at any time, in addition to the fact that it traditionally was forbidden to all western foreigners. The internal and external politics of Tibet, China, Bhutan, Assam, and the northern Indian kingdoms combined rendered entry into Tibet politically difficult for all Europeans. The combination of inaccessibility and political sensitivity made Tibet a mystery and a challenge for Europeans well into the 20th century. History[edit] 12th–16th centuries[edit] The earliest European reports of Tibet were from Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela who left Zaragoza, Aragon in 1160 and travelled to Baghdad before returning to Navarre in 1173. 17th century[edit] On the advice of Andrade, a mission was dispatched to southern Tibet from India in 1627.

Prehistory of Tibet. Neolithic Tibet. Neolithic Tibet refers to a prehistoric period in which Neolithic technology was present in Tibet.

Neolithic Tibet

Tibet has been inhabited since the Late Paleolithic.[1] During the mid-Holocene, Neolithic immigrants from northern China largely replaced the original inhabitants, bringing with them elements of Neolithic culture and technology, although a degree of genetic continuity with the Paleolithic settlers still exists.[1] Migration[edit] Various models for how and why the migrations occurred have been proposed, although additional research is necessary to verify the different models.[4] Language[edit]

Zhang Zhung kingdom. Mythological origins. Pre-Imperial Tibet. Yarlung dynasty. Tibetan Empire. The Tibetan Empire existed during the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries A.D., and ruled an area considerably larger than the Tibetan Plateau that stretched mostly to parts of East Asia, Central Asia and South Asia.

Tibetan Empire

At its height, the empire's influence and control of territories stretched from modern-day Sikkim, East Turkistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, north Pakistan, north Afghanistan, north India, north Nepal, Bhutan and parts of China. The historic name for the Tibetan Empire is different from Tibet's present name. "This first mention of the name Bod, the usual name for Tibet in the later Tibetan historical sources, is significant in that it is used to refer to a conquered region. In other words, the ancient name Bod originally referred only to a part of the Tibetan Plateau, a part which, together with Rtsaṅ (Tsang, in Tibetan now spelled Gtsaṅ, has come to be called Dbus-gtsaṅ (Central Tibet).

Tibetan empire. Era of Fragmentation. Era of Fragmentation.

Mongol invasion and the Yuan dynasty

Late Medieval Tibet. A 17th-century Tibetan thangka of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra; the Ming Dynasty court gathered various tribute items which were native products of Tibet (such as thangkas),[1] and in return granted Tibetan tribute-bearers with gifts.[2] The exact nature of relations between China and Tibet during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) is unclear.

Late Medieval Tibet

Analysis of the relationship is further complicated by modern political conflicts and the application of Westphalian sovereignty to a time when the concept did not exist. Some Mainland Chinese scholars, such as Wang Jiawei and Nyima Gyaincain, assert that the Ming Dynasty had unquestioned sovereignty over Tibet, pointing to the Ming court's issuing of various titles to Tibetan leaders, Tibetans' full acceptance of these titles, and a renewal process for successors of these titles that involved traveling to the Ming capital. Phagmodrupa dynasty. Phagmodrupa Dynasty. The Phagmodrupa dynasty or Pagmodru (Wylie: phag-mo-gru-pa, Chinese: 帕木竹巴; IPA: /pʰʌ́kmoʈʰupa/) of Tibet was established by Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen at the end of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

Phagmodrupa Dynasty

Tai Situ came from the monastic fief Phagmodru ("sow's ferry crossing"), which was originally founded as a hermitage in 1158 by the famous Kagyu scholar Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo.[1] It was situated in the Nêdong district southeast of Lhasa. Qing dynasty.

Gelugpa order

Manchurian Qing dynasty. Tibet (1912–51) The history of Tibet between 1912 and 1951 marked the span of Tibet's de facto independence, from the fall of the Qing Dynasty until 1950 when Tibet was annexed by the People's Republic of China and became the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

Tibet (1912–51)

Organizational chart of Ganden Phodrang Following the Xinhai Revolution and the downfall of the Qing Dynasty, the Tibetan militia launched a surprise attack on the Qing garrison stationed in Tibet. Afterwards the Qing officials in Lhasa were forced to sign the "Three Point Agreement" which provided for the surrender and expulsion of Qing forces in central Tibet. China's provisional President Yuan Shikai sent a telegram to the 13th Dalai Lama, restoring his earlier titles. The Dalai Lama spurned these titles, replying that he "intended to exercise both temporal and ecclesiastical rule in Tibet Later Chinese governments claimed this McMahon Line illegitimately transferred a vast amount of territory to India. And also:

De-facto independance. History of Tibet: 1950-present. History of Tibet (1950–present) In 1949, seeing that the Communists were gaining control of China, the Kashag expelled all Chinese connected with the Chinese government, over the protests of both the Kuomingtang and the Communists.[2] Both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China have maintained China's claim to sovereignty over Tibet, even though it is merely a relic of the Chinese Empire.

History of Tibet (1950–present)

From the beginning, it was obvious that incorporating Tibet into Communist China would bring two opposite social systems face-to-face.[12] In western Tibet, however, the Chinese Communists opted not to make social reform an immediate priority. On the contrary, from 1951 to 1959, traditional Tibetan society with its lords and manorial estates continued to function unchanged.[12] Despite the presence of twenty thousand PLA troops in Central Tibet, the Dalai Lama's government was permitted to maintain important symbols from its de facto independence period.[12] Warren W.