Tibet Tours

In company with their unique culture, Tibetans have food of a very distinctive character.

Among the great variety of Tibetan food, zanba and buttered tea are the most popular and distinguished. The former, made of qingke (barley flour) and tasting a little bit sour, is very nutritious and easy to take, while the latter, a Juema, a Tibetan snack mixture of butter, tea and salt, claims to be a good energy-giving beverage. Quite a few tourists drink it during their stay in Tibet in order to adapt to the high altitudes and dry climate and it becomes quite addictive. Qinke wine, however, seems to have quite the opposite effect due to its strong after-effects. Many outsiders shrink from the challenge of drinking this wine despite in popularity with the locals. Other typical Tibetan foods include dried meat, mutton served with sheep’s trotters, roast sheep intestine, yogurt and cheese.

You can’t say you have really tasted Tibetan food without trying qingke wine, buttered tea, sheep blood soup and yak meat.

All the hotels in Tibet serve Tibetan food and the Tibetan restaurants along Eastern Beijing Road in Lhasa enjoy quite a reputation among tourists. Snow Goddess Palace at the foot of the Potala attracts innumerable tourists with its authentic Tibetan cuisine. If you enjoy a feast there you will be offered the following: For the first course you will be served cold dishessuch as zanba, yak meat, beef tripe and ox tongue. Next comes the hot dishes of sheep blood soup, fried sheep lung and stir-fried beef with pickled carrot. The staple is steamed buns stuffed with minced beef and potato, or rice fried with butter. What a treat not only for your stomach, but also for your eyes. Nevertheless, most people only taste a little of these beautiful dishes.

Tibetan food is not the only choice for tourists of today. Different styles of food, such as Sichuan and Guangdong cuisine, are also available at hotels and streetside restaurants in such cities as Lhasa, Zetang and Xigaze. Western restaurants and buffet cafeterias are also available for the slightly more unadventurous of tourists.

The Buttered Tea

Buttered tea is the favorite drink of Tibetan people. It is made of boiled brick tea and ghee. Ghee, which looks like butter, is a kind of dairy product of fat abstracted from cow milk or sheep milk. Tibetan people like the ghee made of yak milk. When they make buttered tea, they mix boiled brick tea and ghee in a special can, add some salt, pour the mixed liquid into a pottery or metal teapot and finally heat up it (but not boil it). Different people have different tastes for the buttered tea. Some people like salty flavor, others prefer to light flavor. People who do manual labors, especially men, like the strong-tasted, cream-like buttered tea. Old people, children and women like light-flavored tea. People usually heat up the buttered tea because cold buttered tea is not easy to be digested and does harm to one’s stomach.

Zanba (roasted highland qingke barley flour)

The staple food of Tibetan people is Zanba, a kind of dough made with roasted highland qingke barley flour and yak butter with water. Method of making: grind the roasted Highland Barley into flour, and mix it with ghee. It is similar to parching wheat flour in northern China. People in northern China grind the wheat into flour before parching it, but Tibetan people do the opposite. They roast the Barley seeds before grinding them into flour. What’s more, Tibetan people do not remove the husk of the Barley.

When eating Zanba, Tibetan people put some ghee in a bowl, pour some boiled water into the bowl, then put some roasted flour into the water, and mix them with one hand. When mixing the tea, they press the flour slightly against the edge of the bowl with their fingers to avoid spilling the tea. After mixing all the roasted flour, the tea and the ghee until the thing gets thick, people knead it into dough balls and eat them. Tibetan people use hands instead of chopsticks or scoops when eating. This habit is a little similar to the habits of Indians, who also use hands when eating rice.

Zanba is a simple food. It is quite easy to take some Zanba when Tibetan people move about in search of pasture. When Tibetan people leave home for a long time, they always carry a Zanba bag on their waists. Whenever they are hungry, they eat some Zanba. Sometimes, they take out a wood bowl, put some Zanba, buttered tea, and salt in the bowl, mix them. Then they knead the dough into balls and eat them. It’s very convenient. Sometimes, they drink some buttered tea while eating Zanba. Sometimes, they pour Zamba and buttered tea into a leather bag named “tangu”. Then, they hold the mouth of the bag with one hand and knead the bag with the other hand. After a while, the delicious Zanba dinner is ready.

During the Tibetan New Year Festival, every family will place an auspicious wood container called Zusuqima”on the Tibetan-style cupboard. In the container are qingke, Zanba and zholma (groma food, a kind of Tibetan food), on top of which are ears of qingke wheat, wheat flowers and colored cards on which the sun, the moon and stars are drawn. When the neighbors or the relatives come to pay a New Year call, the hosts will entertain them with the food in “zhusiqima”. The guest will take some Zanba with one hand and flick in the air for three times. Then he takes some Zanba and put it in the mouth while saying “Tashi Delek” (meaning good luck and happiness) to express the best wishes.

Lhasa’s catering business is developing. Besides the Tibetan diet, other national styles of cooking including Chinese, Indian, Nepalese and Western food can all be enjoyed. Tibetan food, Sichuan cuisine, and Northern wheaten foods are most typical. The Tibetan diet is mainly made up of beef and mutton. Don’t eat too much the first time to avoid dyspepsia. If you are not used to butter tea, you can often drink sweet milk tea as an alternative. Highland barley wine is not strong, but too much will nevertheless result in deep sleep. It is recommended to eat garlic with some dishes, such as raw meat pulp. In some small restaurants, a dish and a soup cost about 10 yuan. Northwest China?s hand-pulled noodles are rather cheap, as is nourishing Thenthuk (Tibetan noodles) with bone soup at only 4 yuan.

Qingke

Qingke (highland barley) is the main ingredient of tsampa. Tsampa is barley flour, made from parched barley, un-husked and ground into fine flour, and then eaten with butter. People also make tsampa by mixing qingke flour and peas. Tsampa made from qingke is a Tibetan traditional food, served in most restaurants of Lhasa to give visitors from all over the world a taste of Tibet. At religious festivals, Tibetans will sprinkle tsampa as a sign of blessing.

Beef and Mutton

Tibetans mainly live on beef, mutton and milk products. In pastoral areas, people don’t eat vegetables. In these areas, which includes most of Tibet, the diet is monotonous and rich in fat and protein. Beef and mutton are rich in calories, which helps people living on the Roof of the World to keep warm. Tibetans have a custom of eating raw meat. If you go to a herdsman’s or a farmer’s home, you will see the air-dried beef and mutton hung inside the house or tents. The host will invariably treat you to such meat, which can only be tasted on the Plateau of Tibet.

Mashed Yak Meat
Tibetan medicines are mysterious. Mashed yak meat is a mixture of some Tibetan medicine and mashed raw beef (yak meat). Blood red and pungent, you will feel hot inside after eating it. It is said that Tibet is a place where time can stop still. People today still like to enjoy the sunshine at the foot of the Potala Palace after such a good meal, feeling rather satisfied.

Tibetan is spoken in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and in parts of northern India (including Sikkim). It is classified by linguists as a member of the Tibeto-Burman subgroup of the Sino-Tibetan languages.

Tibetan is written in a very conservative syllabary script based on the writing system of the ancient Sanskrit language of India. Used in its present form since the 9th century, it was developed as a means of translating sacred Buddhist texts that were being brought into Tibet from India. The writing system derived from the pronunciation of the language as it was in about the 7th century, and varies in many ways from colloquial Tibetan as it spoken today.

Beginning in the 8th century, Buddhist texts written in Sanskrit were carried over the Himalayas, and were carefully translated into Tibetan by meditator scholars who had studied the true meaning of the teachings with Indian masters. The flow of texts and teachings ended during the 11th century, when the Indian originals were mostly lost or destroyed in the Muslim suppression of Buddhism in India. Fortunately, by that time the transmission of Buddhist textual, artistic, meditative, and philosophical traditions into Tibet had been largely completed. Over the years Tibetan scholars added commentaries and further teachings to this body of literature.

In recent times the Chinese invasion of Tibet and their attempt to destroy the influence of the Buddhist monasteries led many very advanced meditation masters and scholars to escape to the West, bringing as many of their precious dharma texts and sacred art works as they could carry. These works are now preserved at many Tibetan Buddhist centers in various Western countries, and copies are also available for study in many major libraries. The language in which these texts are written is known as Classical Tibetan. Of the thousands of volumes of these texts, it is said that less than one percent have been translated into any Western languages.

The language as it is actually spoken today is called Colloquial Tibetan by Western scholars. There are four major dialects, and people from widely separated regions may have trouble understanding each other. The “standard” dialect is that of the region around the capital, Lhasa. Another form of the language, found in current writing, is called Modern Literary Tibetan.

This Web site offers links to resources on the Web, books, training aids and tools for translators, and software for working with Tibetan on personal computers. Also, we point out a good source of spoken colloquial Tibetan, the Tibetan language news broadcasts which are available via “Internet Radio.”

These news broadcasts are also of interest to Tibetan refugees who have access to the Internet, and for them we have also included links to Indian and Nepali language broadcasts. Tape recordings of these broadcasts may be appreciated by Tibetans who don’t have Internet access.

In most people’s eyes, Tibetan Buddhism is the only religious belief held by the people in Tibet. But in Upper Yanjing Village, Mangkang County, Chamdo Prefecture, eastern Tibet, it is not Sakyamuni who is worshipped, it is Jesus Christ.

The Yanjing Catholic Church, built in 1865 by French missionaries, is the only one of its kind in Tibet and covers an area of 6,000 sq m.
Undated photo shows the inside of the Yanjing Catholic Church, Upper Yanjing Village, Mangkang County, Chamdo Prefecture, eastern Tibet, photo from People’s Daily Online.
The church, a rare combination of Western and Tibetan architectural styles, has a typical Gothic vault and frescoes featuring the contents of Bible on the ceiling in the inside, but looks like a common Tibetan-style residence in the outside.
In addition to the images of Jesus and Virgin Mary, the church is decorated by red lanterns and white hada, a symbol of purity and happiness in the Tibetan custom.
The 1,000 residents of Upper Yangjing Village constitute the main body of the believers of the church.
Catholics in the village still regard the Tibetan New Year’s Day as the start for a new year; missionaries are dressed in Tibetan-style clothes; and the Catholic followers use the world’s only Tibetan-edition of Bible.
Undated photo shows the outside of the Yanjing Catholic Church, Upper Yanjing Village, Mangkang County, Chamdo Prefecture, eastern Tibet, photo from tibet.cn.
During Western festivals like Christmas, the church will invite Catholics from neighboring provinces and abbots of local Tibetan monasteries to join the get-together party.

On the occasion of the Religious Dance Festival of Tibetan Buddhism, priests and Catholics will also be invited to appreciate the religious dance to mark the festival.

Yanjing Village is divided by a ditch into two parts, with one called Upper Yanjing Village and the other, Lower Yanjing Village.
Residents in Lower Yanjing Village are Naxi people who believe in Tibetan Buddhism, while residents in Upper Yanjing Village are indigenous Tibetans who believe in Catholicism.

1.Tibetan people have to respect a horse, dog and donkey meat and no fish in some areas, so please that her eating habits.
2.Remember not enter the threshold of the shop or a house. Call someone on the name, please add “la” after the name of respect for the expression. When you sit down are invited to tick the legs do not stretch their legs forward and face than others. You have to accept the gift with both hands. In presenting the gift will be to bend the body forward and hold the gift higher than your head with both hands. While offering tea, wine or smoking, you must provide with both hands and fingers, no hard inside of the cup.
3. If the host offers you a glass of wine, you have to dip your finger in wine and film in the sky, air and soil, respectively, to express their respect to the sky, earth and ancestors before them the wine. The host will fill the glass and take a sip of wine again. After the host fills the cup again, the downward.
4. It is not polite to clap their hands and spit behind the Tibetan people.
5. Tibetan people stretch the language you are welcome. It is also a courtesy to the hands, palms facing breast cancer.
6. No smoke in monasteries. It is also prohibited, the statue of Buddha and religious articles and photographs them to touch. In addition, you should walk on the right side (not in temples, good).
7. The eagles are sacred birds in the eyes of the Tibetan people. You do not need to hunt or damaged. Outside, you can not drive or disturb the sheep or cows with strips of red cloth, green or yellow.
8. All the stupas, monasteries or Mani piles, please go to the right side () is not good not intersect.

Tucked behind the Indian, Nepal and the majestic Himalayas is the highest and largest plateau on Earth, the ancient land of Tibet, often referred to as the “roof of the world. Touring Tibet is to meet people, animals, learn about their culture that in the midst of breathtaking scenery, biking or hiking in the mountains. Everest Base Camp is one of the most exciting experiences that I did not .. We have 18 years experience helping outsiders visit this wonderful place, Biking, Walking, Van, bus, climbing., etc. We want the center of the natural wonders of the world.
Tibetan Festivals:
The year of the new Real
The first day of the first month of Tibetan calendar is the Royal New Year in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. This is an important annual festival for Tibetans. At the beginning of the twelfth month of Tibet, Tibetans begin preparing Christmas presents including Auspicious ° ± bushel, with barley flour with butter and corn chips are mixed filled, and ginseng. At the top of the barley flour is to the ear of barley in the mountain regions, the peak of the colorful flowers and the platform has built with butter. At the beginning of New Year’s morning, ¯ s, s to be transported Tibetans, men and women in their hosliday by hand to exchange New Year greetings ¯ dressed and best wishes to the other, namely: Tashi Delek ° ± means auspicious or lucky. After these days is also close to the monasteries to worship Buddha, or sing and dance in the streets or go visit family and friends together to drink to their hearts content ¯ s enjoy the new year. Everyone is intoxicated with the spirit of the festival.

Shoton Festival in Lhasa
In the first of the seventh month or in August in the Gregorian calendar, which traditionally have been forced by the monks, locked in their monasteries for the Buddhist ascetic remain, the people in her family, prepared with cottage cheese, milk drink then dance in the duration of detention. Shoton means yogurt ° ± Festival. In the early 17th Shoton century, the festival has a powerful partner with the operas of Tibet. The Tibetan artists of various schools in the whole of Tibet has come to gather in Norbu Linka, have a competition the show, which lasted several days. During this time, the Drepung Monastery is a large portrait of the Buddha show ceremony.

Saga Dawa Festival
° It is the festival for the local animals in captivity ± release practices. Thank you to everyone for the fourth month, the monks Don ¯ t eat meat and commit Don ¯ t the slaughter. Just at the wheel of prayer and recitation of the Buddha scriptures.It ¯ s focus is said that 1 Day of the fourth month following the day he was born Sakyamuni attained enlightenment and achieved nirvana.On this day each year people in all their glory, singing and dancing in the park for dinner.

The Wongkor (excellent harvest festival)
This is an opportunity for the Tibetans to a record harvest. When it comes to important people with colorful flags colored clothing defended their good wishes. They make a pagoda of the harvest with matching scarves ceremony in the highland barley and wheat sheaves, drums and gongs, singing in his odes and walk through the fields in prayer for a bountiful harvest, and then take a horse race. The fall harvest begins when the party is over.

Les Six Four Festival
The fourth day of the sixth Tibetan month in the vicinity of Lhasa, to the people in their new clothes to the nearby temple. By offering to Buddha, pray to Buddha ¯ s image whisper of blessing. Then go to open up the grass with drinks in their hearts and ¯ happy dance.

The Festival of the expulsion of evil spirits
The 29th Day of the twelfth month of the Tibetan calendar is an important day for the dance magician ¯ s power of all monasteries in Tibet. Accommodation clean the house thoroughly and beautifully decorated. Since the new year is approaching, what dirty and evil must be eliminated, the people pray for their families for good health and a desire for a bumper harvest next year.

Heavenly Maid Festival
It is also the heavenly festival ° ° ± ± o Mother Rabzhol Belhane in Tibetan known. Every year, on 15 Day of the tenth month of Tibetan calendar, religious activities are held in the temples in Tibet. Tibetan women love to celebrate, because they think it is a special occasion for themselves, therefore, are very active and are so happy.

Butter Lamp Festival
The oil lamp is on 15 Day of the first month of each year celebration. To make the monasteries of monks and local artists, different colored flowers Butter in the pyramids in front of the Jokhang Temple. In the evening, after fires butter lamps are like the stars twinkling in the sky. The pyramids of butter immortals, animals, birds, animals and flowers.

Anniversary of the death of Tsongkhapa
It takes 25 months 10, which is in November or December of the Gregorian calendar. It is the day on which Tsongkhapa, met the founder of the Gelugpa sect of his death. Each household light bulbs on the roofs of houses and songs and prayers in memory window of Tsongkhapa, in the night.

Bath Festival
In the 7th Month of the Tibetan calendar, or September in the Gregorian calendar is the time that Venus appears only for seven nights in a year. Tibetan people believe that the water is clean, especially in this Holy Week. They believe that the earth can be washed, the disease can be cured and his health can be improved. During the week, all the people who go out washing along the rivers for bathing, washing and playfulness.

The majority of Tibet’s population of 1,890,000 is Tibetans. Tibet is so thinly populated that it averages out 1.6 8 persons per square kilometers. About 90% of the people live on farming and husbandry. Farmers live in the valleys of Tsangpo River (Brahmapotra) and its major tributaries Kyichu and Nuuang-chu. This area produces barely, wheat, peas and rape-seed, the great northern grassland which occupies a good half of Tibet is the home of nomads, yaks and sheep. Nomads have no fixed abodes, and keep roaming along fine pasture together with all their belongings-tents and Livestock. The remaining population, approximately 10%, lives in towns earning their living mainly on business and handicraft, and many are factory workers and government officials.

Ideology of people in this land differs greatly from any other nationality both at home in china and in the world. Religion seems almost everything. Many live for the next life, rather than for the present. They accumulate deeds of virtue and pray for the final liberation-enlightenment. Lips and hands of the elders are never at still, either busied in murmuring of the six syllable mantric prayer OM Ma Ni Pad Me Hum (Hail the Jewel in the Lotus) or in rotation of hand prayer wheels, or counting of the prayer beads. Pious pilgrims from every corner of Tibet day to day gather at jokhang Temple and barkor Street offering donations and praying heart and soul for their own Selves, for their friends, and for their friends’ friends.

There are more than ten ethnic groups in Tibet, including Tibetan, Mongolian, Nu, Drung, Moinba, Lhoba, Hui, Naxi, Deng and Sherpa. Among them, Tibetans are the dominant inhabitants of Tibet, accounting for d92.2 percent of the local population.

The Tibetan ethnic group of China is noted for its diligence, bravery and long history. Tibetans live mainly in Tibet and also in some areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces. They have their own language and written script. Most Tibetan people are Buddhist. Their staple food is barley flour, and they like to drink butter tea, milk tea, barley wine, and eat beef and mutton. They do not eat odd-toed mammals. In ancient times Tibetan people buried their dead. Now they perform cremation, exposure burial and water burial.

The Moinba is an ancient ethnic group on the Tibet Plateau. Most Moinbas live in Moinyu in southrn Tibet, and he rest are scattered through Medog, Conag, Nyingchi and other counties. Moinbas have their own language but no written script, and the Tibetan language and script are widely used among them. Moinbas live on agriculture, but are also involved in animal husbandry, forestry, hunting and handicrafts. Their staple foods are rice, corn and buckwheat. Most Moinbas believe in Tibetan Buddhism. Primitive sorcery is also worshipped in some areas. Water burial is popular among Moinbas, ground burial, exposure burial and cremation are also conducted.

Most Lhoba people live in Lhoyu in southeastern Tibet, and a small number live in Mainling, Medog, Zayu and Lhunze. The Lhobas have their own language but no written script, although a small number know the Tibetan language and script. Lhobas live on agriculture. Their staple foods are corn, millet, rice and buckwheat.

The Hui people in Tibet are concentrated in Lhasa Xigaze and Qamdo. Most of them are engaged in trade, handicrafts and butchery. They use both Tibetan and Han characters in everyday life, and Urdu and Arabic for their religious rituals. Hui people are Islamic and have built mosques in Lhasa and other places.

The Deng people reside in Zayu County in Nyingchi Prefecture. They have their own language but no written script. The Dengs live on agriculture. Before liberation, the Dengs stills used the primitive slash-and-burn method. After liberation, with the help of the government most of them have moved out of forests and settled on the river valley.

The Sherpa people are concentrated in Lixin Township, Dinggye and Zhentang. They have their own language and use Tibetan script.

The emigration of Han people to Tibet can be date back to the Qing Dynasty. These days Han residents in Tibet are mostly technicians, workers, teachers, medical professionals and officials from other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of China.

Tibetan Mongolian Nu Drung Moinba Lhoba Hui Naxi
Deng Sherpa

People and customs
hokha area, rich with nature, is the cradle of Tibetan. The myth that only a man of love with a demon-skirt for women are the ancestors of the inhabitants of the Plateau Mont Gongburi a holy place for their ancestors of the Tibetans.

Welcoming the figures:
Origin of the culture of the region was Lhokha house for many prominent scholars and artists.

Luosangjiacuo the fifth Dalai Lama, born Qiongjie, consisting of a book about the kings of Tibet and the resolution gave a brief overview of the history of Tibet since the early 10 per AD, when King wore Gush. The book was written in a style, simple and pleasant, with complete and accurate historical facts. Thereafter, the fifth Dalai Lama has 30 works, how the new features for the design, material for the theory DAoC Bodhi, counseling Dabeicidi theory.

Bldg Menyu, CUON, Cangyangjiacuo the sixth Dalai Lama is not only known for his talent, but also for its wide dissemination in all love poems Tibet. Moreover, the prominent monk Milariba who are in the Lozhasanggaguoduo temple in the 11th Century, based on the truth and the songs have an important role in the spread of Buddhism. The book about the deeper meaning of Buddhism and is very easy to understand.
In the 16th Century, the eminent Bawo.zulachenwa monk, abbot of the monastery Luozhalalong for themselves with a large concentration of historical study and wrote books such as Good Fest May. Well, his books are important and necessary for the study of literature of the religious history of Tibet.
In the first of the 18 Century, wrote a novel called Duoga.cirenwangjie Romantic poetry Xunnumeida takes an important place in Tibetan literature, where he was a leader in the ancient temple.

Songs and Dances
Guoxie

Guoxie is a transliteration in Tibetan language, Guo meaning a circle, a dance Xie. The Lhokha in rural areas, Guoxie is a type of singing and dancing with a long history, the people in place to deal with. The majority of the rural population, young and old, can in many Guoxie in this milieu.

Letras de Guoxie covers a broad spectrum and is divided into nine categories: in the mountains, the holy sites, the source of animals, plants, history, and among people, in time, the customs and conventions and love. Guoxie antiphonaire both praise songs and songs. When it comes to songs for the praise, all participants are benign and solemn.

Dance Guoxie three measures will be in March and a seal with his hands shaking from left to right, then two steps forward and a seal with his hands, swaying back, then twice, and twice with the seal to operate hand down, Then in March with three stages left leg after the abolition of the right leg twice and seal with both hands on the right side, left swing can also be reversed and turn right with the general, all by pressing the palms of the hands and feet together and separately, etc.

Wonderful day to discover the local Tibetan art in the company of my new friends, “Pemba” a Tibetan who is a professor of painting Tangka at the University of Lhasa and “Maggy” a Hong Kong Chinese who is preparing his thesis of architecture on buildings Tibet. All this is very cultural and very interesting ..

Under the rain I joined the bus direction Tongren. It’s in the rain as the bus was traveling in the middle of mountain landscapes in colors of green grass and red earth on the muddy track through the debris of stones. Tightly between the Tibetan grandmothers and children, contact is assured.
Arrived at Tongren team I was with my friends almost Chinese. Scholars and keen art, Chinese and Tibetan speaking English, their pedigree has opened many doors yet closed double turn.
Tongren is a city no! Building type HLM criss-cross the city, almost all the same: They are covered with white tiles and the windows are blue! Maggie says it is the style Bathroom. I am not at all agree with her! pour moi c’est le style “toilets”!
What is see is outside the city, and there is no need to say but Tongren Repqong! (Art Repqong is not world famous?)

After walking in a thick and sticky mud in the monastery Magotsang we fell in awe of some thirty Buddhas earth used to make molds for statues made of copper or brass. Our emotion was great to see all these Buddhas at hand caresses.

The monk guardian has exceptionally open the doors where the statues meditate in the dark.
Immense and golden, Tsong Khapa and Maitreya capturing our humble regards. We spent some time admiring the fine and the large number of murals. We visited the workshop of the great masters painters Tangka, have seen the splendor academism perfect. Unfortunately not a shop on the horizon Tangka.
All those products are here for monasteries and this may be the best.

In the afternoon, when the sky is once more lenient, we visited the new monastery Repqong also filled with treasures.

As our trip approached we graduate a restaurant we crossed our monk in the morning and together we had dinner. I had the pleasure to invite everyone in this luxurious restaurant! The addition was sweet: 4 in total! Now it’s late, good night!

Tibet has often been called the “Roof of the World.” The plateau is probably the largest and highest area ever to exist in Earth history, with an average elevation exceeding 5000 m (16,400′). In the image, high elevations are shown in gray and red, and low elevations are shown in blue. The Tibetan Plateau covers an area about half that of the lower 48 United States and is bounded by the deserts of the Tarim and Qaidam Basins to the north and the Himalayan, Karakoram, and Pamir mountain chains to its south and west. Its eastern margin is more diffuse and consists of a series of alternating deep forested valleys and high mountain ranges that run approximately north-south, bounded by the lowlands of the Sichuan Basin of China. Recent research was presented at the eleventh workshop on the Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet region.
The Tibetan Plateau is a collage of continental fragments that were added successively to the Eurasian plate during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. Paleomagnetic data indicate that these fragments were at southern latitudes during the Paleozoic. The sutures between these microplates are marked by scattered occurrences of ophiolitic material caught up between the crustal blocks during accretion. From north to south, the main Tibetan crustal blocks are the Kunlun, Songban-Ganzi, Qiangtang, and Lhasa terranes. It is underlain by continental crust about 65 km thick, compared with more usually thicknesses of about 30 km. Uplift of the plateau began in the early Miocene and it probably reached its present elevation by about 8 Ma (million years). Three major theories have been proposed for the origin of this immense thickness with many additional minor variations upon them.

The rooftop of the world, the land of snows… with an average elevation of 4000 meters (over 13,000 feet), the Tibetan Plateau is the highest and largest plateau on earth. The plants and animals there are unique– the snow leopard, Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, Bengal tiger, wild yak, blue sheep, brown bear, and black-necked crane, to name a few. Visitors to Tibet before 1950 compared it to East Africa, with vast herds of large mammals roaming free through the mountains. Today, precious few remain.

There could be worse days in the life of a Tibetan Snow Leopard.

But although the flora and fauna are diverse, the extreme climate has allowed only a relatively small number of them to flourish; species that have been able to adapt to the thin air, low temperatures, intense radiation, and strong winds. The most recent research indicates that about 13,000 vascular plants and 1200 species of vertebrates have been identified: 678 species of birds, 206 mammals, 83 reptiles, 80 amphibians and 152 fish. Of these, 40 plants and 141 animal species are considered to be endangered.

While this picture may seem rich—and indeed it is—these numbers are actually very low when looked at on a global scale. This ecosystem is the polar opposite of, for example, a South American rainforest consisting of millions of different species of flora and fauna. The result is a web of life that is much more vulnerable and difficult to repair. Imagine a spider web with ten strands next to one with a hundred, or a thousand—if even one string is broken on the first, the whole thing will fall apart.

“Because of its high elevation, the ecosystem here is extremely fragile,” said Dawa Tsering, who heads the World Wildlife Fund’s China Program Office (local branch) in Lhasa. “Once damaged, it is extremely difficult to reverse.”

The major threats the region faces are grassland degradation and deforestation, poaching and the illegal trade of animal products, destruction of habitat due to urbanization and mining, and air pollution. Because of the elevation, the air is thin and more susceptible to toxic fumes.

“The sale of souvenirs and other products made from endangered species is growing due to tourist consumption, and is increasing pressure on local biodiversity,” Tsering said. “Tourists can make a difference simply by not purchasing these products.”

Tibet is the last remaining refuge of the Bengal tiger in China. WWF and other non-profits plan to distribute pamphlets, asking visitors not to buy illegal products made from endangered species like tigers and Tibetan antelopes. The soft underbelly fur of these antelopes is made into shahtoosh shawls, which fetch high prices on the black market.

“International and local laws have guaranteed that killing wild tigers and other protected species for their parts isn’t legal anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Xu Hongfa from TRAFFIC’s China Program. “But the killing of these animals will continue until the demand for buying them stops.”

“Integrating the needs of local development with conserving Tibet’s biodiversity is in need of urgent attention,” Tsering said.

China invaded Tibet in 1949; since occupation, Tibet has suffered loss of life, freedom and human rights. In March 1959, Tibetans rose up against China’s occupation, but were unsuccessful. The Dalai Lama was forced to escape into exile in Dharmshala, India, followed by 80,000 Tibetans. It is from here that the Dalai Lama heads the Tibet Government-In-Exile.

When a country is taken by force, and brutally occupied, and its people are regarded as little more than an impediment to another end, without basic rights, what chance can that country’s plants and animals have? And do we have the right to concern ourselves with flora and fauna when human beings, perhaps some of the most beautiful and peaceful human beings on this planet, are also nearing extinction?

It is not necessary to choose. For thousands of years the Tibetan people have lived in harmony with their ecosystem and been a part of it; therefore, their struggle to survive must be included in a discussion of the destruction of that ecosystem.

Tibet is also the only nation in the world that has recognized meditation as essential to life, and has made the search for truth and the awakening of personal consciousness an undisputed priority in its culture and religion. In the words of Osho, a contemporary enlightened master:

Above harsh rangeland nearly three miles above sea level, vast
beyond imagining, tower the mighty Himalaya, backbone of the world.

“Nowhere has such concentrated effort been made to discover man’s being. Every family in Tibet used to give their eldest son to some monastery where he was to meditate and grow closer to awakening. It was a joy to every family that at least one of them was wholeheartedly, twenty-four hours a day, working on the inner being. They were also working but they could not give all their time; they had to create food and clothes and shelter… but still every family used to give their first-born child to the monastery.

“And we think the world is civilized, where innocent people who are not doing any harm to anybody are simply destroyed. And with them, something of great importance to all humanity is also destroyed. If there were something civilized in man, every nation would have stood against the invasion of Tibet by China. It is the invasion of matter against consciousness. It is invasion of materialism against spiritual heights.

“If humanity were a little more aware, Tibet should be made free because it is the only country which has devoted almost two thousand years to doing nothing but going deeper into meditation. And it can teach the whole world something which is immensely needed” [Om Mani Padme Humm].

Tibetan Buddhism belongs to the Mahayana branch of Buddhism, which emphasizes compassion as the ultimate goal of meditation, rather than just enlightenment. Recent scientific studies show neurological proof that people who meditate actually feel more compassion for others, and are more likely to feel compassion for strangers.

“Emotionally, mentally and physically, all humans are equal and the same. We should take care of one another. It is good for us,” said the Dalai Lama last month in India. His life and work embody compassion, laughter and love—although the Chinese insist it is a diabolically constructed illusion, and to possess even a photograph of him is illegal in Tibet.

At least 6,000 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, nunneries and temples, and their contents have been destroyed since the Chinese invasion and during the Cultural Revolution. At least hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed as a direct result of Chinese execution, imprisonment and torture; by some counts, including suicide and other indirect means of death, the number is over a million.

Perhaps because the Dalai Lama is both the religious and political leader of Tibet, China still regards Tibetan Buddhism as a threat. “Patriotic re-education” is their term for the torture of monks and nuns, who are forced to denounce the Dalai Lama, and repeat after them that “Tibet has always been part of China.” Religious pilgrimages are restricted, or impossible, and Buddhist education is difficult or impossible for Tibetans now. Forced sterilizations and abortions are commonplace.

Tibetan animals
Lhasa APSO
Tibetan dog is another name for Lhasa APSO. Before 20 Century, sometimes the races, with the exception of Tibet, from its origin. There are two reasons for the name of one in Lhasa in Tibet. APSO means “guard dog, the barking” in Tibetan language, the other is the Tibetan word Lhapso, her coat is so long and hard as steel wire.

Background: APSO Lhasa has a long history, at least 2000 years. Originally raised as a pet by monks and nobles, and later to protect the monasteries.

Moreover, Lhasa APSO as sacred. It is believed that the soul of life in the body of a dog dying after helping her is lucky. Therefore, it is not to buy this kind of race first. But later, as a gift to the Dalai Lama visiting foreign officials, allowing it to the world.
Character: Lhasa APSO is great, friendly and determined dog. Have a strong suspicion of foreigners who are happy and intelligent, that the family of dogs. If gold or honey hair color, and sometimes also known as Tibetan Lion Dog. The companion must be his hair regularly to prevent their beautiful curly hair.

Features:

Heading: Reduction of the skull, nose heavy with the long black hair, the length of the beard.

Ears: independent, strong springs.

Eyes: dark brown, not too big or too small, oval, white eye

Length of the body, from the top of the shoulder to the rear cross-over height, horizontal, back, spine solid.

Dress: long, thick, hard coat layer of the lower right, clearly divided into two parts along the back of the bone.

Colors: honey, gold, dark Grizzlies, slate, black, white and brown, etc.

Legs: long hair, front right, the hind legs a good resistance.

Feathers feet with a good round pads.

Tail: well-springs of May at the end turn to the back transport is a serious misconduct.

Size: about 25cm high at the shoulder for dogs, the females slightly smaller

Tibetan yak
Tibetan Yak is very cold, the resistant varieties in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. With large and heavy bodies
can survive in the rocks, the Alpine regions of the plateau. They lend themselves well against heat and cold, and show an excellent resistance to anoxic. They have a strong sense of smell, the wild nature and the functionality is good. They have super-important function and reproductive ability. They move in the area around the bottom of the valleys from 2000 to 3000 meters above sea level in winter, the increase from 5000 to 6000 meters in summer.
The use of medicines Tibetan yak penis is first in the folder doctors and physicians known as the Tibetan “zhong”. Yak the penis and testes are not only rich in protein, vitamin C, A, inorganic phosphorus, iron, and testosterone, etc., the development of male sex organs and their normal, according to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine – hereinafter ” institutions “. It is also the best food for the people in middle age and elderly men to the sexual function.

The Tibetan antelope
Pantholops Hodgson, Chiru or Tibetan antelope, which in Pantholops and family Bodivae order Artiodactyla.

Chinese Name: Longhorn, or the Tibetan antelope antelope. At the dialect is used in Tibetan.

Size: The male is 80-85 cm Chiru shoulder.80-85cm, female: 70-75cm.

Weight: Males weigh about 35-40 kg, while women of 24 to 28 kg.

Coat: Men: dark brown or gray with white belly and black spots on the input and four legs.

Women: brown belly white.

Horns: The man has horns just 50-60cm long.

Maximum age: At least 8 years

Habits: The Chiru flocks of up to ten thousand people. Can be found on the meadows in the high mountains, the prospectus-alpine and arctic wilderness at an altitude from 4300 to 5100 m (lowest point: 3250 m or more: 5,100 m)
In the summer of Chiru women walking along the normal road north to breed in the calves in June and July, then returned to the men in winter and the other with them in November and December. Few of those who may not. Chiru distributed around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in whose center Changtang, to the north of Lhasa, in the south of the mountain. Kunlun, North, Northeast and Southwest of Chamdo of Qinghai, in the east and China and India on the western frontier. Chiru sometimes on the border of Ladakh in India.

Population: The population of chirus less than 75,000

State is first to protect the wildlife.

Nature: To the best of Tibet and other endangered species on the plateau of Qinghai-Tibet, the Chinese government has the three on the level of the state nature reserves in the plateau – Altun Mountain (1983), Changtang (1992), XIL Hoh and Nature Reserves (in the provinces in 1995 and updated at the level of the state in 1997).
Well, many people in Tibet, called the spirit of the plate should be the mascot of the Olympic Games in 29 where the following reasons:

1. Chiru habitat is the cradle of China.

2. Chiru has the Olympic spirit “higher, faster, stronger.”

3. Chiru is the eco-green animal.

4. Is the idea of “People’s Olympics” if you decide to Chiru as mascots of the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

5. The 29th Olympic Games in Beijing is an excellent opportunity for China and the world that China can make a further step in the world and the world to understand China.

Tips:
1. “Zha Xi for him!” (Mandarin Pronunciation Tibetan) is the most commonly heard phrase Tibetan. Welcome to this happy blessing Hada White enjoys with customers.

2. The time in the world: in the bottom, click on the city on the map you can specify the time in question.

3. Nutrition: The Basics of Tibetan food and drinks are tsam-pa, meat, paper, tea and butter is very high land, barley wine. Pa-Tsam is a staple food in Tibet curious. It is roasted barley ground into a fine powder that is mixed with a little butter, tea, then rolled into small pieces and eaten with the fingers. Tea, salt, yogurt and barley soils add the flavor of wine.

4. Ceremonies and customs:

Presentation of submission Hada Hada (a long scarf made of silk, embodies purity and happiness) is a common practice in the Tibetan population, their best wishes for many occasions such as weddings and funeral ceremonies, festivals, on a new home, visit elderly and the best people, the worship of the gods and Buddha and watch from outside.
Bow: Another practice in Tibetan. Run the Tibetan Buddhist ritual forward stupas, Buddha and the lives of older people.

Overview Presents: Tibetans attach great importance to the presentation of the donations. Presented at every celebration of the gifts and donations provided to, or as an indiscretion.

In addition, the ark, a toast and tea are the commonalities and general Tibetan rituals.