Tibet is fascinating. I have only seen Tibet in summer. The sky is a firmament, sapphire in color, deep and beautiful. The white clouds, as white as hada, which is a piece of silk used as a greeting gift among Tibetans, form patterns high above, which change in shape with the variations in strength and direction of the wind. Some mountaintops are perennially covered with snow. If you can climb to the top of a snow mountain which is four or five thousand meters above sea level, you will see the clouds floating at your side and winding around your feet, as if they were a flock of gentle and affectionate swans tenderly keeping you company. When you are among mountains and rivers, you will feel that everywhere in Tibet there are infatuating scenes, which are radically different from the scenes which you encounter elsewhere, for they seem to have the power of cleansing a person's inner world. You will desire to linger there, if possible, and postpone your return. Even when you are in the airplane and are saying good-bye to Tibet, you will feel the irresistible temptation to gaze at Tibet through the windowpane. The towering mountains are gradually diminishing in size, turning into an expanse of dark green color, to be concealed at last in the layers of white clouds of Tibet. At that time, you will certainly say to the deep-blue sky, "How I wish to see you again, Tibet!" Tibet is worth people's clinging to and cherishing in the bosom, because it is almost limitless in size, peerlessly beautiful, without the need for any decoration. The whole "individual" cannot but feel a great admiration for it surging up in his/her chest when standing face to face with it.



As an "individual" you would be deeply conscious of your own "minuteness". You would feel that the matter that worried you yesterday is no longer of any importance today. Life is for its own reason far more important and far more precious than anything else. To many people, an attempt to describe the beautiful scenery of Tibet by using poems would be either naivete or a pretension to sophistication. Therefore, I can only give you hereunder a realistic sketch of the place.

The Tibetan people call themselves "Bod". But in ancient times their neighbouring peoples, especially the Tujues, called them "Tu Bod". From a linguistic point of view, the word Tu may have been an article in the Tujue language, somewhat like the definite article "the" of the English language. The Tujue people were once very strong but perished completely during the Tang Dynasty of China. Later, the Mongols became powerful. They continued to use the name "Tu Bod", for historical or linguistic reasons, to call the Tibetans and with the expansion of the territory under their domination carried this word into Arabia and then through the Arabians into Europe, where the word was changed into "Tibet". In the Chinese language Tibet is called "Xi Zang". The hieroglyphic word pronounced xi denotes "west", while the hieroglyphic word pronounced zang means "the Buddhist scripture" or "Buddhist disciples".

The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. In 1965, the Tibet Autonomous Region was established. The word "Tibet" is now the simplified name of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Xi Zang is the Chinese equivalent of that simplified term. In Chinese the name may be further simplified to "Zang" in many cases. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has an average elevation of over four kilometers. The whole region has a population of 2,810,000 people (according to statistics at the end of 2006). The population density is 2.21 persons per square kilometer. The distribution of the population is quite uneven, with most people concentrated in the southern and eastern parts. The average life expectancy has risen from 35.5 years in 1951 (before the peaceful liberation) to the present figure of 67 years.

The region has a total land surface of more than 1,220,000 square kilometers, which account for about 12.8 % of the total area of China. Mount Qomolangma, which has the highest peak in the world of 8,844.43 meters in elevation, stands towering in the Himalayas on the border of China and Nepal. Around it, in an area of about 5,000 square kilometers, there are 4 mountains over 8,000 meters in height and 38 mountains over 7,000 meters in height. Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, is the political, economic, cultural and communication center of the whole Region. It is also a famous city of culture with a history of more than 1,300 years. It is situated on the north bank of the middle reach of the Lhasa River, which is a tributary of the Yalu Tsangpo River, with an elevation of 3,648 meters and an area near thirty thousand square kilometers. It has a population of four hundred thousand people. The programmed telephone service is now already in operation. An earth station for satellite communications has already been set up. The Qinghai-Tibet Railroad is already open to traffic. This is a historic event. The highway network radiating from Lhasa to all parts of Tibet has been formed. All roads and streets of the city have been asphalted. Water pipes have been laid, and a high-quality sewer system is coordinated with it.

Before liberation there was no science and technology to speak of in Tibet. A foreign tourist travelling in the countryside would have seen mechanisms propelled by wind or water currents. There were brief prayers to Gautama Buddha inscribed on the little wind-wheels and water-wheels. Every time these things spun, a prayer was believed to have been offered to the Buddha. Moreover, the traveler would have seen a number of flagstaffs in the land carrying beautiful silk flags, silk flags which bore some perplexing inscription. Whenever the flag flapped, it was also a prayer, very beneficial to the gentleman who paid for the flag and beneficial to the land generally, too. Gangs of workmen, employed by pious persons, would have been seen going about the countryside cutting a prayer on cliff and stone. At Lhasa, he would have found a huge temple, and above a high altar he would have beheld a huge statue called by the congregation "Gautama Buddha!" The tourist would have felt some comfort if he was a buddhist by faith. Buddhism, founded by Gautama in India, was thriving in Tibet, though in a slightly different form, with the institution of living buddhas, while in India and even in Nepal, the neighbor of Tibet, it was extinct. The tourist would have enjoyed sailing on rivers and lakes, which Tibetans may rightly be proud of.

The biggest river of Tibet is the Yalu Tsangpo, which rises at the north side of the Himalayas and flows into the Yangtze River with a total length of 2,057 kilometers. The area of the river basin is over 240,000 square kilometers. The average elevation of the river basin is about 4,500 meters. This river is the highest among rivers of the world. The Grand Canyon of the Yalu Tsangpo has a depth of 5,382 meters. It is the deepest canyon on the globe.

The extensive plateau of Tibet is dotted with lakes, large and small, which number more than 1,500, most of which have salty instead of fresh water. The total area of the lakes is 24,183 square kilometers, which account for about one third of the total area of the lakes of China.