Tibet Autonomous Region

The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) or Xizang Autonomous Region, called Tibet or Xizang (Tibetan: བོད་ ; Chinese: 西藏; pinyin: Xīzàng) for short, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was created in 1965 on the basis of Tibet's incorporation by the PRC in 1951.

Within China, Tibet is identified as an Autonomous Region. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century and include about half of ethno-cultural Tibet. The Tibet Autonomous Region is the second-largest province-level division of China by area, spanning over 1,200,000 square kilometres (460,000 sq mi), after Xinjiang, and mostly due to its harsh and rugged terrain, is the least densely populated provincial-level division of the PRC.

History

Modern scholars still debate on the exact nature of relations between Tibet and the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and whether the Ming had sovereignty over Tibet after the Mongol conquest of Tibet and Yuan administrative rule in the 13th and 14th centuries. While Tibet has formally been a protectorate of China and under administrative rule of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) since 1720, from 1912 to 1950 Tibet was dissolved of suzerainty under China proper as a result of the Xinhai Revolution and concentration of the central government fighting against the Japanese invasion during World War II. Other parts of ethno-cultural Tibet (eastern Kham and Amdo) have also been under the administration of the Chinese dynastic government since the mid-eighteenth century; today they are distributed among the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. (See also: Xikang province)