TIBET 



5806 



TIBET 



by the people, and the accounts of him which 

 remain are doubtless darker than his real char- 

 acter would warrant. 



Named in the Bible. Tiberius is mentioned 

 once in the Bible, and the fact serves as a con- 

 necting link between so-called scripture and 

 profane history of the period. In the gospel of 

 Luke III, 1-3 is the statement that in the 

 fifteenth year of Tiberius the word of God 

 came to John the Baptist. It is known from 

 other sources that John was then about thirty 

 years old and that Jesus was only six months 

 younger; this mention therefore serves as im- 

 portant data for determining the time of the 

 birth of Christ. A.MC c. 



For the part played by Tiberius in the line of 

 emperors, see ROME, subhead History. 



TIBET, tibct', a great expanse of country 

 nominally a part of China, but in reality pos- 

 sessing almost an independent government. It 

 has been aptly called "the roof of the world," 

 for it is the most elevated large area on the 

 globe; the whole country is a plateau, broken 

 by a few river valleys near its borders. It is as 

 large as that part of the United States east of 

 the Mississippi River and north of Tennessee; 

 however, because of physical conditions the 

 country contains fewer inhabitants than the sin- 

 gle state of Massachusetts. 



The map opposite page 416 in these volumes 

 tells at a glance something of the story of 

 Tibet. At the south the Himalaya Mountains 

 send heavenward the tallest peaks in the world ; 

 the Brahmaputra River, in Tibet called the 

 Tsanpo, has to flow over a thousand miles 

 eastward and around them to find its Indian 

 outlet to the sea. On the north and northwest 

 the Kuen-lun range sends some of its peaks 

 to a height of 20,000 feet. Enclosed thus on 

 three sides by towering walls, the surface of 

 Tibet has an average elevation of fully 12,000 

 feet; the lowest, in the east, is 9,000 feet, and 

 the highest, in the southern part, about 17,000 

 feet. In the west the altitude is 12,000 to 14,- 

 000 feet. 



The People. The facts related above explain 

 in large measure why Tibet contains so few 

 people. When it is further stated that the 

 mountains limit the rainfall to a very few 

 inches a year and that thousands of square 

 miles are a dreary expanse of sand and gravel, 

 over which violent winds blow at all seasons, 

 it is difficult to understand how even three and 

 a half million people can live there. Two- 

 thirds of the people live in the southern part, 

 in the Brahmaputra valley, with the frowning 



Himalayas at their back; most of the others 

 live in the northeast, near the great lake of 

 Kuku-Nor, which is elevated a mile and two- 

 thirds above the sea. There are hundreds of 

 other lakes, but they are in dreary surroundings, 

 and most of them 

 are salty, because 

 of absence of rain. 

 The people 

 have not been 

 greatly influenced 

 by their surround- 

 ings, for they are 

 cheerful, and 

 strangers find 



them 

 They 



friendly, 

 smile and 



LOCATION MAP 

 Tibet comprises a large 

 Stick out their l;ut comparatively unimpor- 

 tant part of China, 

 tongues when 



they meet, for that is their cordial salutation. 

 Cloth is hard to get, but as the climate is cold 

 freezing weather occurs even in midsummer 

 they dress comfortably in sheepskin, although 

 one cloth garment, a great woolen coat, is much 

 worn. Nearly all the cloth is homespun. 



Their Religion. Tibetans are very religious, 

 and this may partially explain their content- 

 ment. They profess Lamaism, an offshoot of 

 the Buddhist faith. Raising large families and 

 increasing the number of households is a seri- 

 ous matter because of the difficulty of making 

 a living, so thousands of young men and women 

 become monks and nuns. The monks are called 

 lamas, and Tibet holds half a million of them. 

 These lamas dress in long robes of yellow or 

 purple. Among the people who marry the sys- 

 tem called polyandry exists; one woman will 

 often marry from two to half a dozen men 

 usually all the brothers of one family. The 

 people live in rude houses of mud and stone. 



Resources. It is possible to live but a few 

 months of the year in the high altitudes ; while 

 there the people raise sheep and yaks, and these 

 they drive lower down when the short warm 

 season is over. In the valleys there is vegeta- 

 tion, but it is not plentiful enough to meet the 

 demands of the population. Barley is the sta- 

 ple crop, for it will grow in cooler climates than 

 any other grain except rye, and it is the prin- 

 cipal foodstuff. There is some mining, gold, 

 silver, iron and copper being found. 



Government. Because it is inaccessible, Tibet 

 is difficult to govern from Peking. The au- 

 thority of China is felt but slightly in the prov- 

 ince, and the people appear to care little what 

 happens to the remainder of the republic; in- 



