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In the largest of the world’s mountain regions, covering some two million square kilometers the people move with slow, untroubled, compassionate ease. They call their land Boyul ‘Land of the Calls,’ after the manner in which shepherds have communicated between the hills for over a thousand years. In this treeless and mostly infertile land laying 3500-5000 meters above sea level there are some 2.2 million people, predominantly Tibetan, speaking Tibetan and practicing Tibetan Buddhism. We call this land Tibet. Tibet can be identified in several ways. It is the area found north of the Himalayas and India, south of the Arctic wastes of the Chang Tang region and west of the scattered river gorges and mountain ranges of the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween Rivers. It is the area dominated by a simplistic and deliberate people descendent of the Tartar branch of the human race, shrewd in diplomacy, content in thought and action - with thirteen centuries of recorded history containing no record of popular discontent against the government. It was formerly a remote corner of the Celestial Empire, but is now an area known as the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of the People’s Republic of China. In the 7th century Tibetan Buddhism was introduced into Tibet from India replacing Bon the indigenous religion of Tibet. During the Buddhist penetration Tibet grew into a strong kingdom but disintegration occurred in the 10th century. Reintroduced in the 10th and 11th centuries Tibetan Buddhism took hold. Genghis Khan incorporated the area into his empire in the 13th century. After the development of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism in the 14th century the Mongols named the leader of the Gelugpa the Dalai Lama "monk with an ocean of wisdom." In 1640 the Dalai Lama was granted political power. For the last two hundred years, China has controlled the region of Tibet. The British made attempts to colonize Tibet in the 19th century but were resented by the inhabitants. In 1907 the British and Russians recognized the suzerain power of China over Tibet and agreed to non-interference in the governing of Tibet. Tibetans expelled the Chinese in 1913, but with the formation of the Communist Party of China in 1949, Tibet had little hope of stopping the invasion of Mao’s armies in 1950. Between 1959 and 1971, the Communist Party of China conducted ‘steady socialist reorganization.’ During this time, thousands of people were killed; the Tibetan government was abolished and replaced with a military dictatorship; sacred images, books and artifacts were destroyed, removed and melted; and approximately 3,500 temples, libraries and monasteries were desecrated and razed. Today the Tibetan Government is in exile.
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