There are 6.3 million Tibetans in China. The vast majority of them live in the Tibet Autonomous Region, but there are also Tibetan Communities in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan.

According to Chinese historical records, the Tibetans are indigenous to Tibet and the surrounding areas of Central Asia. The disparate tribes were first united in the seventh century by King Songzan Gambo who established the kingdom known as Bo. Some hundreds of years after his death his kingdom splintered. The Mongols then brought divided Tibet under the unified rule of the central government during the Yuan Dynasty (1270AD-1368AD).

The Tibetan language belongs to the Tibetan sub-branch of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the much larger Sino-Tibetan language family. It’s written with an alphabetic script based on those used in ancient India and invented in the seventh century.

Today most Tibetans practice Tibetan Buddhism, also known as Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism focuses on the teachings of three Sanskrit yanas, Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. There are many sects of Tibetan Buddhism with differing beliefs, but perhaps the best known is the Gelug sect, for this is the sect to which the Dalai Lamas belong.

Animal husbandry is the main occupation in Tibet, where there are vast expanses of grassland and rich sources of water. The Tibetan sheep, goat, yak, and Pien cattle are natives of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

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