History of Tibet

While the Tibetan Plateau has been inhabited since pre-historic times, most of Tibet's history went unrecorded until the creation of Tibetan script in the 7th century. Tibetan texts refer to the kingdom of Zhangzhung (c. 500 BCE – 625 CE) as the precursor of later Tibetan kingdoms and the originators of the Bon religion. While mythical accounts of early rulers of the Yarlung dynasty exist, historical accounts begin with the introduction of Tibetan script from the unified Tibetan Empire in the 7th century. Following the dissolution of Tibetan Empire and a period of fragmentation in the 9th–10th centuries, a Buddhist revival in the 10th–12th centuries saw the development of three of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

After a period of control by the Mongol Empire and the Yuan dynasty, Tibet effectively became independent in the 14th century and was ruled by a succession of noble houses for the next 300 years. In the 16th century, the Dalai Lama title was created by Altan Khan, and as requested by the family of Altan Khan, seal of authority was granted to the Dalai Lama by the Wanli Emperor. In the 17th century, the senior lama of the Gelug school, the Dalai Lama, became the head of state with the aid of the Khoshut Khanate. Seal of authority and golden sheets were granted by the Shunzhi Emperor to both the Dalai Lama and the founder Güshi Khan of Khoshut Khanate in 1653. In 1717, the Dzungar Khanate invaded Lhasa, killed Lha-bzang Khan of the Khoshut Khanate, which effectively destroyed the Khoshut Khanate. The Qing dynasty then sent military troops in the same year to fight the Dzungars, but failed.

In 1720, the Qing dynasty sent troops for the second time and drove away the Dzungar army. An imperial edit for Imperial Stele Inscriptions of the Pacification of Tibet was written, and the term Xizang was officially used to designate the region. After the Thirteen Articles for the Settlement of Qinghai Affairs were proposed to Emperor Yongzheng, the borders between Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan were demarcated. In 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama went into exile in India in response to hostilities with the People's Republic of China (PRC). The PRC annexation in 1951 and flight of the Dalai Lama created several waves of Tibetan refugees and led to the creation of Tibetan diasporas in India, the United States, and Europe.

The Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965 after the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was ratified in 1951 by the Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama went on exile in 1959. Tibetan independence and human rights emerged as international issues, gaining significant visibility alongside the 14th Dalai Lama in the 1980s and 1990s. Chinese authorities have sought to assert control over Tibet and has been accused of the destruction of religious sites and banning possession of pictures of the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan religious practices. During the crises created by the Great Leap Forward, Tibet was subjected to mass starvation. The PRC disputes these claims and points to their investments in Tibetan infrastructure, education, and industrialization as evidence that they have replaced a theocratic feudal government with a modern state.

Tibet lies between the civilizations of China proper and Indian subcontinent. Extensive mountain ranges to the east of the Tibetan Plateau mark the border with the Chinese heartland, and the Himalayas of the republics of Nepal and India separate the plateau from the subcontinent lying south. Tibet has been called the "roof of the world" and "the land of snows".

Linguists classify the Tibetan language and its dialects as belonging to the Tibeto-Burman languages, the non-Sinitic members of the broader Sino-Tibetan language family.

Some archaeological data suggest archaic humans passed through Tibet at the time India was first inhabited, half a million years ago. Impressions of hands and feet suggest hominins were present at the above 4,000 meters above sea level high Tibetan Plateau 169,000–226,000 years ago. Modern humans first inhabited the Tibetan Plateau at least twenty-one thousand years ago. This population was largely replaced around 3000 years ago by Neolithic immigrants from northern China. However, there is a "partial genetic continuity between the Paleolithic inhabitants and the contemporary Tibetan populations". The vast majority of Tibetan maternal mtDNA components can trace their ancestry to both paleolithic and Neolithic during the mid-Holocene.

Megalithic monuments dot the Tibetan Plateau and may have been used in ancestor worship. Prehistoric Iron Age hillforts and burial complexes have recently been found on the Tibetan Plateau, but the remote high altitude location makes archaeological research difficult.