Geography

Locked in by towering mountains, the Tibet Autonomous Region, on China's southwestern border, lies in the main part of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the highest in the world. Set up as an autonomous region in 1965, it is situated 78'24"-99'06" east longitude and 26'52"-36'32" north latitude with an area of more than 1.2 million square kilometers, acc ounting for 1/8 of the country's total area and ranking 2nd only to Northeast China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the country. Tibet neighbors Qinghai Province and Xinjiang in the north, Yunnan Province in the southeast, and Kashmir, India, Nepal, Sikkim (state in India), Bhutan, and Burma in the west and south.

 Administrative Division and Population

It is divided into 1 municipality, 6 districts, 1 county-level city, and 76 counties, with a population of 2.62 million as of 2000. The municipality is Lhasa, while the six prefectures are Shigatse, Ngari, Shannan, Chamdo, Nagchu, and Nyingchi. Populated principally by the Tibetan people, Tibet also has Han, Menba, Luoba, and Hui ethnic groups.