The majority of Tibet's population of 1,890,000 is Tibetan. Tibet is so thinly populated that it averages out 1.6 8 persons per square kilometers. About 90% of the people live on farming and husbandry. Farmers live in the valleys of Tsangpo River and its major tributaries Kyichu and Nuuang-chu. This area produces barely, wheat, peas and rape-seed, the great northern grassland which occupies a good half of Tibet is the home of nomads, yaks and sheep. Nomads have no fixed abodes, and keep roaming along fine pasture together with all their belongings-tents and Livestock.
Ideology of people in this land differs greatly from any other nationality both at home in china and in the world. Religion seems almost everything. Many live for the next life, rather than for the present. They accumulate deeds of virtue and pray for the final liberation-enlightenment. Lips and hands of the elders are never at stll, either busied in murmuring of the six syllable mantic prayer OM Ma Ni Pad Me Hum (Hail the Jewel in the Lotus) or in rotation of hand prayer wheels, or counting of the prayer beads. Pious pilgrims from every corner of Tibet day to day gather at Jokhang Temple and Bharkor Street offering donations and praying heart and soul for their own Selves, for their friends, and for their friends' friends.
Frequent visitors to Tibet can make out folks from different regions judging by costumes and dialects. Flocks from agricultural regions dress in woolen home-woven gowns, and those from the grassland clad in sheepskin. Men folk from Chamdo wear huge tassels of black or red silk which were used in old days for protection in fight, while the Lhasa residents are more stylish and modern. Dialects in Tibetan are in variety, but mainly can be categorized into four::lhasa., Tsang, Chamdo and Amdo. |
