1.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
2.
Tibet Autonomous Region
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The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, called Tibet or Xizang for short, is a province-level autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China. Within China, Tibet is identified as an autonomous region, the current borders of Tibet were generally established in the eighteenth century and include about half of ethno-cultural Tibet. In 1950, the Peoples Liberation Army defeated the Tibetan army in a battle fought near the city of Chamdo, in 1951, the Tibetan representatives signed a 17-point agreement with the Chinese Central Peoples Government affirming Chinas sovereignty over Tibet and the incorporation of Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later, the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and renounced the 17-point agreement. Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965, thus making Tibet an administrative division that is equivalent in status to a Chinese province. The Tibet Autonomous Region is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the highest region on earth, in northern Tibet elevations reach an average of over 4,572 metres. Mount Everest is located on Tibets border with Nepal, Chinas provincial-level areas of Xinjiang, Qinghai and Sichuan lie to the north, northeast, and east, respectively, of the Tibet AR. There is also a border with Yunnan province to the southeast. The PRC has border disputes with the Republic of India over the McMahon Line of Arunachal Pradesh, the disputed territory of Aksai Chin is to the west, and its boundary with that region is not defined. The other countries to the south are Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal. Physically, the Tibet AR may be divided into two parts, the region in the west and north-west, and the river region. On the south the Tibet AR is bounded by the Himalayas, the system at no point narrows to a single range, generally there are three or four across its breadth. Other lakes include Dagze Co, Namtso, and Pagsum Co, the lake region is a wind-swept Alpine grassland. This region is called the Chang Tang or Northern Plateau by the people of Tibet and it is some 1,100 km broad, and covers an area about equal to that of France. Due to its distance from the ocean it is extremely arid. The mountain ranges are spread out, rounded, disconnected, separated by flat valleys. The Tibet AR is dotted over with large and small lakes, generally salt or alkaline, due to the presence of discontinuous permafrost over the Chang Tang, the soil is boggy and covered with tussocks of grass, thus resembling the Siberian tundra. Salt and fresh-water lakes are intermingled, the lakes are generally without outlet, or have only a small effluent
3.
Tibet
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Tibet is a region on the Tibetan Plateau in Asia, spanning about 2.4 million km2 and nearly a quarter of Chinas territory. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an elevation of 4,900 metres. The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earths highest mountain, the Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century, but with the fall of the empire the region soon divided into a variety of territories. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century, following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qing soldiers were disarmed and escorted out of Tibet Area. The region subsequently declared its independence in 1913 without recognition by the subsequent Chinese Republican government, later, Lhasa took control of the western part of Xikang, China. There are tensions regarding Tibets political status and dissident groups that are active in exile and it is also said that Tibetan activists in Tibet have been arrested or tortured. The economy of Tibet is dominated by agriculture, though tourism has become a growing industry in recent decades. The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, in there is Bön, which is similar to Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is an influence on the art, music. Tibetan architecture reflects Chinese and Indian influences, staple foods in Tibet are roasted barley, yak meat, and butter tea. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod བོད་, means Tibet or Tibetan Plateau, although it meant the central region around Lhasa. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod, is transcribed Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription, Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription and Poi in Tibetan pinyin. Tibetan people, language, and culture, regardless of where they are from, are referred to as Zang although the geographical term Xīzàng is often limited to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing dynasty in the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor through the addition of a prefix meaning west to Zang, the best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo. This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th century, in the Middle Chinese spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter, 土番 was pronounced thux-phjon and 吐蕃 was pronounced thux-pjon. Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include Wusiguo, Wusizang, Tubote, the English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that Tibet names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat orTūbātt, itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd, literally, according to Matthew Kapstein, From the perspective of historical linguistics, Tibetan most closely resembles Burmese among the major languages of Asia. More controversial is the theory that the Tibeto-Burman family is part of a larger language family, called Sino-Tibetan
4.
Tashi Lhunpo Monastery
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Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama, is a historic and culturally important monastery in Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet. The monastery is the seat of successive Panchen Lamas, the second highest ranking tulku lineage in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Tashi or Panchen Lama had temporal power over three districts, though not over the town of Shigatse itself, which was administered by a dzongpön appointed from Lhasa. Located on a hill in the center of the city, the name in Tibetan of the monastery means all fortune. It presented a view wonderfully beautiful and brilliant, the effect was short of magic. Pilgrims circumambulate the monastery on the lingkhor outside the walls, however, during 1966 Red Guards led a crowd to break statues, burn scriptures and open the stupas containing the relics of the 5th to 9th Panchen Lamas, and throw them in the river. Some remains, though, were saved by locals, and in 1985, Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama, began the construction of a new stupa to house them and honour his predecessors. It was finally consecrated on 22 January 1989, just six days before he died aged fifty-one at Tashi Lhunpo and it was as if he was saying now he could rest. The monastery was founded in 1447 CE by Gedun Drub, the disciple of the famous Buddhist philosopher Je Tsongkhapa, the construction was financed by donations from local nobles. Later Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten, the Fourth Panchen Lama and the first Panchen Lama to be recognized as such by the rulers of Mongolia, since then, all Panchen Lamas have resided at Tashi Lhunpo, and have managed to expand it gradually. In 1791 the monastery was attacked and looted by an army of Nepalese Gurkha warriors but were out by the Chinese who simultaneously strengthened their control over the temple. Tashi Lhunpo in its heyday housed over 4,000 monks and had four Tantric colleges, in 1960, the monastery was dismantled by the Chinese army whilst the Panchen Lama was absent, although less damage was inflicted on the monastery than on most others around Tibet. During the 1960s many senior lamas and monastics left Tibet and helped re-establish new monasteries in India, Nepal, the late Panchen Lama did not leave Tibet and consequently many of the senior lamas from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery remained inside Tibet. Since the early 1980s parts of the Tashi Lhunpo monastery have been open to the public, the Maitreya Temple known as on the west side is the tallest building of the monastery. It was erected in 1914 by the Ninth Panchen Lama to house a statue of the Maitreya Buddha and is 26.2 metres in height. The statue sits on a lotus throne in the European posture with its hands in the symbolic teaching pose. A single finger of the giant figure is almost 4 feet in length, the statue contains 279 kg of gold and 150,000 kg of copper and brass moulded on a solid wooden frame by Tibetan and Nepalese craftsmen. Small versions of the Maitreya are positioned in all four corners of the chamber, on the east side of the monastery is the old living quarters of the Panchen Lama, the Panchen Lamas Palace known as Gudong
5.
Panchen Lama
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The Panchen Lama is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is traditionally involved in recognizing the Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is recognized by the Gelug school as the Panchen Lama. Human rights groups have condemned this act, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has not been seen in public since 17 May 1995. Gyaincain Norbu who acts as the 11th Panchen Lama in China, is reviled by Tibetans as a fake, the previous Panchen Lama spoke out against Chinese rule many times and wrote a report chronicling Tibets famines in the 1960s. As a result, he spent more than eight years in jail, the successive Panchen Lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitābha. The title, meaning Great Scholar, is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit paṇḍita, the Panchen Lama traditionally lived in Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. From the name of this monastery, the Europeans referred to the Panchen Lama as the Tashi-Lama, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, was the first Panchen Lama to be accorded this title during his lifetime. He was the tutor and an ally of the 5th Dalai Lama, The Great Fifth, as he is known. The 5th Dalai Lama requested the Panchen to accept Tashilhunpo Monastery, built by the 1st Dalai Lama, as his multi-lifetime seat for future incarnations. Since then, every incarnation of the Panchen Lama has been the master of Tashilhunpo Monastery and it is there that they have all received their education, when Panchen Gyaltsen died in 1662, the 5th Dalai Lama commenced the tradition of searching for his next incarnation. He also reserved the title of Panchen which had previously been a courtesy title for all exceptionally learned lamas - exclusively for his successors. Khedrub Je, Sönam Choklang and Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup were posthumously decided by the 5th Dalai Lama to have been an incarnation of Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen. Traditionally, there were considered to be four Indian and three Tibetan incarnations before Khedrup, starting with Subhuti, one of the disciples of Gautama Buddha. Gö Lotsawa is considered to be the first Tibetan incarnation of Amitabha in this line, the recognition of Panchen Lamas has always been a matter involving the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama was attempting to collect revenue from the Panchen Lamas estate to cover Tibets military expenses, in China, the ninth Panchen Lama worked on plans to develop Tibet. He also held a position in the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, there, he adopted the ideas of Sun Yatsen through revolutionary Pandatsang Rapga of the Tibet Improvement Party. The Republic of China government, then embroiled in the Chinese Civil War, Chinese Nationalist governor Ma Bufang allowed Kumbum Monastery to be totally self-governed by Gyaltsen. The Dalai Lama refused to recognize Tseten, now called Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama sought revenge on the Dalai Lama by leading an army against him, and requested aid from Ma Bufang in September 1949
6.
Gyantse
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Gyantse Town officially, Gyangzê Town is a town located in Gyantse County, Shigatse Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was historically considered the third largest and most prominent town in the Tibet region, the town is strategically located in the Nyang Chu valley on the ancient trade routes from the Chumbi Valley, Yatung and Sikkim, which met here. From Gyantse, routes led to Shigatse downstream and also over the Karo La to Central Tibet, the fortress guarded the southern approaches to the Yarlung Tsangpo Valley and Lhasa. The town was surrounded by a wall 3 km long, in 1952, Gyantse had a population of perhaps 8,000 people, about the same as in 2008. Gyantse was the third largest city in Tibet before being overtaken by Qamdo, a British military garrison, consisting mainly of Indian soldiers, was stationed at Gyantse in the first half of the 20th century. It was referred to as an outfit by Sir Walter Buchanan in 1919. Under the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama, it served as a school to help train Tibetan officers. One Hank Baker, a radio operator posted in Tibet in World War II, is reported to have inspected the Indian army garrison at Gyantse fort in 1938, in 1940 the town was still garrisoned by the British army. Gyantse is notable for its restored Gyantse Dzong or fort, and its magnificent tiered Kumbum of the Palcho Monastery, the Kumbum was commissioned by a Gyantse prince in 1427 and was an important centre of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. This religious structure contains 77 chapels in its six floors, and is illustrated with over 10,000 murals, many showing a strong Nepali influence and they are the last of its kind to be found in Tibet. Many of the clay statues are of less artistry than the destroyed originals -. The town was destroyed by flooding in 1954. After rioting in 1959, local industries were dismantled and artisans fled while others were placed in workcamps, some 400 monks and laypeople were imprisoned in the monastery. During the Cultural Revolution, the fort, the monastery and Kumbum were ransacked, precious objects were destroyed or sent out of Tibet. Duel in the Snows, The True Story of the Younghusband Mission to Lhasa, lonely Planet Publications, South Yarra, Australia. The Power-places of Central Tibet, The Pilgrims Guide, routledge & Kegan Paul, London and New York. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0 Mayhew, Bradley and Kohn, Michael, richardson, Hugh E. Tibet and its History. Hong Kong, Visual Dharma Publications Ltd, Vol. One, India & Nepal, Vol. Two, Tibet & China
7.
Tingri (town)
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Gangga is a town in southern Tibet. It is in Tingri County, Shigatse Prefecture with a population of around 523 and it is often used as a base by mountain climbers preparing to ascend Mount Everest or Cho Oyu. Tingri Shelkar is a town approximately 60 km north-west of Mount Everest and just over 50 km from the Nepali border in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is at an altitude of about 4,300 metres, the old Shekar Dorje Dzong, or fort, is above the new town and used to enclose Shekar Chode, a Gelug monastery which was completely destroyed but is being restored. It is known for its views of Mount Everest, Mount Lhotse, Mount Makalu, and Cho Oyu. Tingri used to be an important trading post where Sherpas from Nepal exchanged rice, grain and it gives its name to the broad upland basin more than 4,500 metres high that is known as the Tingri Plain. One must cross the pass known as the Lakpa La to the north to reach the Tsangpo Valley system, shallow, fast-flowing rivers of melted snow water make its grassy meadowland ideal for grazing by Tibetan animals. The plain used to abound with gazelles, blue sheep, antelopes and khyang or wild asses but, unfortunately, the Chinese army has a small base nearby. His consort was the famous Tibetan dakini Machik Labdron, the gompa or temple was built in the Padampa Sanges meditation cave and became the seat of the Dampapa School of Tibetan Buddhism. It is in the process of restoration, the Power-Places of Central Tibet, The Pilgrims Guide. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, journal of the Royal Geographical Society
8.
Airbus A319
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The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries up to 160 passengers and has a range of 3,700 nmi. Final assembly of the takes place in Hamburg, Germany and Tianjin. The A319 is a variant of the Airbus A320 and entered service in April 1996 with Swissair. The aircraft shares a type rating with all other Airbus A320 family variants. As of 28 February 2017, a total of 1,457 Airbus A319 aircraft have been delivered, in addition, another 21 airliners are on firm order. As of 28 February 2017, EasyJet was the largest operator of the Airbus A319, in December 2010, Airbus announced a new generation of the A320 family, the A320neo. The similarly shortened fuselage A319neo variant offers new, more efficient engines, combined with airframe improvements, the aircraft will deliver fuel savings of up to 15%. The first member of the A320 family was the A320 which was launched in March 1984, the family was extended to include the stretched A321, the shortened A319, and the further shortened A318. The A320 family pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire flight control systems, as well as side stick controls, the A319 was developed at the request of Steven Udvar-Hazy, the former president and CEO of ILFC according to The New York Times. The A319 design is a shortened fuselage, minimum change derivative of the A320 with its origins in the 130- to 140-seat SA1, the SA1 was shelved as the consortium concentrated on its bigger siblings. After healthy sales of the A320/A321, Airbus re-focused on what was known as the A320M-7. It would provide competition for the 737–300/-700. The shrink was achieved through the removal of four frames fore. Consequently, the number of overwing exits was reduced from four to two, the bulk-cargo door was replaced by an aft container door, which can take in reduced height LD3-45 containers. Minor software changes were made to accommodate the different handling characteristics, power is provided by the CFM56-5A or V2500-A5, derated to 98 kN, with option for 105 kN thrust. With virtually the same capacity as the A320-200, and fewer passengers. The A319s wingspan is longer than the overall length
9.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
Media related to Shigatse at Wikimedia Commons
. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
