A retracted country

In the majority of the atlases today, it is increasingly difficult to find the name "Tibet": it is   

replaced by "Xizang" or "Autonomous Area of Tibet". A more meticulous research will indicate than   

old tibétains places such as Shigatse were changed into Xigatse, which sounds Chinese.   

This is not accidental. Communist China has a "Geographical Committee of the Place names" of which it   

work consists in inventing Chinese names to replace those of Tibet or Turkestan Oriental; that   

fact part of an attempt deliberated to present Tibet like a Chinese area at whole share.   

Unfortunately, the principal Western editors and the geographical institutions take part in   

this trickery by publishing sinicized charts of tibet

Burst provinces

Amdo in north, Kham in the east and U-Tsang in the south were the three areas of historical Tibet.   

- Amdo was parcelled out between the province of Qinghai and part of the province of Gansu.

- Kham forms today part of the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan.   

- U-Tsang with the west of the province of Kham, nowadays forms what China names "the Autonomous Area of Tibet".   

The "Autonomous Area of Tibet" (RAT), artificially reduced Chinese version of Tibet, includes/understands less than half of historical Tibet.   

It was created by China in 1965 for "administrative" reasons.   

Attention, when the Chinese administration and publications use the term "Tibet", they refer only to the "RAT".   

For Tibétains, true Tibet remains historical Tibet.   

Colonization

The current population of Tibet is 6 million Tibétains and approximately 7.5 million Chinese.   

Attention, these figures are very different from those advanced by the Chinese government, which tends to minimize the number of colonists and   

fact only reference to the "RAT".   

The objective of China, is now of drowning Tibet under a sea of colonists, while making come, according to certain sources,   

10 to 15 million additional colonists from here 2020 (thanks mainly to the construction of railways)!   

Environment

Tibet is incredibly sensitive and contains one dazing diversity of habitats, a fauna and a biodiversity   

comparable with that of the Amazonian forest, and the climatic areas extending from the high frozen steppe, until   

deserts of the high plateaus, with the tropical forests, and the Alpine meadows.   

Tibet is also the source of all the largest rivers of Asia, including/understanding Mekong, Bramapoutre, Yangstsé,   

and Indus; they are fed by an average precipitation of 100 mm in the north of the country until more than 1000 mm in south-east.   

Overexploited resources   

With its many natural resources, Tibet suffers from the consequences of the intensive commercial exploitation   

from China which sees Tibet like the "House of the (French) Treasury" and in car profit.   

Tibet is rich in ores; including considerable reserves of gold, oil, gas, of bauxite, copper, tin   

and of lithium, which are extracted without consideration for the environment.   

The result is alarming levels of pollution which affect hydrography, the atmosphere and the grounds.   

Formerly green forest belts like Kongpo in the south-east of Tibet, were transformed into a lunar landscape.   

In 1949 the forests covered 221.800 square kilometres that is to say about half of the surface of France.   

In 1985, the half of the surface of the forest was shaven.   

According to recent information's of World Watch Institute, deforestation would reach 85% now!   

The deforestation causes severe problems of erosion and landslides, while level of mud in   

rivers such as YangTsé reached levels without equal in the world. The effects exceed the borders now of   

Tibet and result in floods dévastatrices into China, India and Bangladesh.   

The Chinese government itself recognized the role of this massive deforestation in the catastrophic floods of these   

last years: in 1998, more than 10000 died, 250 million disaster victims, and million homeless people following believed of YangTsé.   

Climate

The large cover of vegetation influences also the atmospheric ground and temperatures which take part in the regulation   

Monsoon. Deforestation on a so great scale involves a serious concern among the climatologists and them   

environmentalists, who consider that the world climate can be dangerously destabilized.   

Thank you in Independent Tibet Network, Uyghur American Association, and Inner Mongolian People' S Party, for the constitution of this page.