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East Asian ethnic group
Tibetans are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan, as well as in India, Nepal, and Bhutan.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Tibetans”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Tibetans (Tibetan: བོད་པ་, Wylie: bod pa, THL: bö pa) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan, as well as in India, Nepal, and Bhutan.
The Tibetic languages are a branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family. The traditional or mythological explanation of the Tibetan people's origin is that they are the descendants of the human Pha Trelgen Changchup Sempa and rock ogress Ma Drag Sinmo. Most Tibeto-Burman speakers in southwest China, including Tibetans, are thought to be direct descendants of the ancient Qiang people.
Most Tibetans practice Tibetan Buddhism, although a significant minority observe the Indigenous Bon religion. Smaller communities of Tibetan Muslims and Christians also exist. Tibetan Buddhism influences Tibetan art, drama, and architecture, while Tibet's harsh geography has produced an adaptive culture of Tibetan medicine and cuisine.
As of the 2014 census, there are about 6 million Tibetans living in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the 10 Tibetan autonomous prefectures in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan. The SIL Ethnologue in 2009 documents an additional 189,000 Tibetic speakers living in India, 5,280 in Nepal and 4,800 in Bhutan. The Central Tibetan Administration's (CTA) Green Book (of the Tibetan Government in Exile) counts 145,150 Tibetans outside Tibet: a little over 100,000 in India; over 16,000 in Nepal; over 1,800 in Bhutan, and over 25,000 in other parts of the world. There are Tibetan communities in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Norway, Mongolia, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In the Baltistan region of Northern Pakistan, the Balti people are a Muslim ethnicity of Tibetan descent numbering around 300,000.
There is some dispute over the current and historical number of Tibetans. The Central Tibetan Administration claims that the 5.4 million number is a decrease from 6.3 million in 1959 while the Chinese government claims that it is an increase from 2.7 million in 1954. However, the question depends on the definition and extent of "Tibet"; the region claimed by the CTA is more expansive and China more diminutive. Also, the Tibetan administration did not take a formal census of its territory in the 1950s; the numbers provided by the administration at the time were "based on informed guesswork".
According to the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (2010), there are 6,282,187 Tibetans nationwide:
There are 2,716,388 people in the Tibet Autonomous Region, 1,496,524 people in Sichuan Province, 1,375,059 people in Qinghai Province, 488,359 people in Gansu Province (mostly in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County) and 142,257 people in Yunnan Province (mostly in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture). Tibetans account for 0.47% of the total population of the country. Tibetans account for 90.48% of the total population in Tibet Region, 24.44% of the total population of Qinghai and 1.86% of the total population in Sichuan. Of all Tibetans in China, 315,622 people live in cities, 923,177 in towns, and 5,043,388 people (80.3%) live in rural areas.
According to the Seventh Census of 2020, there are 7,060,700 Tibetans living within China. Of the resident population of the Tibet Autonomous Region, 3,204,700 were Tibetans and other ethnic minorities, of whom 3,137,900 were Tibetans, an increase of 421,500, or 15.52%, over 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 1.45%; 66,800 were other ethnic minorities, an increase of 26,300, or 64.95%, over 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 5.13%; and 6,680 were other ethnic minorities, an increase of 26,300, or 64.95%, over 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 5.13%. The average annual growth rate was 5.13%.
There are one region, ten prefectures, and two counties officially established by the government: the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Qinghai Province (Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture), Sichuan Province (Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and Muli Tibetan Autonomous County), Gansu Province (Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County), and Yunnan Province (Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture).
There are also nearly 100,000 Tibetans living in exile in India since 1959, the majority of them living in Tibetan enclaves such as Dharamshala and Bylakuppe.
In 2011, the Indian government reported 150,000 Tibetan diaspora residing in India. In 2019, the number of Tibetan diaspora in India declined to 85,000.
In India, non-Tibetan Tibetic people are found in the regions of Ladakh (Ladakhi and Balti), Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh, Spiti valley, Uttarakhand (Bhotiya), Sikkim (Bhutia), and Arunachal Pradesh (Khamba, Lhoba, and Monpa people).
Tibetans are known as Bhotiyas in Nepal, where they are majority in the valleys of the Himalaya such as Upper Mustang, Upper Dolpo, Walung region, Limi and Muchu valleys. Nepal is also home to other Tibetic people such as the Sherpa, Jirel, and Hyolmo .There are also more than 10,000 Tibetan refugees in Nepal.
The Tibetic languages (Tibetan: བོད་སྐད།) are a cluster of mutually unintelligible Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by approximately 8 million people, primarily Tibetan, living across a wide area of East and South Asia, including the Tibetan Plateau and Baltistan, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan. Classical Tibetan is a major regional literary language, particularly for its use in Buddhist literature. The Central Tibetan language (the dialects of Ü-Tsang, including Lhasa), Khams Tibetan, and Amdo Tibetan are generally considered to be dialects of a single language, especially since they all share the same literary language, while Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Sherpa, Jirel, and Ladakhi are generally considered to be separate languages.
There are also groups whose mother languages are non-Tibetic Tibeto-Burman languages, but still classified as ethnic Tibetans by China:
There are also people who are considered ethnic Tibetans whose mother language is Chinese language, including the 14th Dalai Lama and his family.
The ethnic roots of Tibetans can be traced back to a deep Eastern Asian lineage representing the indigenous population of the Tibetan plateau since c. 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, and arriving Neolithic farmers from the Yellow River within the last 10,000 years, and which can be associated with having introduced the Sino-Tibetan languages.
Modern Tibetan populations are genetically most similar to other East Asian populations, Bhutanese, as well as other Sino-Tibetan-speaking populations. They show relatively more genetic affinity for modern Central Asian than modern Siberian populations. They also share some genetic affinity for South Asian groups.
Genetic studies shows that many of the Sherpa people have allele frequencies which are often found in other Tibeto-Burman regions; the strongest affinity was for Tibetan population samples in studies done in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Genetically, the Sherpa cluster most closely with the sampled Tibetan and Han populations. Additionally, the Sherpa and Tibetans had exhibited affinity for several Nepalese populations, with the strongest for the Rai people, followed by the Magars and the Tamang.
Tibetan males predominantly belong to the paternal lineage D-M174, followed by lower amounts of O-M175. Tibetan females belong mainly to the Northeast Asian maternal haplogroups M9a1a, M9a1b, D4g2, D4i and G2ac, showing continuity with ancient middle and upper Yellow River populations.
Although "East Asian Highlanders" (associated with haplogroup D1) are closely related to East Asian lowland farmers (associated with haplogroup O), they form a divergent sister branch to them.
Full genome studies revealed that Tibetans and other high-altitude East Asians formed from two divergent Ancient East Eurasian lineages in East Asia, specifically a lineage representing the Paleolithic population of the Tibetan Plateau and a lineage associated with Ancient Northern East Asians. The Paleolithic Tibetan lineage was found to be distinct from other deep lineages such as Ust'-Ishim, Hoabinhian/Onge or Tianyuan, but forms a clade with them to the exclusion of other Eurasians. The Northern East Asian lineage can be represented by Neolithic Yellow River farmers, who are associated with the spread of Sino-Tibetan languages. Modern Tibetans derive up to 20% from Paleolithic Tibetans, with the remaining 80% being primarily derived from Yellow River farmers. Wang et al. 2025 analyzed the remains of a c. 9,000 year old specimen from Central Yunnan (Xingyi_EN) and found it to possess a newly identified Basal Asian lineage, which fits best as the source for the Tibetan Ghost. This Basal Asian Xingyi lineage is equally diverged from other Basal Asian lineages, specifically the Hoabinhian and Tianyuan lineages, but slightly closer to ancient and present-day East Asians. The formation of the present-day Tibetan gene pool dates back at least 5,100 years BP.
Northeastern Tibetans display additional geneflow from a Yellow River farmers-like population c. 4,700 years ago, resulting in the formation of a "Tibetan cline". Modern Tibetans display genetic continuity to ancient samples from Nepal, with their genetic diversity having been reduced compared to 'Early Ancient Tibetans', suggesting low to no geneflow from outside groups since c. 3,500 years ago. Subsequent internal geneflow resulted in "a northeastern plateau ancestry associated with the northeast cluster, a southern plateau ancestry associated with the south-southwest cluster, and a southeastern plateau ancestry associated with the southeast-central cluster".
There was limited contact with Central Asian populations, in line with historical events, evident in mutual geneflow. The expansion of the Tibetan Empire may have left genetic traces in surrounding populations.
Genetic studies identified more than 30 genetic factors that make Tibetans' bodies well-suited for high-altitudes, including the EPAS1 gene, also referred to as the "super-athlete gene", which regulates the body's production of hemoglobin, allowing for greater efficiency in the use of oxygen. The genetic basis of Tibetan adaptations have been attributed to a mutation in the EPAS1 gene, and has become prevalent in the past 5,000 years. Ancient Tibetans carried this allele at a frequency of 25–58%, while modern Tibetans carry it at a frequency of >75%. The widespread presence of this gene may represent one of "the fastest genetic change ever observed in humans".
Recent research into the ability of Tibetans' metabolism to function normally in the oxygen-deficient atmosphere above 4,400 metres (14,400 ft) shows that, although Tibetans living at high altitudes have no more oxygen in their blood than other people, they have ten times more nitric oxide and double the forearm blood flow of low-altitude dwellers. Tibetans inherited this adaptation due to selected genes associated with Denisovan admixture among Asian populations, highlighting how different environments trigger different selective pressures. Nitric oxide causes dilation of blood vessels, allowing blood to flow more freely to the extremities and aids the release of oxygen to tissues.
According to Tibetan mythology, the origins of Tibetans are said to be rooted in the marriage of the monkey Pha Trelgen Changchup Sempa and rock ogress Ma Drag Sinmo.
Most Tibetans generally observe Tibetan Buddhism or a collection of native traditions known as Bön (also absorbed into mainstream Tibetan Buddhism). There is a minority Tibetan Muslim population. There is also a small Tibetan Christian population in the eastern Tibet and northwestern Yunnan of China.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Tibetans”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.