Population and Peoples

2004-03-01 18:01

Population and Population Density The Tibet Autonomous Region is the least populous and the most sparsely populated province in China. The Fourth National Population Census in 1990 reported a population of 2.196 million in Tibet, a net increase of I .196 million over 1950, but still less than 2 people per square kilometre.

By the end of 1994 population totalled 2.32 million, 2.236 million Tibetans (96.4 percent), 66,000 Han (2. 8 percent) and the remaining 18,000 (0.8 percent) of other ethnic groups. Population Growth Since 1970 the birth rate and natural growth rate in Tibet have both exceeded the national average.

Between 1982 and 1990, there was an increase of 309,800 in the ethnic Tibetan population, a 17.34 per thousand natural growth rate, 2.64 per thousand above the nation's average over the same period. For the last ten years the Tibetan population has increased by 38,000 per year on average.

Tibetans' health has also greatly improved Average life-expectancy has increased from 36 before the peaceful liberation to 65 today. Beginning in the 1970s, China has widely implemented a family planning and population control policy, advocating one child for one couple However, in Tibet the autonomous region's government has adopted special policies corresponding to local realities.

The one child policy has been applied only to ethnic Han cadres and workers working in Tibet, not to the ethnic Tibet ans themselves. In 1984 the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region began to advocate family planning among the ethnic Tibetan cadres and workers and urban residents, encouraging couples wanting a second child to delay doing so. Currently, 12 percent of the total population is following family planning. Family planning work proceeds from the free will principle Forced abortion in any form is opposed and prohibited Peasants and herdsmen, whose families constitute 88 percent of the population, are not subject to family planning policies.

However, they do receive education on scientific contraception methods, rational arrangements for birth, sound child rearing, protecting the mother and infant's health and raising the overall quality of the population. Government health departments supply safe, reliable health service to peasants and herdsmen who voluntarily request assistance in birth control. At present, the annual birth rate of Tibet exceeds 23 per thousand and the natural growth rate 15 per thousand.

The government of the autonomous region has targeted a natural growth rate of 16 per thousand to limit population growth. Ethnic Makeup Not suprisingdy, the Tibet Autonomons Region, with 45 percent of the country's total ethnic Tibetan population, has the greatest concentration of ethnic Tibetans nationally In addition to the Tibetans, other ethnic groups, including the Lhoba, Moinha, Han and Hui, and Deng and Xiaerha peoples are found there Tibetans are the principal inhabitants of Tibet Their language belongs to the Tibetan sub-group of the Tibeto-Burmese group of the Sinn-Tibetan langnage family.

There are three main dialects: U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo. Most Tibetans work in agriculture and animal husbandry. Urban residents for the most pan work in handicrafts, industry and commerce. Ethnic Tibetans follow Tibetan Buddhism. They are enthusiastic and open-minded and good at singing and dancing The Tibetan songs are pleasant to the ears and are often accompanied by dance Tibetans traditionally wear long sleeved silk or cloth jackets which men top with Ioose robes and women with long sleeveless gowns which are tied at the waist with a sash Married women frequently wear an apron with a multicolour design.

Both women and men braid their hair and love wearing ornaments Different areas have different clothing The staple food is zanba (roasted qingke barley flour or pea meal); tea with butter or milk is the favourite of all Tibetans. They have a liking for qingke beer, beef and mutton, hut do not eat perissodactyls such as horses.

In ancient times Tibetans buried their dead in the ground but in modern times Tibetans practise sky burial (in which the corpse is chopped to bits and exposed on a mountain face to be eaten by vultures and other birds of prey), cremation and water burial. The Moinba have lived on the Tibet Plateau since ancient times.

For the most part they are distributed in Moinyu region in the south, With some scattered in Medog, Nyingchi and Cona counties. Linguistically, the Moinba belong to the Moinba sub-group of the Tibeto-Burmese group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. In terms of dialects, the language is complex While there is no written language, most Moinha people can speak and write Tibetan Their livelihood is based on agriculture, supplemented by animal hushandry, forestry, hunting and handicrafts.

Both women and men dress in robes made of pulu (a woolen fabric). On their heads they wear a small brown-crowned, orange rimmed hat gapped in the front or a black felt cap The women wear bracelets and earrings and other ornaments and men have a chopper hanging at their waists. Men and women alike enjoy drinking wine and dipping snuff The Moinba diet is based on rice, corn, buckwheat and jizhaogu (glutinous highland millet) Most Moinha people adhere to Tibetan Buddhism; however, in some regions some people practise traditional shamanism.

The dead are generally given water burial, but earth burial, sky burial and cremation are also practised The Lhoba people are mainly found in the Lhoyu region of southeastern Tibet, with some scattered in Mainling, Medog, Zayu, Lhunze and Nang counties Their language is also included in the Tibeto-Burmese group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Having no written language of their own, they normally use Tibetan for written communications.

The Lhoba are an essentially agricultural people. They value the goods they weave from bamboo Men favour a wool woven sleeveless jacket that extends to the waist and round, helmet- like hat trimmed with bear fur or rattan. Women wear a short, round-collared, narrow- sleeved jacket and a tight tubular skirt that extends a little below the knee.

From knee to ankle, the leg is wrapped d in cloth puttee. Corn and jizhaogu, supplemented by rice and buckwheat, are staple foods Most of the Hui people living in Tibet today are descendants of the Hui who moved from Gansu, Shaanzi, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces during the Qing Dynasty: a minority came from Central Asia Most live in cities and towns, notably Lhasa, Xigaze and Qamdo The majority work in commerce, handicrafts or as butchers They use Tibetan or Chinese in written communications and Urdu and Arabic in religious practice.

They follow Islam and mosques are to be found in Lhasa and elsewhere The Deng people for the most part live in Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture Linguistically, they also belong to the Tibeto-Burmese group of the SinoTibetan language family. They have no written language, but keep records by notching wood, tying knots or arranging sticks or branches.

Deng people believe in ghosts They build two-story structures, themselves living above and housing cattle and poultry below. The women commonly wear long, drum-like silver earrings, a headdress covering the forehead, and around the neck a string of beads or silver jewelry. They wear silk skirts and go barefooted. Men wear a black cloth wound about their heads and silver earrings. Up until the 1950s, the Deng people mostly lived deep in the mountain forests, surviving on slash-and-burn agricul ture and hunting and gathering.

More recently they have moved into terraced river valleys with the assistance of the government. The Xiaerba people are concentrated in the area defined by Lixin in the Zhamu entry/exit port area and Chentang in Dinggye County They are divided into four surnames and marriage within the same surname is taboo. They are Buddhists. Their homes are twostory wooden structures Both men and women wear white woolen short-sleeved coats edged in black. Their melodious songs and elegant, restrained dancing are reminiscent of some folk dances of Nepal and Pakistan. Beginning in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), many Han people have moved to Tibet.

A portion have been assimilated into the Tibetan ethnicity. Today, most Han people living in Tibet are technicians, labourers, teachers, health workers and cadres from other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.