From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The '\Tibetan' people are an ethnic group from Tibet. They speak the Tibetan language natively and form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China (PRC). According to an official census of 1959, the number of ethnic Tibetans in the PRC was 6,330,567. [1]
The Tibetans, are probably of Turko-Mongol descent. Historically, they were divided between the nomadic tent-dwelling Tibetans of the lake region and transition zone between it and the river region, and the settled sedentary population of the valleys. The tent-dwelling Tibetans, called Dokpa, Drupa, or Hbrog-pa, ("steppe-dwellers"), generally have a more Mongol appearance and broader faces than the people of the lowlands.
Tibetans typically have light brown skin, black, somewhat wavy hair, moderately high cheekbones, and brown eyes, although some have hazel eyes. The men typically have full mustaches but sparse beards; traditionally, they pluck out their beards with tweezers. Most of Tibet being a relatively hostile climate for human habitation, the Tibetans have historically been used to making it through periods of privation on little more than weak soup or buttered tea, which is drunk at frequent intervals.
As one approaches China proper, India or the border lands generally, fewer of the people are of a pure ethnic type.
The 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica reported that "among the customs of the Tibetans, perhaps the most peculiar is polyandry, the brothers in a family having one wife in common. Monogamy, however, seems to be the rule among the pastoral tribes, and polygamy is not unknown in Tibet, especially in the eastern parts of the country." An article by Melvyn C. Goldstein in the March, 1987 issue of Natural History (the magazine of the American Museum of Natural History) discusses Tibetan fraternal polyandry and confirms the continuation of this practice into recent times. [1]
