South Tibet is a claimed area by China with the literal translation of the Chinese term '' (), which may refer to different geographic areas:
* The southern part of
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
, covering the middle reaches of the
Yarlung Tsangpo River
The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () is the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River located in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China. The upper section is also called Da ...
Valley between
Saga County
Saga County (; ) is a county of the prefecture-level city of Xigazê in the Tibet Autonomous Region, bordering Nepal to the west and southwest.
Dajia Lake and Jiesa Lake lies in the county.
Town and townships
* Gya'gya Town (, ) - Saga, Tibet ...
to the west and
Mainling County
Mainling County (; ) is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Nyingchi in eastern Tibet Autonomous Region.
Geography
Mainling County is located in the central-west of the Nyingtri Prefecture, at the middle reaches of th ...
to the east, as well as neighbouring areas located between the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
to the south and the
Transhimalaya
The Transhimalaya (also spelled Trans-Himalaya), or "Gangdise – Nyenchen Tanglha range" ( zh, s=冈底斯-念青唐古拉山脉, p=Gāngdǐsī-Niànqīngtánggǔlā Shānmài), is a mountain range in China, India and Nepal, extending in a west ...
s range to the north. The region extends around 1,000 km from west to east and 300 km from north to south. By this definition, South Tibet includes most of modern-day
Shigatse
Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê (; Nepali: ''सिगात्से''), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histor ...
,
Lhasa
Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...
,
Lhoka (Shannan) Prefecture
ShannanThe official spelling according to (), also romanized from Tibetan as Lhoka (; ), is a prefecture-level city in the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shannan includes Gonggar County within its jurisdiction with Gongkar Chö Mon ...
and
Nyingchi Prefecture
Nyingchi (), also known as Linzhi and as Nyingtri, is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China. The administrative seat of Nyingchi is Bayi District.
Nyingchi is the location of Buchu Monastery.
Economy ...
.
* South Tibet may also refer to a shorter section of the Yarlung Tsangpo and tributaries covering most of Lhoka and Nyingchi Prefectures from the confluence with the
Lhasa River
The Lhasa River, also called Kyi Chu (, ), is a northern tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
The Yarlung Tsangpo is the upper section of the Brahmaputra River. The Lhasa River is subject to ...
to the west up to the beginning of the
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon
The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, also known as the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, the Tsangpo Canyon, the Brahmaputra Canyon or the Tsangpo Gorge ('), is a canyon along the Yarlung Tsangpo River (Tibet), Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet Autonomous ...
near Mainling County to the east.
* When used in relation to the
Sino-Indian border dispute
The Sino-Indian border dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India. The first of the territories, Aksai Chin, is administe ...
, South Tibet is a term mainly used by the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
to refer to an area south of the
McMahon Line
The McMahon Line is the boundary between Tibet and British India as agreed in the maps and notes exchanged by the respective plenipotentiaries on 24–25 March 1914 at Delhi, as part of the 1914 Simla Convention.
The line delimited the resp ...
currently administered by
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
as parts of the states of
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
. This region was recognised by Tibet as belonging to
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
under the McMahon Line agreement (part of the 1914
Simla Convention
The Simla Convention, officially the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet, ). The PRC does not recognise the McMahon Line and claims that the area is a part of the
Tibet Autonomous Region
The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...
instead. According to
Hsiao-ting Lin
Hsiao-ting Lin (; born 1971) is a Taiwanese research fellow at the Hoover Institution who studies Greater China, including ethnopolitics, the Kuomintang, and Taiwan–United States relations during the Cold War.
Lin was born in Taipei in 1971. He ...
, a scholar from Taiwan, and other scholars, both the British and the Chinese claim to sovereignty over the area can be deemed "largely imaginary", reflected only in official maps and political propagandas.
:
" 'The Times''actually shows the frontier before 1914 down here t the foothills it never was. The Tibetans never penetrated this area, except for one or two monasteries right up in the north of it (Tawang was one of them), where monks levied certain monastic dues. The fact of the matter is that this area was a tribal, sort of semi-autonomous, area on the frontier of Assam..."