Mao Zedong: Our mistake was that we did not disarm the Dalai Lama right away. But at that time we had no contact with the popular masses of Tibet.
Nikita Khrushchev: You have no contact even now with the population of Tibet.
Mao: We have a different understanding of this issue.
Khruschev: Of course.

— Discussion between N.S. Khrushchev and Mao Zedong, October 2, 1959

A region of China and former country in Central Asia, the stereotypical setting of The Shangri-La and the subject of a popular political cause.

For centuries, Tibet was a Buddhist theocracy ruled by a duo known as the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Erdeni (there were emperors prior), both the Tibetans believed to be the Reincarnation of great Lamas from the early 1700s. From the era of Kublai Khan until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Tibet was under some level of control by Imperial China and the Mongols. Disagreements over how much control tend to center around what political axe the speaker wants to grind. In any case, the chaos of the Xinhai Revolution allowed Tibet to slip out of Chinese control and achieve de facto independence in 1912. During the period between 1911-1949, Tibet is largely closed to outsiders, with the exception of the British based in India. It is during this period in which a romanticized depiction of Tibet, as a land of Buddhist mysticism, became widespread in works of popular culture, such as Lost Horizon.

In 1940, Tenzin Gyatso was enthroned as the 14th and current (and possibly last) Dalai Lama. A decade later, with the Soviets handing Xinjiang over to Red China and the People's Liberation Army crushing the last Kuomintang holdouts in Qinghai and Inner Mongolia, Mao Zedong decided Tibet needed to be "liberated" from "imperialist forces". Even though it was essentially independent, Tibet had the potential to become a security problem if it fell under increased Indian or Soviet influence and the PRC had no desire to be forced to play a diplomatic game with them over a state that could be annexed fairly easily. The PRC then proceeded to use Maoist Marxist-Leninism to "save Tibet from theocratic feudalism", while in a last ditch effort the Tibetan authorities installed the Dalai Lama as the temporal ruler and de facto head of state of Tibet. For most of the 1950s, the Dalai Lama cooperated with China's new communist rulers, but he fled Tibet during a 1959 rebellion against Chinese rule. He arrived in India, where he established a Government in Exile and is based there to this day. The Dalai Lama has since become an international celebrity and met with various world leaders. For the first twenty years of his exile, the Dalai Lama argued in favor of Tibetan independence, but he has since moderated his position to favoring greater Tibetan autonomy within China. In 2011, he relinquished his political leadership in favor of an elected Central Tibetan Administration.

There is considerable debate whether there will be another Dalai Lama after the current one dies. He claims that he will not reincarnate in Tibet unless it is free. The Chinese government claims that it has the authority to select the next Dalai Lama since the Republic of China (Taiwan) does not offer to oversee the process and the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama is stable. That the Chinese government claims to be able to control whether the Dalai Lama will reincarnate will come off as Insane Troll Logic to anyone with even a passing familiarity with Tibetan Buddhism. This dispute can already be foreseen in the selection of the 11th Panchen Lama, who was taken as a child by the Chinese government in 1995 shortly after his selection by the Dalai Lama and replaced with a proxy of their own. Chinese officials have only disclosed regarding his whereabouts that "The reincarnated child Panchen Lama you mentioned is being educated, living a normal life, growing up healthily and does not wish to be disturbed." The Dalai Lama has separately confirmed the well-being of the Panchen Lama through his own sources. To make matters more complicated, the Chinese government would rather use the Qing Empire-era method of picking new Dalai and Panchen Lamas, the so-called Golden Urn, which boils down the process of finding reincarnations via... drawing lots from an urn. Historically, this was used with grudging acceptance of the Tibetan monks, who simply draw "the right" lot from the urn after first identifying the proper child, but nowadays it's Beijing doing the "Dalai Lama lottery".

It's also worth noting that Tibet has a complicated history with the Kuomintang government, which ruled mainland China from 1911 until 1949, and still exist as an electoral party in Taiwan today. The two sides fought a border war between 1930-1932, in which the Ma clique, a group of Hui Muslim warlords allied with the KMT, drove the 13th Dalai Lama out the neighboring Qinghai province. Following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War, the KMT retreated to Taiwan, but nevertheless, they occupied China's seat in the United Nations until 1971. Up until the 2000s, the KMT government claimed Tibet, as well as Mongolia and the rest of Communist China, as part of the Republic of China.

On a related note, while popular media often portrays the Tibetans as peaceful Buddhists, it should noted that the Tibetans were historically known for their warlike nomadic horse culture prior to the introduction of Buddhism in the region ^note Which would make sense to a degree since most of Tibet's geography consists of mountains, rivers, hills, and lakes, making it difficult to travel by foot. At one point, the Tibetans even had an empire that rivaled the Tang dynasty and even occupied the Tang capital Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an) for a while. Much of their warlike nomadic culture slowly died down once Buddhism was introduced in the region. However, some of the Tibetan past nomadic lifestyle is still seen today in some areas (as there are many Tibetan nomads who still practice archery and horseback riding as sports). Moreover, Tibetans are culturally closer to Mongolic and Turkic peoples than to the Chinese. The Tibetan Mastiff is held in high regards by Tibetans.

The Kingdom of Bhutan, sandwiched between China and India, was culturally a part of Tibet until the 17th century. It was founded by a Tibetan Buddhist lama who had disagreements with the Dalai Lama of that time and decided to form a dominion of his own. Dzongkha, the country's national language, is descended from Old Tibetan and written in the Tibetan script (though it is mutually unintelligible with modern Tibetan) and Tibetan Buddhism is the country's state religion. Many Westerners view it as basically "Tibet if it were independent".

Having Tibet as a playable faction in historical video games makes sense, but due to China's strict censorship laws having Tibet as such a playable faction most likely means the game being Banned in China, as this would be seen as promoting Tibetan independence.^note Not to mention, PC gaming is very profitable in mainland China This is why popular historical video games such as Civilization, Age of Empires or Total War will never have Tibetans as a playable faction, as these games will risk having the game banned in mainland China (as Paradox Interactive found out the hard way when Hearts of Iron was banned in China for depicting Tibet as a separate faction and all the sequels followed suit). Interestingly enough, however, Paradox Interactive also made two strategy games, Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis series, that have Tibetans as a playable civilization; yet those games aren't banned in China (although the Chinese official releases would most likely have stringent censorship^note For example, many games that would depict medieval Tibet will use the official Chinese name of medieval Tibet, Tubo or Tufan (吐蕃) instead of the more modern naming of Tibet (西藏)).

Regions of Tibet

• U-Tsang: The political and cultural center of Tibet, where many Tibetan dynasties rose and fell throughout the centuries. With its elevated terrain, dry weather, and intersection of monasteries and yak pastures, it is the place most people think of when they envision Tibet. It includes the Tibetan capital Lhasa, much of the Tibetan plateau, and the the Himalayas to the south.
• Amdo: Located to the north-east of Tibet, the region is known for its grasslands and pastoral agriculture. Due to influence from the Mongols and Hui Muslims, Amdo is known for its diverse mix of Tibetan and non-Tibetan cultures. It is also the birthplace of the current Dalai Lama. Currently, the region overlaps with the province of Qinghai.
• Kham: The eastern frontier of Tibet, the region is inhabited by the Khampas, an ethnic group related to the Tibetans, and is known for their monasteries and horsemanship, and was previously ruled by independent chieftains. Kham is also noted for its rugged terrain, including valleys and dense forests, and historically served as a trading corridor between Tibet and China proper. It is currently situated between the Tibet Autonomous Region and the province of Sichuan.

Views on Tibet

• The pro-Tibet view: The dominant view in Western countries, it casts the Dalai Lama as the wise old sage and the People's Republic of China as The Empire. It argues that the PRC illegally annexed a de facto independent country and has been an oppressive, exploitative imperialist power destroying their people's culture and being generally rather nasty to their people ever since. However, this view tend to romanticize feudal Tibet as a peaceful land of mysticism, and tend to overlook the fact that the majority of Tibetans were illiterate and often subject to torture by the aristocrats who owned most of the land.
• The pro-PRC view: The "official" view of the Chinese government as well as many Chinese nationalists. This view casts the Dalai Lama as a deposed third-world dictator trying to get back his personal fiefdom. It argues that, since Tibet was incorporated into two Mongol and one Chinese Empires starting 800 years ago and was only de facto independent for the century before its (re-)conquest by Red China, it is as much part of China as Brittany is part of France or Catalonia is a part of Spain.^note  To use two contrasting examples of countries that were, respectively, independent and part of the entities that were in an extremely loose sense 'France' and 'Spain'. This exercise effectively demonstrates the limitations of the 'that country used to be part of an Empire that later became our country, therefore their country belongs to us' argument - other classic examples being French North Africa/Algeria, Roman/Italian Europe, Ottoman Egypt, Mughal-Indian Afghanistan, etc. It also points out that PRC rule has brought economic development and improved Tibetan living standards. Of course, claims of heavy-handed repression of all dissent and destruction of Tibetan culture are generally denied - or deemed to be 'the price of modernity'.
• The third option view: This view argues that while Tibet was a backwards, medieval theocracy dominated by one pan-Chinese and two Mongol Empires and thus shared a certain amount of high-culture with the Chinese nations, like the Mongolians its people were quite distinct from those of most of China's various peoples and the PRC has also been an oppressive imperialist power of the kind it used to condemn so strongly. This view usually calls for Tibet to remain part of China out of pragmatism, but calls for wider political reform in China, with greater respect to the rights and self determination of the Tibetans. Many Chinese dissidents, as well as the Dalai Lama himself in recent years, hold this view.
• The other option is that independent Tibet was a small and incredibly underdeveloped country with some serious problems that the PRC has alleviated somewhat by being a remarkably oppressive and unpleasant imperialist power... but that changes to Tibet's Government in Exile mean it'd be rather nicer at running the country than either the PRC or the pre-PRC Tibetan aristocracy (e.g. the Dalai Lama recommending the removal of his position as head of state). Since the current Dalai Lama called for a "middle way" approach in regards to Tibet's sovereignty, many younger Tibetans in Dharamshala tend to hold this view and calls for an independent Tibet.

Tibet in popular culture

The Tibetan flag