Yunnan Ethnic Minority Image Library (Tibetan)

Author: Editorial Committee of "Illustrated Album of Yunnan's Ethnic Minorities"
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The Tibetan ethnic group is a historically long-standing minority in western China, primarily distributed in the Tibet Autonomous Region and parts of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces. In Yunnan, the Tibetan population is mainly concentrated in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with a few scattered in counties like Lijiang and Gongshan. There are 4.59 million Tibetans in China, and today, the Tibetan population in Yunnan is approximately 128,000. The Tibetans uniformly refer to themselves as "Boba." In Tibetan, "Bo" means "Lipo," which is phonetically similar to "Tubo" recorded in Chinese historical documents; "Ba" means "person." The Tibetans in Yunnan's northwest call themselves "Boba," while the Han people call them "Guzong," the Naxi call them "Guzi," the Bai call them "Guer," and the Yi call them "Ezu." All these exonyms carry the meaning of "owners of the land," leading some scholars to believe that the Tibetans in Yunnan are among the earlier tribes of the ancient Qiang people to settle in southwestern China. Tibetan belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, divided into three dialects: Weizang, Amdo, and Kang. The Tibetan language spoken by the Tibetans in Yunnan belongs to the Kang dialect. Due to differences in their residential areas, there are variations in pronunciation such as Zhongdian, Dongwang, Deqin, and Weixi, but the languages are mutually intelligible. In the vast Tibetan canonical texts, a large number of historical, geographical, astronomical, medical, and folk tales have been preserved.