青藏高原是世界最高的陆地,它的四周有白雪连绵的高山围绕。北部是高寒地带的纯牧区,南部有大片适宜农牧的河谷,喜马拉雅山麓有大片的原始森林,而东南部珞瑜地区被称为高原上的江南。由于交通阻隔,虽然公元七世纪时雅胧河谷的悉补野部族首领松赞干布就统一了西藏,并建立了图伯特王朝(唐代称叶蕃.元代称西番.明代称乌斯藏)。但外界与他们的来往仍很少。松赞干布曾娶唐朝的文成公主为妻,汉族文化与佛教开始进入藏区,之后历代政权都对这偏远地区采取友好政策。于是藏区得以保持独树一格的文化特色至今。由于此地的经济以农、牧为主,在这个世纪初还多是以 The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the highest land in the world and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The northern part is a pure pastoral area in the alpine zone. There are large valleys suitable for agriculture and animal husbandry in the south, large forested forests at the foothills of the Himalayas, and the Luo Yu area in the southeast as the southern part of the plateau. Due to the traffic barrier, though the Song Dynasty Gansu tribesman, leader of the tribal wild tribes of the Yahagu Valley, unified Tibet in the 7th century AD and established the Tubo dynasty Sri Lanka). But there are still few contacts with them. Songtsan Gopche married his wife Wencheng, the Tang Dynasty, and Han Chinese culture and Buddhism began to enter the Tibetan areas. Afterwards, successive regimes all adopted friendly policies toward these remote areas. So Tibet has been able to maintain unique cultural characteristics so far. Since the economy here is dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, it is still at the beginning of this century