Tibet highlands
The geographically defined highlands of Tibet or, officially, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau ( Tibetan བོད་ ས་ མཐོ ། Wylie bod sa mtho , Chinese Pin , Pinyin Qīng-Zàng gāoyuán ), including High Asia , not only encompasses the entire habitat of Tibetan speakers Ethnic groups, the even smaller historical Tibet or today's Tibet Autonomous Region (AGT) of the People's Republic of China , but also the high mountains of the Himalaya , Kunlun Shan , Qilian Shan , etc.
After the plateau was formed in the early Miocene , it reached its present height around eight million years ago. Over time, erosion and weather carved out valleys and formed steep walls and cliffs.
The highlands, which are about 4000 to 5500 meters above sea level and about 2 million km² in size, are bordered in the north by the deserts of the Tarim Basin and Qaidam Basin , in the south and west by the Himalayas , Karakoram and Pamir mountains . Although the highest peak is only 7010 meters high, the plain is the highest plateau in the world. There are numerous salt lakes in the gorges such as Tilicho Lake , which is located at 4920 meters and is therefore one of the highest lakes in the world, as well as wide steppes, dense forests and deserts. These natural areas offer protection to many animals, including endangered species, such as yaks , saiga antelopes , Asiatic black bears , sheep and kiangs .
Accordingly, the highlands of Tibet also include the areas of Ladakh , Zanskar , Lahaul and Spiti , North Sikkim and large parts of Arunachal Pradesh in northern India, as well as large parts of Bhutan and northern Nepal. Within the People's Republic of China, in addition to the Tibet Autonomous Region, the entire province of Qinghai , the southwest of Gansu and the peripheral areas of the northwest of this province, the west of Sichuan and the northwest of Yunnan are part of the highlands, while the Aksai Chin in the far west of the plateau in the autonomous region Xinjiang merges into the Pamirs .
The climate change has since the mid-1970s to a melting of glaciers in the region around 130 square kilometers per annum. Forecasts assume that glaciers could halve by 2090.
Desertification has also progressed since then. In many parts of the highlands, a certain amount of drying out is already having an impact on the sparse vegetation: once good grasslands are threatened with desertification , which in particular endangers the livelihood of the nomadic population .
See also
Web links
- The Changtang National Park in the Tibetan highlands ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Tibet: nomads without pasture?
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tibet's glaciers are melting faster and faster
- ^ Rangelands and Nomadic Pastoralism ( Memento of August 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive )