Map of Tibet

Tibet Autonomous Region

The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region (Chinese: 西藏自治区) is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was created in 1965 on the basis of an administrative region which had been incorporated into the PRC in 1951. Within the People's Republic of China, Tibet is identified with the Autonomous Region, which includes about half of ethno-cultural Tibet, including the traditional provinces of Ü-Tsang and the western half of Kham. The borders of the present Autonomous Region coincide roughly with the actual zone of control of the then-government of Tibet in 1950.[citation needed] The Tibet Autonomous Region is the second-largest province-level division of China by area, spanning over 1,200,000 square kilometres (460,000 sq mi), after Xinjiang, and due to its generally harsh terrain, is the least densely populated provincial-level division of the PRC.