‘Tibet is 'the roof of the world'. The Tibetan plateau is about 3,600 metres (the top of Mt. Kosciusko is 2,228 m., Mt. Wellington is 1,270 m.) and on its southern border with Nepal is Chomolang Mu (Mt. Everest 8,848 m.). Great rivers like the Mekong, Bhramaputra, and Yangtze rise on the plateau which harbours a huge array of wildlife and plant life. There are 6 million people in a nation as big as Western Australia, or Alaska and Texas combined.

These days mass immigration of Chinese is threatening to have the Tibetans made a minority in their own land.

Tibet's colourful history (carpetmaking dates back at least 13 centuries) includes great empires, invasions and epochs of peace. The astonishing Potala, the palace of the Dalai Lama, was built on a rock rising out of the plain of the capital city, Lhasa, in the eighth century, before the great cathedrals of Europe, and expanded to it's current magnificience in the 15th century.

The current Dalai Lama was just 24 when Lhasa was bombarded by the invading Peoples Liberation Army of China in 1959. He escaped, late at night, on horseback across the Lhasa River and the Himalayas to India. The world turned its back, as the communists turned Tibet into its status today as the world's biggest military colony. More than one million Tibetans died and untold thousands have died since, under the iron clasp of Beijing's rule.

Tibet's environment has been degraded and its temples and great buildings ransacked.

Each year thousands of Tibetans, including many children, risk frostbite, starvation and beatings at the hands of border guards, to walk across the snowy passes of the Himalayas to freedom in Nepal and India. The journey takes three weeks. Many youngsters undertake the hazardous trip to see the Dalai Lama- every Tibetans's goal. But there are other rewards often denied Tibetans under Beijing's rule, like education, free religious observance and business opportunities.

The Tibetan government in exile has its parliament at Dharmsala in Northern India. This is the administrative centre for the many small Tibetan refugee towns in Nepal and scattered in India as far south as Madras. There are nearly 130,000 Tibetans in exile, with Tibetan communities in many countries including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe.