Tibetan

Tibetan, people who inhabit Tibet or nearby regions and speak Tibetan. All Tibetans share the same language. It is highly stylized, with an honorific and an ordinary word for most terms of reference. The honorific expression is used when speaking to equals or superiors and the ordinary word when addressing inferiors or referring to oneself. There is an additional set of higher honorifics to be used when addressing the highest lamas and nobles.

In the late 21st century the number of Tibetans in Tibet proper (and other areas in western China) was estimated to be about 4.6 million, with perhaps an additional 2 million in the Tibetan ethnic areas of Bhutan, India, northern Nepal, and the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Prior to the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1959, social classes among the Tibetans could be defined in terms of opposition: cleric versus lay, noble versus peasant, merchant versus labourer, agriculturalist versus nomad, and trader versus townsman. The agriculturalists traditionally formed the peasantry of Tibet, most of them working as tenants or hired labourers on land owned by the monasteries or the nobility. The herdsmen and shepherds pastured their flocks on the high steppes; some of them remained in the lowlands during the winter and migrated upward in summer. Before 1959 it was estimated that about one-quarter of the population belonged to the clerical order. The monasteries were the main seats of learning. Tibetan Buddhism is an admixture of Buddhist teachings and the pre-Buddhist religion, Bon (see also Bon; Tibetan Buddhism).

Most marriages are monogamous, although both polygyny and polyandry have been practiced under certain circumstances, usually in order to keep an estate intact and within the paternal line of descent. Thus, the eldest son of a noble family would take a bride; and, if any of his younger brothers so desired, they were included in the marriage contract as junior husbands.

Dwellings are commonly one- or two-story buildings with walls of stone or brick and flat clay roofs. The nomadic pastoralists live in tents of yak hair, rectangular in shape and ranging from 12 to 50 feet (3.5 to 15 m) in length. Most of the noble families traditionally maintained town houses in the capital city, Lhasa. These were built of stone around a rectangular courtyard, on three sides of which were stables and storehouses. On the fourth side, opposite the gate, was the mansion itself, usually three stories high.

The staple diet of most Tibetans is barley flour, yak meat, mutton, cheese, and tea. These basic items may be supplemented by rice, fruit, vegetables, chicken, and sometimes fish. The main beverage is tea mixed with butter and salt.