Adaptation seen in Tibetans of the Himalayas
Introduction
How do you think the Tibetans in Himalayas survived for centuries, despite the low oxygen and natural resources available? Would you like to know how they have adapted over the years? Tibetans of the Himalayas have adapted in the environment of higher altitudes in the mountains. It is important to observe cultural adaptation. A biological adaptation plays a significant role based on their natural selection. In addition, archaeological aspects are important as it is beneficial to know how long Tibetants have lived in the mountains and how it was identified.
Cultural adaptations
Historical records of the Tibetan population are very limited. About 99% of the Tibetan population is concentrated in the “one region and four provinces” of Northwest and Southwest China, i.e. TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region), Sichuan, Quinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces. Ethnic Tibetans constitute over 96% of the TAR population. Tibetans have a common historic tradition, language and religion for over 1000 years. Tiber was divided into three regions known as Chol-Kha-Sum, Ngari Kor Sum and U-Tsang. U-Tsang (U=Central) has the famous cities and valleys of Tibet like Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse etc. Central Tibet is a place of religion (Tibetan Buddhism) and the three largest monasteries are located here (Ganden, Drepung and Sera). Tibet is largely occupied by many different groups of pastoral nomads, of which Golog in Qinghai are the most famous. The term Golog literally means “heads on backwards” which symbolically means handsome, war like independent rebels.
There are many different kinds of buildings, clothing, customs and languages in Tibet. It is not uncommon for Tibetans to not understand each oth...
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...utes and time of occupation of the Tibetan Plateau. It is necessary to understand the link between measured phenotypes and the underlying genotypes and hence new phenotypes need identification. Input is required from archaeologists and cultural and physical anthropologists for a better comparative analysis between resident and indigenous population of high altitude environments.
(Adaptations to Altitude)
Conclusion
Tibetans of the Himalayas have adapted in the environment of higher altitudes in the mountains. Cultural adaptation proves to be an important factor with regards to the Tibetans. The biological adaptation holds a significant role based on their natural selection. Lastly, archaeological aspects are imperative in the field of anthropology. In all, this essay touches key points on how Tibetans existed, survived and adapted based on their surroundings.
Nitchelle Predvil April 17, 2014 English 64-005 Comparison Paper Through Different Lenses In the society that we live in today, we are surrounded by an abundance of different cultures, politics and physical features. In the two books, Sky Burial and Stick Out Your Tongue, it gives us different aspects on the people and culture of Tibet. Sky Burial written by Xinran is a story about a Chinese woman going to Tibet in order to find her husband. During that journey, we are able to get a sense of what Tibet and the people are like and see the political conflicts between China and Tibet as well. However, Stick Out Your Tongue, written by Ma Jian, is a straightforward book that depicts Tibet in more detail and in a harsh perspective.
Debate started to arise when an archaeologist by the name of Thomas D. Dillehay found artifacts of people existing 14,600 years ago, before Clovis, in Monte Verde, a site in southern Chile. These people slept in hide tents, had access to seafood and potatoes, and shared similar characteristics to other artifacts found in North Ame...
2Gómez-Pérez L, Alfonso-Sánchez M.A., Sánchez D, García-Obregón S, Espinosa I, Martínez-Jarreta B, De Pancorbo M.M., Peña J.A. 2011. Alu Polymorphisms in the Waorani Tribe from the Ecuadorian Amazon Reflect the Effects of Isolation and Genetic Drift. American Journal of Human Biology Vol 23(6): pp 790-795
Ancient China was split into two principle regions, Inner and Outer China. The land of Inner China contained fertile land and could sustain a larger population than could the land of Outer China. Most of the population of China settled here for that reason. These regions then were each divided into five sub regions. Outer China contained three of these regions, the Tibet- Qinghai Plateau, the Northwestern Deserts, and the Northeastern Plain. Inner China held the remaining two, the North China Plain and the Chang Jiang Basins. Each of the regions had their own reasons why they were desirable or not to the nomads passing though China. The Tibet- Qinghai Plateau was an unwanted area of land because of many geographic factors that were stacked against it. One such reason was that the Plateau was very rocky and mountainous which discou...
There were 6 million Tibetans living in Tibet before the Chinese came and took over the country. In the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, the natives of Tibet are being rid of by the Chinese; the Chinese are filling up Lhasa with Chinese people and the Chinese want to make Tibet throughly Chinese. Today, the Tibetan people are a minority in their own country! All the better jobs go to the Chinese people living in Tibet. Tibetan people cannot find jobs for themselves, the best job they can get is to become a truck driver.
1 Geoff Childs Tibetan Diary From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004) 41.
Heller, A. (2007). Discoveries in western Tibet and the western Himalayas essays on history, literature, archaeology and art : PIATS 2003, Tibetan studies, proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford, 2003. Leiden: Brill.
Any discussion on music should first begin by learning about the instruments that are used by the society and are used to convey the music, as the instruments themselves are a very important part of much, though not all, of Tibetan music. Tibetans do have instruments in all of the major instrument groups of string, woodwind, brass, and percussion, though some, particularly percussion and woodwind, are more prominent than the others.
The literature does provide evidence for my hypothesis and also provides a clearer picture as to how frequent and to what extent the interbreeding is believed to occur. Examining these articles will introduce the new findin...
It may be difficult to imagine how the Chinese revolution, the Buddha, and a princess shaped the path of Tibetan Buddhism into the Hawaiian islands, particularly in the island of Kauai. This essay will illustrate how my experience at a Buddhist burial ground in Kauai had its roots in Beijing, Lhasa, and Lumbini. I will argue that the presence of Tibetan Buddhism on the island of Kauai was primarily driven by the Communist revolution in China in 1949 and their reannexation of Tibet in 1959. This paper will show how the Buddhism came to Tibet from India on the Middle Ages and moved to the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. The story of how Tibetan Buddhism got to Hawaii is followed by an analytical description of a Tibetan Buddhist burial mound in Kauai.
Many of the influences of Tibetan Buddhism came from India thousands of years ago. There were four phases leading up to the Tantric practice that is known today. 560 B.C.E. to 480 B.C.E. marked the first stage, the life of Siddharta Gautama, who Tibetans believe to be the original Buddha. The legend of the Buddha is that he was conceived in ...
Jurmaln, R., Kilgore, L., & Trevathan, W. (2011). Essentials of physical anthropology. (9th ed., p. 5). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
With all the information I learned, I have come to conclusion that Cultural Materialism is what I believe to be the perspective or theory of this culture. Cultural materialism is cultural traits that are based on the resources available to a group. In the article it says that this way of life is materialistic. I believe that it is cultural materialism because the resources that are available to the Tibetan people are animals but there is little agriculture. I order to care for animals someone has to be with them most of the time, which leaves the family alone without a man. Even though the man is out with the animals that family still needs income and everything else. So when brothers marry the same person they are able to take care of many things that would often take longer for a single
From the frozen tundra of the arctic north to the arid deserts of sub-Saharan Africa – humans not only survive, but even thrive in some of the most extreme and remote environments on the planet. This is a testament to the remarkable capacity for adaptation possessed by our species. Each habitat places different stressors on human populations, and they must adapt in order to mitigate them. That is, adaptation is the process by which man and other organisms become better suited to their environments. These adaptations include not only physical changes like the larger lung capacities observed in high altitude natives but also cultural and behavioral adjustments such as traditional Inuit clothing styles, which very effectively retain heat but discourage deadly hyperthermia-inducing sweat in Arctic climates. Indeed, it seems this later mechanism of adaptation is often much more responsible for allowing humans to populate such a wide variety of habitats, spanning all seven continents, rather than biological mechanisms. Of course, not all adaptations are entirely beneficial, and in fact may be maladaptive, particularly behavior adaptations and highly specialized physical adaptations in periods of environmental change. Because people rely heavily on social learning, maladaptaptive behaviors such as sedentarization and over-eating – both contributing to obesity – are easily transmitted from person to person and culture to culture, as seen in the Inuit’s adoption of American cultural elements.
Tibet, with its isolated, harsh geographical location and history of political and social remoteness would seem an unlikely place to provide a “cradle for creative art” (Bailey 22). Yet it is in this desolate section of the world that one of the most intriguing artistic cultures has been cultivating over hundreds of centuries. One facet of what makes Tibetan art so unique and interesting is its interdependency on its religious beliefs.