Tibet, Once a Mysterious, Isolated,
Forbidden Zone

　　The Tibet Autonomous Region is located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the "third pole of the planet". Undulating mountains, crisscrossing gullies and valleys, and turbulent rivers form a picturesque wonder created by Nature, yet its wilderness and remote location make it isolated and hard to reach. Before 1956 when two routes-the Qinghai-Tibet Highway and the Sichuan-Tibetan Highway-were completed, Tibet had had only one two-kilometer road which was specially built for the use of aristocrats. At the time, an assembled car, every part of which was imported from India by donkey and horse, ran the route from the Potala Palace, the winter palace for the Dalai Lama, to Norbu Lingka, his summer palace. Apart from that, no traces of modern vehicles could be seen on the vast land of Tibet. A person had to travel the long, hard journey by horse, yak or on foot. To cross a river , they had either to use a yak-skin boat, or cross a rattan bridge, or glide by hanging onto an iron chain spanning the river. The transportation of goods relied totally on humans and yaks, which made the task extremely hard and time-consuming. A special group of people-horse caravans-took responsibility for transportation, linking Tibet with the outside world. They risked their lives and families by taking on the treacherous journeys the whole year round. From the Tang Dynasty (618-907), these people helped establish the bartering fair- "the horse-tea fair". They bartered horses, herbal medicine and husbandry products for tea, silk and other luxuries loved by the Tibetans. Yet most Tibetans didn't have the nerve or chance to leave the high mountains for a new brave world. Poor transportation blocked the way to the outside world and made it difficult for Tibetan people to accept modern ideas, information and technology. When the wheel of history rolled into the 1950s, the car was still a luxury and privilege enjoyed by the Dalai Lama. For most ordinary people, it was an extravagance far beyond their reach. As the post stations were situated on perilous byways and sparsely populated wilderness, horse-riding was the only way to pass on the very limited information. Casting these natural conditions aside, another element leading to the backwardness of the transportation system in the area was the basic outlook of the people. Some scholars on Tibet believe that the inhabitants of the Tibet Plateau had undergone too much suffering and pain during its several thousands years of development. Their openness and willingness to respond to the outside world had long disappeared. For a long time, Tibet had a feudal serf system similar to that of medieval Europe. Religion was rooted in every corner of the society that was ruled by lamas and aristocrats. Everyone seemed to be intoxicated by the closed spiritual world cleverly designed by a handful of people, and seemed to be in endless pursuit of the next life. They had few exchanges with the outside world, heard nothing of the advances made by mankind and knew nothing of the development of the world beyond the mountains. As the channels of exchange were blocked, the Tibet Plateau gave the world an impression of poverty ,backwardness and mystery. People longed to know this land but changed their mind before making the journey. Starting from the early seventeenth century, a group of Westerners broke into this "roof of the world" with different intentions. Among them were explorers, detectives, missionaries and even "civilized men" with guns and cannons. Their descriptions and all the ensuing publicity made snowy Tibet even more mysterious and out of reach.