With the distinguished natural and cultural tourism resources, Tibet is undoubtedly a desirable travel destination both domestically and internationally. With the newly opened Qinghai-Tibet railway to Lhasa in July 2006, Tibet tourism development was boosted markedly due to the increased accessibility and affordability. This study evaluates the impacts of the increased accessibility achieved through the Qinghai-Tibet railway on tourist travel decisions for, and experiences in, Tibet from travelers’ perspectives. The relative importance of the train journey in comparison with the destination experience at Tibet is also examined. A destination choice framework is proposed based on a review of previous literature. It is applied in this study to understand tourists’ travel destination choice of Tibet. A questionnaire survey was designed as the major primary data collection method to collect travelers’ perceptions on the train journey and Tibet tourism. Conducted on the train to and from Lhasa of Tibet, a total of 187 questionnaires were collected, including 82 for the pre-visit sample and 105 for the post-visit sample. Important destination choice factors for Tibet are identified in this study. The findings also support the importance of the railway on tourists’ destination choice of Tibet and in the overall travel experience of Tibet. Expectations and satisfactions with the destination are also compared to indicate possibilities for further destination development in Tibet. This study improves the understanding of both the supply and demand sides of the tourism industry in Tibet. Both practical implications and academic implications are presented based on the major findings of this study. Contributions of this study and future research opportunities are discussed.

The negotiation between the government of PRC and the government of Tibet in exile is a kind of ¡§Do more with less¡¨ and ¡§Asymmetric Power Structure¡¨. The government of Tibet in exile is in Dharamsala, northern India could not have long-term fight with PRC without its own land, forces and economic power. Although the ¡§total structure power¡¨ of the government of Tibet in exile is less than PRC, it uses the title of Dalai Lama who is the winner of Nobel Peace Prize to strengthen its power and internationalize the problem of Tibet successfully. Therefore, whole world take care of the problem of Tibet and give PRC the pressure of negotiating. In fact, the PRC¡¦s government could solve the problem of Tibet with the strong hand because of its greater aggregate national strength. However, in order to change PRC¡¦s international country image and lower the cost of governing Tibet, it begins to connect with the government of Tibet in exile and tries to solve the problem of Tibet by negotiating since 1979. On one hand PRC¡¦s government insists on tough attitude, on the other hand both sides have different opinions on ¡§Tibet Independence¡¨ and ¡§Tibet Autonomy¡¨, so the negotiation reaches a deadlock after negotiating 20 years. In chapter 1, besides describing my research motive, goals, limits, methods and etc, I also introduce the general concepts and some articles of negotiation. I discuss the PRC¡¦s strategy and style of debating in chapter 2. I introduce the background of Tibet¡¦s history, culture, religion, status, geography and the negotiation since 1950 in chapter 3. Chapter 4 and 5, I explain the deadlock between the government of PRC and the government of Tibet in exile and analysis strategies and attitudes of both sides. Chapter 6, I conclude the whole thesis and give some suggestions either on the negotiation between the government of PRC and the government of Tibet in exile or the negotiation between the government of PRC and the government of Republic of China (ROC).

published_or_final_version / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

New applications of the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating were carried out with the aim of understanding late Quaternary activities for the Tibetan Plateau. This included studying the slip rate of the Altyn Tagh Fault, northeast Tibetan Plateau, and revealing the environmental changes derived from large inland lake’s evolution, central south Tibet. Two deflected streams across the Altyn Tagh Fault close to Aksay (39°24.572’N, 94°16.012’E) were investigated. Geomorphological analysis suggests that loess covering deflected stream banks has recorded past faulting events. A conceptual model is proposed illustrating the relationship. OSL dating of sixteen loess samples at both streams support the model, suggesting the loess is deposited episodically after fault strikes and subsequent channel wall refreshment. The age and offset indicate a slip rate of 11 ±2 mm/yr for this part of the Altyn Tagh Fault. Another river section near Aksay was also investigated for the slip rate information. Two risers between three terraces are clearly offset; OSL dating of loess covering terrace surfaces yielded terrace ages. Using the upper-terrace age to represent riser displacement duration, the rate is estimated to be 12 ±1 mm/yr. The result suggests that using upper terrace is more suitable in this region. Notably, though, the slow rate is at odds with proposals that assume high-speed extrusion (~23 mm/year) of the Tibetan Plateau being accommodated by the Altyn Tagh Fault. Palaeo-shorelines around the third largest lake in Tibet, Zhari Namco, were for the first time systematically investigated using OSL dating. Twenty-two sediment samples from eleven shorelines indicate that the water level has dropped ~128 m and the lake has undergone stepwise shrinkage since 8.2 ka. Digital elevation model calculation indicates the lake has shrunk from 4605 km2 in size at 8.2 ka to 996 km2 at present, which is equivalent to ~300 km3 of water. This implies a significant reduction in precipitation over the past 8.2 ka, a result of weakening Indian Monsoon or a shift of monsoon circulation path. The result is consistent with other lake-core, ice-core climate proxies and solar insolation changes, implying the dominance of a weakening Indian Monsoon over central Tibet in the Holocene. Using the elevation of the highest shoreline of the four largest lakes in Tibet, the early Holocene Pan-lake hypothesis is proposed for the central Tibet. In addition to these applications of OSL dating, technical studies on sensitivity changes and residual doses have been carried out for potassium rich feldspar (K-feldspar). Recent development of infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) signals from K-feldspar has shown great potential for extending the datable range for OSL dating. Sensitivity changes and residual doses of post-IR IRSL and multi-elevated -temperature post-IR IRSL protocols for K-feldspar were studied. A sensitivity decrease is observed after adopting a high temperature IRSL. IRSL signals stimulated at high temperature are found to contain large residual doses. The residual dose rises with stimulation time, suggesting that the initial part of IRSL signals contains more easy-to-bleach signals comparing with the later part. / published_or_final_version / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Earth Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

Detta arbete bygger på en studieresa, under en månads tid, till Indien, Dharamsala. Dharamsa-la är känd för att inhysa den tibetanska statens exilregering och inte minst den tibetanska bud-dismens andlige ledare Dalai Lama. Därav är Dharamsala en viktig tillflyktsort för de tibe-tanska flyktingar som undkommit den Kinesiska regeringens förtryck i Tibet. Syftet med denna studie blir därför, att få mer insikt och kunskap om hur man idag i Dha-ramsala bemöter tibetanska flyktingbarn från Tibet. Jag fick äran, att möta 8 av de människor som dagligen möter och arbetar med tibetanska flyktingbarn på ett eller annat sätt. I undersökningen har jag dels använt mig av kvalitativa intervjuer och dels av observatio-ner. Genom dessa metoder framgår det, att tibetanska flyktingbarn blir bemötta på ett kärleks-fullt och respektfullt sätt. Detta för, att de skall få ett värdigt liv i frihet samt en gedigen ut-bildning. Tibetanernas omtanke och kärlek till sin nästa generation motiverar barnen, i Dharamsala, att vilja studera, för att senare i livet ska kunna hjälpa andra tibetaner i nöd, vilka fortfarande är under den Kinesiska regeringens våld i Tibet. / This paper is a result of a one month field study Dharamsala in India. Dharamsala is well-known for harbouring the exile Tibetan government and also their religious leader in Tibetan Buddhism, Dalai Lama. Because of this Dharamsala is an important sanctuary fore Tibetan refugees who are escaping from the Chinese government’s oppression in Tibet. The purpose of this study is therefore to get a better insight and knowledge how people today in Dharamsala receive Tibetan refugee children from Tibet. I got the privilege to meet 8 of the people who, in one way or another, daily meet and work with Tibetan refugee children. In this study I have used the methods qualitative interview and observation. Through these methods it’s clear that, Tibetan refugee children are received with love and respect in Dhar-amsala. In this way the Tibetan refugee children got a worthy life in freedom and a proper education. The love and compassion from the Tibetan people in Dharamsala, to their next generation, motivate these children to study hard so that they later in life can help other Tibetans who still live under the Chinese government’s oppression in Tibet.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-81).

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The Tibetan literary corpus offers a wide array of (auto)biographical accounts; Tibetans have been recollecting - and narrating - life stories in earnest since the "later diffusion" (Tib. phyi dar) of Buddhism in the 11^th century. The hybrid essence of life writing, suspended between fact and fiction, finds a perfect expression in the text at the core of the present dissertation, i.e. the journal (Tib. nyin deb) of a 20th century Khams pa trader, Kha stag 'Dzam yag. The text records the events, travels, and impressions experienced by the author between 1944 and 1956; structured like a diary, this autodiegetic text, originally written in a scroll-paper format, was later edited and finally published in India in 1997. Two different heuristic devices, i.e. narratology and socio-economic analysis, are used in the present dissertation to analyse the structure and content of the nyin deb, as well as the author's idiosyncrasies emerging from the process of narrativisation. Whereas the narratological approach allows the identification of the interplay of memory, self, and culture in the socio-historical context of mid-20th century Tibet, the socio-economic analysis reflects on the nyin deb as a form of social history rather than personal narrative. The identification of "true", historical facts confirms the author's claims to factuality, thus providing unique information and insight regarding the political and economic role of Khams pa traders in 1940s-1950s Tibet, as well as the development of new pilgrimage rituals and the emergence of forms of "spiritual tourism" in modern India.

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