The Tibetan Autonomous Region, which makes up a significant
part although not all of what was historically Tibet, has a population of about
three million and a population density of only 2 people per sq . km or 6 per sq.
mile. That would be the second lowest population density in the world after
Mongolia if it were an independent country. Most of it certainly is bleak, and
I didn’t even visit the emptiest northern and western parts of the region.

Most of the Tibetan Autonomous Region is made up of the
Tibetan Plateau, but the name doesn’t accurately describe the varied topography
which includes mountain ranges that would be quite major were they not dwarfed
by the Himalayas, and river valleys, as well as undulating plateau landscapes.
We were able to experience a lot of that on the drive from Gyantse to Lhasa.
After a while the road crossed the Karo-La Pass at almost 5,000 meters (16,500
feet) where there was a huge glacier descending the mountainside. As high and
cold as it is there, it somehow still amazes me that there can be glacier of
that magnitude in such an arid place. The pass is said to be the site of the
highest battle in British imperial history at the beginning of the 1900s .

We then passed a large incredibly turquoise-colored lake,
the Yamdrok-Tso before rising again in steep switchbacks above the lake to the
Kamba-La Pass at 4,800 meters (15,800 feet). It was then a 4,000 foot drop to
the Brahmaputra River valley floor, the large river that runs through eastern
India and joins the Ganges at Bangladesh that’s supposed to have one of the
world’s greatest potentials for hydroelectric power development.

We entered Lhasa in the late afternoon, the modern outskirts
a massive construction site with modern buildings rising, not much different
from other cities in China. Although Lhasa is located in a river valley that
seems low relative to the areas we had been traveling though in Tibet, it is
still situated at a breath-defying 12,000 feet. We finally made it to another
of the highlights of my travels in South Asia.