History UsefulNotes / Tibet

* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'': With the collapse of the PRC in the zombie war, Tibet is now independent... but the majority of its population is ethnically Han Chinese.

* ''Film/SevenYearsInTibet'' (1997) - Jean-Jacques Annaud, who directed it, got BannedInChina, but Annaud has since had his ban lifted and even directed a co-production with the Chinese. It stars Creator/BradPitt [[WhiteMaleLead as Heinrich Harrer]].

* ''[[ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer The Secret of the Swordfish]]'' is about a WorldWarThree waged by a militarily overpowered Tibet; while this country is nominally Tibet in the story, it actually looks more like an expy of both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It has been written before the Chinese invasion.
* ''[[Franchise/{{Tintin}} Tintin in Tibet]]'' takes the hero to the region in search of his old friend Chang Chong-chen who has gone missing after his plane crashed in the mountains.

[[caption-width-right:350:UsefulNotes/{{China}} owns this now. Damn commies!]]

* Kuranishi has written two manga series set in Tibet: ''Ruten no Terma'' stars a Japanese man in search of his missing brother in modern Tibet while ''Tsuki to Kin no Shangri-La''/''Shangri-la for moon & diamond'' stars a young boy who is mysteriously left by his father at a Tibetan temple

* ''Literature/LostHorizon'', which is the TropeNamer for TheShangriLa (it means "Shang Mountain Pass" in Tibetan).
* ''Film/SevenYearsInTibet'' (1997) - Jean-Jacques Annaud, who directed it, got BannedInChina, but Annaud has since had his ban lifted and even directed a co-production with the Chinese. It stars Creator/BradPitt [[WhiteMaleLead as Heinrich Harrer]].
* ''Film/{{Kundun}}'' by Creator/MartinScorsese, featuring a cast of non-professional Tibetans, a biopic of the Dalai Lama. Both Scorsese and screenwriter Melissa Mathison are banned to China to this day. Although in the pro-Tibet camp, ''Kundun'' does portray the Chinese as {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s though the cameo of UsefulNotes/MaoZedong as an AffablyEvil dictator touched on one too many taboo.
* The ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' episode "Holier Than Thou" argues against the pro-Tibet view.
* ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'' features a Tibetan family who manages to get on one of the Arks, but an old monk decides to stay behind.
* ''Chen Ai Luo Ding (After the Dust Settles)'': A novel written by a Tibetan author based on his family's accounts before the revolution, about a secluded Tibetian village/citadel encountering early 20th century technologies, culture, and opium. A great hit in China.
* ''The Cup'' uses a backdrop of Tibetan diaspora to give it a far more humane, rather than idealised view, portraying a football obsesion surrounding the 1998 World Cup
* ''Xizang Mimi (A Secret In Tibet)''
* ''Sky Burial'' The story of a Chinese army nurse searching for her missing doctor husband, while along the way befriending a Tibetian family and a noble woman on the run.

* ''[[ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer The Secret of the Swordfish]]'' is about a WorldWarThree waged by a militarily overpowered Tibet; while this country is nominally Tibet in the story, it actually looks more like an expy of both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It has been written before the Chinese invasion.
* ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves's'' ends in Tibet with the lost city of Shambala finally being found. Notably, a good chunk of the finale takes place in a small village where authentic Tibetan is spoken by the people there.
* The ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' series depicted Tibet and Xinjiang separate factions alongside with Manchuria and Taiwan under Japanese control. Unsurprisingly, the game is banned in China for depicting these regions either under Japanese control or being separate independent factions.

* In '' Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'', as the gang passed through there, [[spoiler: Gojyo became affected by the stronger Minus Wave]].
* The 2004 Chinese film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kekexili:_Mountain_Patrol Kekexili: Mountain Patrol]]'' takes place in the remote [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoh_Xil Hoh Xil]] region of northeastern Tibet and is allegedly [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory based on the actions of a volunteer mountain patrol]] that worked to combat illegal poachers in the 1990s.

* ''Manga/BlissfulLand'' by Ichimon Izumi focuses on a young couple in 18th-century Tibet.

->'''[[UsefulNotes/MaoZedong Mao]]:''' ''"Our mistake was that we did not disarm the Dalai Lama right away. But at that time we had no contact with the popular masses of Tibet."''\\
'''[[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khruschev]]:''' ''"You have no contact even now with the population of Tibet."''\\
'''Mao:''' ''"We have a different understanding of this issue."''\\
'''Khruschev:''' ''"Of course."''
-->-- ''[[http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/112088 2/10/1959 Discussion between N.S. Khrushchev and Mao Zedong]]''

* '''The [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] view''': This view argues that while Tibet was a backwards, medieval theocracy dominated by one pan-Chinese and two Mongol Empires and thus shared a certain amount of high-culture with the Chinese nations, like the Mongolians its people were quite distinct from those of most of China's various peoples and the PRC has also been an oppressive imperialist power of the kind it used to condemn so strongly. This view usually calls for Tibet to remain part of Chinese out of pragmatism, but calls for wider political reform in China, with greater respect to the rights and self determination of the Tibetans. Many Chinese dissidents, as well as Dalai Lama himself in recent years, hold this view.

On a related note, while popular media often portrays the Tibetans as peaceful Buddhists, it should noted that the Tibetans were historically known for their warlike nomadic [[BornInTheSaddle horse culture]] prior to the introduction to Buddhism in the region [[note]]Which would make some sense in a degree since most of the Tibetan geography is mostly consist of mountains, rivers, hills, and lakes which makes it difficult to travel through by foot[[/note]]. At one point, the Tibetans even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Empire had an empire]] that rivaled the Tang dynasty and even occupied the Tang capital Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an) for a while. Much of their warlike nomadic culture slowly died down once Buddhism was introduced in the region, but some of the Tibetan past nomadic lifestyle is still seen today in some areas (as there are many Tibetan nomads who still practice archery and horseback riding as sports). The Tibetan Mastiff is held in high regards by Tibetans.

Despite having a warlike empire during the medieval times, something like having Tibetans as a playable faction would something that would fit in a historical video game in a similar vein with the Chinese in many historical video games. But due to China's strict censorship laws, having Tibet as a playable faction in a video game will most likely be faced with the game being BannedInChina, as this will be seen as promoting Tibetan independence.[[note]]Not to mention, PC gaming is very profitable in mainland China[[/note]] This is why popular historical video games such as ''Videogame/{{Civilization}}'', ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' or ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' will never have Tibetans as a playable faction, as these games will risk having the game banned in mainland China (as Creator/ParadoxInteractive had to find out the hard way when ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' was banned in China for depicting Tibet as a separate faction and all the sequels followed suit). Interestingly enough, however, Creator/ParadoxInteractive also made two strategy games, ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' 2 and ''Videogame/EuropaUniversalis'' series, that have Tibetans as a playable civilization; yet those games ''aren't'' banned in China (although the Chinese official releases would most likely have stringent censorship[[note]]For example, many games that would depict medieval Tibet will use the official Chinese name of medieval Tibet, [[IstanbulNotConstantinople Tubo or Tufan]] (吐蕃) instead of the more modern naming of Tibet (西藏)[[/note]]).