Workers began construction Sunday on a railway extension to connect the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, with the region's second-largest city, Xigaze, state media reported. It is the first new leg on the Qinghai-Tibetan railway, an engineering feat opened in 2006 that has been hailed as an engine for Tibetan development -- and criticized by some as a...
Ngawang Choephel, a Tibetan musicologist who was imprisoned by the Chinese for more than six years, would have had a compelling film had he simply stuck to his own remarkable story. But his documentary, ''Tibet in Song,'' is doubly powerful because he also weaves in the overall history of Tibet's struggle, a primer on the Chinese government's...

The visit of the Olympic torch to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, came and went in about two hours on Saturday. Leaders of the ruling Communist Party probably exhaled once the flame was trundled onto an airplane without incident and flown out of a city that only three months ago had erupted in violent anti-Chinese protests. But if Chinese leaders were...
Lhasa, undertiden stavet Lasa, er hovedstaden i det kinesisk besatte Tibet. Lhasa er en stor by med en befolkning på omkring 120.000. Historisk set var Lhasa også hovedstaden for det gamle Tibet helt tilbage i 800-tallet og op til 1950. Lhasa er placeret over 3650 meter over jordens overflade, det gør den til en af verdens højest beliggende hovedstæder. Byens navn betyder "Gudernes sted."
I den første halvdel af det 20. århundrede kom flere vestlige opdagelsesrejsende til byen inklusive Francis Younghusband, Alexandra David-Néel og Heinrich Harrer (se Syv år i Tibet).
I dag findes der flere kinesere i Lhasa, samt resten af Tibet, end der er indfødte tibetanere, hvilket er et resultat af Kinas besættelsespolitik overfor Tibet. Lhasas berømte Potala Palads, hvor den eksilramte Dalai Lama havde hovedsæde, er blevet placeret på UNESCOs Verdensarvsprogram. Andre vigtige bygninger er Jokhang, Norbulingka, Drepung-klosteret og Sera-klosteret. Fold ud