The "Greater Tibet" concept advocated by the Dalai Lama is historically groundless, said Kuan-Chun Lin, a professor at the Department of History under the Taiwan-based Chinese Culture University on July 6.

Lin made the remarks during the Second Cross-Straits Seminar on Tibetology held in Beijing.

According to Lin, Tibet during the reign of the Republic of China covered an area of around 800,000 square kilometers and shared a border in the north with Xinjiang and Qinghai, in the west with Kashmir region and India and in the south with the Himalayas, India and Nepal.

When the Communist Party of China (CPC) came into power, the area of Tibet was expanded to more than 1.2 million square kilometers. Aside from the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibetans also live in Gansu's Gannan, Qinghai's Haibei, Huangnan and Yushu and Sichuan's Aba and Garze Tibetan autonomous prefectures.

"The division of administrative areas was in line with the actual distribution of the ethnic group," said Lin.

The so-called "Greater Tibet," conceived of by the 14th Dalai Lama and Tibetan exile groups, covers today's Tibet Autonomous Region, the entire Qinghai province, the aforementioned Tibetan autonomous prefectures, and occupies an area of about 2.5 million square kilometers, accounting for a quarter of China's total area. 

The concept was based on the "Tibetan King and Official Record Book" written by the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1643. Lin stressed that, "Religious documents cannot be considered to be historical documents."

Historically, the book was limited to the historical ideas in the religious sense. It contained too much supernatural legends and had many mistakes while mentioning historical events during the Tang Dynasty. Lin added, "The book is not reliable."

Lin also proved with historical documents that Tibetan governments from early 11th century to the Ganden Phodrang government during the Qing Dynasty could not handle affairs in Qinghai, Kham and other regions. This implies that the Qinghai and Kham regions, which the Dalai Lama claims were within Tibet's territory, had not been under the rule of Tibet for up to 800 to 900 years.

Lin quoted anthropologist Xie Jian as saying that if the "Greater Tibet" concept of Tibetan exile groups were materialized by founding the so-called "Greater Tibet," the combined population of more than 10 ethnic groups, such as Mongolian, Kazak, Sala, and Dongxiang, would outnumber the Tibetan population. The Tibetan ethnic group would surely be a minority ethnic group in the "Greater Tibet." This has simply exposed lies perpetuated by Tibetan exile groups and even the Dalai Lama himself.

Additional support provided by LOTO