Population and Society in Contemporary Tibet
by Ma Rong
Hong Kong University Press
This book is a valuable work of research for scholars, journalists and others who want facts about Tibet.
It has chapters on population, migration, the economy, the income and spending of rural and urban residents, marriage, education and the residential structure of the Han and Tibetan residents of Lhasa.
Professor Ma Rong began his research with a survey in 1988 of more than 1,300 households in the three most populated areas - Lhasa, Shigatse and Lhoka - and followed this in 2005 with a survey of temporary migrants in Lhasa and more research in 2008 after the riots in the city on March 14.
The result is a wealth of statistics about many aspects of life in the most remote, inaccessible and mysterious region of China.
Ma's research shows the Han account for three to four per cent of the population of Tibet - extremely low compared to the proportion in other minority areas such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. 'This excludes military forces because no data is available. Estimates of the military force in Tibet vary between 14,000 and 750,000.'