TIBET, PLATEAU OF

also called Tibetan Highlands or Tsinghai-Tibet Plateau, Chinese (WadeGiles) Ch'ing-tsang Kao-yuan or (Pinyin)Qing Zang Gaoyuan vast, high plateau in Central Asia and part of China in which the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tsinghai province, western Szechwan province, and southern Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang are located. It lies between the Kunlun Mountains (north) and the Himalayas (south) and is a region of tangled mountains that rise 13,000 to 15,000 feet (4,000 to 5,000 metres). The plateau has an area of about 850,000 square miles (2,200,000 square km). Mount Everest on the China-Nepal border, rising 29,035 feet (8,850 metres) above sea level, is the world's highest peak. The northern section of the plateau, called Ch'iang-t'ang, is dotted with many brackish lakes; its southern section contains the headwaters of the Upper Indus and Brahmaputra rivers. Other rivers that have their headwaters in the highlands are the Yangtze, the Huang Ho, the Mekong, the Salween, and the Tarim. Grassland, used for pasturage, is found, and barley is grown on the plateau; forests are found on the slopes of valleys (particularly in the south). The most extensive farming area in Tibet is the fertile plains of the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries. Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, is the major centre of population on the plateau.