Dish from Nepal inlaid with only Turquoise

Tibet (Tibetan: བོད་, Bod) is a geographic area and a former independent state on the Tibetan Highlands. It has historically its own people, culture, language and two religions: the Bon and Tibetan Buddhism. Since the 1950-51 invasion of Tibet, it has been part of the People's Republic of China and has been divided into a number of Chinese provinces, including the entire Tibet Autonomous Region and parts of Sichuan and Qinghai. Culturally, Ladakh and Sikkim are also counted in India, Bhutan and some parts of Nepal to Tibet. The Tibet Autonomous Region is bordered to the south and west by Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh. From north to east it borders on the provinces of Sinkiang (Turkestan), Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. Until 1950, when the People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet, Tibet was an independent country, with a theocratic government. In the far corners of Tibet, power was in the hands of local warlords. Before 1950, the most important religious and political leader was the fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. In 1959 he fled to India, where he led the government into exile until the democratic reforms of 2000.