Creating Tibetan Currency

SINCE BEFORE ALEXANDER the Great, people had been tying loads to animals and walking all across Eurasia, from Europe to China and back. There were a number of routes, northern, southern, and in between. Tibet is at about the latitude of the middle route.

Tibet had mountains all around. You wouldn’t go straight into Tibet, you’d go south into India, then north to Nepal, then you’d get to Tibet. Or you’d go north toward Khotan in Xinjiang. Either way it was a long way to Lhasa.

These days there is a territory called the Tibet Autonomous Region in China. It contains the capital city, Lhasa. There are Tibetans living in the neighbor regions of Xinjiang and Qinghai.

The Tibetan name for Tibet is Bod. The Chinese call it Xizang and Zangqu. “X” is pronounced like Sh, and “Q” is pronounced like Ch.

In Tang and Song dynasty times the Chinese sometimes referred