Traditional Sports Item

The traditional sports items in the Tibet Autonomous Region are related with recreational activities and solar terms. They are games and, at the same time, shows. Some of the traditional folk sports items have been adopted as modern sports items, and have gradually been standardized.

There are more than 1,000 stadiums and gymnasiums in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Lhasa Gymnasium, located in the northern suburbs, is large enough to accommodate some 4,000 spectators. Basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, martial arts, weightlifting, wrestling and some other sports events can be held there. In August 1999, the 6th Ethnic Minorities Sports Meet was held in Lhasa.

Mountaineering

All the 14 peaks in the world, each with an elevation of over 8,000 meters, are found in the Himalayan and Kalakunlun Mountain Ranges in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Mountaineering has become a special sports item for the Tibet Autonomous Region. Over the past 40 years, since the founding of the Tibet Mountaineering Team on October 1, 1960, the Tibetan team has 29 people who have climbed the Qomolangmo and 228 people who have conquered peaks higher than 8,000 meters, including three climbers who have reached the summits of 10 such peaks. A group of mountaineers with the Tibetan team dwarfed 10 such peaks together.

• Climbed to the top of the Qomolangmo at 5am on May 25, 1960. This was the first time the Chinese scaled a peak higher than 8,000 meters, and also the first time man climbed to the top of the peak from its northern slope.

• Climbed to the top of the 7,595-meter peak of Gongkachobi on June 17, 1961.

• Climbed to the top of the 8,012-meter Xixabangma, the world's only peak of over 8,000 meters which had not been dwarfed then.

• Climbed to the top of the Qomolangmo from its northern side on May 27, 1975.

• Climbed to the top of the 8,201-meter Cho Oyu in April 1985.

• Climbed to the top of two 7,200-meter peaks, Noijinkangsang and Changtse, within the space of 13 days in 1986.

• Climbed to the top of the Qomolangmo from the northern side on May 5, 1988.

On April 16, 1992, with the approval of the regional people's government, the China Tibetan Mountaineering Exploration Team was formed. It was charged with climbing 14 peaks each over 8,000 meters in the period from 1993 to 2005.

The Tibet Mountaineering Team reached the top of the 8,091-meter Annapurna Himal (the 10th highest in the world) in Nepal on April 26, 1993, and the 8,172-meter Daulagiri (7th highest) in Nepal on May 30.

In the ensuing five years, the Tibetan mountaineers conquered seven more peaks---Xixabangma, Cho Oyu, Gasherbrun II, Manaslu, Namjabarwa, Changtse and Lho Tse.

On May 27, 1999, there were 10 members with the Tibetan Mountaineering Team who reached the top of the Qomolangmo, where they gathered the "seed of holy fire'' for the 6th National Sports Meet for Ethnic Minorities.