Could someone explain to me the cultural, lingistic and historical differences between the 3 major groups of Tibetans (the U Tsangs, Khams and Amdos).

Much thanks in advance.

About Kham, maybe up to 1/4th of Tibetans speak a Kham dialect.. however some of these "dialects" have a high degree of uninteligibility that they can easily be classified as a seperate language. Most Khampas are on the Eastern area of Xizang, and parts of Sichuan and Qinghai. They are generally nomadic, have "furrier" clothes, and tend to have sharper physical features, longer face, taller, etc.

The Khampas remind me of the "old west" in USA
My two Tsawai (root lama) are both Khampa.......as most of my other Lamas too

Yea also Tibetans say that Khampas, when they speak sound more quicker, louder and aggressive, also they think they act more aggressive as well and might view them as less mannered or civil. This is all stereotypes so their not necessarily true in any case. Khampas are supposed to be longer limbed and have aquiline noses with sharper features. Some Khampas might see themselves as Khampa first and Tibetan second. When the Chinese invaded alot of the fighting was done by Khampas. Also you can distinguish Khampas within Tibet by a red tassel they wear. Sorry I don't know too much about Amdo other than the stuff thats already been said.

hmm, even though most linguistic books put a high rate of unintelligibility between different Tibetan dialects.. these group of Lhasa Tibetans I met the other day, stated that it was not true and that there is a high degree of intelligibility and the only linguistic difference were in accents. They did also state that culturally and physically, the peoples of different regions have noticeable differences, but were still minor. Costumes on the other hand, are totally different and the primary indicator of ones region.

This is a stereotype. A different statement in one book I read was that Kham was a centre of "dwarfism". Not to mention that there are sedentary populations on the former territory of Kham since quite a long time...

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php...t&p=4884129


According to the graphic at wikipedia, Kham also included Litang city in sichuan. This is known to be close to where non-Tibetans, such as Nakhis and Mosos reside. These peoples have their own languages and it is imaginable that some of them were assimilated by Tibetans so that there might be linguistic differences between such Tibetans and others. Even today Tibetan culture is attractive to members of non-Tibetan ethnic groups, e.g. even the Mosos, who were still matrilineal in historical times, i.e. culturally originally very different from Tibetans.

Im intrigued that some Tibetans have green or blue eyes. Wonder what kind of Tibetans they are.

Tibetans with Mongol heritage.

Can someone post pics of light eyed Tibetans? Im curious as to what they look like.