Three traditional areas of Tibetan ethnic distribution

The Tibetans mainly live in the Tibet Autonomous Region, in addition to the ten Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures in Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan, as well as the two Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures of Tianzhu and Muli, in addition to a considerable number of Tibetans living in India, Nepal, Bhutan, and other countries and areas such as Kashmir.

Because of the vastness of the Tibetan area, the Tibetans in various regions have formed their own dialects in the process of historical development. Traditionally, Tibetans used to divide the region into the three major dialect areas of Weizang, Amdo and Kham.

Wei-Zang is a combination of the names of the two geographical regions. Wei: Tibetan "center" meaning, referring to the Lhasa valley as the center of the region; Tibetan: "river" meaning, referring to the vast area west and north of Rikaze. After the Tibetan region people call themselves "Zangba"; before the Tibetan region people call themselves "Weiba".

Ando has the meaning of borderland. The word "Amdo" was formed by taking the first character of the names of the snow-capped Animal Mountains and the Dolajangmo Mountains (Jishishan Mountains). Ando covers the area between the snow-capped Animaqing Mountains and the Dolajangmo Mountains (Jixi Mountains), and is centered around the area from the Animaqing Mountains to the Qinghai Lake, where the people call themselves "Ando Wah".

"Kang" is the meaning of the border, "Ba" is the meaning of people, "Kangba" that is, people in the Kang area. Kangba dialect area is located between the Ando Tibetan area and Weizang area, the hinterland of the Tibetan plateau and the northwestern part of the Sichuan-Tibet plateau. Today's Tibet Changdu area, Sichuan Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture are all in the Kham area.