Bilingualism is an inevitable phenomenon for humankind in using languages in the course of social development. With the progress of humankind, the expansion of the scope of people""s activities, and the extensiveness of interpersonal communications, bilingualism is growing rapidly and energetically, and has become an important cultural phenomenon, drawing more and more people""s attention and interest. Bilingualism of China""s Tibetan ethnic group is of longstanding and has developed more rapidly since China has entered the new period of reform and opening up. Making research on the Tibetan ethnic groups"" bilingualism is of great significance for the discussion of Tibetan trends in language and culture.

Based on retrospective look of the Tibetan ethnic history, this paper will argue that the historical events, social reforms, and the contacts among different ethnic groups are the motive force of the development of bilingualism; it will sum up three types of Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon: the distance type, the type of multiethnic communities, and the type of insertion; it will analyse the relations between the Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon and various cultural factors of psychology, geographical environment, local population""s composition, economy, etc. ; and finally it will look forward to the future trends in the culture of the Tibetan ethnic group through a comprehensive account of the history and the present situation of the Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon.

I . Historical Origins of the Bilingual Phenomenon of China""s Tibetan Ethnic Group

The Tibetan ethnic group is one of China""s ethnic groups with its each own long history. From the archaeological angle, some sections of the region inhabited by the Tibetan ethnic group""s ancestors dovetailed with the Yangshao Culture and the Majiayao Culture among the three major civilization blocks of Yangshao, Majiayao and Dawinkou distributed in the Yellow River valley. Archaeological discoveries in Tibet also display some similar features with those of the Yangshao Culture. It shows that as early as the Neolithic Age there existed the mutual influences and blending in culture between the ancestors of the Tibetan ethnic group and those of the Han ethnic group. During the Zhou Dynasty(llth century B. C. - 256 B. C. )the ethnic groups to the west were generally referred to as the Western Rongs, who kept harmonious contacts or competition with the Zhou Dynasty and the various Xia groups. (Some branches of the Western Rongs had marched deep into the interior of Hua Xia, an ancient name for China, and gradually blended with the Han and other ethnic groups afterwards. ) In the early period of the 7th century, Songzain Gambo unified the various tribes living in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and founded the Kingdom of Tibet, which kept close contacts with the Tang Dynasty which was in great prosperity. Emperor Taizong of the Tang (Li Shimin) was respectfully called as the "Heaven Khan" by the various ethnic groups, and a continuous stream of envoys for paying tributes and asking for marital alliances with the Tang imperial house came to the capital city of Chang""an. In the waves of the contacts and exchanges among the different ethnic groups Songzain Gambo married Princess Wen Cheng. This marriage was an important event in the Tibetan-Han ethnic relationship, and exerted far-reaching influence upon the Tibetan-Han cultural exchange. In the late period of the 9th century, the Kingdom of Tibet collapsed. During the Yuan Dynasty the Tibetan region was unified by the Yuan Dynasty and became an integral part of China""s territory and the Yuan court established various administrative organs in the Tibetan region. The year of 1949 saw the founding of the People""s Republic of China, and in 1951 Tibet was liberated peacefully. Since the 1959""s democratic reform the Tibetan people have taken the road of socialist development.

Looking back at Tibetan ethnic history, we find it full of partings and reunions, each step was accompanied by ethnic contacts, cultural collisions and penetrations. The contacts and exchanges between various ethnic groups created many bilingual and even multilingual people in Tibetan ethnic history; and each of the historical changes or events provided a motive force for the bilingual phenomenon and the increase of the number of bilingual people. Bilingualism has been an inevitable trend of the development of history.

In the course of the contacts between the Tibetan ethnic group and others, many Tibetans have become bilingual, having grasped another language or even two other languages. According to one""s own needs, more and more Tibetans began to speak the Han language or Chinese, which has become the main-stream language of bilingual Tibetans.

Ⅱ. Distribution Types of the Bilingualism of China""s Tibetan Ethnic Group

The bilingualism of China""s tibetan ethnic group is composed of three types in distribution form:

1. The distance Type. The distance to the central cultural area has a great influence upon the distribution of bilingualism. The Tibetan Autonomous Region""s central area is also the Tibetan ethnic central cultural area, and generally speaking, there are more bilingual phenomena in the areas which are more distant from the Tibetan ethnic group""s central cultural area. The Tibetan-Han bilingual persons only occupy less than 5 percent of the local population in the Tibetan ethnic central cultural area, while there are averagely more than 50 percent of the local population are Tibetan-Han bilingual persons in the marginal areas which are more distant from the central cultural area. Thus there appears a bilingual zone along the Tibetan ethnic culture""s margin areas.

2. The Type of Multiethnic Communities. It is a bilingual distribution type in the areas inhabited by the Tibetan ethnic group and two or more other ethnic groups. There are a lot of phenomena of multiethnic living together in provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu, where the Tibetan ethnic group live together with the Hans, Naxis, Yis, Qiangs, Pumis, Huis, Mongolians, etc. in varying degrees. The Tibetans living in these areas inhabited by several ethnic groups have formed their own bilingual or multilingual tradition as a result of contacts with other ethnic groups over a long period of time; their bilingual degree is very high; and apart from the Tibetan language some Tibetans have taken the Pumi language or the Qiang language as their another mother tongue, because of long-term cultural penetrations and blending between the different ethnic groups. Among such Tibetans more than 85 percent of those who speak both Tibetan and the Pumi language know the Han language (Chinese)too, with the largest proportion knowing the Han language. Thus there appear a large number of communities with a higher bilingual density in the areas inhabited by several ethnic groups.

3. The Type of Insertion. This is a bilingual type as a result of the Tibetan ethnic group""s entering into and living in the non-Tibetan areas, or other ethnic groups"" entering into and living in different Tibetan areas, and thus there is the bilingual phenomenon as a result of inserting into the other side""s linguistic environment. With the development of modern civilization and the expansion of interethnic exchanges, such bilingual phenomenon is growing gradually. To meet the needs of economic exchanges, and the needs in work and study, quite a large number of Tibetans have settled in different parts of China today. The inserting people usually "do in Rome as the Romans do", study and use the local language, and communicate with the local people in the local language, while talking in mother tongue at home and in meeting Tibetan fellow-towns-men; and thus there appear the scattered bilingual spots in both Tibet and other parts of the country.

Ⅲ. Relations between the Tibetan Ethnic Group""s Bilingualism and Various Cultural Factors

There are very close internal relations between the tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon as one of the intricate cultural phenomena, and various cultural factors such as cultural psychology, cultural regions, population factor, economic development, and so on.

1. The Relationship between the Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon and the cultural psychology. A language is a tool of thinking, and also the carrier of psychological activities. One""s thinking and psychological activities appear first in the form of mother tongue, in which one""s own ethnic thinking habit and mode are contained, and in which one""s own ethnic traditional connotation in trasforming nature and society are kept. The Tibetan ethnic group, like any other ethnic group, deeply love their own mother tongue, which is embodied by the attitude to maintain their mother tongue; without stronger intrinsic motives and external changes, people generally would not study and use other languages rashly. However, psychology emerges and develops under the joint effects by labour and language, and is the result of social practice; it is possessed of conscious dynamic role and intrinsic motives for realizing one""s own value and meeting one""s own needs, thus form the psychology""s objectiveness and rationality. The Tibetan ethnic group, like any other ethnic group, study another language according to their own needs so as to adapt themselves to the needs of the development of society. That the psychological factor influencing the Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingualism is obvious.

2. The relation between the Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon and different cultural regions. The Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual degrees are closely relevant to different cultural regions. The Bilingualism is different in degree among the cities and towns with transport facilities, the farming and pastoral areas along the marginal zone of the Tibetan region, and the farming and pastoral settlements in the central area of the Tibetan region. Generally speaking, bilingualism in cities and towns, marginal areas, and farming areas are respectively higher in degree than in rural areas,the central area, and the pastoral areas. Meanwhile, the trends of bilingual development in various areas are different too. One of them is the development from using a single language to bilingualism; and the other is the development from bilingualism to using a single language. People living in small towns which are relatively out-of-the-way, and those living in farming and pastoral settlements of the Tibetan central area mainly use their mother tongue, but the trend from using a single language to bilingualism is developing gradually in the strong wave of reform and opening up. In some towns and the pure farming areas which are close to the areas inhabited by the Han people, the trend of development from bilingualism to a single language has appeared, where only the aged people are still bilingual and can speak fluently both Tibetan and Han language, while children are able to speak the Han language only, and thus forming the trend from bilingualism to a single language.

3. The relation between the Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon and the population factor. The population factor includes the composition and the quantity of the local population. People of different age, sex, occupations and education levels are different in liguistic behaviour and attitude. Viewed from the angle of age, young people are more plastic, easy to accept new things, with strong ability in learning language and shorter cycle period in socialization; while the aged are contrary to the above situation. Viewed from the angle of sex, the female are more ready to adhere to tradition and stress using one""s own ethnic language because of their lower frequency in contacts with the outside people than the male; while the male keep more contacts with the outside world and have more chances to practise bilingualism. Viewed from the angle of occupations, we can find one""s occupation""s direct influence upon his linguistic attitude and practice. In areas in habited by the Tibetan ethnic groups, the bilingual degrees of teachers, scientific researchers, officials, traders, etc. are obviously higher than the other occupations"" bilingual degrees. In order to meet the professional needs, people are willing to study and use the Han language and more other languages. It has become an expression of one""s professional ability to have grasped another language or even more languages. Viewing at the angle of educational level, there are more bilingual persons among people with higher educational level, who have their higher and more needs and wants in spiritual and cultural life, and need a common communicating language which can be used in a larger extent in their contacts with the outside world.

The quantity of population is also one of factors deciding the bilingual degree. In a community the rate between the Tibetans and those of other ethnic groups will directly influence the local people""s linguistic attitude and practice.

4. The relation between the Tibetan ethnic group""s bilingual phenomenon and the economic development. It is economy that is the ultimate force causing cultural changes. Since practising reform and opening up towards the outside world the Tibetan people""s ideology has changed greatly with the development of the market economy. Opening up towards the outside world has broadened their horizons, and the flexible economic policy has expanded the exchange scope of the contacts between the Tibetan people and the outside world, and thus there are more chances to practise bilingualism. Today people are creating every condition for living a better life, and it has become a fashion to study the Han language and English with the aim to improve their ability in social intercourse and to get new opportunities of development.

Ⅳ. Viewing the trend of the Tibetan ethnic culture""s development from the angle of bilingualism

Generally speaking, with the continuous development of the market economy, and the forming of market network and economic communities, the floating of the Tibetan ethnic population and interethnic exchanges are growing; the development of modern transport facilities and mass media has shortened the distance and narrowed the gap between the Tibetan ethnic culture and the cultures in other parts of the country and the world. The increasing speed of the quantity of the Tibetan ethnic bilingual persons has surpassed that in any historical period; today, bilingualism is becoming a more and more extensive phenomenon. It means that contacts and collisions between the Tibetan ethnic culture and other cultures and the mutual penetrations and interactions among different cultures will impel the Tibetan ethnic culture to advance in a pluralistic direction.

However, from the angle of history, the Tibetan ethnic group is one with a long historical culture. As early as the first half of the 7th century the Tibetan ethnic group had their own ethnic written language; the Tibetan ethnic tremendous historical documents occupy first place in quantity among China""s various ethnic minorities"" documents. The profound cultural tradition is a mighty force of habit and a powerful spiritual strength, which has been inherited generation after generation, affecting the development of the present culture of the Tibetan ethnic group, and dominating people""s thinking and actions. It is the foundation and motive power to impel the Tibetan ethnic culture""s development. In the meantime the age-old cultural sediments also form an extremely heavy dead weight of the Tibetan ethnic culture. In this sense, the more profound and abundant the cultural tradition is, the heavier the burdens are; the longer the history is, the more obstinately the historical culture exists. The over thick and overheavy dead weight of the Tibetan ethnic culture will inevitablely restrict its developing in the pluralistic direction.

The natural environment is also a hindrance factor: the region inhabited by the Tibetan ethnic group is known as "the roof of the world", "the third polar of the earth" with a cold climate, thin air, and a varied topography, where the average altitude is above 4000 metres above sea level; and the mountainous region occupies twothird of the total square. The natural protective screen composed of a forest of high mounts and peaks, a criss-cross network of rivers with great drops, and the plateau lakes all over the region has hindered the Tibetan ethnic culture""s developing in a pluralistic direction.

The natural economy, the planned economy, and the closed economy are still obstructions of the development of the Tibetan ethnic economy. The weak economic base is directly affecting the cultural development and cultural exchange.

The above-mentioned factors decide that the general trend of the Tibetan ethnic culture is a development in the direction of a pluralistic course. Compared with its own history in cultural development, the Tibetan ethnic culture has experienced some great leaps in its process of pluralistic development since practising reform and opening up, however compared with the multicultural growth and the crisscrossing in today""s world, the pluralistic progress of the Tibetan ethnic culture will be a protracted and slow course.

In short, cultural pluralization is an advance step of humankind""s cultures, and an irresistible trend of the contemporary world, which will make the characteristics of various ethnic cultures more outstanding and further developed. The development of pluralization of the Tibetan ethnic culture will speed up Tibetan civilization""s progress, and the ethnic characteristics of the Tibetan ethnic culture will further develop through the exchanges with other cultures.

Guo Yang(郭阳) ,Editor, Institute of Nationality Studies. Specialized in policies of minority languages and bilingual issues in China, she has published over 20 papers and wrote the book Chinese Contemporary Linguisticians in collaboration with other authors.