&gt; Calling Tibet a &#x27;tribe&#x27; is also a little bit strange, and smacks of the way Chinese propaganda reduces the legitimacy of Tibet&#x27;s claim to nationhood (and even legitimate personhood), despite Tibet&#x27;s governmental and territorial sovereignty from at least 1200 AD onward.<p>It is hilarious how the maps in museums fail to show the Tibetan Empire during any of many, many periods when it was both theoretically and actually independent but to claim that Tibet has been sovereign since 1200 is insane. The Qing dynasty ruled for almost three centuries and they the Tibetans were their vassals.