Tibet Trivia
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59 free Tibet trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Tibet trivia quiz covers the highest region on Earth from every angle: its geography and rivers, the seventh-century empire that once occupied a Chinese capital, the Dalai Lamas and the Gelug school, the palaces and temples of Lhasa, and everyday life built around barley, yaks and butter tea. The easy questions handle the basics: what Tibetans call the Potala's city, where the current Dalai Lama lives, and which mountain on Tibet's border is the world's tallest. The harder end is for travellers and history readers: the king who founded the empire and married a Nepalese and a Chinese princess, the Mongolian origin of the title 'Dalai', the altitude of the Tanggula Pass on the world's highest railway, the four religions that hold Mount Kailash sacred, why sky burial is practical on the plateau, the events of 10 March 1959, and the meaning of the snow lions on the exile flag. There are also questions on the Panchen Lama, tsampa, prayer wheels, Losar, the Tibetan script and the mastiff that briefly became the world's priciest dog. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for Tibet, Lhasa, the Dalai Lamas and related topics before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our Himalayas, Buddhism and China quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of roughly how much?
4,380 m
Tibet's average elevation is about 4,380 m, roughly 14,000 feet, which is why the plateau is nicknamed the Roof of the World.
Q 02Which mountain, on Tibet's border with Nepal, is the region's highest point?
Mount Everest
Mount Everest rises 8,848.86 metres on the Tibet–Nepal border, the height agreed by the 2020 China–Nepal joint survey.
Q 03What is Tibet's own name for itself?
Bod
Tibetans call their country Bod, pronounced roughly 'Bö'; the name originally meant only the central region before being applied to the whole plateau.
Q 04What is the ceremonial white silk scarf offered as a greeting in Tibet called?
Khata
A khata is a ceremonial silk scarf, usually white, presented as a greeting or blessing at arrivals, weddings, funerals and audiences with lamas.
Q 05Before it became the capital, Lhasa was called Rasa, meaning what?
Goats
Goats were used to move earth during construction of the great temple, and the name changed to 'place of gods' afterwards.
Q 06Who was the 33rd king of Tibet and founder of the Tibetan Empire in the 7th century?
Songtsen Gampo
Songtsen Gampo, reckoned the 33rd king, founded the Tibetan Empire in the early 7th century and is the first of the 'Three Dharma Kings' credited with introducing Buddhism.
Q 07Princess Wencheng, who wed the empire's founder in 640, was a niece of which dynasty's emperor?
Tang
Princess Wencheng came from the Tang imperial clan; Emperor Taizong sent her to Tibet to seal an alliance with the rising empire, and Tibetans revere her as Gyasa.
Q 08In late 763, Tibetan troops occupied which Chinese capital for fifteen days?
Chang'an
Chang'an, today's Xi'an, fell to Tibetan forces in 763 after the An Lushan rebellion had stripped China's western garrisons; the occupiers withdrew after about fifteen days.
Q 09The 821-823 peace treaty between Tibet and China was inscribed on a pillar outside which Lhasa temple?
Jokhang
The 821–823 treaty pillar stands outside the Jokhang; its bilingual Tibetan–Chinese text fixed the frontier and swore lasting peace between the two empires.
Q 10Which king's assassination in 842 marks the beginning of the Tibetan Empire's dissolution?
Langdarma
Langdarma, who persecuted Buddhism after taking the throne in 838, was assassinated around 842 by the monk Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje; the succession dispute that followed broke up the empire.
Q 11Tibetan tradition credits which 7th-century minister with creating the Tibetan script?
Thonmi Sambhota
Thonmi Sambhota, a minister sent to India in the 7th century, is traditionally credited with devising the Tibetan alphabet from an Indian Gupta-type script, though the earliest Tibetan annals never mention him.
Q 12The word 'Dalai' in Dalai Lama comes from Mongolian and means what?
Ocean
'Dalai' is Mongolian for Ocean, the title Altan Khan bestowed on Sonam Gyatso in 1578; 'Gyatso', the Tibetan element of his name, also means ocean.
Q 13Sonam Gyatso, the first to receive the title in 1578, is counted as which Dalai Lama?
The 3rd
The 3rd Dalai Lama is how Sonam Gyatso is counted: the title was applied posthumously to his two predecessors in the lineage, Gendun Drup and Gendun Gyatso.
Q 21What is the 14th Dalai Lama's religious name?
Tenzin Gyatso
Tenzin Gyatso is the religious name the boy born Lhamo Thondup took as a monk; Tibetans also call him Kundun ('The Presence') and Yizhin Norbu ('The Wish-Fulfilling Gem').
Q 22The 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in which year?
1989
The 14th Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989; the committee cited his consistent rejection of violence in the struggle for Tibet.
Q 23The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile is based in which Indian hill town?
Dharamshala
The exile administration sits in Dharamshala (McLeod Ganj) in Himachal Pradesh; it was first set up at Mussoorie in April 1959 and moved there in 1960.
Q 14The Dalai Lamas belong to which school of Tibetan Buddhism, also known as the Yellow Hats?
Gelug
The Gelug school, founded by Je Tsongkhapa in the early 15th century, is nicknamed the Yellow Hats; his disciples built its great monasteries of Ganden, Drepung and Sera.
Q 15Which Dalai Lama, 'the Great', unified central Tibet and ordered the Potala Palace built?
The 5th
The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, took power in 1642 with Mongol backing after defeating the Tsangpa ruler, and began the Potala Palace in 1645.
Q 16The Potala Palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of which bodhisattva?
Avalokiteśvara
Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, is said to dwell on Mount Potalaka; the Dalai Lamas are regarded as his emanations, so their palace took the name.
Q 17On which hill in Lhasa does the Potala Palace stand?
Marpo Ri
Marpo Ri, the 'Red Hill', rises about 130 metres above the valley floor; the Potala Palace was built on it from 1645 over the ruins of a 7th-century royal palace.
Q 18Lhasa's Jokhang temple was built around 640 to house a Buddha statue brought by which queen?
Bhrikuti
Bhrikuti, a Licchavi princess from the Kathmandu valley, brought the Jowo Mikyo Dorje for which the temple was founded; the statues were later swapped, so Wencheng's Jowo Shakyamuni sits there today.
Q 19What is the Barkhor in Lhasa?
A pilgrim circuit and market around the Jokhang
The Barkhor is 'A pilgrim circuit and market around the Jokhang': a clockwise kora of roughly a kilometre lined with stalls and marked by four large stone incense burners.
Q 20The 14th Dalai Lama was born in 1935 in the village of Taktser in which traditional Tibetan region?
Amdo
Taktser lies in Amdo, the north-eastern Tibetan region now mostly within Qinghai; the boy born there as Lhamo Thondup was recognised in 1939 and enthroned in 1940.
Q 24The 1959 Lhasa uprising began on which date, now observed by exiles as Tibetan Uprising Day?
10 March
On 10 March 1959 crowds surrounded the Norbulingka, fearing the Dalai Lama would be seized when he attended a performance at the Chinese military headquarters; exiles mark the date as Tibetan Uprising Day.
Q 25Which US agency gave Tibetan fighters training, Nepal camps and aerial supply drops around 1959?
The CIA
The CIA trained Tibetan guerrillas from 1957, first on Saipan and then at Camp Hale in Colorado, parachuted arms into Tibet and later backed a guerrilla base in northern Nepal.
Q 26What is the 1951 document under which China annexed Central Tibet called?
The Seventeen Point Agreement
The Seventeen Point Agreement was signed in Beijing on 23 May 1951, months after the PLA had overrun Tibet's eastern garrison; the Dalai Lama repudiated it when he fled in 1959.
Q 27Which British officer led the 1904 expedition into Tibet and negotiated the resulting convention?
Francis Younghusband
Francis Younghusband led the 1903–04 mission; after the massacre at Chumik Shenko it marched on to the capital, where he dictated the resulting convention in September 1904.
Q 28The province-level region China created to replace the old Tibet Area was established in which year?
1965
The region was formally established on 1 September 1965; it covers over 1.2 million square kilometres, about half of cultural Tibet, at roughly three people per square kilometre.
Q 29The Panchen Lama, second in spiritual authority to the Dalai Lama, traditionally heads which monastery?
Tashilhunpo
Tashilhunpo, founded in 1447 by Gendun Drup, is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas, each held to be an emanation of the buddha Amitābha.
Q 30Which mountain in western Tibet is sacred to Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and followers of Bön alike?
Mount Kailash
Mount Kailash, 6,638 metres high in Ngari, has no recorded ascent; pilgrims of four faiths instead walk the 52-kilometre kora around it.