Tibetan Plateau
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
40 free Tibetan Plateau trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Plateau of Tibet is the highest and largest plateau on the planet, a vast block of land lifted so far into the sky that newcomers feel the thin air with every step. It shapes the weather of a whole continent, feeds many of Asia's greatest waterways, and is home to animals and ways of life found almost nowhere else. This quiz turns the best fun facts about the Tibetan Plateau into questions. They cover how the land was pushed up and why it is still rising, the glaciers and salt lakes on top of it, the wildlife that survives the cold, the herders, pilgrims and railway engineers who have learned to live and work there, and a few records that could only be set at this height. It suits geography students, teachers building a lesson on Asia, travellers planning a trip, and anyone who enjoys a surprising fact. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ringed by ranges holding Earth's two highest summits, the Tibetan Plateau goes by which nickname?
Roof of the World
The Roof of the World is the largest plateau on Earth as well as the highest, stretching about 2,500 km from east to west.
Q 02On the Tibetan Plateau, herders breed the hardy dzo by crossing cattle with which shaggy animal?
Yak
Yak crossed with cattle produces hybrid vigour, so a dzo grows larger and stronger than either parent. Only the females are fertile.
Q 03Which landmass, drifting north from Gondwana, collided with Asia and pushed up the Tibetan Plateau?
India
India is still being driven beneath Asia, so the plateau keeps rising by roughly 5 mm a year, though erosion wears away some of the gain.
Q 04Tsampa, the staple flour of Tibetan Plateau herders, is usually ground from which roasted grain?
Barley
Barley is roasted before it is milled, so tsampa needs no cooking: people simply knead it into a dumpling with a little tea.
Q 05Which big cat of the Tibetan Plateau wraps its thick tail around its face like a blanket to sleep?
Snow leopard
Snow leopard tails store fat and can grow about a metre long. Despite its size, this cat cannot roar.
Q 06Carriages on the world's highest railway, over the Tibetan Plateau, are built to pump in extra what?
Oxygen
Oxygen outlets sit beside every seat, because the line climbs above 5,000 metres, where the air is far thinner than at sea level.
Q 07Which peak on the Tibetan Plateau's rim, above Rongbuk Monastery, do Tibetans call Qomolangma?
Everest
Everest has a Tibetan name that translates as Holy Mother. Expeditions climbing from the north pitch base camp a few kilometres from the monastery.
Q 08In a Tibetan Plateau sky burial, used where graves are hard to dig, the dead go to which birds?
Vultures
Vultures do the work because the hard, rocky ground resists digging and the treeless land offers too little wood for cremation.
Q 09Ice 15,000 years old, drilled from a Tibetan Plateau glacier, held dozens of unknown types of what?
Viruses
Viruses of 33 kinds were recovered from the Guliya ice cores, and 28 of them were new to science. They had probably infected plants or microbes.
Q 10Families on the Tibetan Plateau traditionally drink tea blended with salt and which rich ingredient?
Butter
Butter tea is drunk in sips, and by custom the host refills the bowl to the brim after each one, so a guest's bowl is never empty.
Q 11Which nickname do scientists give the Tibetan Plateau for its tens of thousands of glaciers?
The Third Pole
The Third Pole label fits because the plateau's ice fields hold the largest reserve of fresh water outside the Arctic and Antarctic.
Q 12Heating and cooling of the Tibetan Plateau drives Earth's strongest example of which weather system?
Monsoon
Monsoon winds blow towards land that warms faster than the sea, and the high plateau heats so strongly in summer that moist ocean air is drawn far inland.
Q 13Which river rises on the Tibetan Plateau and runs through Laos and Cambodia to its delta in Vietnam?
Mekong
Mekong headwaters lie in a reserve whose name means source of three rivers, because two more of Asia's longest rivers begin there too.
Q 21Heat exchangers along the Tibetan Plateau's railway stop trains melting what beneath the track?
Permafrost
Permafrost underlies about 550 km of the line, and the warmth of a passing train is enough to thaw it, so parts of the route are cooled with ammonia.
Q 22Shahtoosh, a wool so fine a shawl slips through a ring, comes from which Tibetan Plateau animal?
Antelope
Antelope known as chiru grow the underfur, and because they cannot be shorn, three to five are killed to make a single scarf.
Q 23The kiang, seen in herds of several hundred on the Tibetan Plateau, is the largest wild what?
Ass
Ass herds of that size are temporary gatherings of young males or of mothers with foals. A kiang stands about 140 cm at the shoulder.
Q 14A jawbone a monk found in a Tibetan Plateau cave showed which archaic humans once lived there?
Denisovans
Denisovans were known only from a single Siberian cave until 2019, when proteins preserved in one of the jaw's teeth identified it.
Q 15Yartsa gunbu, a prized fungus gathered on the Tibetan Plateau, grows out of the body of which host?
A caterpillar
A caterpillar of the ghost moth is infected underground, mummified, and sprouts a stalk from its head. Top grades had reached $50,000 a pound by 2012.
Q 16Which 1,000-room Tibetan Plateau palace above Lhasa was the Dalai Lamas' winter home until 1959?
Potala
Potala rises 13 storeys from its hilltop and stands more than 300 metres above the valley floor.
Q 17The Hexi Corridor, below the Tibetan Plateau's northern mountains, carried which trade route west?
Silk Road
Silk Road caravans funnelled through this narrow passage between the Qilian Mountains and the Gobi Desert on their way out of China.
Q 18The Yarlung Tsangpo leaves the Tibetan Plateau through a record-deep canyon to become which river?
Brahmaputra
Brahmaputra is the name it takes in Assam, after a horseshoe bend around the peak Namcha Barwa has cut the deepest canyon in the world.
Q 19Because its glaciers feed so many great rivers, the Tibetan Plateau is called Asia's what?
Water tower
Water tower is the usual image: the plateau's ice stores water and steadies the flow of rivers that run to much of Asia.
Q 20What is the approximate average elevation of the Tibetan Plateau, the highest plateau on Earth?
4,500 m
4,500 metres is only the average: the plateau's remote north-west sits above 5,000 metres, where winter temperatures often fall below −35 °C.
Q 24Which burrowing relative of the rabbit is a keystone species of the Tibetan Plateau's grasslands?
Pika
Pika burrows recycle nutrients in the soil and the animals feed foxes, weasels, falcons and owls, yet they have been widely poisoned as pests.
Q 25Which bird breeds on Tibetan Plateau lakes and migrates over the Himalayas at extreme heights?
Bar-headed goose
Bar-headed goose flocks cross the range from near sea level in as little as seven hours without stopping, and have been heard above Mount Makalu.
Q 26Which unclimbed Tibetan Plateau peak, sacred to four religions, do pilgrims circle on foot?
Kailash
Kailash is holy to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and followers of Bon, and no successful ascent has ever been recorded. Climbing it is now prohibited.
Q 27A rare snake found above 4,000 metres on the Tibetan Plateau survives the cold by living near what?
Hot springs
Hot springs give Bailey's snake its warmth, and geothermal power projects that tap the same heat have been destroying its habitat.
Q 28Hand and foot prints left in Tibetan Plateau stone about 200,000 years ago were apparently whose?
Children
Children, probably two of them, pressed the prints into soft travertine that later hardened, and they are the oldest evidence of people on the high plateau.
Q 29Which South American plateau is the most extensive high plateau on Earth after the Tibetan Plateau?
Altiplano
Altiplano elevations average about 3,750 metres, a little lower than Tibet, and unlike Tibet the region is dominated by massive active volcanoes.
Q 30Natives of the Tibetan Plateau cope with thin air without raising levels of which blood protein?
Hemoglobin
Hemoglobin climbs in lowlanders and Andean highlanders at altitude, but Tibetans keep lower levels and are less prone to chronic mountain sickness.