ABSTRACT
Today a large human population inhabits the Central Asian Highlands, a vast area characterized by high elevation and cold climate. They are principally pastoralists or agro-pastoralists whose religion and culture are heavily influenced by Tibetan Buddhism (Blench 2001; Joshi 1982; Kreutzmann 2002; Liu et al. 1989; Sherchand and Karki 1996; Tshering et al. 1996; Wiener et al. 2003; Zhang 1989). The earliest prehistoric human occupation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau may date back to cal. 25,000 BP to the Upper Pleistocene (Huang 1994; Madsen et al. 2006). Aldenderfer and Zhang (2004) review the various published dates, the methods used to establish them and the controversies surrounding them. Reliably dated sites are still very few and most dates are founded on typologies which are themselves controversial.
