Short answers, pulled from the story.
Tibet has an average elevation of 4,380 meters above sea level, making it the highest region on Earth. Mount Everest, located on its border with Nepal, rises to 8,848 meters, the tallest peak on the planet.
The 13th Dalai Lama declared Tibetan independence in 1913, after the last Qing troops were escorted out following the Xinhai Revolution. Neither the Chinese government nor any foreign power recognized the declaration.
Approximately 6,000 monasteries were destroyed by the Red Guards during China's Cultural Revolution. A few began rebuilding from the 1980s onward with limited support from the Chinese government.
The Seventeen Point Agreement was a 1951 document that affirmed the People's Republic of China's sovereignty over Tibet while granting the region autonomy. The 14th Dalai Lama's government ratified it after the Battle of Chamdo; the Dalai Lama later repudiated it entirely on his journey into exile.
The five main traditions are the Gelug, founded by Je Tsongkhapa in the 14th-15th centuries; the Kagyu, associated with the 11th-century mystic Milarepa; the Nyingma, the oldest school, founded by Padmasambhava; the Sakya, which emphasizes scholarship; and the Jonang, once thought extinct but later confirmed to have nearly 40 surviving monasteries comprising about 5,000 monks.
Approximately 40 percent of rural cash income in the Tibet Autonomous Region comes from harvesting the fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis, contributing at least 1.8 billion yuan (US$225 million) to the region's GDP.