Abstract: Tibetans live in a special ecological environment, the Tibetan Plateau, called the Roof of the World. They have a unique culture and special adaptive machanisms to high altitude hypoxia, which caused widespread global attention and scholarly interest. We reviewed 30 years of? Tibetan? biological? anthropology? studies,? specifically? plateau? hypoxia? adaptation.? The? review? showed that Tibetans have adaptive variations in their body morphology and function, but also in their body composition. These adaptive changes in Tibetans had evolved for a long time and were ?significantly ?different ?from? those ?of? Andens,? even? living ?in ?the ?same ?of ?the ?Tibetan? Plateau.? Tibetans in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces of China, including Tibetans in Nepal and India also showed regional differences in the above biological aspects. Changes in Tibetan adaptations to hypoxia were caused by a number of factors, in addition to two key genes for hypoxia adaptation.

Key words: Tibet; Biological anthropology; Adaptation; Altitude