Editing Lhasa (section)

=== Demographics in the past ===
The 11th edition of ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' published between 1910 and 1911 noted the total population of Lhasa, including the lamas in the city and vicinity was about 30,000,<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Lhasa}}</ref> A census in 1854 made the figure 42,000, but it is known to have greatly decreased afterwards. ''Britannica'' noted that within Lhasa, there were about a total of 1,500 resident Tibetan laymen and about 5,500 Tibetan women.<ref name="Britannica"/> The permanent population also included Chinese families (about 2,000).<ref name="Britannica"/> The city's residents included traders from [[Nepal]] and [[Ladakh]] (about 800), and a few from [[Bhutan]], [[Mongolia]] and other places.<ref name="Britannica"/> The ''Britannica'' noted with interest that the Chinese had a crowded burial-ground at Lhasa, tended carefully after their manner and that the Nepalese supplied mechanics and metal-workers at that time.<ref name="Britannica"/>

In the first half of the 20th century, several [[Western culture|Western]] explorers made celebrated journeys to the city, including [[William Montgomery McGovern]], [[Francis Younghusband]], [[Alexandra David-Néel]], and [[Heinrich Harrer]]. Lhasa was the centre of Tibetan Buddhism as nearly half of its population were [[monk]]s,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lhasastreetswith0000barn |title=Lhasa: Streets with Memories |last=Barnett |first=Robert |date=2013 |publisher=Columbia University Press |quote="population of Lhasa in 1904 was estimated by the British at 30,000 people, of whom 20,000 were said to be monks [...] in 1936 Spencer Chapman estimated the population at 50,000 to 60,000, consisting of 20,000 residents and 30,000 to 40,000 monks" |isbn=9780231510110 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Though this figure may include monks from surrounding monasteries who travelled to Lhasa for various celebrations and were not ordinarily resident there.

The majority of the pre-1950 Chinese population of Lhasa were merchants and officials. In the Lubu section of Lhasa, the inhabitants were descendants of Chinese vegetable farmers, some of whom married Tibetan wives. They came to Lhasa in the 1840s–1860s after a Chinese official was appointed to the position of [[Amban]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mayaram |first=Shail |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVSVux0wIW0C&pg=PA60 |title=The other global city |year=2009 |publisher=Taylor & Francis US |isbn=978-0-415-99194-0 |page=60 |access-date=28 June 2010}}</ref>

According to one writer, the population of the city was about 10,000, with some 10,000 monks at Drepung and Sera monasteries in 1959.<ref>Dowman (1988), p. 39.</ref> Hugh Richardson, on the other hand, puts the population of Lhasa in 1952, at "some 25,000–30,000—about 45,000–50,000 if the population of the great monasteries on its outskirts be included."<ref>Richardson (1984), p. 7.</ref>