A leading expert on Tibet studies Wednesday denounced what he termed media hype on population movements to Tibet, saying that Tibetans remain the great majority in the autonomous region.

Figures from the last two national census surveys, conducted in 1990 and 2000, showed that Tibetans accounted for 95 percent and 92 percent of the region's population, said Tanzen Lhundrup, deputy director of the Institute of Social and Economic Studies affiliated to the China Tibetology Research Center (CTRC).

Only 3 percent and 6 percent of the population in Tibet were Han people in the two surveys, he told a press conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

Tanzen Lhundrup said the issue of transient population in Tibet has been hyped up by foreign media for many years.

(China Daily/Xinhua March 27, 2008)