1965年9月1日，西藏自治区第一届人民代表大会第一次会议在拉萨开幕。西藏自治区第一届人民代表大会选举产生了西藏自治区机关及其领导人，阿沛·阿旺晋美当选为自治区人民委员会主席，一大批翻身农奴担任了自治区各级政权机关的领导职务。西藏自治区的成立，标志着西藏建立了人民民主政权，开始全面实行民族区域自治制度。自此，西藏人民享有了自主管理本地区事务的权利，走上了发展进步的社会主义道路。

三、符合国情的政治制度

　　在西藏实行民族区域自治制度，符合中国统一的多民族国家基本国情。

On September 1, 1965, the First Session of the First People's Congress of Tibet Autonomous Region was inaugurated in Lhasa, and the organs and leaders of the Region were elected, with Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme as the chairman of the People's Committee. A large number of liberated serfs held leading posts in organs of political power at different levels of the Region. The establishment of Tibet Autonomous Region signified that Tibet had set up the people's democratic government and begun to exercise thoroughgoing regional ethnic autonomy. Since then, the people of Tibet have enjoyed the right to handle local affairs themselves, and embarked on the socialist road to development and progress.

III. The Political System Suited to China's Actual Conditions

Implementing the system of regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet conforms to China's reality as a unified multiethnic country.

　　中国是一个统一的多民族国家，除汉族外，还有蒙古、回、藏、维吾尔、壮、朝鲜、满等55个少数民族。中华民族是一个多元一体的大家庭，各民族都对祖国的发展和中华文化的创造作出了贡献。中国各民族的起源和发展有着本土性、多元性、多样性的特点。中国各民族形成和发展的情况虽然各不相同，但总的方向是发展成为统一的多民族国家，汇聚成为统一稳固的中华民族。早在先秦时期，中国先民的“天下”观念和“大一统”理念便已形成。公元前221年，秦朝实现了中国历史上第一次大一统，在全国设郡县加以统治。汉朝(公元前206年—公元220年)及汉以后的历代中央政权发展和巩固了统一的多民族国家的格局。中国历史上虽然出现过短暂的割据局面和局部分裂，但国家统一始终是主流和方向。

　　西藏自古就是中国的一部分，藏族是中华民族命运共同体的一员。藏族和其他民族的祖先，从远古就生活在西藏高原上，并与中国内地建立了广泛的联系，为中华民族命运共同体的形成与发展作出了重要贡献。自13世纪元朝将西藏纳入中央政府行政管辖起，直至1949年中华人民共和国成立前，中国历代中央政权在将西藏纳入统一国家的前提下，还采取了“因俗而治”“因事而治”等特殊的政策，在行政建制和治理方式上，采取与全国其他地方有所差异的措施。

China is a unified multiethnic country inhabited by 55 minority ethnic groups, including the Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Uygur, Zhuang, Korean, and Manchu, in addition to the Han ethnic group. The Chinese nation is a big, pluralistic and integrated family whose constituent ethnic groups have all contributed to national development and cultural innovation. The origins and development of China's ethnic groups are indigenous, pluralistic and diverse. All have formed and evolved in different ways, yet in the general trend, have developed into a unified multiethnic country and converged into the unified and stable Chinese nation. As early as the pre-Qin period, Chinese ancestors developed the concepts of "world" and "grand unification." In 221 BC, the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) realized the first unification in history of China, and established prefectures and counties to rule the country. The central government of the Han Dynasty (206 BC- AD 220) and subsequent dynasties developed and consolidated China's unified multiethnic pattern. Despite the brief separatist regimes and regional splits that have occurred in Chinese history, unification has always been the mainstream and direction of national development.

Ever since ancient times, Tibet has been an integral part of China, and the Tibetan ethnic group has been a communal member of the Chinese nation sharing a common destiny. The ancestors of the Tibetan and other ethnic groups who lived on the Tibetan Plateau in ancient times established extensive contacts with China's inland, and made significant contributions to the formation and development of the country. From the 13th century, when the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) included Tibet under its central administrative jurisdiction, to the time before 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded, the central governments of all dynasties in China ruled Tibet as part of the country. On this footing, they adopted special policies for Tibet, taking into account the "special local customs and conditions," and adopted an administrative structure and governance approaches that were distinct from those in other parts of China.