Mountainous territory tense? Feels like it to me (5)

I believe the answer is:

tibet

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'mountainous territory' is the definition.
'Tibet' can be an answer for 'territory' (Tibet is an example). I'm unsure of the 'mountainous' bit.

'tense? feels like it to me' is the wordplay.
'tense?' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'feels like it' becomes 'bet' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'me' becomes 'I'.
'bet' put after 'i' is 'ibet'.
't'+'ibet'='TIBET'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tibet that I've seen before include "Asian plateau region" , "Mountainous Asian region" , "Himalayan land" , "Himalayan country" , "region out East" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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