Is Tibet Part of China?

[Ray]

Tibet and China: History of a Complex Relationship
Is Tibet Part of China?

For at least 1500 years, the nation of Tibet has had a complex relationship with its large and powerful neighbor to the east, China. The political history of Tibet and China reveals that the relationship has not always been as one-sided as it now appears.

Indeed, as with China's relations with the Mongols and the Japanese, the balance of power between China and Tibet has shifted back and forth over the centuries.For at least 1500 years, the nation of Tibet has had a complex relationship with its large and powerful neighbor to the east, China. The political history of Tibet and China reveals that the relationship has not always been as one-sided as it now appears.

Indeed, as with China's relations with the Mongols and the Japanese, the balance of power between China and Tibet has shifted back and forth over the centuries.

Early Interactions

The first known interaction between the two states came in 640 A.D., when the Tibetan King Songtsan Gampo married the Princess Wencheng, a niece of the Tang Emperor Taizong. He also married a Nepalese princess.

Both wives were Buddhists, and this may have been the origin of Tibetan Buddhism. The faith grew when an influx of Central Asian Buddhists flooded Tibet early in the eighth century, fleeing from advancing armies of Arab and Kazakh Muslims.

During his reign, Songtsan Gampo added parts of the Yarlung River Valley to the Kingdom of Tibet; his descendants would also conquer the vast region that is now the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, and Xinjiang between 663 and 692. Control of these border regions would change hands back and forth for centuries to come.

In 692, the Chinese retook their western lands from the Tibetans after defeating them at Kashgar. The Tibetan king then allied himself with the enemies of China, the Arabs and eastern Turks.

Chinese power waxed strong in the early decades of the eighth century. Imperial forces under General Gao Xianzhi conquered much of Central Asia, until their defeat by the Arabs and Karluks at the Battle of Talas River in 751. China's power quickly waned, and Tibet resumed control of much of Central Asia.

The ascendant Tibetans pressed their advantage, conquering much of northern India and even seizing the Tang Chinese capital city of Chang'an (now Xian) in 763.

Tibet and China signed a peace treaty in 821 or 822, which delineated the border between the two empires. The Tibetan Empire would concentrate on its Central Asian holdings for the next several decades, before splitting into several small, fractious kingdoms.

Tibet and the Mongols

Canny politicians, the Tibetans befriended Genghis Khan just as the Mongol leader was conquering the known world in the early 13th century. As a result, though the Tibetans paid tribute to the Mongols after the Hordes had conquered China, they were allowed much greater autonomy than the other Mongol-conquered lands.

Over time, Tibet came to be considered one of the thirteen provinces of the Mongolian-ruled nation of Yuan China.

During this period, the Tibetans gained a high degree of influence over the Mongols at court.

The great Tibetan spiritual leader, Sakya Pandita, became the Mongol's representative to Tibet. Sakya's nephew, Chana Dorje, married one of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan's daughters.

The Tibetans transmitted their Buddhist faith to the eastern Mongols; Kublai Khan himself studied Tibetan beliefs with the great teacher Drogon Chogyal Phagpa.


Independent Tibet

When the Mongols' Yuan Empire fell in 1368 to the ethnic-Han Chinese Ming, Tibet reasserted its independence and refused to pay tribute to the new Emperor.

In 1474, the abbot of an important Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Gendun Drup, passed away. A child who born two years later was found to be a reincarnation of the abbot, and was raised to be the next leader of that sect, Gendun Gyatso.

After their lifetimes, the two men were called the First and Second Dalai Lamas. Their sect, the Gelug or "Yellow Hats," became the dominant form of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso (1543-1588), was the first to be so named during his life. He was responsible for converting the Mongols to Gelug Tibetan Buddhism, and it was the Mongol ruler Altan Khan who probably gave the title "Dalai Lama" to Sonam Gyatso.

While the newly-named Dalai Lama consolidated the power of his spiritual position, though, the Gtsang-pa Dynasty assumed the royal throne of Tibet in 1562. The Kings would rule the secular side of Tibetan life for the next 80 years.

The Fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso (1589-1616), was a Mongolian prince and the grandson of Altan Khan.

During the 1630s, China was embroiled in power struggles between the Mongols, Han Chinese of the fading Ming Dynasty, and the Manchu people of north-eastern China (Manchuria). The Manchus would eventually defeat the Han in 1644, and establish China's final imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644-1912).

Tibet got drawn into this turmoil when the Mongol warlord Ligdan Khan, a Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist, decided to invade Tibet and destroy the Yellow Hats in 1634. Ligdan Khan died on the way, but his follower Tsogt Taij took up the cause.

The great general Gushi Khan, of the Oirad Mongols, fought against Tsogt Taij and defeated him in 1637. The Khan killed the Gtsang-pa Prince of Tsang, as well. With support from Gushi Khan, the Fifth Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, was able to seize both spiritual and temporal power over all of Tibet in 1642.

The Dalai Lama Rises to Power

The Potala Palace in Lhasa was constructed as a symbol of this new synthesis of power.

The Dalai Lama made a state visit to the Qing Dynasty's second Emperor, Shunzhi, in 1653. The two leaders greeted one another as equals; the Dalai Lama did not kowtow. Each man bestowed honors and titles upon the other, and the Dalai Lama was recognized as the spiritual authority of the Qing Empire.

According to Tibet, the "priest/patron" relationship established at this time between the Dalai Lama and Qing China continued throughout the Qing Era, but it had no bearing on Tibet's status as an independent nation. China, naturally, disagrees.

Lobsang Gyatso died in 1682, but his Prime Minister concealed the Dalai Lama's passing until 1696 so that the Potala Palace could be finished and the power of the Dalai Lama's office consolidated.

The Maverick Dalai Lama

In 1697, fifteen years after the death of Lobsang Gyatso, the Sixth Dalai Lama was finally enthroned.

Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1706) was a maverick who rejected the monastic life, growing his hair long, drinking wine, and enjoying female company. He also wrote great poetry, some of which is still recited today in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama's unconventional lifestyle prompted Lobsang Khan of the Khoshud Mongols to depose him in 1705.

Lobsang Khan seized control of Tibet, named himself King, sent Tsangyang Gyatso to Beijing (he "mysteriously" died on the way), and installed a pretender Dalai Lama.


The Dzungar Mongol Invasion

King Lobsang would rule for 12 years, until the Dzungar Mongols invaded and took power. They killed the pretender to the Dalai Lama's throne, to the joy of the Tibetan people, but then began to loot monasteries around Lhasa.

This vandalism brought a quick response from the Qing Emperor Kangxi, who sent troops to Tibet. The Dzungars destroyed the Imperial Chinese battalion near Lhasa in 1718.

In 1720, the angry Kangxi sent another, larger force to Tibet, which crushed the Dzungars. The Qing army also brought the proper Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso (1708-1757) to Lhasa.


The Border Between China and Tibet

China took advantage of this period of instability in Tibet to seize the regions of Amdo and Kham, making them into the Chinese province of Qinghai in 1724.

Three years later, the Chinese and Tibetans signed a treaty that laid out the boundary line between the two nations. It would remain in force until 1910.

Qing China had its hands full trying to control Tibet. The Emperor sent a commissioner to Lhasa, but he was killed in 1750.

The Imperial Army then defeated the rebels, but the Emperor recognized that he would have to rule through the Dalai Lama rather than directly. Day-to-day decisions would be made on the local level.


Era of Turmoil Begins

In 1788, the Regent of Nepal sent Gurkha forces to invade Tibet.

The Qing Emperor responded in strength, and the Nepalese retreated.

The Gurkhas returned three years later, plundering and destroying some famous Tibetan monasteries. The Chinese sent a force of 17,000 which, along with Tibetan troops, drove the Gurkhas out of Tibet and south to within 20 miles of Kathmandu.

Despite this sort of assistance from the Chinese Empire, the people of Tibet chafed under increasingly meddlesome Qing rule.

Between 1804, when the Eighth Dalai Lama died, and 1895, when the Thirteenth Dalai Lama assumed the throne, none of the incumbent incarnations of the Dalai Lama lived to see their nineteenth birthdays.

If the Chinese found a certain incarnation too hard to control, they would poison him. If the Tibetans thought an incarnation was controlled by the Chinese, then they would poison him themselves.


Tibet and the Great Game

Throughout this period, Russia and Britain were engaged in the "Great Game," a struggle for influence and control in Central Asia.

Russia pushed south of its borders, seeking access to warm-water sea ports and a buffer zone between Russia proper and the advancing British. The British pushed northward from India, trying to expand their empire and protect the Raj, the "Crown Jewel of the British Empire," from the expansionist Russians.

Tibet was an important playing piece in this game.

Qing Chinese power waned throughout the eighteenth century, as evidenced by its defeat in the Opium Wars with Britain (1839-1842 and 1856-1860), as well as the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) and the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901).

The actual relationship between China and Tibet had been unclear since the early days of the Qing Dynasty, and China's losses at home made the status of Tibet even more uncertain.

The ambiguity of control over Tibet lead to problems. In 1893, the British in India concluded a trade and border treaty with Beijing concerning the boundary between Sikkim and Tibet.

However, the Tibetans flatly rejected the treaty terms.

The British invaded Tibet in 1903 with 10,000 men, and took Lhasa the following year. Thereupon, they concluded another treaty with the Tibetans, as well as Chinese, Nepalese and Bhutanese representatives, which gave the British themselves some control over Tibet's affairs.


Thubten Gyatso's Balancing Act

The 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, fled the country in 1904 at the urging of his Russian disciple, Agvan Dorzhiev. He went first to Mongolia, then made his way to Beijing.

The Chinese declared that the Dalai Lama had been deposed as soon as he left Tibet, and claimed full sovereignty over not only Tibet but also Nepal and Bhutan. The Dalai Lama went to Beijing to discuss the situation with the Emperor Guangxu, but he flatly refused to kowtow to the Emperor.

Thubten Gyatso stayed in the Chinese capital from 1906 to 1908.

He returned to Lhasa in 1909, disappointed by Chinese policies towards Tibet. China sent a force of 6,000 troops into Tibet, and the Dalai Lama fled to Darjeeling, India later that same year.

The Chinese Revolution swept away the Qing Dynasty in 1911, and the Tibetans promptly expelled all Chinese troops from Lhasa. The Dalai Lama returned home to Tibet in 1912.


Tibetan Independence

China's new revolutionary government issued a formal apology to the Dalai Lama for the Qing Dynasty's insults, and offered to reinstate him. Thubten Gyatso refused, stating that he had no interest in the Chinese offer.

He then issued a proclamation that was distributed across Tibet, rejecting Chinese control and stating that "We are a small, religious, and independent nation."

The Dalai Lama took control of Tibet's internal and external governance in 1913, negotiating directly with foreign powers, and reforming Tibet's judicial, penal, and educational systems.

History of Tibet | Is Tibet Part of China?

 

[Ray]

The Simla Convention (1914)

Representatives of Great Britain, China, and Tibet met in 1914 to negotiate a treaty marking out the boundary lines between India and its northern neighbors.

The Simla Convention granted China secular control over "Inner Tibet," (also known as Qinghai Province) while recognizing the autonomy of "Outer Tibet" under the Dalai Lama's rule. Both China and Britain promised to "respect the territorial integrity of [Tibet], and abstain from interference in the administration of Outer Tibet."

China walked out of the conference without signing the treaty after Britain laid claim to the Tawang area of southern Tibet, which is now part of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Tibet and Britain both signed the treaty.

As a result, China has never agreed to India's rights in northern Arunachal Pradesh (Tawang), and the two nations went to war over the area in 1962. The boundary dispute still has not been resolved.

China also claims sovereignty over all of Tibet, while the Tibetan government-in-exile points to the Chinese failure to sign the Simla Convention as proof that both Inner and Outer Tibet legally remain under the Dalai Lama's jurisdiction.


The Issue Rests

Soon, China would be too distracted to concern itself with the issue of Tibet.

Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1910, and would advance south and east across large swaths of Chinese territory through 1945.

The new government of the Republic of China would hold nominal power over the majority of Chinese territory for only four years before war broke out between numerous armed factions.

Indeed, the span of Chinese history from 1916 to 1938 came to be called the "Warlord Era," as the different military factions sought to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Qing Dynasty.

China would see near-continuous civil war up to the Communist victory in 1949, and this era of conflict was exacerbated by the Japanese Occupation and World War II. Under such circumstances, the Chinese showed little interest in Tibet.

The 13th Dalai Lama ruled independent Tibet in peace until his death in 1933.

The 14th Dalai Lama

Following Thubten Gyatso's death, the new reincarnation of the Dalai Lama was born in Amdo in 1935.

Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, was taken to Lhasa in 1937 to begin training for his duties as the leader of Tibet. He would remain there until 1959, when the Chinese forced him into exile in India.


People's Republic of China Invades Tibet

In 1950, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the newly-formed People's Republic of China invaded Tibet. With stability reestablished in Beijing for the first time in decades, Mao Zedong sought to assert China's right to rule over Tibet as well.

The PLA inflicted a swift and total defeat on Tibet's small army, and China drafted the "Seventeen Point Agreement" incorporating Tibet as an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China.

Representatives of the Dalai Lama's government signed the agreement under protest, and the Tibetans repudiated the agreement nine years later.


Collectivization and Revolt

The Mao government of the PRC immediately initiated land redistribution in Tibet.

Landholdings of the monasteries and nobility were seized for redistribution to the peasants. The communist forces hoped to destroy the power base of the wealthy and of Buddhism within Tibetan society.

In reaction, a uprising led by the monks broke out in June of 1956, and continued through 1959. The poorly-armed Tibetans used guerrilla war tactics in an attempt to drive out the Chinese.

The PLA responded by razing entire villages and monasteries to the ground. The Chinese even threatened to blow up the Potala Palace and kill the Dalai Lama, but this threat was not carried out.

Three years of bitter fighting left 86,000 Tibetans dead, according to the Dalai Lama's government in exile.


Flight of the Dalai Lama

On March 1, 1959, the Dalai Lama received an odd invitation to attend a theater performance at PLA headquarters near Lhasa.

The Dalai Lama demurred, and the performance date was postponed until March 10. On March 9, PLA officers notified the Dalai Lama's bodyguards that they would not accompany the Tibetan leader to the performance, nor were they to notify the Tibetan people that he was leaving the palace. (Ordinarily, the people of Lhasa would line the streets to greet the Dalai Lama each time he ventured out.)

The guards immediately publicized this rather ham-handed attempted abduction, and the following day an estimated crowd of 300,000 Tibetans surrounded Potala Palace to protect their leader.

The PLA moved artillery into range of major monasteries and the Dalai Lama's summer palace, Norbulingka.

Both sides began to dig in, although the Tibetan army was much smaller than its adversary, and poorly armed.

Tibetan troops were able to secure a route for the Dalai Lama to escape into India on March 17. Actual fighting began on March 19, and lasted only two days before the Tibetan troops were defeated.

 

[Ray]

Aftermath of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising

Much of Lhasa lay in ruins on March 20, 1959.

An estimated 800 artillery shells had pummeled Norbulingka, and Lhasa's three largest monasteries were essentially leveled. The Chinese rounded up thousands of monks, executing many of them. Monasteries and temples all over Lhasa were ransacked.

The remaining members of the Dalai Lama's bodyguard were publicly executed by firing squad.

By the time of the 1964 census, 300,000 Tibetans had gone "missing" in the previous five years, either secretly imprisoned, killed, or in exile.

In the days after the 1959 Uprising, the Chinese government revoked most aspects of Tibet's autonomy, and initiated resettlement and land distribution across the country. The Dalai Lama has remained in exile ever since.

China's central government, in a bid to dilute the Tibetan population and provide jobs for Han Chinese, initiated a "Western China Development Program" in 1978.

As many as 300,000 Han now live in Tibet, 2/3 of them in the capital city. The Tibetan population of Lhasa, in contrast, is only 100,000.

Ethnic Chinese hold the vast majority of government posts.


Return of the Panchen Lama

Beijing allowed the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second-in-command, to return to Tibet in 1989.

He immediately gave a speech before a crowd of 30,000 of the faithful, decrying the harm being done to Tibet under the PRC. He died five days later at the age of 50, allegedly of a massive heart attack.


Deaths at Drapchi Prison, 1998

On May 1, 1998, the Chinese officials at Drapchi Prison in Tibet ordered hundreds of prisoners, both criminals and political detainees, to participate in a Chinese flag-raising ceremony.

Some of the prisoners began to shout anti-Chinese and pro-Dalai Lama slogans, and prison guards fired shots into the air before returning all the prisoners to their cells.

The prisoners were then severely beaten with belt buckles, rifle butts, and plastic batons, and some were put into solitary confinement for months at a time, according to one young nun who was released from the prison a year later.

Three days later, the prison administration decided to hold the flag-raising ceremony again.

Once more, some of the prisoners began to shout slogans.

Prison official reacted with even more brutality, and five nuns, three monks, and one male criminal were killed by the guards. One man was shot; the rest were beaten to death.


2008 Uprising

On March 10, 2008, Tibetans marked the 49th anniversary of the 1959 uprising by peacefully protesting for the release of imprisoned monks and nuns. Chinese police then broke up the protest with tear gas and gunfire.

The protest resumed for several more days, finally turning into a riot. Tibetan anger was fueled by reports that imprisoned monks and nuns were being mistreated or killed in prison as a reaction to the street demonstrations.
Furious Tibetans ransacked and burned the shops of ethnic Chinese immigrants in Lhasa and other cities. The official Chinese media states that 18 people were killed by the rioters.

China immediately cut off access to Tibet for foreign media and tourists.

The unrest spread to neighboring Qinghai (Inner Tibet), Gansu, and Sichuan Provinces. The Chinese government cracked down hard, mobilizing as many as 5,000 troops. Reports indicate that the military killed between 80 and 140 people, and arrested more than 2,300 Tibetans.

The unrest came at a sensitive time for China, which was gearing up for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The situation in Tibet caused increased international scrutiny of Beijing's entire human rights record, leading some foreign leaders to boycott the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Olympic torch-bearers around the world were met by thousands of human rights protestors.


Conclusion

Tibet and China have had a long relationship, fraught with difficulty and change.

At times, the two nations have worked closely together. At other times, they have been at war.

Today, the nation of Tibet does not exist; not one foreign government officially recognizes the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The past teaches us, however, that the geopolitical situation is nothing if not fluid. It is impossible to predict where Tibet and China will stand, relative to one another, one hundred years from now.

History of Tibet | Is Tibet Part of China?

 

[Ray]

A backgrounder:

The Tibetan Uprising of 1959
China Forces the Dalai Lama into Exile

Chinese artillery shells pummeled the Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's summer palace, sending plumes of smoke, fire and dust into the night sky. The centuries-old building crumbled under the barrage, while the badly outnumbered Tibetan Army fought desperately to repel the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from Lhasa...

Meanwhile, amidst the snows of the high Himalaya, the teen-aged Dalai Lama and his body-guards endured a cold and treacherous two-week-long journey into India.

Origins of the Tibetan Uprising of 1959

Tibet had an ill-defined relationship with China's Qing Dynasty (1644-1912); at various times it could have been seen as an ally, an opponent, a tributary state, or a region within Chinese control.

In 1724, during a Mongol invasion of Tibet, the Qing seized the opportunity to incorporate the Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham into China proper. The central area was renamed Qinghai, while pieces of both regions were broken off and added to other western Chinese provinces. This land grab would fuel Tibetan resentment and unrest into the twentieth century.

When the last Qing Emperor fell in 1912, Tibet asserted its independence from China. The 13th Dalai Lama returned from three years of exile in Darjeeling, India, and resumed control of Tibet from his capital at Lhasa. He ruled until his death in 1933.

China, meanwhile, was under siege from a Japanese invasion of Manchuria, as well as a general breakdown of order across the country. Between 1916 and 1938, China descended into the "Warlord Era," as different military leaders fought for control of the headless state. In fact, the once-great empire would not pull itself back together until after World War II, when Mao Zedong and the Communists triumphed over the Nationalists in 1949.

Meanwhile, a new incarnation of the Dalai Lama was discovered in Amdo, part of Chinese "Inner Tibet." Tenzin Gyatso, the current incarnation, was brought to Lhasa as a two-year-old in 1937, and was enthroned as the leader of Tibet in 1950, at 15.

China Moves In and Tensions Rise

In 1951, Mao's gaze turned west. He decided to "liberate" Tibet from the Dalai Lama's rule and bring it into the People's Republic of China. The PLA crushed Tibet's tiny armed forces in a matter of weeks; Beijing then imposed the Seventeen Point Agreement, which Tibetan officials were forced to sign (but later renounced).

According to the Seventeen Point Agreement, privately-held land would be socialized and then redistributed, and farmers would work communally. This system would first be imposed on Kham and Amdo (along with other areas of the Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces), before being instituted in Tibet proper.

All the barley and other crops produced on the communal land went to the Chinese government, according to Communist principles, and then some was redistributed to the farmers. So much of the grain was appropriated for use by the PLA that the Tibetans did not have enough to eat.

By June of 1956, the ethnic Tibetan people of Amdo and Kham were up in arms. As more and more farmers were stripped of their land, tens of thousands organized themselves into armed resistance groups, and began to fight back. Chinese army reprisals grew increasingly brutal, and included wide-spread abuse of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns. (China alleged that many of the monastic Tibetans acted as messengers for the guerrilla fighters.)

The Dalai Lama visited India in 1956, and admitted to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that he was considering asking for asylum. Nehru advised him to return home, and the Chinese Government promised that communist reforms in Tibet would be postponed and that the number of Chinese officials in Lhasa would be reduced by half. Beijing did not follow through on these pledges.

By 1958, as many as 80,000 people had joined the Tibetan resistance fighters. Alarmed, the Dalai Lama's government sent a delegation to Inner Tibet to try and negotiate an end to the fighting. Ironically, the guerrillas convinced the delegates of the righteousness of the fight, and Lhasa's representatives soon joined in the resistance!

Meanwhile, a flood of refugees and freedom fighters moved into Lhasa, bringing their anger against China with them. Beijing's representatives in Lhasa kept careful tabs on the growing unrest within Tibet's capital city.

March, 1959 - The Uprising Erupts in Tibet Proper

Important religious leaders had disappeared suddenly in Amdo and Kham, so the people of Lhasa were quite concerned about the safety of the Dalai Lama. The people's suspicions therefore were raised immediately when the Chinese Army in Lhasa invited His Holiness to watch a drama at the military barracks on March 10, 1959. Those suspicions were reinforced by a none-too-subtle order, issued to the head of the Dalai Lama's security detail on March 9, that the Dalai Lama should not bring along his bodyguards.

On the appointed day, March 10, some 300,000 protesting Tibetans poured into the streets and formed a massive human cordon around Norbulingkha, the Dalai Lama's Summer Palace, to protect him from the planned Chinese abduction. The protestors stayed for several days, and calls for the Chinese to pull out of Tibet altogether grew louder each day. By March 12, the crowd had begun to barricade the streets of the capital, while both armies moved into strategic positions around the city and began to reinforce them. Ever the moderate, the Dalai Lama pleaded with his people to go home, and sent placatory letters to the Chinese PLA commander in Lhasa.

When the PLA moved artillery into range of the Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama agreed to evacuate the building. Tibetan troops prepared a secure escape route out of the besieged capital on March 15. When two artillery shells struck the palace two days later, the young Dalai Lama and his ministers began the arduous 14-day trek over the Himalayas for India.

On March 19, 1959, fighting broke out in earnest in Lhasa. The Tibetan army fought bravely, but they were vastly outnumbered by the PLA. In addition, the Tibetans had antiquated weapons.

The firefight lasted just two days. The Summer Palace, Norbulingka, sustained over 800 artillery shell strikes that killed an unknown number of people inside; the major monasteries were bombed, looted and burned. Priceless Tibetan Buddhist texts and works of art were piled in the streets and burned. All remaining members of the Dalai Lama's bodyguard corps were lined up and publicly executed, as were any Tibetans discovered with weapons. In all, some 87,000 Tibetans were killed, while another 80,000 arrived in neighboring countries as refugees. An unknown number tried to flee, but did not make it.

In fact, by the time of the next regional census, a total of about 300,000 Tibetans were "missing" - killed, secretly jailed, or gone into exile.

Aftermath of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising

Since the 1959 Uprising, the central government of China has been steadily tightening its grip on the Tibet. Although Beijing has invested in infrastructure improvements for the region, particularly in Lhasa itself, it has also encouraged thousands of ethnic Han Chinese to move to Tibet. In fact, Tibetans have been swamped in their own capital; they now constitute a minority of the population of Lhasa.

Today, the Dalai Lama continues to head the Tibetan government-in-exile from Dharamshala, India. He advocates increased autonomy for Tibet, rather than full independence, but Chinese government generally refuses to negotiate with him.

Periodic unrest still sweeps through Tibet, especially around important dates such as March 10 to 19 - the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising.

1959 Tibetan Uprising - Dalai Lama Exiled

 

[Ray]

China Cracks Down on Monks in Lhasa, Tibet

For the second time in less than a year, Buddhist monks are being shot down during peaceful protests in Asia. Last September, it was the monks in Burma (also known as Myanmar). Today, it's the Tibetan Buddhists in Lhasa, Tibet.

For the past few days, Tibet's monks have led peaceful protests in their ancient capital to mark the 49th anniversary of the unsuccessful 1959 anti-Chinese uprising. The earlier event ended with an iron-fisted crack down from Beijing, forcing the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India. An staggering 86,000 Tibetans were killed in the rebellion, including 200 of the Dalai Lama's bodyguards, who were lined up against a wall and publicly machine-gunned.

We can all hope that today's protests won't end so catastrophically. However, Radio Free Asia reports that Lhasa's three biggest monasteries have been sealed off by thousands of Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers. Tanks are patrolling the streets, and Chinese troops are firing tear gas at any Tibetans who gather out-of-doors. Monks have been beaten to the ground in front of horrified witnesses, and the Chinese soldiers and police are firing live ammunition at protestors. Eye-witnesses report that as many as 80 people have been shot by the Chinese, while at least four Tibetan monks have committed suicide by setting themselves on fire.

Wary of damaging its recently-improved relationship with Beijing, India has actively discouraged sympathetic protests in its major cities, and around the Dalai Lama's home-in-exile at Dharamsala.

http://asianhistory.about.com/b/2008/03/14/china-cracks-down-on-monks-in-lhasa-tibet.htm

Forty Years On, Memory of My Lai Massacre Raises Parallels

On March 16, 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War, U.S. soldiers massacred almost 500 villagers in My Lai, Vietnam. The victims were unarmed elderly men, women, and children, slaughtered in an orgy of killing by members of Charlie Company out on a "search and destroy" mission. Charlie Company hadn't come under attack; they simply went looking for Viet Cong fighters, searched My Lai, and then snapped and began killing civilians.

It's hard to understand or explain how soldiers from a modern democracy, which values individual life, could mow down women and children without mercy. Analysts have cited the soldiers' fear of the Viet Cong, their frustration at their inability to find this elusive foe that blended in with civilians or melted into the jungle, or their inability to understand the culture of the Vietnamese people.

Whatever the reasons, the 40th anniversary of My Lai brings to mind parallels with a much more recent atrocity in Iraq: the 2005 Haditha Killings. Twenty-four unarmed civilians were massacred in Haditha, Iraq, allegedly by seven Marines and a Navy medic. The parallels with My Lai are chilling. In both cases, the U.S. military personnel were having limited success in their search for enemy insurgent fighters. In both cases, the U.S. had recently suffered losses in those same areas, priming the soldiers' thirst for revenge. In both cases, news of the atrocity trickled out slowly, hitting the media back home only months after the massacres occurred. Finally, in both My Lai and Haditha, criminal charges against the personnel involved generally fell apart in court, leaving the majority of participants at liberty despite the heinous nature of their crimes.

What can the U.S. military do to prevent future recurrences of this type? Proper supervision by superior officers is one key. More effective training on the local culture would also be very useful for helping soldiers understand the civilians' mindset, and see them as fellow human beings rather than faceless threats. Finally, the U.S. military needs to make sure that it's troops are reasonably intelligent, don't have a history of violent crime, and have access to effective mental health care not only when the return to the States, but also in the field. Perhaps, if these measures are all in place, the 50th or 80th anniversaries of My Lai won't bring up parallels with newer massacres still.

The Tibetan protestors may be counting on Chinese restraint as Beijing gears up for the 2008 Summer Olympics. China seems to value control even more than its reputation, however, and the world is getting a clear view of Beijing's absolute intolerance of dissent. Little wonder, really, since current PRC President Hu Jintao rose to power as a result of his response to another uprising -- the 1989 Tibetan Uprising, which provided the model for the Tiananmen Square protests that same year.

Forty Years On, Memory of My Lai Massacre Raises Parallels

 

[no smoking]

"Was Tibet a part of China?" would be a more appropriate question!

 

[xizhimen]

"Was Tibet a part of China?" would be a more appropriate question!

it's almost like asking wether India part of the British empire,let's live in the present,not the past.Now Tibet is part of China,all countries and UN admit that fact and India is an independent country,also admitted globally.

 

[sayareakd]

Tibet is part of Asia.

 

[Ray]

it's almost like asking wether India part of the British empire,let's live in the present,not the past.Now Tibet is part of China,all countries and UN admit that fact and India is an independent country,also admitted globally.

Tibet was an independent nation and so was India.

India lost its independence to the British and regained it in 1947.

Tibet was occupied by China and is still under the Chinese yoke.

Its separateness has still not been wiped out as the Han has done to South China, to the Yues, Maios and so on. And the manner in which they have done to the Mongols in Inner Mongolia.

 

[amoy]

Here's my 5 cents in a separate post

Out of generosity, and humanitarian concerns, India shall grant citizenship for Tibetans in exile and establish a Tibetan state with Dharamsala as capital (or Darjeeling?) inside India. Or shall Tibetan Indians share a homeland together with Sikkim and Ladakh who have the same cultural heritage with Tibetans? In India they are able to get as close as possible to their spiritual leaders, be it Dalai Lama or Karmapa or whatever, or be it Gelugpa or Sagyapa or Kagypa, and worship ten thousand idols as much as they like.

As Chinese including Tibetans who stay progressively on the other side of the border, we can just leave them alone as they've anyway disowned China, and dump the spiritual opium (dharma or karma, whatever) back while keeping Karma Sutra only.

 

[Ray]

There is no separate State of Tibet within India.

The Tibetans are in Dharmsala and they are allowed to function so long as they do not indulge in anti China activities since it will spoil relations with China.

Just to correct you, the Buddhists believe in Karma and not Kama Sutra.

But then Godless people will obviously make mistakes since they know not that they know not.

 

[amoy]

Karma? Thanks but no thanks.

We only keep the cream of Indian culture - Kama Sutra

 

[Ray]

Karma? Thanks but no thanks.

We only keep the cream of Indian culture - Kama Sutra

It is the Godless, who do not understand the rationale and sublimity of Kama Sutra.

That apart, your claim that the Tibetans are reading the Kama Sutra proves that you have no clue between the difference of karma (Buddhism) and Kama Sutra and your post is merely to hide you embarrassing ignorance.

 

[xizhimen]

Tibet was an independent nation and so was India.

.

If you keep that notion then many many palaces used to be independent countries or states on this planet,my home city used to be an independent state.my advice to you,live in the present,not the past.the present is that Tibet is part of China and India is an independent country.those facts are universally accepted by all the governments in the world and of course UN itself.

 

[Ray]

If you keep that notion then many many palaces used to be independent countries or states on this planet,my home city used to be an independent state.my advice to you,live in the present,not the past.the present is that Tibet is part of China and India is an independent country.those facts are universally accepted by all the governments in the world and of course UN itself.

I am not surprised that your city was independent till it was assimilated by the Han.

Indeed, many countries were independent and was attacked.

Those who have accepted their new dispensation is perfectly fine.

But the issue is of those who are not ready to take this forced assimilation and conversion to Han.

For instance the Yues and Miaos amongst others are different than Han originally, but now they are Han.

But the Tibetan were independent till China marched in in the 1950s.

They have still not reconciled to the fact that their identity is being wiped away to finally becoming Han.

 

[xizhimen]

But the Tibetan were independent till China marched in in the 1950s.

That information is wrong,no countries ever recognized an independent Tibet.Tibet is not like Sikkim.

 

[amoy]

That information is wrong,no countries ever recognized an independent Tibet.Tibet is not like Sikkim.

Sikkim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poor Sikkim, look how Indians did that through an "referendum" while declining to do another referendum in Kashmir

And how the 5th column sold Sikkim!

In 1975, the Prime Minister of Sikkim appealed to the Indian Parliament for Sikkim to become a state of India. In April of that year, the Indian Army took over the city of Gangtok and disarmed the Chogyal's palace guards. Thereafter, a referendum was held in which 97.5 per cent of voters supported abolishing the monarchy, effectively approving union with India. On 16 May 1975, Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Indian Union, and the monarchy was abolished.[22]

 

[xizhimen]

from wikipedia

In the late 19th century, China adopted the Western model of nation-state diplomacy. As the government of Tibet, China concluded several treaties (1876,1886,1890,1893) with British India touching on the status, boundaries and access to Tibet. Chinese government sources consider this a sign of sovereignty rather than suzerainty. However, by the 20th century British India found the treaties to be ineffective due to China's weakened control over the Tibetan local government. The British invaded Tibet in 1904 and forced the signing of a separate treaty, directly with the Tibetan government in Lhasa. In 1906, an Anglo-Chinese Convention was signed at Peking between Great Britain and China. It incorporated the 1904 Lhasa Convention (with modification), which was attached as Annex.A treaty between Britain and Russia (1907) followed. Article II of this treaty stated that "In conformity with the admitted principle of the suzerainty of China over Tibet, Great Britain and Russia engage not to enter into negotiations with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese Government." China sent troops into Tibet in 1908. The result of the policy of both Great Britain and Russia has been the virtual annexation of Tibet by China.China controlled Tibet up to 1912. Thereafter, Tibet entered the period described commonly as de facto independence, though it was not recognized by any country as enjoying de jure independence. (See below)

 

[xizhimen]

Sikkim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poor Sikkim, look how Indians did that through an "referendum" while declining to do another referendum in Kashmir

And how the 5th column sold Sikkim!

a comment from the internet

When India annexed the Kingdom of Sikkim, the king went into exile and died in the west in 1980's.

To silence resistance and opposition to Indian occupation, a bunch of upper class Sikkimese had been murdered by the Indian occupation armies.

Who is going to investigate this tragedy?

Now everyone in Sikkim shut up to stay alive!

 

[xizhimen]

and from the same source I also came across this picture,I have to admit that I 've got no clue of what it is all about,Anyone knows about the story of this?