Tibetan resistance since 1950
Encyclopedia
Tibetan resistance to Chinese domination did not begin with the Invasion of Tibet in 1950. The history of Tibet
and the history of China
have been interconnected throughout the centuries. The complexity of their relationship is the root of the contemporary dispute over Tibetan claims of sovereignty. Tibet has struggled to maintain a unique identity and some degree of political autonomy at least since the 5th century C.E., not only vis-a-vis China, but other regional rivals and even Britain.
Tibetan resistance to Communist China can be divided into four main phases:
Over the years the Tibetan government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (CTA)
, has shifted the goal of its resistance stance from attempting measured cooperation with autonomy, to demanding full independence, to seeking "genuine autonomy for all Tibetans living in the three traditional provinces of Tibet within the framework of the People's Republic of China". However, not all exiled Tibetans are content with pursuing a moderate path and many expressed their frustration in 2008, against the Dalai Lama's wishes, by agitating for independence.
With the 14th Dalai Lama announcing his retirement from political life just before the April 2011 elections for Prime Minister, who will henceforth be Tibet's political leader, the nature of resistance may be moving into yet another phase, although the three leading candidates currently favor the Middle Way Approach.
Isolated geography has naturally defined Tibet as a unique entity, however, its governance and political status have been in flux for centuries. The minor kingdoms and tribal states of the region were first united under Songtsän Gampo to form the Tibetan Empire
in the seventh century C.E. Under the influence of his Chinese bride and first Nepali wife Bhrikuti, the Emperor converted to Buddhism and established it as the religion of Tibet. An influx of Chinese culture, the Indian alphabet, and Buddhist monks followed, combining with the native customs and animistic religion Bön to give birth to what has become today's ethnic Tibetan people
and Tibetan Buddhism
, also known as Lamaism,
After the break-up of the Tibetan Empire in the mid-9th century, central rule was largely nonexistent over the region for 400 years. But Buddhism survived and when the Mongols conquered the region, Buddhism was adopted as the official religion of their empire. In 1271, Kublai Khan
established the Yuan Dynasty and Tibet remained a semi-autonomous entity within it. From the second half of the 14th century until the early 17th, Tibet was ruled by competing Buddhist schools. However, it was during this period that the Gelug
order was founded in 1409 and the institution of the Dalai Lama was established in 1569 with the priest-patron relationship between the Altan Khan
and the 3rd Dalai Lama (the first two were bestowed the title retroactively). The Dalai Lamas are said to be the reincarnates of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteśvara.
It was when the 5th Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso succeeded in establishing Gelug supremacy in Tibet, with the help of the Gushi Khan
, that the post took on the dual role of political and religious leadership (however, the 9th-12th Dalai Lamas died before adulthood). After Lobsang Gyatso's mortal passing in 1682, which was kept a secret for 15 years, there was a period of anarchy and invasions that eventually led to the establishment of a Manchu protectorate over Tibet in 1721 that would intensify into a suzerainty in the 1790s in response to attacks by Nepal, be renewed in 1903 when the Brisith invaded, and would last until 1912. Tibet became independent with the demise of the Manchu Dynasty and would remain so until 1950.
(PRC) entered Tibet and the US government made contact with the Dalai Lama's brother Gyalo Thondup who was living in India to offer US help, which was rejected. In May 1951, a delegation representing the Dalai Lama, only 15 years-old at the time, and led by Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
i traveled to Beijing to be presented with the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
, which established a PRC suzerainty over Tibet: assuming responsibility for Tibet's external affairs while leaving the domestic governance to the Lhasa government and assuring religious freedoms. The treaty was signed by the Lhasa delegation and the 10th Panchen Lama, who had already switched his loyalty to the PRC after flirting with the Kuomintang
and conspiring against the central Tibetan government, which still refused to recognize him as the true Panchen Llama. Later there would be much controversy over the validity of the agreement stemming from claims it was signed under threat of arms and disagreements about whether the delegates had the authority to sign.
But at the time, in Lhasa, the Kutra aristocrats mingled with Chinese officials and even prospered from this association. Mixed parties were thrown throughout the year and even by the Dalai Lama himself. The burden on farmers and peasants of supplying the troops with food led to shortages and rising prices, coupled with influenza and smallpox outbreaks, weighted heavy on the majority of Tibetans, who were only marginally surviving before. Protests called "people's assemblies" began in Lhasa, where organizers sent letters of grievances to the government and posted anti-Chinese slogans in public places. The leaders were promptly arrested and the protests stifled.(106-108)
In early 1952, Thondup returned to Lhasa with a economic reform plan that would include lowering taxes and land reform
. With the Dalai Lama in agreement, Thondup went about implementing the reforms only to meet with strong resistance from the wealthy old guard who labeled him a radical communist. The label sparked the interests of the Chinese who invited him to Beijing to study, but instead he fled back to India, where he began conspiring with the CIA to form and train a Tibetan insurgency. Again the US tried to convince the Dalai Lama to do the same with an offer of "full aid and assistance", but he refused.
The Dalai Lama saw the need to modernize Tibet and was open to Marxism.
Indeed, on the Tibetan leader's journey home from his year in China, Khampa and Amdo
wa clan leaders informed his chief of staff of their plans to rebel against the Chinese in retribution for land confiscation and attacks on monasteries. But all was relatively quiet in Lhasa and in April, 1956 he received a Chinese delegation to inaugurate the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet: a 51 man committee composed mostly of Tibetans. Meanwhile, open rebellion began the with the massacre of a Communist garrison in Kham which left an estimated 800 Chinese dead, sparking air strikes that killed more Tibetans. In addition, the CIA met with the Dalai Lama's two brothers Thubten Jigme Norbu and Gyalo Thondup in India and offered to train a pilot group of six Khampas in guerrilla warfare
and radio communications in Saipan. They were smuggled out of Tibet and would later be parachuted back in to train others and to report back to the CIA on the insurgency's progress and needs.
According to the Dalai Lama, his visit to India in November 1956, during which he met with Tibetan "freedom fighters" which included two of his elder brothers, "spoiled good relations with China." The exiles encouraged him to stay and join their fight for independence but Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
warned him that India could not offer support. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
, who was also in Delhi, assured him of Mao's decision to postpone for six years further reforms in Tibet. Both Nehru and Enlai counciled the Lama to return to Lhasa.
Although the Chinese let up on reforms, they continued military operations in the areas in rebellion causing thousands of refugees to gather around Lhasa. In July 1957, the Dalai Lama hosted a large ceremony in the Potala Palace, during which he accepted a golden throne and petition from representatives of the Chushi Gangdruk
movement and in return gave them a blessing touch on their foreheads, and issued them with a talisman. They would soon become a 5,000 man strong "Defenders of the Faith Volunteer Army" under the leadership of Gompo Tashi Andrugtsang that would struggle against the Chinese for years. However, in September 1957 when the first two CIA trainees dropped into Tibet to deliver a message from the CIA offering support to the Tibetan leader, it was refused. The second drop of four men was disastrous: only one managed to escape alive. Meanwhile, by 1958 Gompo's army was doing quite well taking control of large portions of central Tibet.
On March 10, 1959, a huge crowd surrounded the summer palace in response to a rumor that the Chinese communists were planning to arrest the Dalai Lama at a cultural performance in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) camp. The people were determined not to allow the Dalai Lama to leave Norbulingka
palace. A mob riot ensued that at first was directed at Tibetan officials perceived not to be adequately protecting the Dalai Lama but quickly evolved into a full-scale anti-Chinese rebellion. PLA General Tan considered the Dalai Lama to be in danger and offered him refuge if he could just make it to the Chinese camp. He declined the offer. A week into the fighting, the General ordered two mortar rounds shot toward the palace. At that point, the Dalai Lama decided the time had come to slip out over the mountains, with a very small party, arriving a few days later at the Indian border. He was granted asylum by the Nehru government with the stipulation that he would not engage in politics on Indian soil. Meanwhile Enlai dissolved the Tibetan government and appointed the Preparatory Committee for the Founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region to take its place.
Already in July 1958, air drops of arms to the Chushi Gandruk had begun, the CIA had relocated Tibetan guerrilla trainees to Camp Hale
in Colorado, USA (where a strong Tibetan community still resides today http://www.coloradotibetans.org/ColoradoYaks.aspx), and parachute dispatch officers had been recruited from among the Montana US Forest Service smoke jumpers (who became known as the "Missoula Mafia". But according to Thundrop, the Dalai Lama did not know about CIA involvement until he reached India.
As he was announcing his whereabouts, the Khampa rebels were met by massive Chinese forces and were nearly obliterated. While they spent several months regrouping, the US failed to form a coalition of nations willing to recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile or even to find countries who would host the Dalai Lama on a tour to explain his cause.
In autumn the CIA parachuted four groups of Camp Hale
trainees inside Tibet. The first was met by Chinese and the men fled for their lives. Two groups arrived safely and even facilitated successful arms drops, but the Chinese caught on and within a month all but a few of the team members and thousands of Khampa families were massacred. The CIA guerrilla training failed to take into account that the Khampa warriors travelled with family and livestock in tow. The fourth group had about the same luck. They arrived, received arms drops, were joined by two more teams, but in February 1960 the Chinese killed them along with another 4,000 rebel fighters and their parties. One last group was dropped in 1961, but all but one were killed only three months after landing. The survivor was captured and as he says, tortured, until he told the entire story of Colorado. He was released from prison in 1979.
At the proposal of Thundop and Gompo Tashi in early 1960, a Tibetan guerrilla base was established in Mustang, Nepal, where some 2,000 mostly ethnic Khampa amassed in such a disorderly fashion that the first year was a challenge for survival given that the US could not get food supplies to them due to a suspension of overflights stemming from the U-2 incident. By spring 1961, Mustang guerrilla units had begun raids along a 250 mile stretch inside Tibet. In addition, some 12,000 Tibetans eventually joined the Special Frontier Force that manned the Sino-Indian border. But as the years passed without any bases established inside Tibet, US enthusiasm over the Mustang fighters dwindled and already sparse and insufficient arms drops ceased in 1965 leaving an aging and barely armed guerrilla force in dire straights. The 25 small teams of Colorado-trained Tibetans who were sent into Tibet from 1964-1967 on fact-finding missions had no better luck. Only two were able to operate in-country for more than two months, finding no support from compatriots.
Meanwhile, the CIA provided the government-in-exile money to open offices in Geneva and New York, to arrange for resettlement of Tibetan orphans in Switzerland, and to educate a few dozen Tibetans at Cornell University.
By the time Nixon came to the White House, the CIA had already informed Thundrop that they were terminating support. (296)Years later he would have this to say about the affair:
According to author and scholar Carole McGranahan of the University of Colorado, today the history of the Tibetan resistance is purposefully down-played, uncelebrated, and even ignored by the Tibetan government in exile as it does not fit well into the global image it wishes to project and the current official position of seeking a peaceful coexistence with China.
The seeds of the Middle Way Approach were sewn in the early 1970s in a series of internal government and external consultations. His Holiness was encouraged in 1979 when Deng Xiaoping
told his brother Gyalo Thondup that "except independence, all other issues can be resolved through negotiations". The Dalai Lama agreed to pursue negotiations for a mutually beneficial and peaceful resolution rather than fighting to restore independence. He sent three fact finding missions into Tibet and wrote Deng Xiaoping a long personal letter before his representatives traveled to Beijing in 1982 to open negotiations. However, they reported that their Chinese counterparts were not interested in discussing the situation in Tibet, only the personal status and future of the 14th Dalai Lama. Nevertheless, during the 1980s, the Dalai Lama would send 6 delegations to China. In 1987, before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus the Dalai Lama unveiled the Five Point Peace Plan as a "first step towards a lasting solution".
The next year, the Dalai Lama addressed the European Parliament and offered what was later called the Strasbourg Proposal 1988, which elaborated on the Middle Way Approach and a vision of reconciliation, resembling what some historians say was a suzerainty
relationship between China and Tibet. The proposal basically calls for the establishment of a democratic Tibet with complete soveriegnty over its domestic affairs and non-political foreign affairs, with China retaining its responsibility for Tibet's foreign policy and maintaining its military presence temporarily.
The periodic meetings between CTA envoys and the Chinese government were, Tundrop felt, "like one hand clapping" and so the CTA suspended them in 1994. They resumed at the pace of one per year between 2002 and 2008.
that would end in Beijing where the 2008 Summer Olympics
were held.
What originally began as an annual observance of Tibetan Uprising Day
turned into street protests by large numbers of monks from various monasteries for several days. Crowd control and arrests escalated the tensions eventually setting off a riot by thousands of Tibetans in the Ramoche section of Lhasa on March 14, 2008. When the police fled the scene, rioters looted and burned more than 1200 Chinese shops, offices, and residences and set fire to nearly 100 vehicles. In the end, an estimated 22 were dead and 325 injured, mostly Han. Total damage was estimated at $40 million USD. Eventually the paramilitary People's Armed Police
were sent in and 50-100 Tibetan rioters were killed before things quieted down. Meanwhile in the Gansu Province, a demonstration by 400 monks were met with force that ignited riots by more than 5000 Tibetans who again burned down the establishments of local Han and Hui people
before security forces arrived.
The Tibetan chairman of the TAR government Jampa Phuntsok
, who was in Beijing at the time, told the foreign press that security personnel in Lhasa had shown great restraint and did not use lethal force. However, it was the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party who was dispatched to Tibet to deal with the situation and the Tibetan officials remained in other provinces. Eventually 90 locations erupted in protests. Their common slogans and Tibetan flags indicated desires for independence or autonomy.
Simultaneously, in India a coalition of Tibetan exile organizations- Tibetan Youth Congress
(YTC), Tibetan Women’s Association
, Tibetan political prisoners’ movement, Students for a Free Tibet
and National Democratic Party of Tibet
- calling itself the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement (TPUM) struck out on a “Return March to Tibet” on March 10. Carrying Tibetan flags and calling for independence, they planned to reach Tibet on foot just in time for the opening of the Olympic games. Both India and Nepal reminded the Dalai Lama that the Tibetans' welcome in the area was predicated on the agreement of no anti-China political maneuvers from their territories. The Dharamsala government met with the marchers. When it was clear that the marchers would continue their trek in blatant defiance of the Dalai Lama, they were arrested by state authorities in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand on March 28.
On March 24, 2008 the Olympic Torch Relay began its 137,000 km route. Tibetan exiles and supporters in Paris, London, San Francisco, New Delhi, Islamabad, and Jakarta, Soeul, etc. used the event to stage protests. In some places they were met by local Chinese and other counter-protesters. The fiasco caused the International Olympics Committee to ban international Torch Relay in the future.
The Chinese government blamed the "Dalai clique" for the uprising, the march and the Olympic protests and called TYC a terrorist organization prepared to initiate guerrilla warfare once across the border. The PRC published articles denouncing the various historical plots and activities of the Tibetan exiles as well as US funding to Tibetan activists through the National Endowment for Democracy
.
The Dalai Lama denied that his government had anything to do with the Olympic protests and said that he did not advocate a boycott of the games. He called on demonstrators to refrain from any violence, and gave interviews clarifying that his goals were not currently to seek independence from China. The Dalai Lama threatened to resign over TPUM disobedience to the official policy of non-violence and genuine Tibetan autonomy. His ultimately using Indian state authority to stop the march caused a rift between him and some of his younger followers. In the end, international pressure finally led PRC representatives to renew unofficial talks with their Dharmsala counterparts.
Tenzin Gaytso officially announced retirement from his role as the political leader of the Central Tibetan Administration in March 2011 just before elections were to take place to choose the next prime minister, which would become the highest ranking political office of the CTA. He had talked about doing so at least since 2008. In a press conference in December 2010, he claimed that the "400 year-old tradition" of the Dalai Lama serving as spiritual and political leader had already been terminated because since 2001 the CTA's elected political leadership has been carrying out the administrative responsibilities and therefore he had been in semi-retirement for a decade.
The Chinese government called the retirement a "political show" and said that the CTA is illegal and any moves will not be recognized. Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet speculates that governments who have found it politically troublesome for them to deal with the Dalai Lama as a political-cum-religious leader may now be able to forge a formal relationship with him as a purely religious leader.
Dr. Lobsang Sangay, a Fullbright scholar and graduate of Harvard Law School who was born in a refugee camp in India in 1968 and who has never stepped foot in Tibet, was named Prime Minister of the CTA on April 27, 2011. He has announced that he will spend his five-year tenure in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the CTA. There he will not only assume the administrative responsibilities held by the previous PM, but will succeed the Dalai Lama as the political leader of the Tibetan cause, thus ignoring the PRC insistence that the Dalai Lama be succeeded by means of reincarnation, not another method of selection. Sangay, who once was a militant of the Tibetan Youth Congress, a group that unequivocally supports Tibetan independence, says he has matured and now supports the Middle Way Approach. Only about 80,000 Tibetans, half of the registered exile population, were eligible to vote because those living in Nepal were prevented by their host country from participating. The 6 million Tibetans inside Tibet and China did not participate. It is unknown if an exile government not lead by the Dalai Lama, who was legitimated by religious tradition, will be viable.
Meanwhile the Dalai Lama continues resisting Chinese domination over Tibetan culture and religion despite China's attempts to ensure that after leaving this lifetime Avalokiteshvara reincarnates only with China's approval. One way China has done this is by declaring that the next Dalai Lama must be born in China, thereby excluding anyone born outside their political control. The Dalai Lama has refused to be reborn in China and has suggested that perhaps the bodhisattva of compassion will simply choose not to return to earth after this lifetime.
Secondly, it is traditionally believed that only the Dalai Lamas can recognize the incarnations of the Panchen Lama, who in turn can recognize the incarnations of Avalokiteshvara. In the 11th Panchen Lama controversy
, the Dalai Lama recognized Gedhun Choekyi Nyima
disappeared from public, along with his family when he was 6 years old, in 1995. The Chinese government says that he is under state protection, but has refused all requests from human rights organizations, including the UN Human Rights Council, to supply any proof of this. The Chinese government subsequently named their own Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu, installed at Tashilhunpo Monastery, who was recently appointed to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
. It will be the PRC's Panchen Lama who will be tasked with recognizing the 15th incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, if the bodhisattva chooses to reincarnate.
History of Tibet
Tibetan history, as it has been recorded, is particularly focused on the history of Buddhism in Tibet. This is partly due to the pivotal role this religion has played in the development of Tibetan, Mongol, and Manchu cultures, and partly because almost all native historians of the country were...
and the history of China
History of China
Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...
have been interconnected throughout the centuries. The complexity of their relationship is the root of the contemporary dispute over Tibetan claims of sovereignty. Tibet has struggled to maintain a unique identity and some degree of political autonomy at least since the 5th century C.E., not only vis-a-vis China, but other regional rivals and even Britain.
Tibetan resistance to Communist China can be divided into four main phases:
- Early Resistance (1950–1959)
- Independence Campaign (1959–1969)
- The Middle Way Approach
- 2008 Uprisings
Over the years the Tibetan government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (CTA)
Central Tibetan Administration
The Central Tibetan Administration , is an organisation based in India with the stated goals of "rehabilitating Tibetan refugees and restoring freedom and happiness in Tibet". It was established by the 14th Dalai Lama in 1959 shortly after his exile from Tibet...
, has shifted the goal of its resistance stance from attempting measured cooperation with autonomy, to demanding full independence, to seeking "genuine autonomy for all Tibetans living in the three traditional provinces of Tibet within the framework of the People's Republic of China". However, not all exiled Tibetans are content with pursuing a moderate path and many expressed their frustration in 2008, against the Dalai Lama's wishes, by agitating for independence.
With the 14th Dalai Lama announcing his retirement from political life just before the April 2011 elections for Prime Minister, who will henceforth be Tibet's political leader, the nature of resistance may be moving into yet another phase, although the three leading candidates currently favor the Middle Way Approach.
Background
Tibetan Empire
The historic name for the Tibetan Empire is different from Tibet's present name.Traditional Tibetan history preserves a lengthy list of rulers, whose exploits become subject to external verification in the Chinese histories by the seventh century. From the 7th to the 11th century a series of...
in the seventh century C.E. Under the influence of his Chinese bride and first Nepali wife Bhrikuti, the Emperor converted to Buddhism and established it as the religion of Tibet. An influx of Chinese culture, the Indian alphabet, and Buddhist monks followed, combining with the native customs and animistic religion Bön to give birth to what has become today's ethnic Tibetan people
Tibetan people
The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...
and Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
, also known as Lamaism,
After the break-up of the Tibetan Empire in the mid-9th century, central rule was largely nonexistent over the region for 400 years. But Buddhism survived and when the Mongols conquered the region, Buddhism was adopted as the official religion of their empire. In 1271, Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...
established the Yuan Dynasty and Tibet remained a semi-autonomous entity within it. From the second half of the 14th century until the early 17th, Tibet was ruled by competing Buddhist schools. However, it was during this period that the Gelug
Gelug
The Gelug or Gelug-pa , also known as the Yellow Hat sect, is a school of Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa , a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader...
order was founded in 1409 and the institution of the Dalai Lama was established in 1569 with the priest-patron relationship between the Altan Khan
Altan Khan
Altan Khan , whose given name was Anda , was the ruler of the Tümet Mongols and de facto ruler of the Right Wing, or western tribes, of the Mongols...
and the 3rd Dalai Lama (the first two were bestowed the title retroactively). The Dalai Lamas are said to be the reincarnates of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteśvara.
It was when the 5th Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso succeeded in establishing Gelug supremacy in Tibet, with the help of the Gushi Khan
Güshi Khan
Güshi Khan , a Khoshut prince and leader of the Khoshut Khanate, who had supplanted the Tumed descendants of Altan Khan. His military assistance to the Gelug school enabled the 5th Dalai Lama to establish political control over Tibet...
, that the post took on the dual role of political and religious leadership (however, the 9th-12th Dalai Lamas died before adulthood). After Lobsang Gyatso's mortal passing in 1682, which was kept a secret for 15 years, there was a period of anarchy and invasions that eventually led to the establishment of a Manchu protectorate over Tibet in 1721 that would intensify into a suzerainty in the 1790s in response to attacks by Nepal, be renewed in 1903 when the Brisith invaded, and would last until 1912. Tibet became independent with the demise of the Manchu Dynasty and would remain so until 1950.
Early Resistance
In 1950, the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
(PRC) entered Tibet and the US government made contact with the Dalai Lama's brother Gyalo Thondup who was living in India to offer US help, which was rejected. In May 1951, a delegation representing the Dalai Lama, only 15 years-old at the time, and led by Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was a Tibetan senior official who assumed various military and political responsibilities both before and after 1951. He is often known simply as Ngabo in English sources.-Early life:...
i traveled to Beijing to be presented with the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
The Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, or the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet for short, is the document by which the delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama allegedly reached an...
, which established a PRC suzerainty over Tibet: assuming responsibility for Tibet's external affairs while leaving the domestic governance to the Lhasa government and assuring religious freedoms. The treaty was signed by the Lhasa delegation and the 10th Panchen Lama, who had already switched his loyalty to the PRC after flirting with the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
and conspiring against the central Tibetan government, which still refused to recognize him as the true Panchen Llama. Later there would be much controversy over the validity of the agreement stemming from claims it was signed under threat of arms and disagreements about whether the delegates had the authority to sign.
But at the time, in Lhasa, the Kutra aristocrats mingled with Chinese officials and even prospered from this association. Mixed parties were thrown throughout the year and even by the Dalai Lama himself. The burden on farmers and peasants of supplying the troops with food led to shortages and rising prices, coupled with influenza and smallpox outbreaks, weighted heavy on the majority of Tibetans, who were only marginally surviving before. Protests called "people's assemblies" began in Lhasa, where organizers sent letters of grievances to the government and posted anti-Chinese slogans in public places. The leaders were promptly arrested and the protests stifled.(106-108)
In early 1952, Thondup returned to Lhasa with a economic reform plan that would include lowering taxes and land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
. With the Dalai Lama in agreement, Thondup went about implementing the reforms only to meet with strong resistance from the wealthy old guard who labeled him a radical communist. The label sparked the interests of the Chinese who invited him to Beijing to study, but instead he fled back to India, where he began conspiring with the CIA to form and train a Tibetan insurgency. Again the US tried to convince the Dalai Lama to do the same with an offer of "full aid and assistance", but he refused.
The Dalai Lama saw the need to modernize Tibet and was open to Marxism.
Indeed, on the Tibetan leader's journey home from his year in China, Khampa and Amdo
Amdo
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...
wa clan leaders informed his chief of staff of their plans to rebel against the Chinese in retribution for land confiscation and attacks on monasteries. But all was relatively quiet in Lhasa and in April, 1956 he received a Chinese delegation to inaugurate the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet: a 51 man committee composed mostly of Tibetans. Meanwhile, open rebellion began the with the massacre of a Communist garrison in Kham which left an estimated 800 Chinese dead, sparking air strikes that killed more Tibetans. In addition, the CIA met with the Dalai Lama's two brothers Thubten Jigme Norbu and Gyalo Thondup in India and offered to train a pilot group of six Khampas in guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
and radio communications in Saipan. They were smuggled out of Tibet and would later be parachuted back in to train others and to report back to the CIA on the insurgency's progress and needs.
According to the Dalai Lama, his visit to India in November 1956, during which he met with Tibetan "freedom fighters" which included two of his elder brothers, "spoiled good relations with China." The exiles encouraged him to stay and join their fight for independence but Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
warned him that India could not offer support. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
, who was also in Delhi, assured him of Mao's decision to postpone for six years further reforms in Tibet. Both Nehru and Enlai counciled the Lama to return to Lhasa.
Although the Chinese let up on reforms, they continued military operations in the areas in rebellion causing thousands of refugees to gather around Lhasa. In July 1957, the Dalai Lama hosted a large ceremony in the Potala Palace, during which he accepted a golden throne and petition from representatives of the Chushi Gangdruk
Chushi Gangdruk
Chushi Gangdruk was an organization of Tibetan guerrilla fighters who attempted to overthrow the rule of the People's...
movement and in return gave them a blessing touch on their foreheads, and issued them with a talisman. They would soon become a 5,000 man strong "Defenders of the Faith Volunteer Army" under the leadership of Gompo Tashi Andrugtsang that would struggle against the Chinese for years. However, in September 1957 when the first two CIA trainees dropped into Tibet to deliver a message from the CIA offering support to the Tibetan leader, it was refused. The second drop of four men was disastrous: only one managed to escape alive. Meanwhile, by 1958 Gompo's army was doing quite well taking control of large portions of central Tibet.
On March 10, 1959, a huge crowd surrounded the summer palace in response to a rumor that the Chinese communists were planning to arrest the Dalai Lama at a cultural performance in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) camp. The people were determined not to allow the Dalai Lama to leave Norbulingka
Norbulingka
Norbulingka is a palace and surrounding park in Lhasa, Tibet, built from 1755. It served as the traditional summer residence of the successive Dalai Lamas from the 1780s up until the 14th Dalai Lama's exile in 1959...
palace. A mob riot ensued that at first was directed at Tibetan officials perceived not to be adequately protecting the Dalai Lama but quickly evolved into a full-scale anti-Chinese rebellion. PLA General Tan considered the Dalai Lama to be in danger and offered him refuge if he could just make it to the Chinese camp. He declined the offer. A week into the fighting, the General ordered two mortar rounds shot toward the palace. At that point, the Dalai Lama decided the time had come to slip out over the mountains, with a very small party, arriving a few days later at the Indian border. He was granted asylum by the Nehru government with the stipulation that he would not engage in politics on Indian soil. Meanwhile Enlai dissolved the Tibetan government and appointed the Preparatory Committee for the Founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region to take its place.
Independence Campaign
Once in exile, the Dalai Lama's discourse changed from cooperative autonomy to independence. He cited the 17 Point Agreement as proof of Tibet's claim to sovereignty, while at the same time he declared it void because the Chinese had violated it and because, he claimed, it had been signed under duress. He also made clear that he was in favor of economic, social and political reforms, but that the Chinese had not acted in good faith. He closed his first press conference in India in April 1959 by subtley establishing the government-in-exile by declaring, "wherever I am accompanied by my Government, the Tibetan people will recognize such as the Government of Tibet."http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=83&rmenuid=11 The UN General Assembly responded by passing three resolutions in the first half of the decade calling for "respect for the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people and for their distinctive cultural and religious life" and recognising the right of the Tibetan people to self-determination. http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=83&rmenuid=11. The US responded differently.Already in July 1958, air drops of arms to the Chushi Gandruk had begun, the CIA had relocated Tibetan guerrilla trainees to Camp Hale
Camp Hale
Camp Hale, between Red Cliff and Leadville in the Eagle River valley in Colorado, was a U.S. Army training facility constructed in 1942 for what became the 10th Mountain Division. It was named for General Irving Hale....
in Colorado, USA (where a strong Tibetan community still resides today http://www.coloradotibetans.org/ColoradoYaks.aspx), and parachute dispatch officers had been recruited from among the Montana US Forest Service smoke jumpers (who became known as the "Missoula Mafia". But according to Thundrop, the Dalai Lama did not know about CIA involvement until he reached India.
As he was announcing his whereabouts, the Khampa rebels were met by massive Chinese forces and were nearly obliterated. While they spent several months regrouping, the US failed to form a coalition of nations willing to recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile or even to find countries who would host the Dalai Lama on a tour to explain his cause.
In autumn the CIA parachuted four groups of Camp Hale
Camp Hale
Camp Hale, between Red Cliff and Leadville in the Eagle River valley in Colorado, was a U.S. Army training facility constructed in 1942 for what became the 10th Mountain Division. It was named for General Irving Hale....
trainees inside Tibet. The first was met by Chinese and the men fled for their lives. Two groups arrived safely and even facilitated successful arms drops, but the Chinese caught on and within a month all but a few of the team members and thousands of Khampa families were massacred. The CIA guerrilla training failed to take into account that the Khampa warriors travelled with family and livestock in tow. The fourth group had about the same luck. They arrived, received arms drops, were joined by two more teams, but in February 1960 the Chinese killed them along with another 4,000 rebel fighters and their parties. One last group was dropped in 1961, but all but one were killed only three months after landing. The survivor was captured and as he says, tortured, until he told the entire story of Colorado. He was released from prison in 1979.
At the proposal of Thundop and Gompo Tashi in early 1960, a Tibetan guerrilla base was established in Mustang, Nepal, where some 2,000 mostly ethnic Khampa amassed in such a disorderly fashion that the first year was a challenge for survival given that the US could not get food supplies to them due to a suspension of overflights stemming from the U-2 incident. By spring 1961, Mustang guerrilla units had begun raids along a 250 mile stretch inside Tibet. In addition, some 12,000 Tibetans eventually joined the Special Frontier Force that manned the Sino-Indian border. But as the years passed without any bases established inside Tibet, US enthusiasm over the Mustang fighters dwindled and already sparse and insufficient arms drops ceased in 1965 leaving an aging and barely armed guerrilla force in dire straights. The 25 small teams of Colorado-trained Tibetans who were sent into Tibet from 1964-1967 on fact-finding missions had no better luck. Only two were able to operate in-country for more than two months, finding no support from compatriots.
Meanwhile, the CIA provided the government-in-exile money to open offices in Geneva and New York, to arrange for resettlement of Tibetan orphans in Switzerland, and to educate a few dozen Tibetans at Cornell University.
By the time Nixon came to the White House, the CIA had already informed Thundrop that they were terminating support. (296)Years later he would have this to say about the affair:
According to author and scholar Carole McGranahan of the University of Colorado, today the history of the Tibetan resistance is purposefully down-played, uncelebrated, and even ignored by the Tibetan government in exile as it does not fit well into the global image it wishes to project and the current official position of seeking a peaceful coexistence with China.
Middle Way Approach
According to the office of the Dalai Lama the essence of the Middle Way Approach seeks coexistence based on equality and mutual co-operation. It is a:The seeds of the Middle Way Approach were sewn in the early 1970s in a series of internal government and external consultations. His Holiness was encouraged in 1979 when Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
told his brother Gyalo Thondup that "except independence, all other issues can be resolved through negotiations". The Dalai Lama agreed to pursue negotiations for a mutually beneficial and peaceful resolution rather than fighting to restore independence. He sent three fact finding missions into Tibet and wrote Deng Xiaoping a long personal letter before his representatives traveled to Beijing in 1982 to open negotiations. However, they reported that their Chinese counterparts were not interested in discussing the situation in Tibet, only the personal status and future of the 14th Dalai Lama. Nevertheless, during the 1980s, the Dalai Lama would send 6 delegations to China. In 1987, before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus the Dalai Lama unveiled the Five Point Peace Plan as a "first step towards a lasting solution".
- Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace;
- Abandonment of China's population transfer policy which threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a people;
- Respect for the Tibetan people's fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms;
- Restoration and protection of Tibet's natural environment and the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping of nuclear waste;
- Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples.
The next year, the Dalai Lama addressed the European Parliament and offered what was later called the Strasbourg Proposal 1988, which elaborated on the Middle Way Approach and a vision of reconciliation, resembling what some historians say was a suzerainty
Suzerainty
Suzerainty occurs where a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which controls its foreign affairs while allowing the tributary vassal state some limited domestic autonomy. The dominant entity in the suzerainty relationship, or the more powerful entity itself, is called a...
relationship between China and Tibet. The proposal basically calls for the establishment of a democratic Tibet with complete soveriegnty over its domestic affairs and non-political foreign affairs, with China retaining its responsibility for Tibet's foreign policy and maintaining its military presence temporarily.
The periodic meetings between CTA envoys and the Chinese government were, Tundrop felt, "like one hand clapping" and so the CTA suspended them in 1994. They resumed at the pace of one per year between 2002 and 2008.
2008 Uprisings
Sporadic and isolated outbursts by Tibetans against the Chinese continued especially during the unrest between September 1987 until March 1989 in the Tibetan areas of the PRC. But it wasn't until 2008 that a large-scale and coordinated uprising erupted coinciding with international protests accompanying the Olympics torch relay2008 Summer Olympics torch relay
The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from March 24 until August 8, 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, with the theme of "one world, one dream". Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China...
that would end in Beijing where the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
were held.
What originally began as an annual observance of Tibetan Uprising Day
Tibetan Uprising Day
Tibetan Uprising Day, observed on March 10, commemorates the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the presence of the People's Republic of China in Tibet...
turned into street protests by large numbers of monks from various monasteries for several days. Crowd control and arrests escalated the tensions eventually setting off a riot by thousands of Tibetans in the Ramoche section of Lhasa on March 14, 2008. When the police fled the scene, rioters looted and burned more than 1200 Chinese shops, offices, and residences and set fire to nearly 100 vehicles. In the end, an estimated 22 were dead and 325 injured, mostly Han. Total damage was estimated at $40 million USD. Eventually the paramilitary People's Armed Police
People's Armed Police
The People's Armed Police , officially Chinese People's Armed Police Force is a paramilitary or gendarmerie force primarily responsible for civilian policing and fire rescue duties in the People's Republic of China, as well as provide support to PLA during wartime.In contrast to public security...
were sent in and 50-100 Tibetan rioters were killed before things quieted down. Meanwhile in the Gansu Province, a demonstration by 400 monks were met with force that ignited riots by more than 5000 Tibetans who again burned down the establishments of local Han and Hui people
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
before security forces arrived.
Qiangba Puncog
Qiangba Puncog was the Chairman of the government of Tibet Autonomous Region of China from 2003 until January 2010. He is of the Tibetan ethnicity. He was most visible in public during the 2008 Tibetan unrest, receiving diplomats and journalists...
, who was in Beijing at the time, told the foreign press that security personnel in Lhasa had shown great restraint and did not use lethal force. However, it was the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party who was dispatched to Tibet to deal with the situation and the Tibetan officials remained in other provinces. Eventually 90 locations erupted in protests. Their common slogans and Tibetan flags indicated desires for independence or autonomy.
Simultaneously, in India a coalition of Tibetan exile organizations- Tibetan Youth Congress
Tibetan Youth Congress
The Tibetan Youth Congress is an international non-governmental organization that advocates the independence of Tibet from China. With around 30,000 members in the Tibetan diaspora, it is the largest of the pro-independence organizations of Tibetan exiles...
(YTC), Tibetan Women’s Association
Tibetan Women's Association
The Tibetan Women's Association ' is a women's association based in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, India. The group was officially formed on September 10, 1984 in India, by Rinchen Khando Choegyal, a former Tibetan Youth Congress activist, although the group itself claims that a precursor was created in...
, Tibetan political prisoners’ movement, Students for a Free Tibet
Students for a Free Tibet
Students For a Free Tibet is a global grassroots network of students and activists working in solidarity with the Tibetan people for human rights and freedom. The group uses education, advocacy, and nonviolent direct action with the goal of achieving Tibetan independence...
and National Democratic Party of Tibet
National Democratic Party of Tibet
National Democratic Party of Tibet is the only political party created by and for Tibetans "in exile"....
- calling itself the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement (TPUM) struck out on a “Return March to Tibet” on March 10. Carrying Tibetan flags and calling for independence, they planned to reach Tibet on foot just in time for the opening of the Olympic games. Both India and Nepal reminded the Dalai Lama that the Tibetans' welcome in the area was predicated on the agreement of no anti-China political maneuvers from their territories. The Dharamsala government met with the marchers. When it was clear that the marchers would continue their trek in blatant defiance of the Dalai Lama, they were arrested by state authorities in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand on March 28.
On March 24, 2008 the Olympic Torch Relay began its 137,000 km route. Tibetan exiles and supporters in Paris, London, San Francisco, New Delhi, Islamabad, and Jakarta, Soeul, etc. used the event to stage protests. In some places they were met by local Chinese and other counter-protesters. The fiasco caused the International Olympics Committee to ban international Torch Relay in the future.
The Chinese government blamed the "Dalai clique" for the uprising, the march and the Olympic protests and called TYC a terrorist organization prepared to initiate guerrilla warfare once across the border. The PRC published articles denouncing the various historical plots and activities of the Tibetan exiles as well as US funding to Tibetan activists through the National Endowment for Democracy
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
.
The Dalai Lama denied that his government had anything to do with the Olympic protests and said that he did not advocate a boycott of the games. He called on demonstrators to refrain from any violence, and gave interviews clarifying that his goals were not currently to seek independence from China. The Dalai Lama threatened to resign over TPUM disobedience to the official policy of non-violence and genuine Tibetan autonomy. His ultimately using Indian state authority to stop the march caused a rift between him and some of his younger followers. In the end, international pressure finally led PRC representatives to renew unofficial talks with their Dharmsala counterparts.
New Tibetan Leadership
The Chinese government called the retirement a "political show" and said that the CTA is illegal and any moves will not be recognized. Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet speculates that governments who have found it politically troublesome for them to deal with the Dalai Lama as a political-cum-religious leader may now be able to forge a formal relationship with him as a purely religious leader.
Dr. Lobsang Sangay, a Fullbright scholar and graduate of Harvard Law School who was born in a refugee camp in India in 1968 and who has never stepped foot in Tibet, was named Prime Minister of the CTA on April 27, 2011. He has announced that he will spend his five-year tenure in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the CTA. There he will not only assume the administrative responsibilities held by the previous PM, but will succeed the Dalai Lama as the political leader of the Tibetan cause, thus ignoring the PRC insistence that the Dalai Lama be succeeded by means of reincarnation, not another method of selection. Sangay, who once was a militant of the Tibetan Youth Congress, a group that unequivocally supports Tibetan independence, says he has matured and now supports the Middle Way Approach. Only about 80,000 Tibetans, half of the registered exile population, were eligible to vote because those living in Nepal were prevented by their host country from participating. The 6 million Tibetans inside Tibet and China did not participate. It is unknown if an exile government not lead by the Dalai Lama, who was legitimated by religious tradition, will be viable.
Meanwhile the Dalai Lama continues resisting Chinese domination over Tibetan culture and religion despite China's attempts to ensure that after leaving this lifetime Avalokiteshvara reincarnates only with China's approval. One way China has done this is by declaring that the next Dalai Lama must be born in China, thereby excluding anyone born outside their political control. The Dalai Lama has refused to be reborn in China and has suggested that perhaps the bodhisattva of compassion will simply choose not to return to earth after this lifetime.
Secondly, it is traditionally believed that only the Dalai Lamas can recognize the incarnations of the Panchen Lama, who in turn can recognize the incarnations of Avalokiteshvara. In the 11th Panchen Lama controversy
11th Panchen Lama controversy
The 11th Panchen Lama controversy is a dispute about the current legitimate holder of the Panchen Lama title, a political and religious leadership position in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. After the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, a dispute between the Chinese leadership and the exiled 14th Dalai...
, the Dalai Lama recognized Gedhun Choekyi Nyima
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is, according to the 14th Dalai Lama, the eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Lhari County, Tibet. On May 14, 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was named the 11th Panchen Lama by the 14th Dalai Lama...
disappeared from public, along with his family when he was 6 years old, in 1995. The Chinese government says that he is under state protection, but has refused all requests from human rights organizations, including the UN Human Rights Council, to supply any proof of this. The Chinese government subsequently named their own Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu, installed at Tashilhunpo Monastery, who was recently appointed to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference [], shortened as 人民政协, Rénmín Zhèngxié, i.e. "People's PCC"; or just 政协, Zhèngxié, i.e. "The PCC"), abbreviated CPPCC, is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China...
. It will be the PRC's Panchen Lama who will be tasked with recognizing the 15th incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, if the bodhisattva chooses to reincarnate.
Further reading
- 14th Dalai Lama (1991).Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of The Dalai Lama. HarperOne. ISBN 9780060987015
- Ardley, Jane (2002). The Tibetan Independence Movement: Political, Religious and Gandhian Perspectives. Routledge. ISBN 070071572X.
- Conboy, Kenneth J. and James Morrison (2011). The CIA's Secret War in Tibet. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700617883
- Dunham, Mikel (2004). Buddha's Warriors: The Story of the CIA-Backed Tibetan Freedom Fighters, the Chinese Invasion and the Ultimate Fall of Tibet. Penguin Group. ISBN 1585423483
- Hilton, Isabel (1999). The Search For The Panchen Lama. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393321673
- Knaus, John Kenneth (2000). Orphans Of The Cold War America And The Tibetan Struggle For Survival. PublicAffairs.ISBN 9781891620850
- McGranahan, Carole (2010). Arrested Histories: Tibet, the CIA, and Memories of a Forgotten War. Duke University Press Books. ISBN 9780822347712
- Smith, Warren W. Jr. (2009). Tibet's Last Stand?: The Tibetan Uprising of 2008 and China's Response. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0742566854
- Western Shugden Society (2010). The Great Deception: The Ruling Lamas' Policies. Western Shugden Society. ISBN 9780615329246
External links
- The Official Website of the Central Tibetan Administration.
- Chushi Gangdruk's official website.
- The Tibetan Youth Council official website.
- Tibetan Women's Association official website.
- Students For A Free Tibet.
- Western Shugden Society official website.
- The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet. (1998) BBC/White Crane Productions. (Most of the film can be found on YouTube, but they are subtitled in Chinese so only the interviews with CIA personnel are in English.)