After the Mongol Prince Köden took control of the Kokonor region in 1239, he sent his general Doorda Darqan on a reconnaissance mission into Tibet in 1240. During this expedition the Kadampa monasteries of Rwa-sgreng and Rgyal-lha-khang were burned, and 500 people killed. The death of the Mongol qaghan Ögedei Khan in 1241 brought Mongol military activity around the world temporarily to a halt. Mongol interests in Tibet resumed in 1244, when Prince Köden sent an invitation to the leader of the Sakya sect, to come to his capital and formally surrender Tibet to the Mongols. The Sakya leader arrived in Kokonor with his two nephews Drogön Chögyal Phagpa ('Phags-pa; 1235–80) and Chana Dorje (Phyag-na Rdo-rje; 1239–67) in 1246. This event marked the incorporation of Tibet into the Mongol Empire. Tibet was under administrative rule of the Yuan dynasty until the 1350s. At that point, Tibet regained its independence.
In 1720, the Qing dynasty army entered Tibet in aid of the locals and defeated the invading forces of the Dzungar Khanate; thus began the period of Qing rule of Tibet. Later, the Chinese emperor assigned the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama to be in charge of religious and political matters in Tibet. The Dalai Lama was leader of the area around Lhasa; the Panchen Lama was leader of the area of Shigatse Prefecture.
By the early 18th century, the Qing dynasty had started to send resident commissioners (Ambans) to Lhasa. Tibetan factions rebelled in 1750 and killed the resident commissioners after the central government decided to reduce the number of soldiers to about 100. The Qing army entered and defeated the rebels and reinstalled the resident commissioner. The number of soldiers in Tibet was kept at about 2,000. The defensive duties were assisted by a local force which was reorganized by the resident commissioner, and the Tibetan government continued to manage day-to-day affairs as before.
At multiple places such as Lhasa, Batang, Dartsendo, Lhari, Chamdo, and Litang, Green Standard Army troops were garrisoned throughout the Dzungar war.[5]Green Standard Army troops and Manchu Bannermen were both part of the Qing force which fought in Tibet in the war against the Dzungars.[6] It was said that the Sichuan commander Yue Zhongqi (a descendant of Yue Fei) entered Lhasa first when the 2,000 Green Standard soldiers and 1,000 Manchu soldiers of the "Sichuan route" seized Lhasa.[7] According to Mark C. Elliott, after 1728 the Qing used Green Standard Army troops to man the garrison in Lhasa rather than Bannermen.[8] According to Evelyn S. Rawski, both Green Standard Army and Bannermen made up the Qing garrison in Tibet.[9] According to Sabine Dabringhaus, Green Standard Chinese soldiers numbering more than 1,300 were stationed by the Qing in Tibet to support the 3,000-strong Tibetan army.[10]
In the mid 19th century, arriving with an Amban, a community of Chinese troops from Sichuan who married Tibetan women settled down in the Lubu neighborhood of Lhasa, where their descendants established a community and assimilated into Tibetan culture.[11] Hebalin was the location of where Chinese Muslim troops and their offspring lived, while Lubu was the place where Han Chinese troops and their offspring lived.[12]
In 1904, the British Empirelaunched an expedition to Tibet to counter perceived Russian influence in the region. The expedition, which initially set out with the stated goal of resolving border disputes between Tibet and Sikkim, quickly turned into an invasion of Tibet. The forces of the expedition invaded and captured Lhasa, with the 13th Dalai Lama fleeing to the countryside. After the British captured Lhasa, a treaty was signed between the two nations, known as the Convention Between Great Britain and Tibet, which gained for the British great economic influence in the region while ensuring that Tibet remained under Chinese control. Just two years later, however, the British signed a new treaty with the Qing government, known as the Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting Tibet, which affirmed Chinese control of Tibet. The British agreed not to annex or interfere in Tibet in return for indemnity from the Chinese government, while China engaged "not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet".
The Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1906 recognized Chinese suzerainty over the region.[13] The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, without Lhasa's or Beijing's acknowledgement, recognized the suzerainty of China over Tibet.[14] The Qing central government claimed for sovereignty and direct rule over Tibet in 1910. The 13th Dalai Lama fled to British India in February 1910. In the same month, the Chinese government issued a proclamation 'deposing' the Dalai Lama and instigating the search for a new incarnation.[15] When he returned from exile, the Dalai Lama declared Tibetan independence (1912).
The subsequent outbreak of World War I and civil war in China meant that the Chinese factions only controlled part of Tibet. The government of the 13th Dalai Lama controlled Ü-Tsang (Dbus-gtsang) and western Kham, roughly coincident with the borders of the Tibet Autonomous Region today. Eastern Kham, separated from it by the Yangtze River, was under the control of Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui. The situation in Amdo (Qinghai) was more complicated, with the Xining area controlled by warlord Ma Bufang (of Hui ethnicity), who constantly strove to exert control over the rest of Amdo (Qinghai).
"Our Party [the Kuomintang] takes the development of the weak and small and resistance to the strong and violent as our sole and most urgent task. This is even more true for those groups which are not of our kind [Ch. fei wo zulei zhe]. Now the peoples [minzu] of Mongolia and Tibet are closely related to us, and we have great affection for one another: our common existence and common honor already have a history of over a thousand years... Mongolia and Tibet's life and death are China's life and death. China absolutely cannot cause Mongolia and Tibet to break away from China's territory, and Mongolia and Tibet cannot reject China to become independent. At this time, there is not a single nation on earth except China that will sincerely develop Mongolia and Tibet."[16]
In 1950, the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China invaded Tibet, after taking over the rest of China from the Republic of China during the five years of civil war. In 1951, the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, a treaty signed by representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, provided for rule by a joint administration under representatives of the central government and the Tibetan government.[citation needed]
The Chinese have claimed that most of the population of Tibet at that time were serfs, bound to land owned by lamas. This claim has been challenged by other researchers (see serfdom in Tibet controversy). Any attempt at land reform or the redistribution of wealth would have proved unpopular with the established landowners. The Seventeen Point Agreement was put into effect only in Tibet proper; ergo, eastern Kham and Amdo, being outside the administration of the government of Tibet, were treated like territory belonging to any other Chinese province, with land reform implemented in full. As a result, a rebellion broke out in these regions in June 1956. The rebellion eventually spread to Lhasa, but was crushed by 1959. The 14th Dalai Lama and other government principals fled to exile in India.
CIA and MI6 activities in Tibet (1950–1970)
According to the 14th Dalai Lama, the CIA supported the Tibetan independence movement in the 1960s "not because they (the CIA) cared about Tibetan independence, but as part of their worldwide efforts to destabilize all communistgovernments".
Agents of Western governments had infiltrated Tibet by the mid-1950s, a few years after Tibet had been annexed by the People's Republic of China. Beginning in the 1950s the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained Tibetans as paramilitaries.[18] British MI6 agent Sydney Wignall, in his autobiography,[19] reveals that he and John Harrop travelled to Tibet together in 1955 posing as mountaineers. Captured by the Chinese authority, Wignall recalled that he was surprised to find two CIA agents were already under Chinese detention.
Clandestine military involvement by the U.S. began following the series of uprisings in the eastern Tibetan region of Kham in 1956. Several small groups of Khampa fighters were trained by the CIA camp and then airdropped back into Tibet with supplies. In 1958, with the rebellion in Kham ongoing, two of these fighters, Athar and Lhotse, attempted to meet with the Dalai Lama to determine whether he would cooperate with their activities.[citation needed] However, their request for an audience was refused by the Lord Chamberlain, Phala Thubten Wonden, who believed such a meeting would be impolitic.[citation needed] According to Tsering Shakya, "Phala never told the Dalai Lama or the Kashag of the arrival of Athar and Lhotse. Nor did he inform the Dalai Lama of American willingness to provide aid."[20]
Following a mass uprising in Lhasa in 1959 during the celebration of the Tibetan New Year and the ensuing Chinese military response, the Dalai Lama went into exile in India.The Dalai Lama's escape was assisted by the CIA. After 1959, the CIA trained Tibetan guerrillas and provided funds and weapons for the fight against China. However, assistance was reduced during the course of the 1960s and finally ended when Richard Nixon decided to seek rapprochement with China in the early 1970s. Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison, in The CIA's Secret War in Tibet,[21] reveal how the CIA encouraged Tibetan revolt against China — and eventually came to control its fledgling resistance movement. The New York Times reported on 2 October 1998 that the Tibetan exile movement received $1.7 million a year in the 1960s from the CIA. The Dalai Lama said in his autobiography that his brothers were responsible and that they didn't tell him about it, knowing what his reaction would be. Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama's personal representative in Washington, said he had no knowledge of the annual subsidy of $180,000 marked as for the Dalai Lama or how it was spent. The government in exile say they knew that the CIA trained and equipped Tibetan guerrillas who raided Tibet from a base camp in Nepal, and that the effect of those operations "only resulted in more suffering for the people of Tibet. Worse, these activities gave the Chinese government the opportunity to blame the efforts of those seeking to regain Tibetan independence on the activities of foreign powers—whereas, of course, it was an entirely Tibetan initiative."[22][23] The budget figures for the CIA's Tibetan program were as follows:
The status of Tibet before 1950, especially in the period between 1912 and 1950, is largely in dispute between supporters and opponents of Tibetan independence.
According to supporters of Tibetan independence[who?], Tibet was a distinct nation and state independent between the fall of the Mongol Empire in 1368 and subjugation by the Qing Dynasty in 1720; and again between the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 and its incorporation into the PRC in 1951.[citation needed] Moreover, even during the periods of nominal subjugation to the Yuan and Qing, Tibet was largely self-governing.[citation needed] As such, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) views current PRC rule in Tibet as illegitimate, motivated solely by the natural resources and strategic value of Tibet, and in violation of both Tibet's historical status as an independent country and the right of the Tibetan people to self-determination.[citation needed] It also points to PRC's autocratic and divide-and-rule policies, and assimilationist policies, regarding those as an example of imperialism bent on destroying Tibet's distinct ethnic makeup, culture, and identity, thereby cementing it as an indivisible part of China.[citation needed] After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, both Mongolia and Tibet declared independence and recognized each other as such.[citation needed]
On the other hand, opponents[who?] assert that the PRC rules Tibet legitimately, by saying that Tibet has been part of Chinese history since the 7th century as the Tibetan Empire had close interactions with the Chinese dynasties through royal marriage. In addition to the de facto power that the Chinese has since then, Yuan Dynasty conquest in the 13th century and that all subsequent Chinese governments (Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, Republic of China, and People's Republic of China) have been exercising de jure sovereignty power over Tibet.[citation needed]
In addition, as this position argues that no country gave Tibet diplomatic recognition between 1912 and 1950, they say that China, under the Republic of China government, continued to maintain sovereignty over the region, and the leaders of Tibet themselves acknowledged Chinese sovereignty by sending delegates to the following: the Drafting Committee for a new constitution of the Republic of China in 1925, the National Assembly of the Republic of China in 1931, the fourth National Congress of the Kuomintang in 1931, the National Constituent Assembly of the Republic of China[zh], which drafted a new Chinese constitution in 1946, and finally to another National Assembly for drafting a new Chinese constitution in 1948.[25] Finally, some within the PRC[who?] considers all movements aimed at ending Chinese sovereignty in Tibet, starting with the expedition of 1904, to the CTA today, as one interconnected campaign abetted by malicious Western powers aimed at destroying Chinese integrity and sovereignty, thereby weakening China's position in the world. The PRC also points to what it calls the autocratic and theocratic policies of the government of Tibet before 1959, as well as its renunciation of South Tibet, claimed by China as a part of historical Tibet occupied by India, as well as the Dalai Lama's association with India, and as such claims the CTA has no moral legitimacy to govern Tibet.[citation needed]
Tibetan exiles generally say that the number that have died in the Great Leap Forward, violence, or other unnatural causes since 1950 is approximately 1.2 million.[26] However, this number is controversial. According to Patrick French, a supporter of the Tibetan cause who was able to view the data and calculations, the estimate is not reliable because the Tibetans were not able to process the data well enough to produce a credible total, with many persons double or triple counted. There were, however, many casualties, perhaps as many as 400,000.[27] This figure is extrapolated from a calculation Warren W. Smith made from census reports of Tibet which show 200,000 "missing" from Tibet.[28] Even anti-Communist resources such as the Black Book of Communism expresses doubt at the 1.2 million figure, but does note that according to the Chinese census, the total population of ethnic Tibetans in the PRC was 2.8 million in 1953, but only 2.5 million in 1964. It puts forward a figure of 800,000 deaths and alleges that as many as 10% of Tibetans were interned, with few survivors.[29]Chinese demographers have estimated that 90,000 of the 300,000 "missing" Tibetans fled the region.[30]
The Central Tibetan Administration also says that millions of Chinese immigrants to the TAR are diluting the Tibetans both culturally and through intermarriage.[citation needed] Exile groups say that despite recent attempts to restore the appearance of original Tibetan culture to attract tourism, the traditional Tibetan way of life is now irrevocably changed.[citation needed] It is also reported that when Hu Yaobang, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Lhasa in 1980, he was unhappy when he found out the region was behind neighbouring provinces. Reforms were instituted [citation needed], and since then the central government's policy in Tibet has granted most religious freedoms, but monks and nuns were sometimes imprisoned,[31] and many Tibetans (mostly monks and nuns) fled Tibet yearly.[citation needed]
The government of the PRC claims that the population of Tibet in 1737 was about 8 million. It claims that due to the 'backward' rule of the local theocracy, there was rapid decrease in the next two hundred years and the population in 1959 was only about one million.[32] Today, the population of Greater Tibet is 7.3 million, of which 5 million is ethnic Tibetan, according to the 2000 census. According to the PRC the increase is viewed as the result of the abolishment of the theocracy and introduction of a modern, higher standard of living.[citation needed] Based on the census numbers, the PRC also rejects claims that the Tibetans are being swamped by Han Chinese; instead the PRC says that the border for Greater Tibet drawn by the government of Tibet in Exile is so large that it incorporates regions such as Xining that are not traditionally Tibetan in the first place, hence exaggerating the number of non-Tibetans. [citation needed]
The government of the PRC also rejects claims that the lives of Tibetans have deteriorated, pointing to rights enjoyed by the Tibetan language in education and in courts and says that the lives of Tibetans have been improved immensely compared to the Dalai Lama's rule before 1950.[33] Benefits that are commonly quoted include: the GDP of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) today is 30 times that before 1950; it has 22,500km of highways, all built since 1950; all secular education in the region was created after integration into the PRC; there are 25 scientific research institutes, all built by the PRC; infant mortality has dropped from 43% in 1950 to 0.661% in 2000; life expectancy has risen from 35.5 years in 1950 to 67 in 2000; the collection and publishing of the traditional Epic of King Gesar, which is the longest epic poem in the world and had only been handed down orally before; allocation of 300 million Renminbi since the 1980s to the maintenance and protection of Tibetan monasteries.[33]
Supporting organisations
"Free Tibet" LED Banner at Bird's Nest, Beijing, 19 August 2008.Pro-Tibetan protesters come into contact with pro-Chinese protesters in San Francisco
Organisations which support the Tibetan independence movement include:
However, Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, is no longer calling for independence. He has spoken in many international venues, including the United States Congress, and the European Parliament. In 1987, he has also started campaigning for a peaceful resolution to the issue of the status of Tibet, and has since then advocated that Tibet should not become independent, but that it should be given meaningful autonomy within the People's Republic of China. This approach is known as the "Middle Way".[36] In November 2017, he stated that "the past was the past", and that he believed that China after opening up its economy, has changed 40 to 50 percent of what it was earlier. He claimed that Tibetans didn't want independence and instead wanted to stay and have more economic development from China.[4][3] In October 2020, he stated that he did not support Tibetan independence and hoped to visit China as a Nobel Prize winner. He said, "I prefer the concept of a 'republic' in the People's Republic of China. In the concept of republic, ethnic minorities are like Tibetans, the Mongols, Manchus, and Xinjiang Uyghurs, we can live in harmony".[37]
Some organisations either support the "Middle Way" or do not adopt a definitive stance on whether they support independence or greater autonomy. Such organisations include:
Free Tibet Campaign – Located in London, United Kingdom, formed in 1987, stands for the right of Tibetans to determine their own future and for the future of their own country.[38]
The Tibetan independence movement became cause-célèbre in the US and Europe as the words "Free Tibet" and the Tibetan flag gained worldwide fame in the press and public consciousness starting from 1987.[40] The movement gained strength and popular support in the west from 1987 to 2008, until the 2008 Tibetan unrest. The initial spark for the awareness of "Free Tibet" and the Tibetan flag was probably street demonstrations, perhaps specifically the 1986 Ottawa demonstration in Canada.[41]
Eventually, The flag of Tibet and words were printed globally on t-shirts, cushions, mugs, bookmarks, badges, bracelets, bags and other merchandise, and almost all Westerners became aware of the cause of Tibetan independence.
The "Free Tibet" movement is supported by some celebrities, such as Richard Gere and Paris Hilton.[42]
British comedian Russell Brand also occasionally mentions his support for the movement on his BBC Radio 2 show. Richard Gere is one of the most outspoken supporters of the movement and is chairman of the board of directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Actress Sharon Stone caused significant controversy when she suggested that the 2008 Sichuan earthquake may have been the result of "bad karma," because the Chinese "are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine."[43] The Dalai Lama confirmed that he did not share Stone's views, although he confirmed that he had "met the lady".[44]
U.S. actor and martial artist Steven Seagal has been an active supporter of Tibetan independence for several decades and makes regular donations to various Tibetan charities around the world.[45] He has been recognized by Tibetan Lama Penor Rinpoche as the reincarnation of tulkuChungdrag Dorje, the treasure revealer of Palyul Monastery. He also claims to have the special ability of clairvoyance; in a November 2006 interview, he stated: "I was born very different, clairvoyant and a healer".[46]
The Milarepa Fund is an organisation which organises concerts to give publicity to the Tibetan independence movement. The fund was named after Milarepa, the revered 11th-century Tibetan yogi, who used music to enlighten people. It was originally established to disburse royalties from the Beastie Boys album Ill Communication in 1994, to benefit Tibetan monks who were sampled on two songs. The Milarepa Fund organizers also jointed the Beastie Boys as they headlined the 1994 Lollapalooza Tour. Inspired by this tour, they began to organise a concert to promote Tibetan independence, in the style of Live Aid.
Gorillaz, the virtual band have shown support through a TV spot showing animated frontman, 2D, meditating with fellow supporters outside of the Chinese embassy, followed by a brief message encouraging people to join the Free Tibet Campaign. In addition, during the holographic performances of "Clint Eastwood", 2D is wearing a shirt saying "FREE TIBET."[51]
In 2011, an Indian movie Rockstar depicted poster of 'Free Tibet' slogan in Sadda Haq song. People waving the Free Tibet flag in the backdrop was shown in the song video. This triggered a dispute between Central Board of Film Certification and movie director Imtiaz Ali when the Board ordered Ali to blur the flag and Free Tibet slogan before the film hit the theatre, but the director refused to do it. However, Ali had to remove the sequence from the video to get the film's censor done. Deletion of the Tibetan flag from the video caused wide protests in Tibet, Dharamsala and Chennai.
Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and incumbent Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, who lives in exile as a refugee in India. The Dalai Lama is also considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
Tibet or Greater Tibet is a region in the central part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi). It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as the Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa and Lhoba peoples and, since the 20th century, considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui settlers. Since the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1951, the entire plateau has been under the administration of the People's Republic of China. Tibet is divided administratively into the Tibet Autonomous Region, and parts of the Qinghai and Sichuan provinces. Tibet is also constitutionally claimed by the Republic of China as the Tibet Area since 1912.
While the Tibetan plateau has been inhabited since pre-historic times, most of Tibet's history went unrecorded until the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism around the 6th century. Tibetan texts refer to the kingdom of Zhangzhung as the precursor of later Tibetan kingdoms and the originators of the Bon religion. While mythical accounts of early rulers of the Yarlung Dynasty exist, historical accounts begin with the introduction of Buddhism from Nepal in the 6th century and the appearance of envoys from the unified Tibetan Empire in the 7th century. Following the dissolution of the empire and a period of fragmentation in the 9th-10th centuries, a Buddhist revival in the 10th–12th centuries saw the development of three of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Amdo is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being U-Tsang in the west and Kham in the east. Ngari in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Amdo is also the birthplace of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous with China's present-day Qinghai province, but also includes small portions of Sichuan and Gansu provinces.
The foreign relations of Tibet are documented from the 7th century onward, when Buddhism was introduced by missionaries from India and Nepal. The Tibetan Empire fought with the Tang dynasty for control over territory dozens of times, despite peace marriage twice. Tibet was conquered by the Mongol Empire and that changed its internal system of government, introducing the Dalai Lamas, as well as subjecting Tibet to political rule under the Yuan dynasty. Tibetan foreign relations during the Ming dynasty are opaque, with Tibet being either a tributary state or under full Chinese sovereignty. But by the 18th century, the Qing dynasty indisputably made Tibet a subject. In the early 20th century, after a successful invasion, Britain established a trading relationship with Tibet and was permitted limited diplomatic access to "Outer Tibet", basically Shigatse and Lhasa. Britain supported Tibetan autonomy under the 13th Dalai Lama but did not contest Chinese suzerainty; while "Inner Tibet", areas such as Amdo and Kham with mixed Chinese and Tibetan populations to the east and north, remained nominally under the control of the Republic of China although that control was seldom effective. Although the sovereignty of Tibet was unrecognized, Tibet was courted in unofficial visits from Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the United States during and after World War II. The foreign relations of Tibet ended with the Seventeen Point Agreement that formalized Chinese sovereignty over most all of political Tibet in 1951.
Ü-Tsang is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the north-east, and Kham in the east. Ngari in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Geographically Ü-Tsang covered the south-central of the Tibetan cultural area, including the Brahmaputra River watershed. The western districts surrounding and extending past Mount Kailash are included in Ngari, and much of the vast Changtang plateau to the north. The Himalayas defined Ü-Tsang's southern border. The present Tibet Autonomous Region corresponds approximately to what was ancient Ü-Tsang and western Kham.
Chushi Gangdruk was a Tibetan guerrilla group. Formally organized on 16 June 1958, the Chushi Gangdruk guerrilla fighters fought the forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Tibet from 1956 to 1974.
The Seventeen Point Agreement, officially the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, was a document pertaining to the status of Tibet within the People's Republic of China. It was signed by plenipotentiaries of the Central People's Government and the Tibetan government on 23 May 1951, in Zhongnanhai, Beijing. The 14th Dalai Lama ratified the agreement in the form of a telegraph on 24 October 1951.
The Tibetan sovereignty debate refers to two political debates. The first political debate is about whether or not the various territories which are within the People's Republic of China (PRC) that are claimed as political Tibet should separate themselves from China and become a new sovereign state. Many of the points in this political debate rest on the points which are within the second historical debate, about whether Tibet was independent or subordinate to China during certain periods of its recent history.
The history of Tibet from 1950 to the present includes the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, and the Battle of Chamdo. Before then, Tibet had been a de facto independent nation. In 1951, Tibetan representatives in Beijing signed the Seventeen Point Agreement under duress, which affirmed China's sovereignty over Tibet while it simultaneously supported the establishment of an autonomous administration which would be led by Tibet's spiritual leader, and then-political leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when Tibetans attempted to prevent his possible assassination, the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet and moved to northern India, where he established the Central Tibetan Administration, which rescinded the Seventeen Point Agreement. The majority of Tibet's land mass, including all of U-Tsang and areas of Kham and Amdo, was officially established as the Tibet Autonomous Region, within China, in 1965.
The 1959 Tibetan uprising began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. The initial uprising occurred amid general Chinese-Tibetan tensions and a context of confusion, because Tibetan protesters feared that the Chinese government might arrest the 14th Dalai Lama. The protests were also fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment and separatism. At first, the uprising mostly consisted of peaceful protests, but clashes quickly erupted and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) eventually used force to quell the protests, some of the protesters had captured arms. The last stages of the uprising included heavy fighting, with high civilian and military losses. The 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa, while the city was fully retaken by Chinese security forces on 23 March 1959. Thousands of Tibetans were killed during the 1959 uprising, but the exact number of deaths is disputed.
Tibet came under the control of People's Republic of China (PRC) after the Government of Tibet signed the Seventeen Point Agreement which the 14th Dalai Lama ratified on 24 October 1951, but later repudiated on the grounds that he had rendered his approval for the agreement under duress. This occurred after attempts by the Tibetan Government to gain international recognition, efforts to modernize its military, negotiations between the Government of Tibet and the PRC, and a military conflict in the Chamdo area of western Kham in October 1950. The series of events came to be called the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" by the Chinese government, and the "Chinese invasion of Tibet" by the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan diaspora.
The serfdom in Tibet controversy is a prolonged public disagreement over the extent and nature of serfdom in Tibet prior to the annexation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1951. The debate is political in nature, with some arguing that the ultimate goal on the Chinese side is to legitimize Chinese control of the territory now known as the Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, and others arguing that the ultimate goal on the Western side is to weaken or undermine the Chinese state. The argument is that Tibetan culture, government, and society were feudal in nature prior to the PRC takeover of Tibet and that this only changed due to PRC policy in the region. The pro-Tibetan independence movement argument is that this is a misrepresentation of history created as a political tool in order to justify the Sinicization of Tibet.
The Kashag was the governing council of Tibet during the rule of the Qing dynasty and post-Qing period until the 1950s. It was created in 1721, and set by Qianlong Emperor in 1751 for the Ganden Phodrang in the 13-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet. In that year the Tibetan government was reorganized after the riots in Lhasa of the previous year. The civil administration was represented by the Council (Kashag) after the post of Desi was abolished by the Qing imperial court. The Qing imperial court wanted the 7th Dalai Lama to hold both religious and administrative rule, while strengthening the position of the High Commissioners.
Tibet was a country in East Asia that lasted from the collapse of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1912 until its annexation by the People's Republic of China in 1951.
Protests and uprisings in Tibet against the government of the People's Republic of China have occurred since 1950, and include the 1959 uprising, the 2008 uprising, and the subsequent self-immolation protests.
The Battle of Chamdo occurred from 6 to 24 October 1950. It was a military campaign by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to take the Chamdo Region from a de facto independent Tibetan state. The campaign resulted in the capture of Chamdo and the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.
Buddhists, predominantly from India, first actively disseminated their practices in Tibet from the 6th to the 9th centuries CE. During the Era of Fragmentation, Buddhism waned in Tibet, only to rise again in the 11th century. With the Mongol invasion of Tibet and the establishment of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) in China, Tibetan Buddhism spread beyond Tibet to Mongolia and China. From the 14th to the 20th centuries, Tibetan Buddhism was patronized by the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the Manchurian Qing dynasty (1644–1912) which ruled China.
The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang was the Tibetan system of government established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642, after the Oirat lord Güshi Khan who founded the Khoshut Khanate conferred all temporal power on the 5th Dalai Lama in a ceremony in Shigatse in the same year. Lhasa again became the capital of Tibet, and the Ganden Phodrang operated until the 1950s. The Ganden Phodrang accepted China's Qing emperors as overlords after the 1720 expedition, and the Qing became increasingly active in governing Tibet starting in the early 18th century. After the fall of the Qing empire in 1912, the Ganden Phodrang government lasted until the 1950s, when Tibet was annexed by the People's Republic of China. During most of the time from the early Qing period until the end of Ganden Phodrang rule, a governing council known as the Kashag operated as the highest authority in the Ganden Phodrang administration.
Tibet under Qing rule refers to the Qing dynasty's rule over Tibet from 1720 to 1912. The Qing rulers incorporated Tibet into the empire along with other Inner Asia territories, although the actual extent of the Qing dynasty's control over Tibet during this period has been the subject of political debate. The Qing called Tibet a fanbu, fanbang or fanshu, which has usually been translated as "vassal", "vassal state", or "borderlands", along with areas like Xinjiang and Mongolia. Like the preceding Yuan dynasty, the Manchus of the Qing dynasty exerted military and administrative control over Tibet, while granting it a degree of political autonomy.
↑ "CIA Gave Aid to Tibetan Exiles in '60s, Files Show". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 September 2013. In his 1990 autobiography, "Freedom in Exile," the Dalai Lama explained that his two brothers made contact with the CIA during a trip to India in 1956. The CIA agreed to help, "not because they cared about Tibetan independence, but as part of their worldwide efforts to destabilize all Communist governments," the Dalai Lama wrote.
↑ The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, Kenneth Conboy, James Morrison, The University Press of Kansas, 2002.
↑ Wignall, Sydney. Spy on the Roof of the World. New York, NY: Lyons & Burford, 1996. ISBN1-55821-558-1
1 2 3 4 "CIA Gave Aid to Tibetan Exiles in '60s, Files Show". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 September 2013. The budget figures for the CIA's Tibetan program are contained in a memo dated Jan. 9, 1964. It was evidently written to help justify continued funding for the clandestine intelligence operation. "Support of 2,100 Tibetan guerrillas based in Nepal: $500,000," the document says. "Subsidy to the Dalai Lama: $180,000." After listing several other costs, it concludes: "Total: $1,735,000." The files show that this budget request was approved soon afterward.
↑ 西藏在辛亥革命后变成一个独立国家吗 (in Chinese). the Embassy of the PRC in the ROK. Archived from the original on 19 December 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2009.
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Note: Forms of nationalism based primarily on ethnic groups are listed above. This does not imply that all nationalists with a given ethnicity subscribe to that form of ethnic nationalism.
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