Tibet

A

Chinese Control

In the 18th century Tibet came under the control of China. However, in the course of the following century, Chinese authority diminished steadily. Meanwhile, British colonial officials in India, including administrator Warren Hastings, attempted to secure a foothold in the region. These efforts proved unsuccessful, mainly because of Tibetan resentment of an unsuccessful Nepalese invasion of Tibet in the 1790s, which the British had supported.

In 1904 the British, who were alarmed over purported Russian influence in Tibet, invaded the region. At that time, Tibet had considerable autonomy under Chinese authority. In 1906 the British and Chinese governments established an agreement by which Britain recognized the Chinese Empire as Tibet’s suzerain power (state that controls another state’s international affairs). The agreement also provided for the Chinese government’s payment of a large indemnity to the British, who subsequently withdrew their troops. In 1907 the British and Russian governments concluded an agreement pledging noninterference in Tibetan affairs and acknowledging Chinese suzerainty.

B

Nominal Independence

Following the revolutionary overthrow of China’s Qing dynasty in 1911, Tibetans reasserted their independence and began expelling all Chinese officials and troops from the region, which they accomplished by 1913. That year representatives of Britain, China, and Tibet met in Simla, India, to discuss Tibet’s status and borders. The representatives reached a tentative agreement that provided for a region known as Inner Tibet to become part of China proper and for Chinese suzerainty over an autonomous Outer Tibet, located further west. Despite British and Tibetan acceptance, the Simla agreement was never ratified by the Chinese government, and China later repudiated the convention, refusing to abandon its claim to all of Tibet. Relations between China and Tibet grew increasingly strained, culminating in 1918 in an armed conflict in eastern Tibet. Later that year, the British helped negotiate a truce between Tibet and China. Subsequent efforts to resolve the dispute were unsuccessful.

C

Reincorporation into China

In October 1950, little more than a year after the Communist Party had gained control of mainland China, Communist troops invaded Qamdo (Chamdo) on Tibet’s eastern border. To rally the Tibetans against the advancing Chinese force, the regent, governor ruling for the 15-year-old 14th Dalai Lama, invested the Dalai Lama with full authority. However, in May 1951 the Tibetan government capitulated, signing a treaty that gave the Dalai Lama power in domestic affairs but ceded control of foreign and military affairs to the Chinese government. The treaty also provided for the return from China of the 12-year-old Panchen Lama—the Lamaist spiritual authority—whose predecessor had gone into self-imposed exile in 1923 because of monetary and political disputes with the 13th Dalai Lama. Chinese military units reached Lhasa in October. The Panchen Lama arrived there in April 1952.

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The Chinese made efforts to improve communications in Tibet. They completed airfields in various parts of the region and constructed military highways. A purge of anti-Chinese officials in Tibet was reportedly carried out in early 1953. The following year, the Indian government recognized Tibet as part of China and withdrew the troops it had stationed at two Tibetan trading posts. Under the terms of an agreement signed in 1955, India ceded to China its control of telephone, telegraph, and postal systems in Tibet.

D

Tibetan Revolt

In 1954 the Dalai Lama was appointed to a nominal position in the Chinese government. In 1956 a committee was established to prepare a constitution for Tibet as an autonomous region of China; the Dalai Lama was named chairman and the Panchen Lama first vice chairman of the committee. Guerrilla activity against the Chinese regime broke out in areas of Sichuan Province where ethnic Tibetans were living. The Dalai Lama, who was visiting India at the time, threatened not to return to Tibet. The Chinese government announced that the socialist transformation of Tibet would be postponed, but the rebellion in the east was not contained. Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama voluntarily returned to Lhasa. The rebellion grew with the aid of the United States Central Intelligence Agency until March 1959, when it flared into a full-scale revolt in Lhasa. The rebellion was to last until 1971, but after 1959 it was more a nuisance to the Chinese government than a real threat. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he established a community of Tibetans. The Chinese made the Panchen Lama the acting head of the region. On October 21, 1959, the United Nations (UN) approved a resolution deploring the suppression of human rights in Tibet. A similar resolution was passed on March 9, 1961. These resolutions occurred at a time when the UN was preventing China’s Communist government from membership in the organization.

Tens of thousands of Tibetans fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion. Most settled in India. Others took refuge in the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. In 1965 Tibet was formally established as an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China, and the Communist government announced that the region would undergo steady socialist reorganization.

E

Recent Developments

In 1978 the Panchen Lama, who had been jailed in 1964 for criticizing Chinese rule of Tibet, was reinstated to his official positions. He appealed repeatedly to the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet. In 1980 the Chinese admitted that Tibet had been misgoverned and announced reforms for the region. Tibetans found the reforms insufficient, and violent demonstrations protesting Chinese rule occurred in October 1987. In 1988 negotiations between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama, which had taken place periodically over the previous decade, broke off. The Dalai Lama refused to publicly renounce Tibetan independence, and China refused to compromise on the issue of greater autonomy for Tibet. In 1993 more demonstrations by Tibetans took place, in addition to several acts of terrorism against the Chinese.

In 1995 a new conflict emerged in Tibet over the selection of the next Panchen Lama. The search committee identified 28 possible candidates and conveyed that information to the Dalai Lama in India. The Dalai Lama selected one boy, a six-year-old named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the 11th Panchen Lama. The Chinese government, angered at having the selection process usurped by the Dalai Lama, cited the historical role it had allegedly played in the selection process of previous Panchen and Dalai Lamas. They inaugurated their own candidate, a six-year-old named Gyaincain Norbu. They held Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family in detention and began a renewed campaign to discredit the Dalai Lama. Fresh rumblings erupted within the Tibetan independence movement. In May 1996 the Chinese began a crackdown on Tibetan monasteries that resulted in the injury and death of several monks. According to some experts, talks resumed secretly between the Dalai Lama and Chinese government officials in late 1996, only to break off several months later when China sentenced the leader of the Panchen Lama search team to a long prison term.

In March 2008 Buddhist monks in Lhasa led a series of initially peaceful demonstrations that turned violent as protesters burned shops and cars and attacked ethnic Chinese. Protests and arson attacks also erupted in Tibetan-populated areas of neighboring provinces. The protests, which marked the failed Tibetan uprising of 1959, were the most serious and prolonged in the region since the 1980s. The Chinese government responded to the unrest with a police crackdown, and deadly clashes between Chinese security forces and protesters ensued. Coming only months before the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the brutal crackdown brought international attention to the Tibet issue and China’s human rights record. The passing of the Olympic torch in cities around the world became a magnet for protests against China’s policies.

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