History of Tibet
From Free net encyclopedia
Tibet is situated between the two ancient cultural centers of India and China but its location on the remote Tibetan plateau served to isolate it from both. It is not known if the Tibetans originated in Central Asia or East Asia, but they do share a linguistic heritage with the Chinese and the Burmese, suggesting a common source for all three groups (discussions of the relative closeness or distance between Tibetans and Han Chinese are tied up in the politics of Tibetan independence). Certainly a distinct Tibetan language and Tibetan culture existed prior to any historical accounting.
Prehistory
It is not known for certain if the Tibetans originated in Central Asia or East Asia, but they do share a lingusitic affiliation with Chinese, Burmese and the other Sino-Tibetan languages (also known as "Tibeto-Burman", depending on how one classifies the languages within the family - in either case, Tibetan and Chinese are always considered to be related), suggesting a common origin.<ref>Van Driem, George "Tibeto-Burman Phylogeny and Prehistory: Languages, Material Culture and Genes". Bellwood, Peter & Renfrew, Colin (eds) Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis (2003), Ch 19.</ref> Certainly a distinct Tibetan language and Tibetan culture existed prior the advent of Tibet as a unified kingdom.
Prehistoric Iron Age hill forts and burial complexes have recently been found on the Chang Tang plateau but the remoteness of the location is hampering archaeological research. The initial identification of this culture is as the Zhang Zhung culture which is described in ancient Tibetan texts and is known as the original culture of the Bön religion.
Mythological Origins
The first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsanpo (Gnya'-khri-btsan-po), is supposed to have descended from the sky, or immigrated to Tibet from India. Because of his strange physical features such as having webbed hands, and eyes which close from below, he is supposed to have been greeted by the locals as a god. The king remained connected to the heavens with a rope and rather than dying ascended the same rope again.
The legendary King Dri-gum-brtsan-po provoked his groom Lo-ngam to fight with him, and during the fight the King's heaven-cord was cut, he was also killed. Dri-gum-brtsan-po and subsequent kings left corpses and were buried. (cf. Haarh, The Yarluṅ Dynasty. Copenhagen: 1969).
In a later myth, first attested in the Maṇi bka' 'bum the Tibetan people are the progeny of the union of a monkey and rock ogress. The Monkey in fact a manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Tib. Chenrezig) and the ogress in fact the goddess Tara (Tib. 'Grol-ma).
The Tibetan Empire
Image:World 820.png A series of emperors ruled Tibet from the 7th to the 11th century. At times Tibetan rule extended as far south as Bengal and as far north as Mongolia. In general the Tibetans faced a greater military threat from China than India due to the protection of the Himalaya; thus China was called Rgya-nag meaning the "Black Empire", whereas India was called Rgya-gar, meaning the "White Empire".
First appearance in history
Tibet first enters history in the Geography of Ptolemy under the name βαται, a Greek transcription of the indigenous name Bod. Tibet next appears in history in a Chinese text where it is referred to as fa. The first incident from recorded Tibetan history which is confirmed externally is King Gnam-ri-slong-rtsan's sending an ambassador to China in the early 7th century. (Beckwith, C. Uni. of Indiana Diss. 1977).
Founding of the Dynasty
Tibet began at the castle named Stag-rtse in the Phying-ba district of 'Phyongs-rgyas. There, According to the Old Tibetan Chronicle
"A group of conspirators convinced Stag-bu snya-gzigs to rebel against Dgu-gri Zing-po-rje. Zing po rje was in turn a vassal of the Zhang-zhung empire under the Lig myi dynasty. Zing-po-rje died before the conspiracy could get underway, and his son Gnam ri slon mtshan instead led the conspiracy after extracting an oath of fielty from the conspirators." (Beckwith 1987: 14).
The group prevailed against Zing-po-rje. At this point Gnam-ri-slon-rtsan was the leader of a fledgling state that would become the Tibetan Empire. In 608 and 609 the government of Gnam ri slon mtshan sent an embassy to China, marking the appearance of Tibet on the international scene.
Recent historical research indicates the presence of Christianity in Tibet in as early as the sixth and seventh centuries, a period when the White Huns had extensive links with the Tibetans.(Palmer, Martin, "The Jesus Sutras," Mackays Limited, Chatham, Kent, Great Britain, 2001). A strong presence existed by the eighth century when Patriarch Timothy I (727-823) in 782 calls the Tibetans one of the more significant communities of the eastern church and wrote of the need to appoint another bishop in ca. 794. ("The Church of the East in Central Asia," Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 78, no.3 (1996)).
The reign of Songtsen Gampo and the arrival of Buddhism
Songtsen Gampo (Wylie transliteration: Srong-brtsan sgam-po) (born circa. 609-613 died 650) is the great king who expanded Tibet's power and is credited with inviting Buddhism to Tibet. When his father Namri Löntsen (Gnam-ri-slon-mtshan) died by poisoning, Songtsen Gampo took control after putting down a brief rebellion (probably at the age of 13). Image:King Songsten Gampo's statue in his meditation cave at Yerpa.jpg
Military and diplomatic career
Songtsen Gampo proved adept at diplomacy as well as on the field. The emperor's minister Myang Mang-po-rje Zhang-shang defeated Sum pa circa. 627 (Old Tibetan Annals, hereafter OTA l. 2). Six years later (c. 632-3) Myang Mang-po-rje Zhang-shang was accused of treason and executed (OTA l. 4-5, Richardson 1965). He was succeeded by minister Mgar-srong-rtsan.
The Chinese records record an envoy in 634. On that Occasion the Emperor requested marriage to a Chinese princess and was refused. In 635-6 the Emperor attacked and defeated the ‘A zha people, who lived around Lake Koko Nur in the northeast corner of Tibet, and who controlled important trade routes into China. After a successful campaign against China in 635-6 (OTA l. 607). The Chinese emperor agreed to marry Songtsen Gampo to a Chinese princess.
Circa 639, after Songtsen Gampo had a dispute with his younger brother Brtsan srong, the younger brother was burnt to death by his own minister Mkha’s sregs (presumably at the behest of his older brother the emperor cf. Richardson 1965, OTA l. 8-10).
The Chinese princess Wencheng (Tib. Mung-chang Kungco) departed China in 640 to marry Songtsen Gampo, she arrived a year later. Peace between China and Tibet prevailed for the remainder of Songtsen Gampo's reign.
Songtsen Gampo’s sister Sad-mar-kar was sent to marry Lig-myi-rhya the king of Zhang-zhung. However, when the king refused to consummate the marriage, she then helped her brother to defeat Lig myi-rhya and incorporate Zhang Zhung into the Tibetan Empire.
In 645 CE, Songtsen Gampo overran the kingdom of Zhang-zhung in what is now Western Tibet. Zhang-zhung is thought to have a written script, although no samples of it have been found, and was a major centre for the Bon religion, which has survived, although much reduced in numbers, until today.
In 648, A Chinese envoy who had been attacked in India by Arjuna, who had taken control of Kanouj on the Ganges, and most of northern Bihar. The Chinese envoy had to flee to Nepal for safety. Srongsten Gampo sent troops who, with the Nepalese, defeated and captured Arjuna, who was sent back to China.
According to the Old Tibetan Annals, discovered by Paul Pelliot at Dunhuang, 'the text of the Laws" were written in 655.
Songtsen Gampo died in 650, he was succeeded by his infant grandson Khri-mang-slon. Real power was left in the hands of the minister Mgar-srong-rtsan.
Inviting Buddhism to Tibet
Songtsen Gampo's greatest contribution, in the eyes of Tibetan Buddhists, is his invitation to the Indian guru Padmasambhava who brought tantric Buddhism to Tibet.
Buddhism was very late arriving in Tibet compared with surrounding countries. It had circled around Tibet, passing through the Gandhara region in western Pakistan, along the Silk Road, and then to China, where it was introduced nearly 800 years before it was introduced in Tibet. Given that Tibet was surrounded by Buddhist countries, it is naturally interesting to ask how it finally was transmitted into the country. Historian accept the broad outline offerred in Tibetan Buddhist religious history, which credits Padmasambhava, the tantric guru from the Swat valley near Gandhara as bringing the faith to Tibet, although Chinese influences are recognized as King Songtsen Gampo is said to have done so because he married Buddhist Princess Wenchang, daughter of Chinese Emperor Taizong of Tang. Traditionaly it is also said he was married to another Buddhist wife, Princess Brikuti of Nepal
The reign of Khri-mang-slon-rtsan (650-677)
The minister Mgar srong rtsan died in 667, after having incorporated ‘A-zha into Tibetan territory. Between 665-670 Kotan is defeated by the Tibetans. Emperor Khri-mang-slon-rtsan married Khri-ma-lod, a woman who would be of great importance in Tibetan history. The emperor died in the winter of 676-677, and Zhang Zhung revolts thereafter. In the same year the emperor's son Khri-'dus-srong-rtsan was born. (Beckwith 1987: 48).
The reign of Khri-‘dus-srong-rtsan (677-704)
Emperor Khri-'dus-srong-rtsan ruled in the shadow of his powerful mother Khri-ma-lod on the one hand and the influential Mgar clan on the other hand. In 685 the minister, Mgar Bstan snyas ldom bu died and his brother, Mgar Khri ‘bring btsan brod was appointed to replace him. (Beckwith 1987: 50). In 692 the Tibetans lose the Tarim Basin to the Chinese. Mgar Khri ‘bring defeats the Chinese in battle in 696, and sues for peace. Two years later in 698 emperor Khri ‘dus srong invites the Mgar clan (over 2000 people) to a hunting party and has them executed. Mgar Khri ‘bring commits suicide, and his troops loyal to him join the Chinese. This brought to end the power of the Mgar family. (Beckwith 1987: 61).
From 700 until his death the emperor remained on campaign in the north-east, abscent from Central Tibet, while his mother Khri-ma-lod administrated in his name (Petech 1988: 1081). In 702 China and Tibet concluded peace.
“At the end of the same year [702] the ministers were able to proceed to the administrative organization (mkhos chen po) of the Sum-ru (l. 88), the Sum-pa country to the Northeast, which was formed into an additional ‘horn’ of the kingdom. In the summer of 703 the king stayed at ‘Ol-byag in Gling (l. 90) on the upper reaches of the Bri-chu (Yangtze River); it was probably from there that he left in the following winter for his expedition to ‘Jang. After a quick deplacement [sic.] in the summer of 704 to Yo-ti Chu-bzangs in rMa-sgrom (II. 93-94) on the great bend of the rMa-chu (Yellow River), in the following winter the king returned South for his campaign in Mywa, were he met his death.” (Petech 1988: 1081-82).
The reign of Khri-lde-gtsug-brtsan (704-754)
Rgyal-gtsug-ru (later to become Khri-lde-gtsug-brtsan, also called Mes-Agtshom) was born in 704. Upon the death of Khri-‘du-srong-brtsan his wife Khri-ma-lod ruled as regent for the infant Rgyal-gtsug-ru (Petech 1988: 1087-89). The following year the elder son of Khri-'dus-srong-brtsan, by the name of Lha Bal-pho contested the succession of his one year old brother but at Pong Lag-rang Lha Bal-pho was “deposed from the throne” (rgyal sa nas phab Petech 1988: 1085, OTA l. 152).
Khri-ma-lod had arranged for a royal marriage to a Chinese princess. The Princess Jincheng (金成) arrived in 710, but it is somewhat unclear whether she married the seven year old Rgyal-gtsug-ru (as argued by Yamaguchi 1996: 232) or the deposed Lha Bal-pho (as argued by Beckwith 1983: 276). Rgyal-gtsug-ru was officially enthroned with the royal name Khri-lde-gtsug-brtsan in 712 (Petech 1988: 1087-89), the same year that dowager emperess Khri ma lod died.
The Arabs and Turgis became increasingly prominent during 710-720. The Tibetans were allied with the Arabs and eastern Turks. Tibet and China fought on and off in the late 720s. At first Tibet (with Turgis allies) had the upper hand, but then started losing battles. After a rebellion in southern China, and a major Tibetan victory in 730, the Tibetans and Turgis sued for peace.
In 734 the Tibetans married their princess ‘Dron ma lon to the Turgis Qaghan. The Chinese allied with the Arabs to attack the Turgis. After victory and peace with the Turgis, the Chinese attacked Tibet by surprise. The Tibetans suffered several defeats in the east, despite strength in the west. The Turgis empire collapsed from internal strife. By 750 the Tibetans had lost almost all of their central Asian colonial possessions to the Chinese. (Beckwith 1987: 187). Despite going through a transition of dynasties, the Arabs managed to fare fairly well. In 751 the Arab-Chinese alliance broke down, and the two countries fought. The Chinese lost to the Arabs, but did well against the Tibetans.
In 755 Khri-lde-gtsug-brtsan was killed by the ministers Lang and ‘Bal. Then Stag sgra Klu khong presented evidence to prince Srong lde brtsan that “they were disloyal, were causing dissension in the country, and were about to injure him also. … Subsequently, Lang and ‘Bal really did revolt, they were killed by the army, their property was confiscated, and Klu khong was, one assumes, richly rewarded. In 756, Prince Srong lde brtsan was named Emperor Khri srong lde brtsan, and took the reigns of the government into his hands. There was therefore a hiatus of one year without a formally installed emperor.” (Beckwith 1983: 273). In 755 China was greatly weakened by internal rebellion, which would last until 763. In contrast, Tibet had regained most of its lost possessions by 764, and in 764, Tibetan troops occupied for fifteen days Chang'an, then-capital of China, and installed a minor emperor.
The Mongols and the Sakya school
After the Mongol Prince Köden took control of the Kokonor region in 1239, in order to investigate the possibility of attacking Song China from the West, he sent his general Doorda Darqan on a reconissance 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 Ögödei the Mongol Khan in 1241 brought Mongol military activity around the world temporarily to a hault. Mongol interests in Tibet resumed in 1244 when Prince Köden sent an invitation to Sakya Paṇḍita, the leader of the Sakya sect, to come to his capital and formally surrender Tibet to the Mongols. Sakya Paṇḍita 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. Image:Kublai Khan.jpg After an internecine feud among the Mongol princes Kublai Khan was appointed by Möngke Khan to take charge over the Chinese campaigns in 1253. Since Sakya Paṇḍita had already died by this time Kublai took Drogön Chögyal Phagpa into his camp as a symbol of Tibet's surrender. Kublai was elected khan in 1260 following the death of his brother Möngke, although his ascendance was not uncontested. At that point he named Drogön Chögyal Phagpa 'state preceptor' (Chinese: Guoshi). In 1265 Drogön Chögyal Phagpa returned to Tibet and for the first time made an attempt to impose Sakya hegemony with the appointment of Shakya Bzang-po (a long time servant and ally of the Sakyas) as the Dpon-chen ('great administrator') over Tibet in 1267. A census was conducted in 1268 and Tibet was divided into 13 myriarchies.
In 1269 Drogön Chögyal Phagpa returned to Kublai's side at his new capital Qanbaliq (modern day Beijing). He presented the khan with a new script designed to represent all of the languages of the empire. The next year he was named Dishi ('imperial preceptor'), and his position as titular ruler of Tibet (now in the form of its thirteen myriarchies) was reconfirmed. The Sakya hegemony over Tibet continued into the middle of the 14th century, although it was challenged by a revolt of the Drikung Kagyu sect with the assitance of Hulagu Khan of the Ilkhanate in 1285. The revolt was suppressed in 1290 when the Sa-skyas and eastern Mongols burned Drikung Monastery and killed 10,000 people (cf. Wylie 1977).
Rise of the Geluk school
Lobsang Gyatso (Wylie transliteration: Blo-bzang Rgya-mtsho), the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, (1617-1682) was the first Dalai Lama to wield effective political power over central Tibet.
The 5th Dalai Lama is known for unifying Tibet under the control of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, after defeating the rival Kagyu and Jonang sects and the secular ruler, the prince of Shang, in a prolonged civil war. His efforts were successful in part because of aid from Gushi Khan, a powerful Oirat military leader. The Jonang monasteries were either closed or forciblly converted, and that school remained in hiding until the latter part of the 20th century.
In 1652 the Fifth Dalai Lama visited the Manchu emperor, Shunzhi. He was not required to kowtow and received a seal.
The fifth Dalai lama initiated the construction of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, and moved the center of government there from Drepung. Image:Potala Palace.jpg The death of the fifth Dalai Lama in 1680 was kept hidden for 15 years by his assistant, confidant, and possibly son Desi Sangay Gyatso (De-srid Sangs-rgyas Rgya-'mtsho). Future Dalai Lamas were to have relatively unquestioned authority as the titular heads of Tibet until 1950, although many of them failed to have personal control of the country due to their youth or for other reasons.
During the rule of the Great Fifth, the first Europeans visited Tibet. Two Jesuit missionaries, Johannes Gruber and Albert D'Orville, reached Lhasa in 1661.Template:Fact They failed to win any Tibetan converts to Christianity. Other Christian missionaries spent time in Tibet, with equal lack of success, until all were expelled in 1745.
The sixth Dalai Lama resigned his position because of a preference for the secular life.
Qing period
By the early 18th century China established the right to have resident commissioners, called ambans, in Lhasa. When the Tibetans rebelled against the Chinese in 1750 and killed the ambans, a Chinese army entered the country in an effort to restore Chinese authority. As a result, the Tibetans, in the view of the Chinese, once again acknowledged themselves as subjects of the Empire of China and new ambans were installed. However, China did not make any attempt to impose direct rule on Tibet and the Tibetan government around the Dalai Lama continued to manage day to day affairs and in their own view remained independent.
In 1788 the Gurkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah, in the process of carving out the modern boundaries of Nepal, invaded Tibet. Unable to defeat the Gurkhas alone, the Tibetans called upon reinforcements from the Chinese Qing Dynasty. The Qing-Tibetan army defeated the Gurkhas and invaded Nepal. Thereafter Nepal was officially a tributary state to the Qing Empire.
This brought the attention of the British, which regarded Nepal as being within its sphere of influence. The Tibetans withdrew from Nepal, but they closed the Tibetan border and refused to allow any foreigners to enter the country. Tibet's reputation as "the hermit kingdom" dates from this time. During the whole of the 19th century few foreigners saw Lhasa.
In the 19th century, as the power of Qing China declined, the authorities in British India renewed their interest in Tibet, and a number of Indians (who could travel less conspicuously than Europeans) entered the country, first as explorers and then as traders. During the period of "The Great Game", the British feared that Tibet might come under the control of Russia, which was expanding its influence in Turkestan to the north and west of Tibet. Demands that the Chinese and Tibetan authorities agree to a treaty with Britain were rejected. In 1904 the British sent an Indian military force under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Younghusband, which, after some fighting against the weakly-armed Tibetan forces, occupied Lhasa.
Because of the British invasion, the 13th Dalai Lama fled to Mongolia, leaving the British to impose a treaty on whatever Tibetan authority they could find in Lhasa. This treaty required Tibet to open its border with British India, to allow British and Indian traders to travel freely, not to impose customs duties on trade with India, and not to enter into relations with any foreign power without British approval. A 1906 treaty with China repeated these conditions, making Tibet a de facto British protectorate, although there was no interference with Tibet's internal affairs. Image:13thdali2.jpg In 1907 a treaty between Britain, China, and Russia recognized Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, and in 1910 Qing China sent a military expedition of their own to establish direct Qing rule for the first time. The Dalai Lama once again fled, this time to India.
After the fall of the Qing
In October, 1911, with the Dalai Lama still in exile in India, a revolution broke out in China which toppled the imperial government, replacing it with a republic. Consequently, imperial troops and representatives were expelled from Lhasa. In January, 1913, the Dalai Lama returned to Lhasa and, in February of that year, issued a proclamation notifying the new Chinese government of his intention to rule Tibet himself.<ref>Hilton, Isabel: The Search for the Panchen Lama, p. 71. An English translation of the text of the proclamation is available at http://www.tibetjustice.org/materials/tibet/tibet1.html</ref> Later in 1913, Tibet and Mongolia signed a treaty proclaiming their independence from China and their mutual recognition.
In late 1913, the British government arranged a tripartite conference between themselves, the Tibetan government, and the Republic of China, to settle the status of Tibet; this was known as the Simla Conference. The initial proposal of the Tibetan delegation would have had China recognise Tibet's independence with its borders including Amdo and Kham, most of which had been outside of Lhasa's sphere of influence up to that time. The Chinese countered with a proposal declaring that Tibet was a Chinese territory.<ref>Wang Jiawei and Nyima Gyaincain, The Historical Status of China's Tibet, pp. 123-125</ref> Attempting to take the role of mediator, the British suggested an alternate resolution, which would divide Tibetan-inhabited areas into an Outer and an Inner Tibet. Outer Tibet was to include those areas then under the control of the Lhasa government, interpreted broadly, and would be governed by the Dalai Lama with almost unlimited autonomy. Inner Tibet, consisting of the remaining areas of Kham and Amdo, would be largely autonomous but would allow a degree of control by Beijing. The British plan, which became the Simla Convention, was agreed to by the Tibetan and Chinese delegations, but was finally rejected by the Chinese government in Beijing. Meanwhile, the Tibetans and the British secretly negotiated the cession of a tract of land along the India-Tibet border to Britain; this area later became the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.<ref>Hilton, Isabel: The Search for the Panchen Lama, p. 71; Wang Jiawei and Nyima Gyaincain, The Historical Status of China's Tibet, pp. 126-129</ref>.
As it happened, the outbreak of World War I in late 1914 caused the powers to lose interest in Tibet, and the 13th Dalai Lama ruled the central and western areas more or less undisturbed until his death in 1934.
By 1918, the government at Lhasa had regained Chamdo in western Kham. Subsequent fighting between Tibetan troops and Han Chinese warlords resulted in a truce that made the Yangtze River the border between the two sides. At this time, the government of Tibet controlled all of Ü-Tsang as well as Kham west of the Yangtze River, roughly coincident with the borders of Tibet Autonomous Region today. Eastern Kham, separated by the Yangtze River, was under the control of Han Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui. In Amdo (Qinghai), ethnic Hui and pro-Kuomintang warlord Ma Bufang controlled the Xining area, and strove constantly to control the ethnic Tibetan, Mongol, and Kazakh peoples of the rest of Amdo (Qinghai), who remained autonomous and in a state of general chaos. [1]
During the 1920s and 1930s China was divided by civil war and then distracted by the anti-Japanese war, but never renounced its claim to sovereignty over Tibet, and made occasional attempts to assert it. During the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama, Beijing had no representatives in his territories. However in 1934, following the Dalai Lama's death, Beijing sent the so-called "condolence mission", headed by General Huang Musong, the Chairman of the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>; after General Huang left, a small group of Chinese representatives remained in Lhasa. The political vacuum that ensued in the absence of an adult Dalai Lama—the 14th Dalai Lama was identified in 1939 and was a child throughout the 1940s—made it difficult for Tibetan authorities to assert their independence.
In 1947, a Tibetan delegation went to Nanjing to take part in drafting of a new Chinese constitution.
In the People's Republic of China
The Chinese Communist regime led by Mao Zedong which came to power in October 1949 lost little time in enforcing its claim to Tibet. In 1950 the People's Liberation Army entered western Kham (Khams) and Ü-Tsang (Dbu-gtsang) with little resistance. In May 1951 a treaty signed by representatives of the Dalai Lama and local government, provided for Chinese military occupation and rule by a joint Chinese-Tibetan authority. The Chinese at this time did not try to reform Tibet's social or religious system, inside of the newly created Tibetan Autonomous Region, but Eastern Kham and Amdo were treated like any other Chinese province, and land reform began immediately, sparking discontent.
The Chinese built highways that reached first Lhasa then later to the Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani borders. The traditional Tibetan aristocracy and government remained in place and was subsidized by the Chinese.
During the 1950s, however, Chinese rule grew more oppressive with respect to the lamas, who saw that their social and political power would eventually be broken completely by Communist rule. Prior to 1959, Tibet's land was worked by serfs most of whom were owned by the lamas and were sometimes subjected to cruel conditions, particularly if they tried to escape. Before Chinese rule, over 700,000 of Tibet's population of 1.2 million were in serfdom.
By the mid-1950s there was unrest in eastern Kham and Amdo, where land reform had been implemented in full. These rebellions eventually spread into western Kham and Ü-Tsang. In 1959 (at the time of the Great Leap Forward in China), the Chinese authorities overstepped the mark, treating the Dalai Lama, by now an adult, with open disrespect. In some parts of the country zealous Chinese Communists tried to establish rural communes, as was happening in China. These events triggered riots in Lhasa, and then a full-scale rebellion.
The Tibetan resistance movement began with isolated resistance to PRC control in the late 1950s. Initially there was considerable success and with CIA aid much of southern Tibet fell into rebel hands, but in 1959 with the occupation of Lhasa resistance forces withdrew into Nepal. Operations continued from the semi-independent Kingdom of Mustang with a force of 2000 rebels, many of them trained at Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado. In 1969, on the eve of Kissinger's overtures to China, support was withdrawn and the Nepalese government dismantled the operation. See [2].
The rebellion in Lhasa was soon crushed, and the Dalai Lama fled to India, although resistance continued in other parts of the country for several years. Although he remained a virtual prisoner, the Chinese set the Panchen Lama as a figurehead in Lhasa, claiming that he headed the legitimate Government of Tibet in the absence of the Dalai Lama, the traditional head of the Tibetan government. In 1965, the area that had been under the control of the Dalai Lama's government from the 1910s to 1959 (U-Tsang and western Kham) was set up as an Autonomous Region. The monastic estates were broken up and secular education introduced. During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards, which included Tibetan members, inflicted a campaign of organized vandalism against cultural sites in the entire PRC, including Tibet's Buddhist heritage. Of the several thousand monasteries in Tibet, over 6000 were destroyed [3], only a handful remained without major damage, and thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns were killed or imprisoned.
Since 1979 there has been economic reform, but no political reform, like the rest of the PRC. Some PRC policies in Tibet have been described as moderate, while others are judged to be more oppressive. Most religious freedoms have been officially restored, provided the lamas do not challenge PRC rule. Foreigners can visit most parts of Tibet, and it is claimed that the less savoury aspects of PRC rule are kept hidden from visitors.
In 1989 the Panchen Lama died, and the Dalai Lama and the PRC recognised different reincarnations. The Dalai Lama named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama but without confirmation by the vase lot, while the PRC named another child, Gyancain Norbu by the vase lot. Gyancain Norbu was raised in Beijing and has appeared occasionally on state media. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family have gone missing, into imprisonment according to Tibetan exiles, and under a hidden identity for protection and privacy according to the PRC. [4]
The Dalai Lama is now seventy years old, and when he dies a new child Dalai Lama will, by tradition, have to be found. In 1997, the 14th Dalai Lama indicated that his reincarnation "will definitely not come under Chinese control; it will be outside, in the free world." [5]
The PRC continues to portray its rule over Tibet as an unalloyed improvement, and foreign governments continue to make occasional protests about aspects of PRC rule in Tibet. All governments, however, recognise PRC sovereignty over Tibet, and none has recognised the Dalai Lama's government in exile in India. The Dalai Lama is widely respected as a religious leader, and is received by foreign governments as such, but few observers of Tibetan affairs believe that he will ever rule again in Lhasa.
Evaluation of PRC rule
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, which the Chinese Communist Party denies. 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. There were, however, many casualties, perhaps as many as 400,000. This figure is extrapolated from a calculation Warren W. Smith made from census reports of Tibet which show 200,000 "missing" from Tibet. Even The Black Book of Communism expresses doubt at the 1.2 million figure, but does note that according to Chinese census there was a population of 2.8 million in 1953, but only 2.5 million in 1964 in Tibet proper.
The government of Tibet in Exile also says that millions of Chinese immigrants to the TAR are diluting the Tibetans both culturally and through intermarriage. 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. 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, and since then the central government's policy in Tibet has granted most religious freedoms. But monks and nuns are still sometimes imprisoned, and many Tibetans (mostly monks and nuns) continue to flee Tibet yearly. At the same time, many Tibetans view projects that the PRC claims to benefit Tibet, such as the China Western Development economic plan or the Qinghai-Tibet Railroad, as politically-motivated actions to consolidate central control over Tibet by facilitating militarization and Han Chinese migration while benefiting few Tibetans.
The government of the PRC says that the population of Tibet in 1737 was about 8 million, and 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 1.19 million. Today, the population of Greater Tibet is 7.3 million, of which 5 million is ethnic Tibetan, according to the 2000 census. The increase is viewed as the result of the abolishment of the theocracy and introduction of a modern, higher standard of living. 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.
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. Benefits that are commonly quoted include: the GDP of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) today is 30 times that before 1950; TAR has 22,500 km of highways, as opposed to 0 in 1950; all secular education in TAR was created after the revolution; TAR now has 25 scientific research institutes as opposed to 0 in 1950; 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. [6] The Cultural Revolution and the cultural damage it wrought upon the entire PRC is generally condemned as a nationwide catastrophe, whose main instigators (in the PRC's view, the Gang of Four) have been brought to justice and whose reoccurrence is unthinkable in an increasingly modernized China. The China Western Development plan is viewed by the PRC as a massive, benevolent, and patriotic undertaking by the eastern coast to help the western parts of China, including Tibet, catch up in prosperity and living standards. At the same time, it is claimed that many of Dalai Lama's followers showed little interest in Tibetan culture and only a very low percentage of them capable of speaking Tibetan language; the inability and failure of the Dalai Lama to prevent wholesale Westernization among his followers has made many to question who really destroyed Tibetan culture.
See also
Notes
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References
- Beckwith, Christopher I (1983). “The Revolt of 755 in Tibet” Contributions on Tibetan Language, History, and Culture. Ernst Steinkellner and Helmut Tauscher eds. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde; Heft 10. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, pp. 1-16. reprinted in: The History of Tibet. ed. Alex Mckay. London: Routledge Curzon, 2003: 273-285.
- Beckwith, Christopher I (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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- Petech, Luciano (1988). "The Succession to the Tibetan Throne in 704-5." Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata, Serie Orientale Roma 41.3. pp. 1080-1087.
- Richardson, Hugh E. (1965). "How Old was Srong Brtsan Sgampo" Bulletin of Tibetology 2.1. pp. 5-8.
- Richardson, Hugh E. (1988) "The Succession to Lang Darma". Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata, Serie Orientale Roma 41.3. pp. 1221-1229
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- Wylie, Turnell V. (1977) "The First Mongol Conquest of Tibet Reinterpreted" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 37.1: 103-133,
- Zuiho Yamaguchi (1996) “The Fiction of King Dar-ma’s persecution of Buddhism” De Dunhuang au Japon: Etudes chinoises et bouddhiques offertes à Michel Soymié. Genève : Librarie Droz S.A.
Further reading
- Goldstein, Melvyn C., with the help of Gelek Rimpche. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers (1993), hardcover, 898 pages, ISBN 8121505828; University of California edition (1991), trade paperback, ISBN 0520075900.
- Norbu, Thubten Jigme and Turnbull, Colin. 1968. Tibet: Its History, Religion and People. Reprint: Penguin Books, 1987.
- Shakya, Tsering, "The Dragon in the Land of Snows : A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947." Penguin, (2000) paperback, 608 pages, ISBN 0140196153
- Stein, R. A. 1962. Tibetan Civilization. First published in French. English translation by J. E. Stapelton Driver. Reprint: Stanford University Press (with minor revisions from 1977 Faber & Faber edition), 1995. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (hbk); ISBN 0-8047-0901-7 (sbk).
- Yeshe De Project. 1986. ANCIENT TIBET: Research Materials from The Yeshe De Project. Dharma Publishing. Berkeley. ISBN 0-89800-146-3
External links
- The Government of Tibet in Exile
- Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth by Michael Parenti
- Tibetan Buddhist Texts Chronologyes:Historia del Tíbet
fr:Histoire du Tibet lv:Tibetas vēsture ru:История Тибета sq:Historia e Tibetit zh:西藏历史