By Harsh Pandey
We have many other examples of Chinese occupation in its different neighbouring regions, from Xinjiang to Hong Kong. However, it all started with Tibet, which became a test case for the Chinese idea of the world where oppression and a pervasive police state have become the new normal. It is also critical to understand that Tibet’s plight has become so typical in our daily lives that it has no global momentum like other struggles against oppression in general. Tibet existed as an independent state from 1912 to 1951 until the People’s Republic of China annexed the roof of the world and made it an experimental ground for totalitarian practices.
A Brief History of Tibet
Tibet has a recorded history dating back to the year 602 when the central Tibetan states were united under the leadership of Namri Songsten. It was also the time when Lhasa became the capital. From the year 602 to 842, it is called the imperial age in Tibetan history. During these long 200 years’ time, Chinese and Tibetans have had many border conflicts, which ended with the China-Tibet Peace Treaty of Year 821, where it was established that Tibet is an independent entity. The treaty famously mentions, “Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet, and Chinese shall be happy in China”. From 1240 to 1250, Mongols invaded Tibet from Central Asia. However, as Mongol Prince Godan Khan met Tibetan lama Sakya Pandita, the lama became the spiritual leader of the prince, and it yielded significant autonomy for Tibet, and Buddhism spread across Inner and Central Asia.
From 1270 to 1350, there was a priest-patron relationship between Mongols and Tibetans. It is also essential to mention that during the Mongol rule too, Tibet was separated from China, which was also occupied by Mongols. In 1370, the Mongol empire in China fell to the ethnic Han Chinese. However, Tibet had already broken its ties with Mongols and did not pay any tributes to the Ming rulers of China.
A crucial turning point in the Tibetan nation occurred when Mongol ruler Altan Khan gave the title Dalai Lama to Sonam Gyatso, then leader of the Gelugpa school of Buddhism. In return, the Dalai Lama announced Altan Khan as a reincarnation of Kublai Khan. It gave legitimacy to Altan Khan’s rule. This event is now a normal priest-patron relationship, but if translated through the Western understanding, it is an example of how the Church (Tibetan monks) gave legitimacy to the State (Mongols in Central Asian highlands).
Things suddenly got haywire for Tibet when, at the start of the 18th century, Dzungar Mongol tribes invaded the nation. To quell the invasion, the Chinese Quing Emperor sent his military, but he took advantage of the volatile situation of Tibet, annexed the Kham and Amdo area, and called Tibet a tributary state. Qing dynasty’s influence was not only limited to Tibet but also felt in other neighbouring countries of China, such as Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Nepal.
The reign of the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngwang Lobsang Gyatso, also known as ‘the Great Fifth’, marked the unification of Tibet. He created a religious state in Tibet and did not become a subservient to the Ming Chinese empire. It was during the fifth Dalai Lama’s reign that the legendary Potala Palace was built. In the subservient time, the hold of Ming China over Tibet started eroding, and as the 13th Dalai Lama described it, it was more of a ‘patron and priest’ rather than an Empire and subject.
In 1912, the Ming empire in China collapsed, paving the way for the Republic of China. Tibet also reaffirmed its independence from the titular rule of China and expelled the Chinese troops from Lhasa. While reaffirming the independence, the Dalai lama said, ‘we are a small, religious and independent nation’. In 1914, the Shimla treaty occurred between British India, Tibet and China. It gave secular control of Qinghai to China, and the rest of Tibet was considered independent. The refusal to sign this treaty by China made Tibet go under the British Indian fold, where all the Tibetan communications with China happened with the British mediation. After the death of the 13th Dalai Lama, the nationalist government in China led by Kuomintang ratified the current 14th Dalai Lama and a representative from the government of China named General Wu Zhongxin was there at the ceremony. This event has been widely documented in the international media.
During the height of World War II, Tibet established its foreign office and sent congratulatory missions to China and India. A letter given by the Tibetan Mission in China addressed to Chiang Kai-shek maintained that ‘We shall continue to maintain the independence of Tibet as a nation ruled by the successive Dalai Lamas through an authentic religious – political rule’. In 1947, when India organised the Asian Relations Conference, Tibet sent its delegation to New Delhi.
Tibet’s Annexation by China and Aftermath
In 1949, the Communist Party of China won the civil war and started one-party rule in mainland China. Tibet became the culprit of the first geopolitical ambitions of an expansionist China. In seizing the control of Tibet, China called it a ‘peaceful liberation from feudalistic serfdom’. However, it is still unclear how the Dalai Lama’s rule was a ‘feudalistic serfdom’. In October 1950, about 40,000 Chinese troops invaded Tibet, which had virtually no military in its possession. Details of the Chinese invasion of Tibet reached its hinterland around 1952, which was the connectivity status in Tibet. Any rational person in their right mind could ask how it was serfdom if there was no connectivity between the ruler and subject present.
In 1951, under unstable circumstances, the 17-Point Agreement was signed between China and Tibet, and it was maintained that China ‘would not alter the existing political system in Tibet’. After agreeing on all this on paper, the Chinese maintained repression in Tibet, causing Lhasa to become the Tibetan refugee home. On March 10th 1959, which is commonly known as Tibetan Uprising Day, around 300,000 Tibetans gathered around the Potala Palace, where the Dalai Lama resides, fearful that Chinese authorities may assassinate the Dalai Lama. Heavy Chinese artillery fires compelled the Dalai Lama to go into exile. March of 1959 in Tibet was flooded with bloodshed, and it was just a trailer of what was coming for the nation.
In the coming decade, Mao applied all the policies of mainland China to Tibet, in which hundreds of thousands of Tibetans died, particularly during the Cultural Revolution. Geographically, Tibet is around the size of Western Europe. China first made one of its three provinces, U-Tsang, as the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and kept the other two provinces under its direct control. However, the region defined as ‘autonomous’ was not autonomous at all, and Tibet’s representation in the CPC administration of TAR is negligible. If Tibet had been independent, it would have been the world’s 10th-largest state.
Since the last 60 years of rule by China, there have been multiple kinds of repression faced by the Tibetan people. The living embodiment of their faith in different Buddhist Monasteries has been destroyed. In 1995, six-year-old Gendun Choekyi Nyima, who was recognised as the 11th Panchen Dalai, was imprisoned by China. He became the world’s youngest political prisoner. China has tried creating an alternative ‘patriotic re-education campaign’ aimed at assimilating Tibetans into the Chinese fold.
At the start of the 21st century, Tibetans have used self-immolation as a way of protest. There have been over 135 self-immolation incidents in Tibet. In 2012, around 80 such incidents were counted. Interestingly, it was also the year when Xi Jinping was about to assume Chinese leadership.
March 10th every year marks the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising worldwide, where Tibetans protest against the repressions of the Chinese regime. However, the Chinese regime has used brute force to destroy the faith-based civilization. China has signed extradition agreements with countries like Nepal for the dissenting Tibetan refugees. Today Tibet is a live example of a panopticon where no information goes outside. March 10th every year marks a dent in the history of different movements that Tibetan story of survival is alive.
The author is a PhD Candidate in the School of International Studies, JNU.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of Financial Express Online. Reproducing this content without permission is prohibited).
